If I did a survey of the people in this room today about the way you pray, I would most likely discover some common things --
– the majority of you wish you knew how to pray more effectively, and
– many of you would admit to praying hardly at all.
I was well into my adult life before prayer became a part of my Christian life that was really meaningful, in which I had the sense that I was really touching Heaven! In the message today, we will be taking a closer look at a passage that most Believers know well, with which they are very familiar.
TEXT - Matthew 7:7-12
Let me caution you about raising barriers to the Word today. You may be tempted to tune me out thinking, “I’ve heard this before!” Or, your mind may throw in a question and/or objection, saying - “But.... but, what about....?”
I encourage you to hear the Word and believe it! IF we really believed what Jesus says about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, it would turn our prayers upside down and inside out!
I preached from a passage a couple of weeks ago in which Jesus emphasized that prayer should be primarily private, simple and straight forward, and filled with faith.
...when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father...when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.... do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:6, 7, 31, 33
Let read the text for today.
Our English translations of the Bible do not capture the emphasis of the original text. The verbs translated "ask, seek, and knocking" are in the present tense, in a rising scale of intensity. A more true reading is,
"Keep on asking, and it will be given; persistent in seeking and you will make your discovery; keep knocking and the door will open."
Asking is a simple response to awareness of need - much as a child who is hungry says, “Give me something to eat, please.”
Seeking is an activity of pursuit. It carries the previous response into the realm of choice, where a person desires to know what God’s will is, to know how God will provide.
Knocking is sustained and enduring, when we keep on going back to God for that need that remains with us, to see an answer in this world!
That theme is developed in a parable told by Jesus and recorded in Luke 18. "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up." His story is about a woman, a widow with no clout or influence, who wanted a judge to hear her case. He refused and would not be moved. Everyday she went and petitioned him until finally he took the case; not because he was a just judge who wanted justice for this poor woman but because she was persistent!
Why must our prayers be persistent?
The Devil wishes us to believe that we struggle, that life is hard, that our prayers seem to be unanswered because God is uncaring! The enemy of God argues against His goodness and has done so since the beginning of human history.
∙ The Genesis story of Eve and Adam becoming sinful centers around the question of God’s goodness! The Tempter implies that God is withholding something desirable from those He created! "The serpent told the Woman, "You won’t die. God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you’ll see what’s really going on. You’ll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil." (Genesis 3:4-5, The Message)
With variations on that theme, the deceiver works at getting you and me to doubt God’s benevolence.
But, go with me once again to our text – read v.9-11
Jesus argues from a generally accepted fact, to something even more important. He points out the love that moves humans parents, even though they are a part of the evil world. Parents delight to provide for the desires and needs of their children. And they do this despite being sinners, despite their own fallen nature! We are capable of love and we delight in providing good things to our kids! “If that is true,” Jesus says, “then know that God, your Father, also delights in providing for His children. He is good!”
Do you believe that it is true that God is good?
If we believe that God is capricious, or uncaring, or remote, or cruel - our prayers will be tentative or fearful; or they will cease altogether! A child who is raised by abusive parents quickly learns not to trust. The child whose parent is unstable, or addicted, or an alcoholic is confused by the caring parent that turns into someone cruel or abusive. But, the child who has good, selfless, steady parents develops an ability to relate well, to function without fear!
If we hope to know and love God in the best way, if we want to have a rich, effective prayer life, we need to know that God is good! That is why we need to hear Jesus’ words about God’s goodness, again and again. "Your Heavenly Father will give good gifts to those who ask Him!" God’s goodness, His ultimate love, forms the basis of holy confidence and frees us to pray earnestly, honestly, and from our heart - trusting Him to do what is best- for us in keeping with His eternal purposes.
We must accept what God’s goodness means.
It does not mean He is nice like Grandpa! He is not indulgent. God’s goodness does not mean that He always makes our lives easy, pleasant, or pain-free!
Ill. - As a grandparent, I am not charged with training my grandsons like their father is. So, when they visit me, I can let some of the rules slide ’cause that what a Grandpa does. I put chocolate in their milk! I surreptitiously slide their peas onto my plate so they don’t have to eat them. Their Dad has to discipline them and he is good to them by enforcing disciplines that will shape their character.
God doesn’t always give us chocolate milk, but He is still good! He is the ultimate good Parent.
"For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way." (Hebrews 12:10-11, NLT)
Trust His goodness! I’ve heard people say, “Be careful what you pray for.” I have to ask, ‘why?’
My kids did not worry about offending me with their requests. They did not worry about me giving them bad things, or things that were not good for them. They just made their requests and trusted me to provide what I could. And, they usually trusted me when I said, “No, that’s not in your best interest right now!”
There is a truth that is a tangent to this one of God’s goodness. It is this. God hears our prayers and answers them because of HIS goodness, not because we are deserving! Do not misplace your confidence, when praying, in your own goodness. Many Believers do.
When we think we have been good in a moral kind of way we begin to think that we have built up some credit with God. Subtly, the lie ’God, you owe me,’ slips into our mind. When we start to think thoughts like - "I tithed and even gave generously above my tithe, so You should give me what I want." - we are no longer praying like beloved children of God. Instead, we have becoming dutiful servants, begging our case.
Our true confidence in prayer focuses on His goodness, on the fact that even our entry into His Presence is an invitation of grace provided to us freely at His expense. The Word reminds us that it is "Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence." (Ephesians 3:12, NLT)
Jesus says, “Ask for what you need. Seek to know His will. Knock persistently when the answer is long in coming.” Do not misunderstand His teaching and conclude that needs to be coaxed.
So, why the need to persist, if God is both good and willing to answer our prayers?
The text at this point does not elaborate but the Bible and our life experience teaches us some answers to this question.
# 1 - Some prayers are not answered because the Enemy of God is actively resisting His work in the world.
In the book of Daniel we find an account of a prayer’s answer being hindered by demonic inference! An angel sent to bring an answer to Daniel told the prophet that he had been hindered for 21 days from coming with an answer. The Holy Scripture is very clear that Believers are the target of attacks by demons who oppose every work of God. Why would it not be reasonable to think that these demons would attempt to hinder our prayer and work to cause doubt in our minds?
# 2 - Some prayers are not answered because we are asking for the wrong reasons or for the wrong things.
James writes, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” (4.3) God, in His goodness, delays His answer to allow us to mature, to see our real need more clearly, or even to cause us to trust His more implicitly!
Just about everyone of us can think of prayers that we have prayed which we prayed earnestly. With the passage of time, however, we have come to understand that God’s refusal to do what we asked Him to do was a great blessing. He is the Father who knows what we need and what is best. If we pray in sincere error, let us trust Him to grant or deny our request based on His superior knowledge.
# 3 - There are prayers that seem not to be answered because God has limited His ability to act within the will of individual persons.
How many godly mothers have prayed faithfully for a wayward son or daughter to come to the Lord?
How many wives or husbands have prayed for their spouse to return to their home from an adulterous relationship?
Does God refuse those prayers? No!
Is is somehow outside the will of God for a person to find Him? No!
Are broken hearts and marriages in His will? No!
But God turns no one into a puppet. He deals with individuals by His Holy Spirit, but He has given us the freedom to reject His will, to turn away from His plans and purposes.
The Bible plainly says in 2 Peter 3:9 that the Lord does not "want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." That is His declared will, but we know that many will reject Him and His loving salvation. He has granted us that freedom.
The clear call of Jesus is that we should pray: asking, seeking, knocking.
We should do so not to convince God nor to wring an answer from Him, but rather with the faith that He will "give good gifts to those who ask Him!"
I love the paraphrase of this passage that is found in The Message.
"Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat and mouse, hide and seek game we’re in. If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?"
Let me close by emphasizing that when we pray we need not be lawyers nor diplomats!
We must be like the well-adjusted children of good, wise parents.
Let’s forget manipulation of God, calculation of our merit points, or even appropriateness of our words.
Instead, when we pray let us be like eager kids bursting into a loving father’s presence, breathlessly pouring out our hearts. This is the intent of Hebrews 10:19-22. "....Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus ...and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith!"
Amen
Jerry D. Scott, copyright 2007
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