A Matter of Prayer
by Pastor Jim May
Prayer is the key that unlocks the door to God’s blessing and to our knowledge, understanding and relationship with Jesus. Prayer is more than a duty; it is a necessity for those who would live victoriously. There is nothing more important than spending time before our Father in Heaven seeking for His will in our lives and presenting our needs to Him. I know that not one of us here this morning doubts what I have said and yet I know that there is not one of us here this morning who does not neglect to pray as often as we should.
I know that we believe in the power of prayer. There is not one here who would deny that God answers prayer. There is not one here who would declare it to be unnecessary to living a victorious Christian life. If that is true then why is it so hard for us to pray?
One of the reasons, of course, is that the devil hates it when you pray and he will do everything in his power to stop you. But I don’t believe that we can fully lay the blame for neglecting to pray on the devil. We have our own reasons for not praying too.
The Bible consistently teaches us that prayer is so very important. Here are four verses of the many that we could quote to tell us of the importance of prayer.
Luke 18:1, "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;" (The Parable of the widow and the Judge)
Romans 12:12, "Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;"
Ephesians 6:18, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;" (taking the whole armor of God)
Philippians 4:6, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
Now I know that all of you spend time in prayer. Some spend more than others but that will always be so. The question is, what do we pray for and what do we really expect when we pray?
Illustration:
A tale is told about a small town that had historically been "dry," but then a local businessman decided to build a tavern. A group of Christians from a local church were concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. It just so happened that shortly thereafter lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. The owner of the bar sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible, but the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. The presiding judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The tavern owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not."
I believe that, for a large part of Christianity, this is the main reason that they don’t pray, because they don’t really expect an answer, so why bother?
Have you ever said a prayer that wasn’t answered? That’s kind of a trick question in a way because God always answers every prayer in one way or another.
I read a little poem that says it this way.
If the request is wrong, God says, "No."
If the timing is wrong, God says, "Slow."
If you are wrong, God says, "Grow."
But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, "Go!"
The truth is that God does hear and answer every prayer that his children pray but the answer is not always the one we are hoping for and looking for, and the answer does not always come in the time and manner that we expect.
In this matter of prayer there is a danger that we must be aware of.
We teach that all things are in God’s control, do we not? Of course we believe that’s true. We believe that the will of God in the world is going to be carried out whether we pray or not. God is in control of men, of nations, of governments, the weather, politics and the economy. He is powerful enough and wise enough to control all these things and He will bring about the fulfillment of his Word without fail because God cannot lie and He has already written the final chapter of history.
Here is the danger of carrying that belief too far. If we really believe that God is already in control and that His will is going to be done no matter what we pray, then why force ourselves to pray at all? What difference does my prayer make if God is going to do what He is going to do with or without my prayer? It is evident that many Christians have this attitude toward prayer and they don’t see any value in wasting their time praying.
Let me remind you of the commands that we have already read that we are to pray. Let me also remind you of a few other scriptures such as:
James 4:2-3, "Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
Matthew 21:22, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
John 14:13, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
John 15:16, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."
John 16:23-24, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."
James 5:16-18, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit."
Doesn’t it sound like God is saying to you that prayer is very important and that your prayer does make a difference? Can your prayer change the course of human events? Can your prayer change the circumstances of your life, or the lives of the people you love?
Here is the statement of one great man of the past concerning prayer:
Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray--to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at midnight--all through the day. Let us all pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we may not lose the word ’concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice. - Robert E. Lee.
So we see from the scriptures above, and from the examples given that prayer can often make a difference in our situations.
What fact concerning prayer makes the difference in whether we will receive the answer that we need or not? There are some ingredients in prayer that makes them work. Of course faith in God is number one. If we don’t have faith that God is hearing or that He will answer, then prayer is futile. But, if we believe that God is real and that He hears us, then we will be much more inclined to talk with him and present our petitions before him.
The second ingredient necessary for receiving the answer to prayer is found in 1 John 5:14, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:"
There are a lot of people out there who don’t get an answer to their prayer because they either ask for the wrong thing, ask for the right thing but for the wrong reason, or ask with the wrong attitude.
Let’s talk about these three reasons for unanswered prayer for a moment.
First let’s consider that we ask for the wrong things. How often do we find ourselves asking God for something, never receive the answer, and then later find that we are glad God didn’t answer because we really didn’t need what we were asking for in the first place?
I believe that a lot of the prayers for prosperity fall into this category. God knows that so many people couldn’t handle prosperity if they had it. He knows that wealth would become their God and that it would cause many to fall into sin, so God simply refuses to answer that prayer.
Jesus’ own words in Matthew warn us of the dangers of riches that we cannot control and of their power to control us.
Matthew 19:24, "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
Matthew 6:31-33, "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
Let me remind you that we are to pray according to the will of God. If we pray for anything that has the power to cause us to fall into sin, I think it would be fair to say that God’s answer should always be “NO”. Let us learn to be content with what God has already given, and with what He will provide for us, and not get caught up in the mindset of the world that is ever seeking after a better, richer lifestyle and a time of luxury and leisure. This world is not the place to become comfortable and lazy. Remember, you are just passing through and this is not your home so don’t put down roots; keep moving on.
I am also reminded again of what the Book of James has say concerning unanswered prayer when he says, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts."
Illustration:
There is the example of one little boy who had been sent to his room because he had been bad. A short time later he came out and said to his mother, "I’ve been thinking about what I did and I said a prayer." "That’s fine," she said, "if you ask God to make you good, He will help you." "Oh, I didn’t ask Him to help me be good," replied the boy. "I asked Him to help you put up with me."
How often have we asked God to help us overcome something when we had no real intention of leaving it alone in the first place? Have you ever seen those who asked God to deliver them from drugs, cigarettes, alcohol or any bad habit, and you knew that they were going to go back to that habit as soon as they walked out the door of the church?
One reason that our prayers are often unanswered in these instances is that God will not force His will upon you. If you want to sin, he won’t stop you. If you want to partake of the things of the world, He will let you go and do whatever you want to.
God will answer those prayers, and He will answer those prayers even if we do fail and go back a few times, but He will only deliver you if you do everything in your power to deliver yourself first.
How can we expect God to deliver us from sin when we are consistently playing around with that sin, or hanging out with friends, or going to the same old places where the sin is so tempting? God will answer that prayer of deliverance if we first choose consistently to deliver ourselves from the environment where the temptations are strong.
Another reason that God sometimes doesn’t answer our prayer is because it serves the interest of the Kingdom of God for that prayer not to be answered.
Have you ever considered that there are times when God will use our sickness, our troubles and trials, or our hard times as a witness to those who are watching us to see if we will be faithful? Just maybe God is allowing your circumstances to stay as they are because your faithfulness may be the key to someone else coming to Christ.
Is it God’s will to always heal? Yes it is, but the timing and the manner of that healing is in God’s hands and when His purpose for that sickness is served, whether its to build your faith, or the faith of someone else, or to teach us a lesson in obedience, then the healing will come.
One thing that always amazes me is how often people will utterly wreck their bodies, their minds and their lives while living like the devil, even while they might claim to love Jesus, and then expect God to bless them anyway.
How arrogant we are when we continuously disobey the commandment to keep our body, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, pure and clean, flaunting our sin in the face of God, and then turn around and ask for deliverance and healing! Will God hear and answer such prayers? Yes He will, and He is gracious and kind, merciful and longsuffering, and He will heal and deliver, but only after we have fully repented and turned from the sin that is destroying us in the first place.
We cry out in times of great distress, and God hears our cry and desires to answer, but how often do we really intend to follow through with our part of the bargain?
Illustration:
In a church in Kentucky, there was an especially verbal and boisterous child being hurried out, slung under his irate father’s arm. No one in the congregation so much as raised an eyebrow, and some were pleased to see that the child was going to receive the needed discipline. Most didn’t think too much about it until the child captured everyone’s attention by crying out, "Ya’ll pray for me now!"
I know that we have only skimmed the surface of this “Matter of Prayer” and perhaps we will go deeper into prayer at another time, but I wanted you to know that there is no greater thing that we can do than pray to our God.
We must know that when we pray according to the will of God, our prayer will be answered.
Is it God’s will to save a lost loved one? Yes , it is – that’s God’s heart, to save the lost. So keep praying for them. God won’t overcome their free will to sin, but He can draw them to the cross of calvary through the circumstances that He will bring against them.
Is it God’s will to heal? Yes it is – Jesus bore the stripes in Pilate’s Hall for our healing. Why would it be in His will for the temple of the Holy Ghost to be sick? God wants to heal us but only if we will obey his commandments first.
We can’t expect God to heal a heart condition if we willingly eat the fat that will clog our arteries. We can’t expect God to heal our lungs if we willingly keep filling them with the nicotine that destroys them.
God will answer our prayers and there will always be two things that he expects when they are answered.
Number one – God expects for us to give Him the glory for every prayer He answers.
Would you have gotten well without praying? (Why even ask that question?) Maybe you would have, but wouldn’t it be better to just give God the glory anyway?
Maybe you’ve experienced a miracle, or a blessing recently that seemed to “just happen”. Did you stop to thank the Lord, or did you just go your merry way without giving God the glory?
Remember prayer is not just asking God for things; it’s also thanking Him and praising Him for what He has already done.
God already knows what you need, and many of those needs He will supply whether you ask or not, but how many wonderful blessings have we missed out on because we just didn’t ask for them.
Has God ever used you in the gifts of the Spirit? He will if you ask. Has God called you into a work for Him? He will if you ask. Has God withheld a blessing from us at times because we just didn’t ask? I believe that He has.
No one can be saved unless they ask and receive. No one will be filled with the Holy Ghost unless they ask and then receive. No one will fully understand the Word of God unless they ask for understanding. No one will have a close relationship with Jesus unless they seek after it and ask for it.
If we will “seek first, the Kingdom of God, and all His righteousness”, I believe that we would receive all these other things that we desire and need. Isn’t that what the Word of God promises?
Will you bow your head and seek God’s will? Will you bow your heart and seek His salvation? Will you bow yourself humbly before Him and say, “Not my will, but thine be done, Oh Lord”?
God does answer prayer. The first prayer that He wants to hear is a prayer of repentance, then a prayer of asking for Jesus to be first in your life, and finally, a prayer of faith that will make a difference because we know that God will reward those who seek after Him.
Remember what James 5:16 says, "...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. "
If the prayer of Elijah can stop the rain for 3 years and start it again, what could your effective, fervent praying accomplish for the Kingdom of God? Could you make a difference in your home, your church, your family, your friends, your community, your country and your world? A praying church is all that stands between a dying world and eternity without God. Your prayers and mine are what hold back the powers of hell to a great extent.
When the praying church is gone is when the antichrist and the devil will have free reign to rule in the earth. Until that day when God calls us home, we must continue to pray without ceasing. Your faithful, effective, fervent praying will accomplish so very much.
If you don’t know the God that answers prayer, if you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, right now is the perfect time to pray. Give your heart to Jesus and I promise you, upon the Word of God, that God will hear and answer that prayer right now. Then you will truly know that God does answer prayer!
