A Model for Effective Prayer
Matthew 20:29-34
May 4, 2008
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT USED IN MY MESSAGES IS BORROWED FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: Can I just be completely honest with you about something? I don’t suppose you’d want me to lie about anything, right?
Sometimes I struggle with the whole issue of prayer.
Sometimes I wonder if maybe God isn’t listening to me – not because He’s ignoring me but because maybe I don’t “get it” in terms of “how to pray.”
At times I wonder if I am praying “correctly.” You know, using just the “right” words or having just the right attitude.
I’m very conscious of the fact that I have no right to make any demands of God. He doesn’t owe me anything, that’s for sure!
It’s not like I can just call in a favor because I helped God out of a tight spot once!
One thing I’ve never struggled with, however, is God’s willingness or power to answer prayer that will benefit me and glorify God.
Scripture is abundantly clear that God loves to bless His children and answer their prayers.
As I’ve said in the past, sometimes that answer is “no” because God knows that getting what we’re asking for would actually not be good for us. And since He is all-knowing, we can trust Him to know better than we do about stuff.
I mentioned in a previous message this view of prayer from a teenager:
“God answers prayer four ways: yes, no, wait awhile, or, you’ve got to be kidding!” (Sermoncentral.com, contributed by Brian McCutchen)
My struggle has generally been in the area of whether I am in right relationship with God so that I can be assured that He hears my prayers.
We: I’ll guarantee that I’m not the only one who has struggle with this stuff. And chances are that I’m not the only one in this room who has struggled at times.
I wonder, if I were to take a poll, how many here are sitting here going, “I know what you’re talking about, Brian.”
It might just be that a bunch of you are just looking for ways to make your own prayers more effective.
My hope is that no matter where you are in your life regarding your prayer life you’ll find something today that will help.
God: I had originally intended to entitle this message, “A Touch of Compassion from Jesus,” but the more I looked at the passage, I think it tells us something we can learn about how to approach God in prayer, so we have the title, “A Model for Effective Prayer.”
And before we get into the passage and what we can learn from it, I want to make very clear that this message isn’t about “how to manipulate God into doing what you want Him to do.”
First of all, I don’t believe God can be manipulated. And secondly, God isn’t here to do our bidding – we’re here to do His bidding.
Effective prayer is the result of a proper spirit, not the result of the right words or the right “formula” for saying a prayer.
Matthew 20:29-34 (p. 697) –
29 As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 30 Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
31 The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
32 Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
33 "Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."
34 Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.
This is a great story about how Jesus, once again busier than most people, stops to show mercy and compassion on someone who society had cast aside.
He had a habit of doing that. Demon-possessed people, Canaanite children, blind beggars, crippled and paralyzed folks, you name it.
When He comes across something, He does something about it. That’s just the kind of Savior Jesus was – and still is.
He cares and He acts, because He can.
Four ways the blind men model effective prayer:
* They approached Jesus humbly.
Look at verses 30-31.
It wasn’t, “Hey, snake-oil salesman! Step over here a minute!”
It was, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”
They were using the titles of the Messiah who was sent from God Himself.
There seems to be an attitude among many people, both Christians and non-Christians. It’s an attitude that demands things of God.
They try to order God around like He’s their servant or something.
“Do this, God. I claim that, God. (Even if there is nothing in Scripture to back up what they’re "claiming." For instance, there is no promise in Scripture that Christians will be rich, yet many "claim" the riches God has for them.) Make this happen, God.”
They seem to forget that God isn’t our heavenly butler, He’s our Heavenly Father.
I don’t know about you, but if I talked to my Dad like some people talk to God, I’d be having to do everything standing up for the next three weeks, because my backside would be red and swollen too much to sit!
Anyone else relate to that?
You don’t come to Dad and say, “Give me the car keys. Better yet, just give me the car. Until you can get me a better one, that is. Oh – and make sure it’s full of gas and has the oil changed and new tires, okay Dad?”
“And get that money in my bank account and soon, will ya?
“After all, I want to be the best son I can be for you.”
Have you heard the way some people pray?
“God, fill my bank account. Give me a new car. Make me rich so I can be the best servant I can be. Give me kids that don’t misbehave…”
Or they order God around like this: “Make your angels do this or that thing. Make the circumstances I’m under go away. Make my mother-in-law more likable…”
Folks, the key is to approach God humbly. You ask, you don’t demand. And there’s a huge difference.
Here’s the second way these two men model effective prayer:
* They didn’t let the crowd keep them quiet.
Society tells us to be quiet about God. They don’t want us to talk about Him and they think we’re foolish to talk to Him.
Sometimes it’s those who are closest to us telling us to be quiet. They’re embarrassed by our faith in someone we can’t see. Or they think that we should be pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps.
But these guys wouldn’t let the crowd beat them down. They had a need that they knew Jesus could meet, and they weren’t going to let anyone stop them.
My point here isn’t to say you should go out on a street corner and pray real loud about stuff.
My point is that you can’t let others pressure you into giving up on prayer. It may not make sense to them, but that doesn’t matter to God.
The question is whether or not you believe God can do something about your situation.
Think about these blind men. Medical science wasn’t exactly at a point where sight could be restored with cataract removal or cornea transplants.
They would remain blind the rest of their lives – unless God stepped in and did something about it.
I love what verse 31 says here –
…but they shouted all the louder…
These guys weren’t going to be denied! They were going after this like a bulldog on a mailman and they weren’t about to let a bunch of nay-sayers get in the way.
So don’t let others pressure you to give up. Keep it up.
The Bible says that we’re supposed to pray about everything. Nothing is too big or too small.
Folks, I pray about traffic lights! If I’m in a hurry, I ask God if He’d be so kind as to make all the lights green.
And you know what? He does it every time. It’s just that I wish He’d make them green when I was at that particular intersection.
Anyway – don’t let the crowd discourage you from calling out to God.
And another thing here very quickly – you don’t have to worry about the crowd drowning out your cries. He hears you perfectly. Because He’s right there with you.
Take advantage of His nearness and speak from your heart to His.
The third way the blind men modeled effective prayer for us is that…
* They were specific in their request.
In verse 32 Jesus asks them what they want, then they say –
"Lord … we want our sight."
Simple, but direct. Right to the point.
Not, “Well, we could just really use a blessing if You wouldn’t mind and have the time for. Nothing big – just a little something to help us get by a bit easier.”
No! They said, “We want our sight.” They knew what they wanted and they said it right out.
Underlying this is the fact that they actually believed Jesus could do something about their need.
Folks, when you’re praying, do you pray specifically about your need?
I was joking a bit about praying for the traffic lights when I’m driving, but really I do pray specifically, as should you.
Why do that? Is it because God doesn’t know until you say it in prayer? Not hardly.
The reason we pray specifically is because God answers specifically.
For Vacation Bible School this summer, we’re specifically praying that God would bring 50 children to VBS, and that 5 new families would become part of this church because of VBS.
Does God need us to pray for those specific numbers? Nope. But can you imagine what would happen to our own faith if God were to grant those, and maybe even more?
Can you imagine how much glory God would get from you and me if we saw Him answer those requests specifically? It would be awesome!
But can you think of some things in your life where you could use some specific help from God?
Then go ahead and ask. It’s okay.
Here is the fourth way these men modeled effective prayer for you and me:
* Their response to Jesus’ mercy was to follow Him.
Oh – here’s where it comes down to where the rubber meets the road.
God doesn’t answer prayer just so we can have a nice life.
Our part isn’t just asking. Our part includes following the One we trusted enough to ask in the first place.
These guys demonstrated the proper response in verse 34 –
Immediately they received their sight and followed him.
When we say “follow” in our context we’re saying, “Live for Jesus in every area of your life.” Obey Him, believing that He has your best interests at heart in any given time, circumstance, or situation.
When God answers your prayers, what’s your response?
Is it, “Thanks God – here’s the next thing I need You to take care of…”
Or is it, “Thanks God – help me to be a person who is more like Jesus because of what You’re doing in my life and on my behalf”?
When God grants your request, it should drive you past thankfulness to intentional surrender of your life to follow Christ above all else.
Is that the case for you? I hope so.
You: So what do I want you to take away from this today?
Take a look at one of these four ways that the blind men approached Jesus and pick one to work on this week.
Maybe you need to work on asking God to answer your need instead of demanding that He do it.
Or maybe your issue is that you feel embarrassed to pray about stuff because others are telling you it’s not worth it or that prayer is a crutch.
Could it be that you’ve never gotten into the habit of asking specifically for things? Make it a point to find one thing you can pray specifically about this week.
That’s not to say that God will answer within a week. He might, but my point here is to help you learn to pray specifically.
An idea to help you with that might be to start a prayer notebook where you write down the request and the date you started praying for it. The when the prayer is answered, you write down that date as well.
But maybe the deal for you is that in spite of all the goodness you see from God in your life and the answered prayer you’ve seen, you still haven’t really given your life over to Him to follow Him.
How about you let today be that day? Leave here today committed to following Him as an act of thankfulness on your part for all the great things God has done for you.
We: Folks, one of my dreams for this church is that we’d be a people who don’t just talk about prayer, but actually pray.
And I don’t mean just saying a bunch of words with “amen” at the end.
I want us to be people who pray believing that God is powerful and active in our church and in our individual lives.
I want us to be people who come before God humbly, yet boldly like these blind men, who ask God to move in specific ways.
People who trust that God’s working in this church is really just beginning, and who pray that God will make this church everything He intended it to be from the beginning.
Will you join in that?
Let’s pray.
