“If only prayers were answered” Jas 4:2b, 3 WBC 12.1.3 am Seeker Service
You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
1 Intro- does prayer work?
What’s amazing is just how many people pray. Far more do then don’t, I reckon
- particularly in crisis!
- Nobody believes in God more… prays more… than a drowning man!
o How many of us have prayed ‘God, get me out of here’, and then
Nonchalantly said ‘oh, every cloud has a silver lining’ –if circumstances change
Blamed Him for putting us there in the first place- if they don’t change
Actually taken a big step towards Him- if we felt they were answered
• Some have come to faith that way
o (cf ‘catch me if you can’)
But (ask cong) does prayer work?
- Does He answer prayers? Make a difference?
- Examples?
o Me: praying for Mrs C, & her getting extraordinary sense of God
o My Mum and aunt Joyce at healing service
o Stranded in Siberia. Camera lost in Miami
o Strong sense of just knowing that I could pray re meeting someone and I did!
o Praying for 70 yr old diabetic with ulcers (Jean Gamgee)
o Nigeria- dramatic miracles. No doubt that big majority are v real. (raised from dead)
Jn 14:13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Mt 17:20 I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, `Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. "
Gosh – sounds a pretty high commendation (from a ‘man’ that we trust!) JESUS said ‘prayer DOES work’
- and at an initial glance almost seems like carte blanche
So- let’s start there.
’Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance: it is laying hold of His highest willingness’ Richard Chenevix, Archbishop Trench
And what about people who aren’t trying to follow Jesus? Does He hear their prayers?
- well, could argue that if they’re praying they are starting to… on… their way to God?
- And there’s plenty of evidence in the Bible of God hearing the requests of people ‘not fully there’, yet
o Syro Phoenician woman Mt 15:27 Cornelius Acts 10
So- I believe fully: God hears and answers prayers
’Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God’ Anon
Chris W testimony
2- But it’s not that simple
Prayer does work!
- but, as I said, it’s at an initial, superficial glance, that it appears like a carte blanche
o the Bible, and experience shows us the reality is it is far from as simple as that.
Note my most recent quote: ’Nothing lies outside the reach of prayer except that which lies outside the will of God’ Anon
We have to understand that prayer is not a slot machine for getting what WE want
Agnes Sanford in ’The healing touch of God’: ’Prayer is not a matter of getting what we want the most. Prayer is a matter of giving ourselves to God and learning His laws, so that He can do through us what He wants the most’
- and the Lord’s prayer teaches us to pray along the lines of ‘give us this day our daily bread’
o ie our NEEDS, not our whims
o “your father KNOWS what you need, but seek first HIS kingdom and His righteousness and these things will be given you as well”
So- we are to ask for our NEEDS … and to pray for His Kingdom and His WILL to be done
- “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
o this is what is conveyed in ‘asking anything in my name”
ie we can ask for anything that is in line with Jesus’ will… this book… and He will do it
So- there are some prayers God ALWAYS answers…
- “save me”… “help me” …. “forgive me”
o “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord WILL be saved”
… and some He doesn’t always answer
- (or maybe I should say He DOES answer, but it may not always be in the immediate affirmative)
- “heal me… them” (as not everyone in Bible is healed)
- “deliver me”
o don’t let them die
Peter delivered from death. James beheaded (Acts)
- “May it go smoothly”
CERTAINLY we are praying for… believe there should be… a greater demonstration of God’s delivering, healing, power than we see…
… but His answers can be:
- yes. No. Not yet.
To US- everything must be NOW… and YES…
- just like children
o but children sometimes just have to accept that Daddy won’t let them eat chocolate 24/7
sometimes they can’t understand why… or you can’t explain- and they just have to accept
o and it’s like that with our heavenly Father
Illustr: Alice at age 2 was asked by us "What would you like for lunch?" "Ahhhh- chwocklate!" she replied after a thoughtful pause. "No, we said- you can’t have that! What would you like for lunch besides sweets". We hadn’t explained what ‘in my name’ and ‘anything you ask’ meant!
o And children sometimes have to wait for Daddy to mend their toy
So- prayer involves ASKING, but also LEAVING and TRUSTING
- Prayer puts God’s work in His hands- and keeps it there’. E M Bounds
Sometimes God doesn’t explain Himself because
- we simply couldn’t understand. There’s a deeper reason
- it’s more than we could bear
- He wants us to trust Him
- He won’t overrule free will
But there can be reasons why our prayers aren’t answered…
Sometimes we’re just asking the wrong thing!
- ‘we were soldiers’ clip
Sometimes- there’s a relationship problem
- sure, it could be between us and somebody else
- but really I’m talking about between US and GOD
o Ie the truth being, you’re just USING God, and not really interested in relationship with Him, hence He says
“I’m staying quiet for a while… see if you miss me!”
o Illustr: when 12, used God as an alarm clock. Then I just knew one day ‘time to set the alarm’
- > get right with Him, first!
- we haven’t asked!
o God is sovereign and, ultimately, always gets His way
o But sometimes He’s waiting for US to ask!
As WE are co-workers with Him
He wants to involve US
- But other reasons, too. Mk 11:25 says (when talking about answers to prayer) : And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.
o So unforgiveness can be a block
- so can timing. It’s a matter of you having to wait. Trust
o sometimes things oppose the immediate solution (Dan)
- so can Sin
o sin is no problem to God. He can deal with it instantly! But it may be He’s wanting you to realise something… stop doing something (that you really should know better!)
ISA 59:1 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
ISA 59:2 But your iniquities have separated
you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear.
Sometimes, we haven’t asked, SERIOUSLY!
o Give up immediately
o Have asked as a ‘talisman’, not ‘believing!’
o Faith comes into this! It’s what pleases God
o Also for self! “give me peace”… and then go away worrying
I suspect Mk 11:24 conveys some deep spiritual principle, that I’m willing to learn about, but certainly, if only on a psychological level, it makes sense Mt 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 2
We’re looking for the answer in the wrong place.
- When we pray- we effectively leave the answer up to God (whether we realise it or not)
- and maybe God wants to change some thing else
o some other circumstance
o ourselves!
Show ‘shadowlands clip’
Certainly, prayer starts with changing US. US being the answer
3- Faith, mystery and God’s goodness
But, ultimately, oft times- we simply don’t know why God hasn’t answered
- in a circumstance that would seem so OBVIOUS to US
And I feel we need to be HONEST about these things
- in the same way that we are honest about the ANSWERED prayers!
- Illustr: me after 6 years of croaking ‘oh, the Lord’s healed you, then!” (God can do better than that!)
There are times when we simply don’t know, can’t understand why
- something happened. The marriage wasn’t saved- and we worked/prayed SO hard
- someone died. And it seems so unfair
o they were SO young. Or hadn’t even got on the mission field, yet
Some things are the reality of living in a broken, fallen world (which WE understand as Christians)
Some things are just a MYSTERY. There IS no easy answer. And part of grown-up faith is realising we
- can’t… have… don’t have… an answer for everything
- DON’T HAVE TO HAVE AN ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING!
- But we have sufficient: Jesus.
And this is where FAITH comes in
- I mean REAL faith!!
- Maybe you don’t have to have much faith when
o There’s healings. It’s all going well, and you have the ‘feeling of faith’
o But it’s REAL FAITH when it’s all you have
All you have is your convictions, beliefs and (for the moment) so LITTLE evidence
Such people are REALLY walking by faith
• “where else can I go, Lord- you’re the bottom line in my life?!”
And it’s faith, too, that
- even if people die… the prayers don’t SEEM to be answered
o GOD CAN WORK THROUGH THE SITUATION
o WILL GET HIS WAY.
o God and we can make ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD
And, the truth is –God is STILL GOOD
- in fact, one of the main themes of the whole of the Bible… and the thrust of ‘Job’ is that
o bad things happen
o GOD IS GOOD. “ He did not charge God with evil
HE IS ALWAYS GOOD!
- trite? “God is good” “all the time”…. “all the time”, “God is good”
o but IT’S TRUE
Good and loving, and all knowing, all powerful and all present (even with us in unanswered prayer)
- and able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or imagine Eph 3:20
