If we had as many answers to prayer as we have books on prayer the
battle would be won. Unfortunately it is easier to write a book on
prayer than to pray effectively. It is easier to preach a sermon on
prayer than to pray. It is easier to give a lecture on prayer than to
pray. It is easier to do just about anything concerning prayer than to
actually pray well and wisely.
The reason this is so is because we have not taken Christ as our
guide to prayer, and have tried to follow men who claim to be experts,
but who have made the matter of such complexity that it is too
discouraging, and we lose our motivation. If we went into a library
and found a dozen volumes on how to order a hamburger, we would
probably figure it is too complicated, and never brother to order one.
So it is with prayer. There are books galore, and seminars, and
special retreats, and so many people trying to teach us how to pray,
that we automatically assume that it is in the same category with
learning brain surgery and international law. So we lose hope, and
just accept the role of being poor at prayer.
People who are good at saying prayers only confirm our despair.
We say, come Lord Jesus be our guest, let this daily food be blest.
They can give a lesson on Bible history, and give guidance to
government leaders, and a challenge for world missions, all in a
prayer of thanks for a hamburger. It makes the rest of us feel like we
are not even really thankful for our hamburger, and also feeling like
we just don't know how to pray.
The vast majority of Christians would list as one of the weaknesses
of their Christian life, their prayer life. We do not spend enough time
in prayer. We don't pray for enough people. We don't pray as
fervently as we ought, or as persistently as we ought. There is hardly
any aspect of prayer that we do as adequately as we ought. Christian
guilt feelings about this make them easy targets of manipulation. They
can be made to feel they need to go along with some prayer gimmicks
to get back into God's favor. Maybe it's an all night prayer meeting,
or some kind of prayer chain, or large group prayer service, as if the
length of your prayers or the quantity of them is the key to God's
reluctant heart.
All of this Jesus put into the category of paganism in Matt. 6, where
He said the pagans think they will be heard because of their many
words. Jesus taught that God already knows what we need, and so a
short and simple prayer is all that is necessary. He never told His
disciples to get a big crowd together, but said get alone in your own
room and close the door. He didn't give them a manuscript of hundreds
of prayers when they asked Him to teach them to pray. He
gave them a single prayer of about 50 words as an example.
My point is, the reason that prayer is so hard for Christians is
because they have made it hard. The Bible doesn't. Jesus didn't.
Christians have so complicated the simplicity of the Bible with pagan
ideas, they have put a satisfying life of prayer beyond the reach of the
average Christian. One Christian writer said she could visualize the
millions of prayers hurtling toward God at mealtime, and so she
decided to do her praying between meals when the prayer traffic was
not so thick. She also got up early to get her prayer in before the
heavy breakfast crowd. Of course, this is silly, but so is every aspect
of prayer that implies God is not omniscient. Jesus said in Matt. 6:8,
"Your father knows what you need before you ask Him."
If that is the case, then being eloquent is no big deal, for we do not
have to persuade God. It is not as if we have to be intellects, and be
able to speak with great logic to get through to God. Neither the
quantity nor the quality of our prayers are the issue, for God already
knows what we seek to communicate. This puts all God's children on
the same level. So what if we can go on for a half hour with flowery
words of oratory, and another can only say thank you Lord for today,
give me guidance for tomorrow?
The Pharisee in the temple was no doubt better at prayer than the
publican. If we took a vote among men after hearing them both pray,
the Pharisee would win on both length and eloquence, but Jesus said
the publican went away justified, not the Pharisee. "God be merciful
to me a sinner," was his prayer, and on the cross the thief said,
"Remember me when you come into your kingdom." And the father
of the demonized boy prayed, "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief."
When you look at the prayers that Jesus answered in his life, you can't
help but be impressed with their brevity and simplicity. They are
little more than cries for help.
When the disciples were caught in the storm, and feared the ship
was going down, they woke Jesus and their prayer was, "Lord, save
us! We are going to drown." When Peter was going under his prayer
was, "Lord, save me!" All these prayers were answered. Of course,
they were emergency situations where eloquence and length are not
only irrelevant, but potentially deadly. But what we want to see as we
examine the prayer life of Jesus is that even the normal prayer life of
the believer is to be simple and not complex. Our text reveals three
simple truths about prayer that can make effective praying possible
for all of us. First-
I. THE PRIORITY OF PRAYER.
Notice Mark 1:35 says Jesus got up to pray very early in the
morning while it was still dark. Prayer was a priority in His day. It
was the first thing on His list. Prayer was not reserved for some crisis,
or great need out of the ordinary. Almost everybody prays when they
come to their Gethsemane. When there is a terrible time ahead, or
one faces problems that are overwhelming, then prayer becomes a
priority. But for Jesus prayer was a priority when all was going well,
and there was no great opposition, or huge obstacles to hurdle.
This text comes early in His ministry when people were delighted,
and even His future enemies were not yet sniping at Him. Yet, Jesus
made prayer a priority in His life-style. From this we need to see that
prayer is not primary a tool for crisis. A hammer can be used to fight
off an attacker, or to break through a wall to rescue someone from a
fire. But this is not its usual function. It is usually used just to pound
nails, to fix things, and to hang pictures. Prayer has its crisis value,
but like all tools, prayer has its usual commonplace function as a tool
of communication. We need to make prayer habitual and not
situational.
Look at your relationships to people, and what you will see is that
some of them are based on habitual communication, and some on
situational communication. I have people I relate to once a year
because we communicate through Christmas cards. There may be a
crisis that leads to more communication during the year, but basically
this is it-crisis or Christmas. Some of these people were at one time
very close friends or relatives. There was a lot of communication, but
times change. They moved, or we moved, and new relationships
developed, and the old ones got pushed to the back burner. They no
longer have a place of priority.
The ones that have priority are those where there is habitual
communication. You talk to these people on a regular basis. There
does not have to be any crisis or occasion, you just open the lines of
communication, and you relate to these people. Now the point is, the
degree of intimacy you experience in any relationship is determined
by the priority you give to communicating with them. What happens
in life is that we lose intimacy with those we love because we let
communication slip from a place of priority. Husbands and wives do
this all the time. It does not make them cease to love each other. But
it does mean they have lost their intimacy, and it can only be restored
by renewed communication.
I had a friend many years ago who was a book fanatic just like me.
Every time we got together we could go on endlessly about books,
authors, and ideas. Talk, talk, talk. We were the best of friends. But
he moved away, and then I moved, and we just lost touch with each
other for many years. I still have fond memories, and would consider
him a friend, but he has no priority in my life at all, for lack of
communication has ended all the intimacy we had.
This happens with people, but it also happens with our relationship
to God. We drift away from God. We do not necessarily love Him
less or trust Him less, but we cease to put communication with Him on
the front burner. It is no longer a top priority, and the result is we
lose intimacy with God. There's no longer that closeness that we call
fellowship.
Every relationship of life faces this same struggle of keeping
intimacy alive. In every case the only way to do this is by means of
communication. That is why prayer was a priority in the life of Jesus,
and why it has to be in the life of every Christian. A growing
relationship to God can only take place in a life where intimacy is
developed. And intimacy can only be developed by communication.
You cannot get close to people who will not talk to you, and God has
the same problem. If we do not spend time with God our relationship
with Him will cool.
We have had neighbors we only see out in their yards a few times a
year as we go walking, but we get into a good conversation and share
who we are, and what we are about, and when we go away from these
talks, we feel we are closer to these relative strangers than we are to
relatives that we never talk too. Communication is the key to every
degree of intimacy. If God is going to be a priority relationship in our
lives, we need to talk with Him. Forget the idea that prayer is
bringing to God a shopping list. You can ask God for all you need in a
few minutes, and you can intercede for all the needs you know in a few
more minutes.
The reason we often get bored with prayer is because we have such
a narrow view of it. Frank Laubach said, "If your prayers are boring
to you, quite likely they are boring God too." Get out of your rut
where you just list your needs. I can't imagine that Jesus got up
before sunrise just to say, "God bless Peter and Andrew, and James and
John, and John the Baptist," and on and on through all His
disciples. Jesus had a relationship to the Father. It was His most
intimate relationship, for their was no one else that could understand
Him and His mission. I imagine Jesus sharing with the Father, and
telling of His problems, and seeking insights for solutions. I think we
often forget that Jesus had to live a human life. He did not use miracle
power to make all the bad things go away. He had to endure the
limitations of His flesh, and cope with crowds, criticism, quarreling
disciples, and a host of the same problems that plague us all. Jesus
needed someone to talk to, and to think through strategy with, in
order to sense the direction to go.
Thomas a Kempis says of prayer that it is, "Pondering a matter
with reference to God." To think, to plan, to question, and wrestle
with issues in God's presence, is all part of prayer. You are most
intimate with those with whom you talk most. If prayer is not a
priority than we have put God in a category like those to whom we
write just once in awhile. He may be very important to us, and we
acknowledge His love and influence, like we do good old uncle so and
so, but we only communicate situationally and not habitually. The
result is loss of intimacy.
We need to see this truth. You can love someone greatly, and yet
lose intimacy with them. I have relatives and old friends I love dearly,
but I have no intimacy with them, because I have little to no
communication with them. This can happen with God as well. God
never moves away, but we do. We let life change our priorities and let
God be pushed to the side lines. We do not change our theology, and
we love Him as much as ever, but we lose intimacy. This is a simple
but vital issue in prayer. We need to make prayer a priority to
maintain intimacy with God, as Jesus did. Secondly, look at-
II. THE PRIVACY OF PRAYER.
Notice, Jesus left the house and went out to a solitary place to pray.
I am not aware of a single occasion when Jesus called for a public
prayer meeting. He condemned the Pharisees who prayed in public to
be seen, and He told His disciples to pray in secret in their closet. By
both precept and practice, Jesus made it clear, prayer is primarily a
private matter.
Again, we go back to intimacy. You can talk to someone you love
in public, but you can never be as intimate as you can in private.
When you are alone you can develop a deeper intimacy. This is even
true with people you just meet. I counsel every once in awhile with
people who are strangers. If we are in the presence of others, the
conversation stays general, but when we come apart and are alone, we
get to the real issues that are bothering them. Privacy and intimacy
go hand in hand.
So it is with our relationship to God. It has to be private to be
effective in developing intimacy. Jesus could not pray in public,
"Father help me to figure out how to cool off these sons of thunder,
James and John, and help me to teach Peter not to be so quick to
judge and take foolish actions before he thinks things through." There
were all kinds of issues that Jesus had to talk to the Father about in
private. It is not that public prayer is not legitimate. It is, but it is not
intimate. It is not that aspect of prayer that enables us to get closer to
God.
Too often I think Christians worry about their ability to pray in
public. I don't think the Bible gives any support to this kind of anxiety
about public prayer. In 28 chapters of the book of Acts we do not
have a single prayer of any apostle recorded. It is the public record of
their deeds and not of their private devotions. We know they were
men of prayer, but we do not have great examples of their prayers.
Why not? Because prayer is a private matter between them and God.
Like their master, they did not do a lot of praying in public, but
developed a private prayer life where they talked with, and shared
intimately with their heavenly Father. We are told that they prayed,
but not what they prayed. So it is with our Lord, and for most of the
prayers of His life. They are private, and known only to God.
Don't worry about public prayer, for it is a minor issue compared
to the importance of private prayer. This is where you develop
intimacy with God. It is in private sharing with God we can unload
our burdens, and tell God of the struggles we have with temptation,
resentment, hostility, envy, or any other evil that plagues us. We can
be one hundred per cent of who we really are, and still be loved in
spite of it. A friend is one who knows you, and still loves you. God can
be our greatest friend if we enter into the closet, and open ourselves to
Him. Total exposure to God leads to the ultimate in intimacy. You
can share with God things you can't share with anyone else. In the
privacy of prayer we reach the level of infinite intimacy where we are
totally known and totally loved. Thirdly, look at-
III. THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER.
Look closely at this text. Peter and the others found Jesus, and told
Him, "everyone is looking for you!" The implication is, what are you
doing off here praying in secret when the needs of the world are
clamoring to be met? People need the Lord, was there song to the
Lord. So come on they are saying, let's go meet the needs. But Jesus
replies in verse 38, "Let's go somewhere else-to the nearby villages
so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."
This response reveals a profound purpose that Jesus had in prayer.
There was no end to the needs to be met. There was always more to
do than anyone could do. He needed to get away from the crowds, and
the constant needs they had, for the purpose of sensing God'sguidance.
In a world where nobody can do everything, we need to get alone
with God in prayer to sense which things to let go, and which things to
go for. Jesus needed this same guidance. Without prayer you just
keep responding to the needs that present themselves. Jesus did not
do that. He knew when to move on to give new people a chance to
respond to His preaching, and feel the power of His healing ministry.
The purpose of prayer was to stay in touch with God, and develop an
intimacy that enabled Him to know the will of God for His life. Prayer
is private, but it has a great public impact, for it enables you to know
where God wants you to go to accomplish His purpose. People in
villages all over Galilee experienced a public impact because of the
private prayer of Jesus.
This clearly implies that Jesus did not just ask God for things. He
listened and thought though the point of His being in history, and what
was the wisest strategy to follow to fulfill that purpose. The purpose
of prayer is to help us get the guidance of God that we need to fulfill
His purpose.
We often think prayer is to get God to do our will. Do this for me,
and after that do this and this and this. The whole idea of power in
prayer which is so prevalent revolves around the idea of getting your
will accomplished by the power of God. Prayer power can make you
rich, popular, and healthy. All things can be wrought by prayer, and
we are urged to get our hands in the grab bag of things available to us
if we only pray right.
It is not that there is no truth in this, it is just that it is so perverted
that it seems like a primary purpose of prayer is to figure out how to
make God your servant. Whereas the prayer life of Jesus teaches us
the purpose is to help us become more effective servants of God.
There is considerable difference in these two approaches.
In the one we follow the Savior, and in the other we follow the self.
Jesus could have done anything and gone anywhere, and He would
have touched people, but He did not come just to do His own thing.
He came to do the will of the Father, and the Father wanted Him to
cover the villages of Galilee. Jesus prayed in order to be sensitive to
the leading of His Father. He had to get away from the voices calling
Him for help to hear the Father's voice. The bottom line is, prayer is
to help us know the will of God. In a world of clamoring voices, how
can we do what is right and best? The only way we can even be close
is to listen to God. We need to make listening to Him a priority so
that we can get our other priorities of life in order.
If Jesus would have gone by the pressure of the events of life as
they unfolded, He would have followed Peter and the other disciples to
the people who were looking for Him. But Jesus had a more intimate
awareness of God's will, and He thus, led Peter and the others to
minister to people who were not looking for Him because they did not
know He even existed. Because of prayer Jesus heard, not the voices,
but the Voice of God that gave Him directions as to the purpose He
was to pursue. Prayer helped Jesus stay on the track God laid out for
Him, and not get sidetracked by pursuing the good at the expense of
the best.
Jesus could have done all sorts of good without prayer, and so can
we. We do not need God's guidance to do good. We are moral agents
in the world, and can chose to do good in many ways. So the
non-praying Christian can still do much good in this world for the
kingdom of God, and to meet human need. Prayerlessness does not
mean nothing gets done. It means there is a loss of intimacy, and what
does not get done is the best. The good gets done, but not the best,
because we are not in touch with God's will. We do not know His will
intimately enough to choose it. Jesus had an intimacy with the Father
that enabled Him to do God's perfect will. He had that intimacy
because He was a man of prayer. That is the purpose of prayer, and
that is why it is to be a priority, and that is why it is to be private, for
it all comes down to intimacy.
The person you talk to most, and the person you talk to most
privately, and the person you talk to in order to know their will most
completely, is the person with whom you have the greatest intimacy,
and that person for Jesus was God. To live the best Christian life that
we can we need to be like Jesus in practicing prayer as intimate
communication.
