Three Lessons on Prayer
Introduction: A little boy told the minister that his mother prays for him every night. The minister seeming impressed said “So your mother says your prayers for you each night. What does she say?” The youngster replied, “Thank God he's in bed.”
Last weekend the movie 'War Room' brought in 13.4 million dollars over the Labor day weekend and was number 1 at the box office. The makers of the movie admit that the success of the movie was due to the power of prayer. During an interview with the filmmakers Alex and Stephen Kendrick, KBAK anchor Aaron Perlman who usually does the weather for the news station, got emotional saying that the movie changed his life. Perlman, leads worship at his church, had been secretly praying to interview the brothers after seeing the movie. He said he had just been asked to fill in for the news anchorman who was out for the week when the brothers came in for the interview, and took advantage of the answered prayer, by sharing with them that some had to be escorted out of the theater because many were lingering around after the movie stuck in prayer.
My hope is that Hollywood would get the message that they don't have to have sex, violence, drugs, and bad language to have successful movies. But as the prophet Jeremiah said “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.” (Jer. 13:23) Without being born again no one will see the kingdom of God, and neither will they be interested in increasing it on earth.
We turn on the television and we see our Christian principles contradicted, if not openly mocked. There have been nearly 53 million abortions from 1973 to 2011. Calling evil good and good evil seems to be fashionable today. Normal is portrayed as abnormal and abnormal is portrayed as normal. Homosexuality is natural and Heterosexuality is unnatural. Men dress like women and tell you to call them by their female name or you are being disrespectful. We see an effort in Oregon to make tobacco illegal, while there is an ongoing effort to make marijuana legal everywhere else. If there ever was a need for prayer, wouldn't you agree that time is now?
We all have heard someone who referred to prayer as 'the least we can do'. As if all other reliable solutions have been exhausted and we are only left to condescend to pray as my last resort and my final hope. Church, this should not be the case at all! Prayer is the best we can do. Prayer is the most we can do, not the least we can do.
Transition: I would like to share with you three powerful prayers that we can learn something from.
From the Tax Collector we can learn to pray simply
In Luke 18 we see a parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, both men are going to the temple to pray. The Pharisee who was respected by everyone for his righteousness brags about himself. While the Tax Collector who everyone despised asks God for forgiveness. He doesn't stand in the synagogue like the Pharisee bragging to God about how he tithes, and how he fasts, and how he isn't like the disgusting sinners of the world and how he doesn't sin such sinful sins as those sinners. The self-righteous man feels compelled to remind God of all the good he has done and all the bad he hasn't done in comparison to others. Unlike the Pharisee, he doesn't pray continuously trying to impress God with his long prayers. We have a tendency to ramble on in our prayers, and if it is a long rambling we feel that a lot was accomplished when we are done, even though it wasn't. The Tax Collector's prayer in Luke 18:13 is simple and direct: in seven beautiful words he prays: 'God be merciful to me, a sinner'.
I don't care how long you have been a Christian, that prayer never goes out of style! There is no eloquence. There is no sophistication. There is no Bible quotes to support his requests. No reminders that God promised to respond. No complex formulas. No “If it be your will” or “in your perfect time”. He doesn't use King James English to make his point. No, it is a simple prayer from a humble heart. “God be merciful to me a sinner” Those seven words say so much. He owns the fact that he is a sinner, He doesn't even try to deny it, He knows it and he knows that the Lord knows it. It seems that in his spirit he knows that the wages of sin is death and He asks not to get the punishment that he knows he justly deserves. I wonder how often men come to God owning their sins and admitting their wrongs?
What a great position we would be in, if we would come to God with such honesty and humility. When you pray, pray like children. Children are direct and simple. They know what they want and they ask for it. They see something wrong and they ask for a change.
Ill. Celeste Sibley, one-time columnist for the Atlanta (GA) Constitution, took her three children to a diner for breakfast one morning. It was crowded and they had to take separate seats at the counter. Eight-year-old Mary was seated at the far end of the counter and when her food was served she called down to her mother in a loud voice, "Mother, don't people say grace in this place?" A hush came over the entire diner and before Mrs. Sibley could figure out what to say, the counterman said, "Yes, we do, sister. You say it." All the people at the counter bowed their heads. Mary bowed her head and in a clear voice said, "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food." (Bits & Pieces, May, 1990, p. 10.)
Children don't bother with formality, they get straight to the point. Shake off formality and speak to God simply like a child would speak to their father. Pray as if you will get whatever you pray for!
Depth, not length, is important . . . . when the Gettysburg battleground became a national cemetery, Edward Everett was to give the dedication speech and Abraham Lincoln was asked to say “A few appropriate words.” Everett spoke eloquently for one hour and fifty-seven minutes then took his seat as the crowd roared its enthusiastic approval. Then Lincoln stood to his feet, slipped on his steel spectacles, and began what we know today as the “Gettysburg Address.” Poignant words “. . . The world will little note nor long remember . . .” --- suddenly, he was finished. No more than two minutes after he had begun he stopped. His talk had been so prayer like it seemed almost inappropriate to applaud. As Lincoln sank int his seat, John young of the Philadelphia Press whispered, “Is that all?” The President answered “Yes that's all” Don't underestimate two minutes with God in prayer.
It's not the length of your prayers that gets God's attention. You don't have to have to sound like a Pharisee to get God to listen to you. There is nothing wrong with long prayers if they are honest and direct. But when you pray his name with sincerity you will have his attention, immediately. You don't have to go through some great ritual trying to summon him to you. He said “I know my sheep and my sheep know me” Be simple and direct. Get to the point and be honest. Lay your case out before the way it is. Don't dance around the subject because He knows it already – He wants you to share it.
Transition: Humility is required when we ask simple prayers. But while our prayers may be direct and simple they ought to be specific as well.
From the blind man we can learn to pray specifically
In Mark 10:51 Jesus asks “what do you want me to do for you?” the blind man said “Rabbi I want to see.” You can't get more simple and specific than that can you? He doesn't ask for alms or charity, so that he could keep his disability but avoid work. He possibly could have known the prophecy of Isaiah 35:5 that the messiah would restore the blind mans sight and He could be that blind man that was prophesied. He doesn't wonder about what he might say He just says “Rabbi I want to see”
Philippians 4:6 says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” If you need something then ask for it. If you need more help then ask for it. If you are need more money then ask for it. If you need more time then ask for it. When God said Hezekiah's time was up, Hezekiah prayed for more time and God gave him 15 more years. Ephesians 6:18 teaches us that we shouldn't hold back on telling God what we need “And pray in the Spirit (If you pray in the spirit you wont be praying out of greed) on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people”. Pray for everyone you can think of, and be specific.
Whenever you Pray – Go to God knowing what you want! You wouldn't appear before the queen of England who is flesh and blood like yourself and not have anything to ask of her once you got there. If you have the boldness to come to the throne of grace, then you should have something to say once you get there. Realize the King of Kings, LORD of Lords, Master of masters, creator of all things good, Almighty God, Emanuel is standing before you and he says “What do you want me to do for you?” “uhhh. I don't know let me think about it.” NO! Be specific.
Pray for people by name, not by generality. Not “I pray for my family” or “I pray for my school” or “I pray for my church” get specific “I pray for Jimmy and Judy. I pray for their safety, continued loyalty, and for them to have a blessing” “I pray for my son Cody and daughter Kaitlyn to be led from temptation and delivered from evil today.”
Transition: It's good to be specific, It let's God know you know what you want and what you want him to do for you. And in a way it forces you out of selfishness by considering specific needs of others. But the goal is to get our prayers answered and nothing is more effective than being persistent.
From the Widow we can learn to pray persistently
In Luke 18 we read about a widow who would not give up on what appears to be constant harassment of a judge who didn't fear God nor respect any person. And yet she kept asking and pleading for justice against her adversary. When her enemy came against her and seriously wronged her. No one would take her side, she had to go to highest justice she knew of the local judge. Even though he was corrupt and cruel, he had authority and could deal out justice. She came to him and pleaded her case over and over again. Luke 18:5 says “yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'" In the New Living Translation it says “but this woman is driving me crazy...” And Jesus lesson is that if such a cruel and uncaring judge will give out justice to those who are persistent, how much more will a loving and good God give out justice to those that belong to him and ask him?
Keep asking God for your needs, for your church, for your situations, for your family, and don't give up. Jacob Riis wrote in the Readers Digest “I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two. I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
During an interview, western writer Louis L'Amour shared a story that validates the idiom that truth is stranger than fiction.
The year was 1820 and Peter Richley was a grateful man. He had survived one of the strangest and most harrowing events known to mankind. The ship which he had been traveling on sank. He was rescued. By some strange twist of circumstance, however, this ship sank.
He was rescued again. But, this third ship sank likewise. He was rescued for a third time. Yet, his fourth ship of passage soon sank. And unbelievably, he was rescued for a fourth time, but this fifth ship sank as well.
It would have been laughable had it not been so serious. On the high seas, however, he floated with the serene confidence that somehow God did not want him to die. And sure enough, as if on cue, another ship came by and answered his call for help.
This ocean liner, The City of Leeds, was named after it’s British city of origin. It was bound from England to Australia and traveled the same sea lane as Peter Richley’s downed ships. The crew of The City of Leeds hoisted Peter aboard. Dry clothing was provided to Peter. The ship’s doctor gave him a cursory exam, pronounced him fit, and then asked an unusual favor.
“There’s a lady on board who booked passage to Australia,” the doctor explained. “She’s looking for her son who disappeared years ago. She’s dying and she’s asking to see her son. She knows everybody on board and since you’re the only newcomer, would you pretend to be her son?”
Peter agreed. After all, his life had now been saved for the fifth time. He followed the doctor below deck and entered into a cabin. There on a small bed lay a frail woman with silvered-hair. She was obviously suffering from a very high fever. Deliriously, she was crying out. “Please God. Let me see my son before I die. I must see my son!”
The ship’s doctor gently pushed the young man toward the bed. Soon, however, Peter Richley began sobbing. For lying there on that bed was the reason that he couldn’t seem to die. Here was the lifeline that had kept him from drowning five times. For lying on that bed was none other than Sarah Richley—who had prayed for ten years to reconciled to her son, Peter.
The ship’s doctor stood in amazement as the young man fell down by the bed and embraced the sick woman. “I’m here mom! I’m here. It’s me!” Within days the fever had subsided and his mother awakened to find an answered prayer seated on the edge of her bed.
Persistent prayers will get answered! There is an old phrase that says “Cold prayers ask for denial” But James 5:16 says “...the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” Elijah was flesh and blood like us and He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain for 3 and a half years, He prayed again and it did rain and the crops grew. The prayer of the righteous man gets results!
Don't think that because our God is so big that He doesn't have time or concern for you, or that your need is so trivial that He doesn't care. If it means something to you, it means something to him. I'm of the opinion that He cares as much for the little girl who prays for her lost puppy as he does for the woman who prays for her lost son.
Conclusion: I want to end by saying that when we pray we should pray believing and knowing that God is going to give us what we ask for. If I didn't think He would give me what I ask for I wouldn't ask for it. And even if you leave this world behind and he should show you why a prayer was unanswered. Wouldn't you rather pray an unanswered prayer than to get to heaven and see beautiful unopened gift boxes with ribbons and bows and ask what are all of those!? And hear Jesus say “Those are all gifts I would have given you if you have only asked for them.” When you are in the will of God, You will get what you ask for! Paul prayed for the removal of his thorn and some think that he got no answer, that's not true he got an answer and the answer was no. God will answer all of our prayers, and we may not like the answer at the moment, but a day will come when we will understand why it was good to pray for it and how it all worked out for everyone's good!
