Walnut Prayers
There was once a man who was very faithful in his prayer life. Every morning when he got up he would kneel by his bed and he would pray, ‘God bless me, God bless my family, God bless this day’. And before every meal he would say a prayer ‘God bless this food’. And every night when he went to bed he would pray, ‘God bless me, God bless my family, God bless this night’. And every time he prayed a prayer, he would take a walnut and place it in a glass jar. And over the years his house became full of glass jars, that were full of walnuts. They were on shelves and bookcases and window sills and everywhere. Walnuts… 1000’s of them! And the man felt very pleased with himself – ‘just look at all these jars, just look at all these walnuts, just look at all these prayers that I have prayed’ he would say.
Then one night Jesus appeared to him in a dream. And Jesus took each of the glass jars, opened them, and one by one he took out the walnuts and broke them open. And inside each one it was empty, nothing but dryness and dust. And Jesus said to him, you know you’re prayers are like that, although there have been 1000s of them – they are empty, they are dry, they are meaningless.
Derek Morris opens his book -The Radical Prayer – with these words - ‘All too often we simply pray weak prayers, such as “Dear God, help me to have a nice day” and “Help me not to get so angry today.” But, Jesus challenges each one of His followers to pray radical prayers. They can be short, but they’re certainly not weak... If you want to maintain the status quo, don’t even begin this prayer. Or if you want to live an average life, leave it alone. But if you have a passion to make a difference in the world—if you have a longing to see Jesus return in glory as King of kings and Lord of lords—then I invite you to learn more about radical prayer.
Once you begin to pray radical prayers in faith, the way will open for great and wonderful things to happen. Your life will truly be transformed, and you will never be the same again.
Challenging words... but true. You know many of the prayers of the church and of God’s people are weak, empty, passion-less, vision-less. And if we are really going to see God move, if we are really going to see God at work, if we are really going to see situations turned around and lives dramatically changed by the mighty hand of God then we really must step out of our lethargic prayer life and start praying some pretty radical prayers. Remember I said a few weeks ago – if you think small you will get small, if you pray small you will receive small. But if you pray big.... if you pray radical prayers...
Leonard Ravenhill (he’s dead now, but he was an evangelist and author who focused his attention on prayer and revival.) ‘The church has many organisers, but few agonizers; many who pay, but few who pray; many resters, but few wrestlers; many who are enterprising, but few who are interceding… Tithes build a church, but tears will give it life. That is the difference between the modern church and the early church. In the matter of effective praying, never have so many left so much to so few’.
Are you a prayer? Are you a wrestler? Are you an interceder? We need to be a church, and we need to be a people who are serious about prayer. Who are serious about grappling with God over the bigger issues of this world. We need to be a church that starts praying some pretty radical prayers.
What is radical prayer? ‘The word radical comes from the Latin radix which means root. That means that radical prayer goes straight to the root of the issues. Radical prayer refuses to let us stay on the fringes of life’s great issues. Floating around on the surface so to speak. Never getting too involved in the things that really matter. It dares to believe that things can be different. Its aim is the total transformation of persons, institutions and societies. Radical prayer, you see, is prophetic’ (Richard Foster – ‘Prayer finding the hearts true home’)
Now listen to this – this is important - Radical prayer enables God to change the world--through you. Did you get that? Radical prayer enables God to change the world--through you.
Karl Barth (Swiss theologian) – ‘To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world’. I like that word ‘uprising’ it reminds me of what Jesus says in Matthew 11:12 ‘And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.’ Now there are a number of ways of understanding what Jesus was saying here – but maybe, just maybe he was recalling His wrestling match with Jacob, centuries before. When Jacob grabbed hold of him, and wrestled with him, and fought with him, and would not let him go until he got the answer to his prayer that he was looking for. Have you ever thought of your prayer life in that way? As a violent thing, as a forceful thing, that holds heaven to ransom, that holds God to his promises? That’s radical prayer.
Life of Jacob
And I want to share this morning 3 things about radical prayer that come out from this story of Jacob. Now Jacob had not seen his brother, Esau, in a very long time. You may remember the story of how years before he had tricked his brother out of his birthright and stole his blessing. Because of that Esau wanted to kill Jacob. But Jacob’s mother found out about Esau’s plan and she arranged for Jacob to live with relatives far away. Now after many years had gone by God tells Jacob to go back home but he’s terrified that his brother Esau still wants to kill him.
And so he comes to the Jabbok river and crossing it means crossing into Esau’s territory. So before crossing the river Jacob decides that he would try to appease his brother, that he would try to pacify him, that he would try to win him over by sending him some gifts. So he sent his servants ahead of him with gifts for Esau, 220 goats, 220 sheep, 30 camels, 40 cows, 10 bulls, and 30 donkeys. And as he was making these preparations he said to himself, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me” (Genesis 32:20).
But his plan doesn’t work. His servants come back with the message, ‘We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him’. (32:6) And it says that Jacob was in great fear and distress. Well, of course he was. If you are going to go and shake someone’s hand you don’t take 400 men along with you. It was obvious Esau was unhappy, it was obvious Esau meant business.
And that brings me to the first thing I want to say about radical prayer:
1. Radical Prayer challenges the status quo
Things weren’t looking too good for Jacob. The situation looked hopeless. His angry brother was coming toward him with 400 men – looked like this could be the end. But radical prayer refuses to accept the status quo. Radical prayer refuses to believe that things have to be the way they appear. The great reformer Martin Luther said ‘the might of prayer is so great it has overcome both heaven and earth. And he speaks of ‘conquering God through prayer’ in the sense that we are seeking to bind God to his own promises. ‘Look God... you said. Look God... you promised’! When the reality of what faces you, when the reality of what you see doesn’t match the will or the promises of God – we need to get on our knees and hold God to his word – that’s radical prayer!
And that’s exactly what Jacob did. Faced with the hostility of his brother, faced with certain death – he got on his knees and he held God to his promises. Gen 32:9-12 ‘ Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ’Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ’I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ "
When he was wrestling with God what do you think he meant when he said ‘I will not let you go until you bless me’. He’s not talking about prosperity, he’s not talking about God giving him more wealth – anyone who can give as a gift 220 goats, 220 sheep, 30 camels, 40 cows, 10 bulls, and 30 donkeys has enough wealth. Jacob wants to be blessed by being reconciled with his brother.
‘Look God... you said. Look God... you promised, and now I’m not going to let you go until it happens’! That’s pretty radical eh! And what has God promised for us? What should the reality of this world be?
Jesus standing in the synagogue said, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor..." "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
That’s the promise of God. Let me just paraphrase it in a slightly different way. I have been empowered to share good news with the economically and spiritually poor. It is the good news of holistic salvation. For those with a broken heart, I have come to bind up your wounds and redeem your suffering and make you whole again. I have come to set the captives free, those who are downtrodden and oppressed, those who are distressed in spirit, who are mourning, I am here to comfort, deliver, and redeem you. Those who are struggling with poverty of soul, Spirit, and cannot fill the empty place inside, though they have tried everything, I have come to give you life again. (Isaiah 61:1-3 rephrase)
That’s Gods promise for the world! But is it the reality that we see all around us?
Radical prayer calls us to speak out in spiritual defiance of the world as it is now. We pray out against a world of injustice, oppression and violence. Like Amos we demand that ‘justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream’ (Amos 5:24). We plead the case of the orphan and the widow, or whoever the helpless ones are. In our prayers we stand against racism, sexism, nationalism, ageism and every other kind of ‘ism’ that seeks to separate, split and divide. We become the voice of the voiceless, pleading their cause all the way to the throne room of heaven. And we demand to be heard. We insist that changes are made.
Walter Wink writes that, ‘Radical prayer is impertinent, persistent, shameless, unbecoming. It is more like haggling in an outdoor bazaar than the polite monologues of our churches’. Like Abraham we bargain with God over the fate of the city (Gen 18). Like Moses we argue with God over the fate of the people (Ex 32). Like Esther we plead with God over the fate of the nation (Es 4).
Through radical prayer we stand against the status quo and we hold God to His word and to His promises.
In Acts 16 there’s the story of Paul and Silas in prison. They had been beaten, they had been thrown in jail, but they weren’t defeated. They didn’t sit around in chains and say ‘that’s it, we’re done for, it’s time to give up’. They didn’t moan and groan. They didn’t just accept the status quo. The Bible says, they prayed. Right there in that dark, damp, smelly prison, wrapped in chains – they prayed and their prayers challenged the status quo. Their prayers challenged the ‘what was’.
And it’s no good us sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves and for the state of our nation and our world. The church is in decline, morality is at rock bottom, Islam is taking over the nation, there is huge injustice in the world, famine, starvation, poverty and greed. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Radical prayer stands up in the face of the status quo and says things can be different – things will be different.
2. Radical Prayer challenges and changes the status quo
That brings me to point number 2 – Radical prayer challenges and changes the status quo. Jacob wasn’t prepared to accept the status quo, he wasn’t prepared to go forward with the mentality of ‘que sera sera, whatever will be will be’. He said, ‘things can be different, things will be different’. And that night the most famous and perhaps the most bizarre wrestling match in all of history took place. That night Jacob wrestled with God. He took God to task and held him to his promises, held him to his word. ‘I will not let you go until you do what you promised, I will not let you go until you keep your word, I will not let you go until you bless me’.
And while Jacob wrestled with God in prayer something quite remarkable happened. As Jacob prayed over here – something changed over there. While Jacob was praying here – a change was happening in his brother Esau over there. How do we know that? Well in Gen 32:6 it says that when the messengers returned they said, ‘we went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him’ – fearing for his life Jacob gets on his knees and pleads with God, wrestles with God until God blesses him – and then in Chapter 33 it says, ‘Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men... (verse 4) Esau ran to meet Jacob and (killed him – NO) embraced him. He threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.’
You see, while Jacob was praying here – a change was happening in his brother Esau over there. He went from being an angry, vengeful, spiteful, hate filled person to a loving, caring, forgiving brother. Radical prayer doesn’t only challenge the status quo – it changes the status quo.
In 1540 Martin Luther’s friend and assistant, Frederick Myconius, became sick and he was expected to die. As he lay there on his death bed he wrote a farewell letter to Luther. And when Luther got it he sent back the reply: ‘I command thee in the name of God to live, because I still have need of thee in the work of reforming the church. The Lord will never let me hear that thou art dead, but will permit thee to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God’. Strong words, strong prayer. But Myconius – even though he had lost the ability to speak when Luther’s letter arrived, in a short time got better. He completely recovered, and he outlived Luther by 2 months. Radical prayer doesn’t only challenge the status quo – it changes the status quo.
When I was posted out to Germany way back in 1985, I soon became very aware that one of the major prayers of the Christian population in Germany was the East-West Divide symbolised by the Berlin wall which had been built 24 years earlier in 1961. Practically every service, every prayer meeting, every gathering included prayers that one day Germany would be a unified country again. Radical prayers – refusing to accept the status quo. And then, quite suddenly, and without warning on 9 November 1989, amidst the most extra-ordinary scenes – the Berlin Wall was gone. Radical prayer doesn’t only challenge the status quo – it changes the status quo.
3. Be careful what you pray for – you might just get it – and it usually costs
And that brings me to point number 3. When it comes to radical prayer you need to be careful what you pray for – you might just get it – and it might just come at a cost.
Jacob wrestled with God. He challenged the status quo and through his praying he changed the status quo – but it came at a cost. Verse 25, ‘When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man’. Why couldn’t God overpower Jacob? Because Jacob was holding him to his word, to his promises that’s why. God has to be faithful to his promises. Verse 31, ‘Jacob called the place Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip’.
Jacob spent the rest of his life limping wherever he went – because of the radical prayer he prayed that night. His prayer was answered, the status quo was changed – but it came at a personal cost. So I say, be careful what you pray for – you might just get it – and it usually comes at a cost.
There’s a wonderful clip in the film Evan Almighty – God is explaining to Joan what happens when you pray and he says, ‘If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience, or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does he give them the opportunity to be courageous?
If you’re praying radical prayers for the homeless people in our town, don’t be surprised if God whispers in your ear and reminds you that you have a spare bedroom or two. If you’re praying for the hunger and poverty of the world, don’t be surprised if God reminds you of your bank balance and that cheque book that sits in your draw unused. If you’re praying radical prayers for the lost people in China, don’t be surprised if God tells you to book a seat on the next plane to Beijing.
You know, if you pray to God to send you a Pastor who is a bible teacher, a visionary leader, someone who prays and gives spiritual direction. Someone who has a heart for the lost, motivating the church toward evangelism. Then don’t be surprised when God sends exactly the guy you asked for and he wants to start impacting the community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ – even though it will cost you financially, it will cost you spiritually, it will cost you in time, it will cost you in talents, it will cost you in gifting, it will cost you in commitment. And it may even cost you in rethinking your own attitudes and belief structures.
If you’re praying for God to start moving amongst us by the power of the Holy Spirit – don’t be surprised if and when he does. And I can guarantee he won’t turn up the way you want him too. But he will challenge your comfort, he will challenge your attitude. He won’t just sit on the back row and be quiet. He’ll make a fuss, he’ll make a commotion, he’ll make a noise, he’ll make his presence known – and he’ll say ‘hey now I’m here what you going to do with me’. That’s certainly what happened that first Pentecost in Acts 2.
So be careful what you pray for – you may just get it – and it usually comes with a personal cost.
Conclusion
I’ve finished. But let me just ask you. Do you believe in prayer? Do you really believe that prayer changes things? Or is prayer for you just some kind of ritual that you go through. Some kind of religious act you do because thats what you think you should do.
A true story is told about a small town that had historically been "dry," but then a local businessman decided to build a pub. A group of Christians from a local church were concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. It just so happened that shortly thereafter lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. The owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible, but the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. The presiding judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The pub owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not."
It reminds me of the story when Peter was in prison in Acts 12 and it says that the church was
earnestly praying to God for him. And an angel appeared to him and helped him escape – so he
made his way to the house where the people were praying for him knocked on the door – and it
says, ‘a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer the door. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, "Peter is at the door!" "You’re out of your mind," they told her.
How often are we just like that. We pray and we pray, but we never really believe that our prayers will achieve anything. Do you believe in prayer? Do you believe in the power of prayer? Do you believe in the power of radical prayer? Thomas Watson – ‘The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer fetched the angel.
Radical prayer – challenges the status quo.
Radical prayer – challenges and changes the status quo.
But be careful what you pray for – you might just get it – and it costs!
Radical prayer enables God to change the world--through you. My prayer is that God would make us a radical church –a radical people – praying radical prayers that will change this world.
