Prayer Keys - Be Specific
“What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Lk 18:41
Praying specifically is a key to effective prayer. The blind man’s first request is for Jesus to have mercy on him. Jesus asks him specifically, “What do you want me to do for you?” He answers specifically, “Lord, I want to see.”
One of the most entertaining specific prayers I have ever heard came from “Fiddler on the Roof.” Jews are being oppressed in Czarist Russia. When the Czar wants their land, he pushes them off. Those who have an ox cart load it up. Those who do not have an ox or a horse load up a handcart, similar to a wheelbarrow. Those without a handcart carry what they can. When it looks like the Czar again wants their land, someone asks the rabbi, “Is there a prayer for the Czar?”
The aged rabbi answers, “Yes. ‘May God bless and keep the Czar… far away from here!’” There is no doubt what the rabbi wants, “God keep the Czar far away from here.”
We are often like the blind man, praying general prayers. A common general prayer is, “God, bless the missionaries.” It is not a bad prayer. It is a good prayer. A more specific prayer may be better. Think about what you have heard missionaries say, or what you have heard or read about missionaries. What needs do they have?
Many speak about how easy it is for the children to learn a language and how hard the parents must study.
As a sign language interpreter, I have seen some interesting mistakes. I have seen people interpret, “There’s a sweet, sweet, spirit in this place.” The song also includes the line, “there are sweet expressions on each face.” Some people sign “sweet” with two fingers across the lips. The sign for “funny” is the same two fingers making the same motion on the nose, barely more than an inch away. You have probably guessed, I have seen someone sign, “There’s a funny, funny spirit in this place.” By the time they signed, “there are funny expressions on each face” there really were. An even older hymn, “At Calvary,” includes the line, “Mercy, there was great and grace was free.” Since it is a song, I have seen someone try signing very large with flowing gestures but not turning their hands the right way. They signed “Sickness there was great and grace was free.” We should pray for missionaries’ ability to study and learn their language.
I heard a missionary speak of being sent to a culture that highly valued hospitality. He learned that showing and receiving hospitality was very important. He learned that when he went to visit, people would offer him a glass of tea and that he should drink it. As he made his visits, he would no sooner finish a glass of tea than his hosts would pour him another. It happened everywhere he went. He did not know before that day that it was possible to be tea drunk. What he had missed in his studies was that when he had enough tea, he was to leave just a little in the bottom of the glass. If he drank it all, his hosts would assume he wanted more. We should pray for missionaries to study and learn the culture where they seek to share the gospel.
Missionaries say it is safer to be in God’s will in a dangerous land than to be out of God’s will in a peaceful land. That is true even in the U.S. Mildred McWhorter operated a mission in inner city Houston. It was in the center of the ten poorest square blocks in the city. Gangs did not like that she was reaching some of the children. She was often threatened. Sometimes, she endured more than just threats. Once, a gang caught her alone. One gang member took a knife and cut off every button down the front of her dress. She was not physically harmed. Neither was she deterred from her mission. Missionaries who say they are safer in dangerous places in the center of God’s will than they would be in peaceful lands out of God’s will downplay the fact that they may be called to suffer. We should pray for the safety of missionaries in dangerous places.
Praying, “God bless the missionaries,” is a general prayer. It is not a bad prayer. It is a good prayer. Praying specifically for their needs may be better. At the very least, it makes us more sympathetic to their needs and may motivate us to do more to support and encourage them.
Praying specifically is a key to effective prayer. Praying generally is easier.
“God bless America,” is a very general prayer. It may be as specific a prayer as politicians can get away with these days. It is not a bad prayer. It is a good prayer. Praying for specific blessings may be better. What blessings does America need?
The phrase, “God bless America,” now may bring to mind images of George W. Bush instead of Kate Smith. George W. Bush will long be associated with the war on terror. We can pray for God to protect us and to protect the servicemen he uses to protect us. They need protection not only physically but also morally. Much has been made of those who drink, use drugs, and pick up venereal diseases during war. It is not just the stress of war. “Thou shalt not kill,” is one of the few commandments in the Bible most Americans can quote. The Hebrew word is specific for murder and does not apply to killing in self defense or in just war. But when in war decent people are required to kill, it can have a devastating effect on them. We need to pray for God to protect America and to protect the servicemen whom he uses. Pray that he will protect them from the enemy and from the effects of war itself.
We can also pray for God to bless America in our economy. We not only need more jobs for people, we also need to dignity of work to be restored. While substitute teaching, I heard a kid, a kid who doesn’t know the meaning of work, talk about looking for a job, but saying he wasn’t going to do this or that “for a lousy $8.00 an hour.” I did not bother to tell him about my first real job, cleaning floors and toilets for 60ยข an hour. We can pray for God to bless America with jobs and a renewed work ethic.
Many of us remember what was called the “sexual revolution” that followed the invention of “the pill.” It was thought that the scandal of out of wedlock babies would be over. What was called a revolution in the 60 s seems insignificant now. When I was in high school, I remember only once students whispering about a girl who “had to leave school.” Now, as a substitute teacher, I have seen students as young as junior high passing their sonograms around to show other students.
Praying for God to bless America with a renewed sense of morality may be a key to our future as a nation.
Praying specifically is a key to effective prayer. In this, children can be a wonderful example for those of us who have been Christians for decades.
Helen Roseveare was a missionary doctor in Zaire, Africa. One night, in spite of her best efforts, a mother died in childbirth. She left a pre-mature baby and a crying two year old daughter.
The clinic had no electricity, so it had no incubator. They kept babies warn during the cold nights with a hot water bottle. The only hot water bottle they had burst due to dry rot as a nurse filled it. They wrapped the baby in a blanket and a nurse stayed with her by the fire. By the grace of God, she survived that night. It would take a miracle for her to survive a second night.
Every day, Helen gathered the children to pray. She told them about the two year old girl who was crying because her mother died and her baby sister who would probably die that night because they did not have a hot water bottle.
Specificity as a prayer key is not a problem for children. A little girl named Ruth prayed bluntly, “Please, God, send us a hot water bottle. Please send it today because the baby will be dead tomorrow and that will be too late. And please, while you’re at it, send the little girl a dolly so she’ll know you love her, too.”
That prayer scared Helen. Yes, God can do everything. The Bible says so. But if he chose not to send a hot water bottle, how would she explain it to Ruth?
That afternoon, Helen received a 22 pound box from home. It was her first package in four years. It was exciting, but who would send a hot water bottle to Zaire? How many people think of equatorial Africa getting cold at night?
The children gathered around Helen as she opened the box. She reached in and pulled out lots of bright clothing for the children. She reached in again and pulled out lots of bandages for the leprosy patients. She reached in again and pulled out a hot water bottle!
Helen began to cry. She had been afraid to pray specifically for a hot water bottle to arrive that day.
But Ruth jumped up and rushed forward. She cried out, “God sent the hot water bottle. He must have sent a dolly, too!” She rummaged around the box until she found it, the small, beautifully dressed doll!
Five months earlier, Helen’s former Sunday School class in England felt burdened for her and assembled the package. Some one felt like she should include a hot water bottle. She felt silly sending it to the equator, but she followed God’s prompting [a key to victorious Christian living]. And one woman’s daughter wanted to give her doll to an African child.
Isaiah 65:24 says, “And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer.”
Jesus asked the blind man to state his request specifically. We should do the same.
***NEW NOTES***
The week after teaching that praying specifically is a key to effective prayer, a visiting missionary spoke about his ministry in India.
The previous week, we decided that praying for God to bless the missionaries is a good prayer, but praying for their specific needs is better. Abraham Thomas mentioned three specific needs.
He mentioned the need for courage. Christians face dangers from militant Hindus. It is true that missionaries are safer in the center of God’s will in dangerous lands than they are out of God’s will in quiet lands. That does not mean there is no danger or that we do not need to pray for their courage.
Christians in India also need courage to speak out as a minority. 10,000,000 evangelical Christians in a land sounds impressive until you compare them to a 1.2 billion population. Christians in India are outnumbered more than 100 to 1.
He also mentioned the need for resources. The great needs of the people result in great opportunities for God’s people and call for great resources.
Abraham also specifically mentioned the challenge of witnessing to Hindus.
In America, secular people are unwilling to consider the fact that Jesus walked the earth as God incarnate. They think they are too rational to believe that. But that is easy for Hindus to believe. They believe in the existence of over 330,000,000 gods. Hindus are unwilling to consider the fact that there is only one God. They think they are too spiritual to believe that.
Some of the challenges of witnessing in India are just the opposite of those witnessing in the U.S.
Praying for God to bless the missionaries is a good prayer. Praying for God to protect missionaries in India and to give them courage to face militant Hindus and overwhelming odds, praying for God to give them the great resources to use the great opportunities they have to minister to people with great needs, praying for God to help them witness in a culture so different from ours, praying specifically for the ministries is better.
At the very least, it makes us more aware of their needs. It may make us more passionate about helping and supporting them. For some people, it will make them aware of their own call to missions. I have heard testimonies like that before and expect to hear them again.
