Next week is See You At The Pole. See You At The Pole is an event where students nationwide gather together around the flagpole of their school and pray for their school, their classmates, the teachers, and their community. It’s a way to live out your faith -- to walk according to scripture in a very public way.
See You At The Pole was started in early 1990 by a small group of ten teenagers after attending a youth rally. After the rally, while they were driving back home to Texas, they all agreed that after the amazing experiences they had with God during the rally, they simply could not go back to how their life was before they left. Things could no longer be “normal”. In June of that year, they issued a challenge to other youth groups in their area to pray at their schools. By September of that same year, See You At The Pole was formed with more than 56,000 students praying at their schools. They agreed to start praying around their school’s flagpole every morning before class started, asking God to move in the lives of their friends, families, and teachers. The movement has since taken off, and is now celebrated in many countries all over the world.
See You At The Pole grew from ten teenagers to more than 56,000 in less than a year because they covered it in prayer. They took 1 Timothy 4:12 to heart -- “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” That’s exactly what they did -- they set an example. They set an example in speech by praying openly. They set an example in conduct by practicing what they preached -- they avoided hypocrisy as much as possible. In love -- their entire plan was based on love for their school, classmates, teachers, family, and community. They prayed for God to move in their lives! They had the faith to know that God would move, and prayed accordingly; and they showed purity in their motives -- they didn’t pray for great wealth or popularity or even to pass their classes -- they prayed for everyone else around them.
The group started with just ten teenagers and grew to thousands in less than a year. It quickly passed the million mark, and spread to other countries. This happened because they knew that individuals can make a difference -- so long as they pray about it first! They had the faith to know that if you pray for something, your prayer will be answered. After all, doesn’t the Bible mention that? Specifically, doesn’t Jesus mention that, in Luke?
Luke 11:9: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
This verse is commonly taken out of context -- on the surface, it certainly can seem like it means, “Pray, and your prayers will be answered with “yes”!” Isn’t that what Jesus is saying? “Ask and it will be given to you” -- what else could that mean?!
Well, let’s look at the context. Let’s start all the way at the beginning of the chapter:
“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation. ’ ” 5Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
This does not mean that we can get whatever we want simply by praying for it. We can’t pray for a million dollars, open our eyes, and expect it to be there in front of us! There is a lot that Jesus is saying here, but there is definitely something that He is not saying -- He is not our genie! We can’t rub our Bible 3 times and have him pop up and grant us answered prayers!
So, if Jesus is saying so much, what then, is He actually saying?
First, Jesus was asked how to pray. He answered with what we call the Lord’s prayer. Most of us know it better in the King James Version: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” Jesus leads with this because this prayer has a specific pattern that we should follow when we pray.
First, start with praise. “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” The New Living Translation says, “Father, may your name be kept holy.” We start by acknowledging who God is -- He’s our Father! This implies a direct, personal relationship. God is not some quiet, disinterested deity who doesn’t care about his people. No, He wants a personal relationship with us -- He loves us, and wants nothing more than love in return.
And one way we can show that love for God is by letting Him know where He stands in our lives: above all else. That’s really what “holy” and “hallowed mean anyway. By saying that His name is holy, we’re saying that it’s set apart from everything else -- it’s more important and more special than anything else in the world. By praising God first, we remember all of the blessings that He’s given us already. We get reassurance that things really are never quite as bad as they seem on the surface.
After praise, comes obedience. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.” This is more than just saying, “OK, God -- do whatever You want!” This is saying, “OK, God, do whatever You want -- even in my own life!” Think about this for a moment -- we all expect an answer to our prayers, right? Even if it’s a prayer of praise, and we’re not actually asking for anything, we still want some sort of acknowledgement that God heard our prayer. But by saying “Your will be done”, we’re saying that it’s OK if we don’t get the answer we want. God reigns supreme -- and we agree to obey Him.
After praise and obedience, comes our request. “Give us day by day our daily bread.” This is done for a reason -- if we start by praise and a statement of obedience, we remember what is important before we begin asking for things. Only then, after reminding ourselves of who God is and what we plan to do when He tells us something (obey), do we ask for something.
This timing is important because it can be difficult sometimes to remember why we pray. We don’t pray to get something we ask for or feel like we need, we pray so we can deepen our relationship with God.
So how do we deepen our relationship with God? Well, by asking for His help so we can remain pure. The final bit of the Lord’s Prayer goes, “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” In other words, “I know I’ve done wrong, and I’m sorry. Please forgive me so my sin isn’t hanging over me anymore. I promise I will forgive people who do wrong to me as well. At the same time, please help me resist the temptation to do wrong again, or to not forgive.” The prayer ends with an acknowledgement of our own weaknesses -- we can’t keep His name holy and continually obey His commands if we’re sinning all of the time, and we certainly can’t stop sinning on our own. The end of the prayer -- the part of the prayer that is the most recent, and remains in our mind after we finish praying -- is a reminder of why we pray in the first place. We can’t do it on our own.
Prayer is simple -- start with prayer, go to obedience, follow up with a request, then finish by asking for help to remain pure. This is what Jesus was referring to a few verses later, in Luke 11:9. Remember, He’s still answering the question, “How do I pray?” here: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
It’s tempting (and lucrative, for some preachers) to treat this nugget of Scripture as an ironclad promise. Whatever you ask for — fame, wealth, the spouse of your dreams, or even something as simple as good grades or to improve a bad mood — God will give it to you. Your wish has been granted!
Unless, of course, Luke 11:9 is part of a larger narrative in which Jesus has already told us what to ask for. After Jesus’ followers ask him how to pray, Jesus tells them to ask for things like daily bread, the advent of his kingdom, forgiveness for sin. Only then does he say, “Ask and it will be given to you.”
It’s not, “Ask for anything you want.” It’s more like, “Ask for my kingdom, and you will have it.” Jesus says as much in Luke 11:13! “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Note that Jesus says that our Father in heaven -- God -- will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Will God give us other things too? Of course! He says several times that He will always provide for our needs. What is most important, though, is that we recognize the meaning and purpose of prayer.
When you pray around the flagpole next week, make sure you pray for the right reasons. Don’t pray so others can see you pray. Don’t make it a show. Remember how the four Gospels all tell the same story? Jesus’ description of prayer is in the book of Matthew as well, in chapter 6. In fact, in Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus warns people not to pray as the hypocrites and pagans do, but to pray as if no one is watching. I don’t want you to show up to the flagpole in order to prove how holy you are to your friends -- show up because you want to ask for the Kingdom of God to come to your school. Show up because you want to support the other believers in your school. Show up to make a difference -- just like those 10 students did 25 years ago.
At the same time, don’t just pray for you to pass a test and be done with it. Praise Him! Promise your obedience to Him and the answers He gives to your prayers! If you need help with your test, by all means -- study first, then pray. But don’t forget to pray for your school itself! Pray for your friends. Pray for the bullies that make fun of you and pray for the teachers that you’re convinced hate you. Pray for your ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends. Pray for the principal and staff at the school. Even pray for the people who will, no doubt, try to embarrass you and make fun of you for praying in front of the flagpole in the first place.
When you’re done praying, ask for God’s help to remain pure. Ask him to forgive your sins and to help you resist temptation. Then keep your prayer in your mind throughout the day as you go to class. God will answer your prayer, you might just need to pay close attention to see it.
