HoHum:
C.S. Lewis: “I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.”
WBTU:
Why do we find it so hard to keep praying for the same people, the same needs, the same things, day after day, without giving up? Had a friend ask me, “Can’t I just pray for something one time and be done with it? If I keep asking for the same things doesn’t that display a lack of faith?” Persevering in prayer is so rare these days. One reason may be that we are lazy. Andrew Murray in his book, “With Christ in the school of prayer” says: “When our repeated prayers remain unanswered, it is easy for our lazy flesh- maintaining the appearance of pious submission- to think that we must stop praying because God may have a secret reason for withholding His answer to our request. Many times to exercise prayer’s power, it must be gathered up, just like water, until the steam can come down in full force. Prayer must often be “heaped up” until God sees that its measure is full.”
Often we think that we are too busy- or think we are. We fill our lives with working, meeting, eating, drinking, sleeping, driving, talking, listening, reading, entertaining (or being entertained), and so on, until there is no room for the things we say really matter. Our schedules are full and our souls are empty. The answer is prayer but we have no time. We have a hard time believing God who said that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.”
Thesis: If we believe what Jesus says, and follow Him in doing what He tells us to do, we will do the following 3 things
For instances:
Pray until God answers
Jesus repeatedly urged His followers to pray but also to pray desperately, insistently, and persistently. In Luke’s account, Jesus paired the Lord’s prayer with an illustration about a friend who would not be denied: “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. “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.” Luke 11:5-9, NIV.
The point Jesus made in that story is often lost. Jesus is not suggesting that God is anything like the sleeping friend who “will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend” but will do so to get rid of a nuisance. On the contrary, the comparison is between us and the guy at the door, the friend who asks for bread (just as the Lord’s Prayer asks for bread). We must keep asking and seeking and knocking until we get what we need. In fact, the Greek wording of vs. 9 (ask, and it will be given to you) uses a verb form that makes that point crystal clear. Bible scholar William Barclay wrote: In Greek there are 2 kinds of imperative; there is the aorist imperative which issues one definite command. “Shut the door behind you” would be an aorist imperative. There is the present imperative which issues a command that a man should always do something or should go on doing something. “Always shut doors behind you” would be a present imperative. The imperatives here are present imperatives; therefore Jesus is saying, “Go on asking; go on seeking; go on knocking.” He is telling us to persist in prayer, he is telling us never to be discouraged in prayer.
Jesus is saying, “Be the same person in prayer that you would be at the door of your neighbor. Keep asking, Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Be shamelessly persistent- undeniable- in praying, and you will receive and find and have the door opened to you.”
Pray until God changes your prayer
Luke gave a parable that the other gospel writers leave out. It is called the parable of the persistent widow: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”” Luke 18:1-8, NIV.
Jesus’ parable here does not equate the judge with God but contrasts the two. However, like the story of the friend at midnight, Jesus is saying that we should act like the widow. We should be that persistent in prayer. We should “keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” Even so, notice that Jesus also mentions the importance of faith in such perseverance. “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” Persistence in prayer takes faith.
Andrew Murray says: “Believing prayer ripens the fruit, conquers hindrances in the unseen world, and hastens the end. Child of God! Give the Father time! He wants your blessing to be rich, full, and sure. Give Him time, but continue praying day and night”
Our faith, however, must be faith in the Father, not faith in our prayers. The faith that perseveres is faith in the greatness and goodness of God. It is faith in God’s willingness to answer prayer. It is faith in the wisdom of His timing. It is faith in His good intentions toward us. This kind of faith will move mountains, but it is capable of moving us as well. It will sometimes change our circumstances. It will sometimes change our prayers.
“As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.” Luke 9:51-56. Jesus told them to change their prayer. Most of the time it is not that obvious.
We may ask God to “call down fire” on those who attack or abuse us, but He may change our prayer into one for a heart of love and compassion for ourselves and others. We may beg God to heal us from sickness, but God may transform our prayer and soon have us asking Him to bring glory to Himself through our illness. We may ask for a raise and soon find ourselves praying for a whole new career instead.
Sometimes when this happens, God will grant both the initial request and the revised request. Remember Zechariah and Elizabeth. Notice what the angel says to Zechariah- “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.” Luke 1:13, NIV. From Zechariah’s reaction we see that he has forgotten all about this prayer. When they were unable to conceive a child, evidently Zechariah’s prayers changed from wanting to have a child to being able to bear the humiliation of being childless. God answered both prayers in his way and in his timing. God uses circumstances to change our prayers that are more in conformity to His will.
Pray until God changes you
Asked by my friend, “Preacher, you say to be specific with our prayers. I have been praying a certain way for years but nothing has happened. Should I stop praying or should I change my prayers?” Remember Jacob? Genesis tells us his story. Jacob and his brother Esau were twins. And even before they were born, they were fighting, jockeying for position. Jacob was a mama’s boy, and Esau was his dad’s favorite. When their father Isaac was on his deathbed, Jacob tricked his father into giving him the inheritance that was supposed to go to Esau, simultaneously defrauding both his father and his brother. When Esau found out, he started plotting to kill his brother, so Jacob packed up and left home. On his mother’s advice, he fled to the home of a distance uncle Laban, where he got married twice, had children, and prospered in business, until he had to get out of town quick because this time his uncle Laban was after him. So Jacob and his wives and his children and his flocks had nowhere to go but back home to Canaan, where his brother Esau would be, the brother he betrayed, the brother he had cheated, the brother who might still want to kill him. So he devised an elaborate scheme and sent messengers to his brother, with the word that Jacob was coming home and he hoped Esau would be happy to see him. And those messengers returned with the news that Esau was coming to meet Jacob along with 400 men! Jacob’s response at hearing that was something along the lines of “Aye yi yi!” So he divided his caravan into 2 groups, hoping if one was attacked, the other could make a clean getaway. He sent a string of messengers ahead, each with gifts of goats and camels and cows and donkeys to butter up his brother. And he settled down for a restless night in camp. Little did he know how restless his night would be. Well before daybreak, he sent his family and the last of his possessions ahead, and he stayed in camp alone. And there, the Bible says, someone “wrestled with him till daybreak.” Genesis 32:24, NIV. They locked arms. They locked wills. Neither one would let the other go. Even after Jacob’s hip was dislocated, they continued the contest. Finally, when Jacob’s opponent suggested that Jacob should give up, as daylight was approaching- which meant his dreaded reunion with his brother was approaching fast- Jacob answered, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”” Genesis 32:26, NIV. “Say your name.” “Jacob” “No longer Jacob”, his opponent said, but “Stands with a fist” No, I mean “Fights with God” “Contends with God” “Wrestles with God” (Israel) and won.” Then Jacob asked again, and received the blessing he sought. His reunion with his brother, Esau, was a happy one, but from that day on, Jacob limped. His prayer session had changed him (in more than just the hip)
So it may be with us. We may want more than anything for God to change others. We may pray fervently and persistently for God to change our circumstances. But He may decide instead (or sometimes, in addition) to change us. So keep praying. Be persistent. Never give up until God answers, until He changes our prayer, or until God changes us.
