The Beginnings of a Great Prayer Life
Matthew 6:5-8
How many of you have heard the name George Mueller. George was known for a number of things in his lifetime. One of the greatest accomplishments of his life was the formation of an orphanage in Bristol, England. One day as George looked down the street there, he noticed the hundreds of homeless children on the streets, and he decided to do something about it. He decided to start an orphanage.
Even though the dream had been planted, Mr. Mueller had issues. For one, he had no clue what he would need to do to run an orphanage let alone start one up. He knew he would need money, but he only had two pence in his pocket. That is equivalent to two shiny pennies. He also did not have a building to house these orphans. The problems were many and the answers were not easy, but George continued to trust the Lord that He would bring about the means necessary. Mr. Mueller made the declaration that prayer was going to have to fund and fuel this orphanage because he could never do it without the power of God.
George Mueller stayed true to his word. He started the orphanage and he used prayer to guide every step. When George came to the end of his life, he had cared for over 10,000 orphans with only two pennies. That’s the power of prayer. It was stated that George would wake up every morning at 3:00am to pray and that he never missed a morning. It was also reported that George had calluses the size of softballs on his knees because of all of the kneeling for prayer. Meuller’s prayer journal was over 3000 pages long and contained 30,000 answered prayers. In his prayer journal, you can read some of the miraculous answers to prayers such as milk trucks breaking down in front of the orphanage when he was praying for milk, and bread being delivered for free when they had run out of bread. To say that this man was a great man of prayer is an understatement!
As I researched the life of Mr. Mueller, a number of things ran through my mind, but I was mostly just overwhelmed. When I looked at my prayer life and compared it to his, I felt completely incapable of being a good Christian. This giant of the faith made me feel about three inches tall. My prayer life waned in comparison to his, and I was intimidated because I was trying to pit my prayer life against his.
How many of you have been completely intimidated about prayer? We have all been there. Think about times you may have been in a group praying. You go down the line of people there and it getting closer to your turn. Sister Sally says a nice prayer. Then, Brother Bob uses some of your favorite phrases, so you begin to rework your prayer. Then, Brother Buford, who is a stalwart of the faith begins. He prays in a way that leaves everyone spellbound. Doctrine and unknown Christian vocabulary spews forth from his lips. The tone and volume of his voice change up and down as he dances from syllable to syllable. He continues on and on and you wonder if he will ever run out of words to say. You almost forget it is your turn to go next until you realize that he is starting to wrap it up. You start to panic and think, “How am I ever going to top that?” Suddenly, you realize you have forgotten how to talk, and you forget how to even open your prayer. Finally, you start speaking, and stumble to find the words. You come to the end of your prayer, but it has been far too short when compared to Brother Buford, so you just begin to rattle off any name that comes into your mind and ask God to be with them. Finally, when you run out of friends and family and can think of no more words, you pass the baton to the next person in line while the sweat rolls off your forehead.
Can anyone relate to what I am talking about this morning? There are many Brother Buford’s and George Mueller’s out there that can intimidate us in our prayer lives, but it does not have to be that way. Prayer was never intended to be intimidating. Prayer was made to be intimate and to be enjoyed by every believer, but most of the time, we make prayer more difficult than it needs to be. Last week, we talked about 6 characteristics of the House of God and we are going to take a few months to take a more in-depth look at these characteristics starting with the beginnings of a great prayer life. I know no better teacher on prayer than Jesus himself, so I ask you to turn to Matthew 6:5-8 so we can gain some wisdom on prayer from Jesus.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
This morning, we will take a look at four tips given by Jesus that will help us down the road to a better prayer life and will give us confidence as we enter His throne room. They should also alleviate the fear and intimidation we have about prayer. Let’s go to the Lord and ask Him to bless our time.
Tip #1: The bulk of our prayers should be done in private.
Many of you have probably heard the name John Wesley before. He was a great preacher, and he founded the Methodist movement. Growing up, John was the 15th of 19 children born to his mother Susanna. From a very early age, John learned the importance of going to a quiet place to pray. You see, for a few minutes every afternoon, his mother would go to her quiet place of prayer, and the children knew not to bother her. Where was this quiet place? After all, living in a small house with 19 children is not an ideal place to find a quiet place. Her quiet place was right in the middle of her living room. There, she would sit on her rocking chair, pull her apron over her head, and block out the sounds of the world so that she could meet with Jesus. All the children knew that when the apron was up, mom was with Jesus and could not be disturbed.
Mrs. Wesley knew the importance of finding a quiet place to pray. Jesus also knew the importance of this and he practiced what he preached. Many times, we are told in the gospels that he left the crowds to be alone with God. Did Jesus do this because He was afraid to pray in public? Did He do this because he was anti-social? Did Jesus do this just to be different? No – Jesus did this because it pleases the Father.
When we get alone with God, it frees us to do a number of things. First of all, it allows us to be ourselves. We don’t have to pray to impress others, and we don’t have to worry if we used big enough words and spoke long enough. It is just you and God, and He just wants to hear your heart. He covets that time together no matter how long and what is contained in your prayers. The second thing that private prayer allows is for us to hear from God. When you are in a group setting, it is so hard to hear the still, small voice of God. As you enter into your quiet place, you will find that you will frequently be able to distinguish the voice of the Lord. Also, when you go to pray in private, it allows you to receive your reward. Everyone likes to be rewarded, and we are given some great news in our passage. When the Father sees what we do in private, he will reward us. What will he reward us with? I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I know it is impossible for an all-good God to reward us with something that is not good for us.
If you want a rewarding prayer life, it must start by going to that quiet place on a regular basis and getting alone with God. Private prayer is the spark that ignites the fire of your entire Christian life. If your Christian life is something other than a fireball, the first place you need to look to catch that fire again is your private prayer life. When the people of the church go to their quiet place and get their fire lit everyday, we can come to church and combined our individual lights into a light that will be seen for miles around.
Tip #2: Keep prayer short and simple.
A fifth grade boy who had heard a sermon on persistence in prayer was praying by himself in his room one night. As his dad passed his door, he heard the boy praying over and over again, “Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo.” The next morning, the dad asked the boy what he was doing the night before. The boy replied that he had given the wrong answer on a test for the capital of Mexico, and he was praying that God would make Tokyo the capital of Mexico.
This little boy understood something about prayer. He understood that God did not need to know every little detail about the situation the boy was going through. God already knew that. We sometimes forget that God is omniscient – all-knowing. The little boy knew this so he bypassed all of the insignificant data and got to the main point. He could have said a prayer like this.
Dear God, this is Jimmy Allan Sullivan from 48 North Main Street in Porter Township in Clarion County, Pennsylvania. I am in the fifth grade at New Bethlehem Elementary School and I am in Mr. Smith’s class. This afternoon, we had a geography test with fifty questions that were multiple choice and fill in the blank. As I took the test I had trouble with one of the questions. I put a wrong answer to the capital city of Mexico. I know now that it is Mexico City, but I was hoping you could change it to Tokyo since that was my answer. I would greatly appreciate it. Amen.
Now, to us, the second prayer was much longer and would probably be categorized as the more religious of the two. To an all-knowing God who knows us better than we know ourselves, they are both valid but not necessary. We don’t have to bog down God with all the insignificant details, because we are not going to tell Him anything He doesn’t already know! We are reminded in verse 8 that God already knows what we need before we ask Him. That means we need to use what my high school history teacher called the K.I.S.S. principle. When he said it, it meant keep it simple stupid. When we use it with prayer, it means, keep it short and simple. Remember, God doesn’t need the unabridged version – just the Cliff notes will do fine.
Tip #3: Pray in your own way.
A grandfather once told the following story about teaching his grandson to pray. He said, “My wife and I were trying to show our grandchildren the importance of thanking God for everything he had blessed us with. We encouraged them to speak to God whenever they needed to know what they should do. Michael, our four-year-old grandson, enjoyed holding our hands, and with head bowed, he would close his eyes and listen as my wife or I led in prayer. One evening, as we were about to ask the blessing, Michael asked if he could offer the prayer. We were so excited, so we nodded yes with enthusiasm. We all bowed our heads and Michael began his prayer. As I sat there, I didn’t hear anything, so I opened my eyes to see if everything was OK. As I watched Michel, I could see his mouth moving, and I could hear a faint murmur on his breath. Finally, a very hardy, “Amen” came from the boy. He looked around smiling – he was so proud of what he had done. He looked at us waiting to hear affirmation for a job well done. My wife though, instructed him that he would have to say the prayer over again because we could not hear any of the words. In an instant, Michael’s face turned from a smile to a look of puzzlement as he stated, “But Grammy, I wasn’t talking to you – I was talking to God!”
These grandparents learned a valuable lesson that day. The way you pray does not have to look like someone else’s way of prayer. It does not have to sound like the way someone else prays. Your prayer life is exactly that – yours. My prayer life might look and sound different than yours. Your prayer life may be different than the person next to you. No two people are created exactly alike, so no two prayer lives will look exactly alike as well. Let me see if I can explain this a little better with an example from my own life. When I was a little boy, I would sometimes help my mom or grandmother make the stuffing for Thanksgiving. We would tear the bread into chunks and add the celery, butter, and other ingredients to the mix. Then, we would stuff it in the bird or make balls out of it and stick it in the oven. When I got on my own, stuffing making was a bit different. I would take the Stove Top box out of the cabinet, place it in hot water and butter, and cook it on the stovetop. After I got married, my wife would take the same box of stuffing and make it in the microwave. Now, all three of us accomplished the same feat. We all got stuffing as an end product. Some of it took longer and more effort to make. They all tasted a little different. They all looked a bit different, but in the end, we got stuffing. Prayer is like stuffing – we all have our own way of doing it. The method doesn’t matter as long as the prayer is going on in some form or the other.
Tip #4: Pray with confidence.
All the information we have gone over this morning should help us to pray with confidence. God already knows what we need before we ask Him. God does not need us to put together a fancy spiel to impress Him. God doesn’t require our prayer lives to line up with the prayer giants of the faith. God just requires that we take some time in the quiet place to go near to Him. After all, the Holy Spirit and Jesus are always interceding for us. They are preparing the way for our prayers. God has a perfect plan for us and will never let us down. Sometimes, we may not get what we want or think we need, but he will always give us what is all good and leads to His perfect plan. That should also give us confidence. Prayer was never meant to be scary. Prayer was never meant to be intimidating. It was created to be a way for you to comfortably go before the Father and bear your soul. If God can see what we do in secret, it should give us confidence that He always hears our prayers.
I want to close with a story this morning. You see, early African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in private prayer times and devotions. Each one reportedly had a spot in the thicket where he would pour his heart out to God. Over time, these paths to the quiet places became well worn. As a result, if one of these believers began to neglect prayer, it was soon apparent to others. They would kindly remind the negligent one, “Brother, the grass grows on your path.” I ask you this morning, “Does the grass grow on your path to your quiet place?” Let’s pray.
