Nurturing a Healthy Prayer Life
Luke 11:1-13[1]
12-05-04
Intro[2]
The frustration of unanswered prayer—have you ever experienced it? Have you ever felt like your prayers were getting no where? Have you ever felt like crying out to God the way David did in Psalm 89:46, “How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?” Why would a great hero of faith like David be half-accusing God with those two words, “how long”? In Ps 13 he even wrote a song about it. It goes something like this, “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” I don’t know what the title of that song was but the theme is obvious, “how long”. David wasn’t the only one that felt that way.
Habakkuk opens his book with a prayer asking God, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?” (Hab 1:2)
I feel a lot better just knowing I’m not the only one that’s felt that way. There may still be hope for me, yet. God must surely chuckle at our ups and downs in prayer—I mean the way a loving parent chucks watching his or her toddler learn to walk. He takes a couple of steps and it is great. What a joy to see those first two successful steps. Then he waddles through a couple more and hits the floor. No wonder the disciples asked Jesus in our text, “Lord, teach us to pray...”
I find, in Jesus response to their request, three essential truths for nurturing a healthy prayer life.
1st Relationship (vs 1-4)
"When you pray, say: "’Father...” That gets prayer started off on the right foot. That reminds me of why I can come boldly to the Throne of Grace. It is because God is my Heavenly Father. I am not approaching some cold, distant despot who is unconcerned about what I am going through. I am approaching One who is joined to me with cords of love. It should build my faith just to breathe that word, “Father.” That word is filled with reminders of what God has already done for me. Luke 10:20 “...do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." I come as a member of the family of God—heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
I come with confidence in His integrity and in His plan for my life. “Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” The requests I am about to make I make within these parameters: First, I want nothing that would bring dishonor to my heavenly Father. I want His name hallowed—set apart as far and above all others. I come with a holy reverence for Who He is and I am absolutely committed to His honor. My highest purpose is to bring glory to Him. This is something I can not skip. I must not rush past this foundation with my petitions. I must not ask amiss or I will receive not.[3]
The words are a reminder for me and a declaration to myself and all of heaven and earth that I only want what falls within this context: “Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” That is part of the definition of my relationship with God. He is my Father. He is my glory and the lifter of my head. He is the one I live for. What I want above all else is His glory and honor. That keeps me from praying amiss. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”[4] I make sure that’s the orientation of my life.
My upfront petition is Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.[5]
It is a call for the kingdom rule of God to be in full effect. It is the desire that God’s will prevail over and above my will in everything. It is the understanding that His wisdom does not need to be corrected by my petition. But my petition needs to be subject to His plan for me within the larger scheme of things. I am not passively reconciling myself to some unknown fate set in the stars. I am actively submitting my will, my desires, to the Lordship of my Heavenly Father.
There are two sides of this relationship with God that I must not forget. One side has to do with the honor that is always due Him. He created me. He created all things. Without Him I am absolutely nothing. He is above all the kings of the earth. The dignity and majesty of our God is beyond description. I never lose that holy awe for Who He is—hallowed by your name. I never forget His sovereignty—His right to rule my life and everything else. He sits upon the circle of the earth and does whatever He pleases.[6]
The other side of our relationship is just as important. This infinite, exalted God has condescended to embraces us as His very own children. Rom 8:15, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs -- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ...”NKJV We come knowing we are already loved and accepted—that the basis of that acceptance is not our performance as slaves but our birth as dear children.
Prayer is a relational interaction with Father and child. It is not—I repeat—not a mechanical system where we push the right buttons and say the right words and out comes the answer we want. If we approach prayer as simply a bunch of principles of faith that we can use to get God to do what we want Him to do—we will find ourselves very disappointed somewhere along the way. Back in the ‘80’s in was very popular to teach prayer more as faith in faith than faith in God.[7] The confidence was in doing the formula right rather than staying right in the relationship. That’s why prayer can never be reduced to an algebraic formula in which if I do this I will always get this result. The result will be up to my Father in heaven. “When you pray, say...” what—cosmic force, principles of faith—no! Say, “Father...”
With that understanding I submit my request to Him. Luke 11:3 “Give us each day our daily bread.” I live in daily dependence upon His provision. It’s not, “give us this year our yearly bread.” No, I will be speaking with Him tomorrow about tomorrow’s needs.
When we are walking in the flesh we don’t want the daily dependence. We want independence from God. We want God to dump a billion dollars on us and we’ll get back with Him when we run out of funds. But that’s not our relationship with Father. Our relationship is dependent and daily. It’s all about a relationship. I approach God with that mindset.
That also means I follow His example in my relationships with others. “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” The same mercy I am wanting from God I grant to others. Every parent who has raised teenagers at some point has heard their kids argue, “But everybody else is doing it.” As a leader in that home the parent stands tall and says but everybody is not a Tow or whatever your family name is. We stand for something. We represent something. And we follow our own values not the pressures that come from those around us. Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy,and to walk humbly with your God?” NKJV
“And lead us not into temptation.” We choose to live by our heavenly family values. We do not want to be lead into selfishness. We no not want to be lead into impurity or greed or anything else that is inconsistent with the character of our Father and the values of our heavenly family. I have preached on the Lord’s Prayer many times. But I have never seen this theme of relationship running through the whole prayer like I am seeing it this morning.
2nd essential for a healthy prayer life is Perseverance (vs 5-8)
Jesus tells a story about a man whose friend visits him at midnight. The traveler is tired and hungry and the man has nothing to feed him. Bread was the primary stable and it was all gone. They couldn’t just run down to a 24-hour Wal-mart Supercenter and pick some up. In that culture hospitality was supreme and it was a horrible shame to not meet a friend’s need.[8] The need in Jesus’ story was far more desperate than we would generally understand in our culture.
There are three friends in this story—the traveler, the host, and the host’s neighbor. The host goes to his neighbor and asks to borrow three loaves of bread to feed his guest. The neighbor denies his request because he doesn’t want to wake up his family in the process.
So what does the host do? He continues to ask until his petition is granted. Why was his petition granted—because of his shameless persistence in the request.
The text puts great emphasis on that one word translated “boldness” or “importunity” (avnaideian)[9]. That is the characteristic Jesus is commending in this story. (1) in a negative sense it can mean an insensitivity to what is proper--insolence (2) in a positive sense it means persistence or tenacious insistence without regard to time, place, or person.[10]
In Matthew 15 (21-28) a Canaanite woman was desperate for the deliverance of her little girl from a demon. She was crying out to Jesus, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession."
Now watch the discouragements she encountered.
(1) Silence from the Lord: verse 23 “Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.’" Don’t you just love that? She was driving those poor disciples up the wall. Why—because she was desperate. We are talking about feeling the desperation of our need.
(2) When Jesus finally did answer her that was discouraging as well. Verse 24 “He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’” Most people would have simply walked away sad at that point—but not this mother. Verse 25 “The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said.” She courageously asks one more time and the reply she got could have been highly offensive.
(3) “He” (Jesus) “replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.’” What we are seeing here is one discouragement after another and a mother who will not give up on the deliverance of her child. She could have gotten offended. Instead she got her answer. Verse 27 "Yes, Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table."
28 Then Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.” That is the kind of shameless perseverance our text is calling for.
It is a mystery to me why persevering faith is so important in this process. But that’s what is being taught here. In Luke 18 Jesus told the story of a woman who kept coming to an unjust judge until her request was granted. The point of that story was that we should always pray and not faint—not lose heart—not give up. Is there anyone here tempted to lose heart in your prayer life? Is there anyone who has faced such discouragements that you are tempted to be offended rather than persevere? I wonder how many times we have almost gotten to the breakthrough and then lost heart right before it happened. A breakthrough is an interesting phenomenon. I can continually increase the pressure on this balloon with my pen and seemingly nothing much is happening until suddenly there’s a breakthrough and everything changes.[11] If I stop just short of that breakthrough everything stays pretty much the same.
There is something about the process of perseverance that is beneficial to us. Peter says that the trial of your faith is more precious than gold.[12] God could grant our request without walking us through the fiery process. But He does it for our eternal benefit. The story Jesus tells calls for perseverance in our prayer life.
The last essential I want to touch upon this morning is
3rd Expectation (vs 9-13)
Notice, everything we have talked about has something to do with faith: (1) Confidence based upon our relationship with Father God (2) Perseverance that continues in the face of discouragement and now (3) Expectation based upon the faithfulness of God and His promises to us.
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.” That’s the message Jesus gives the disciples concerning prayer—don’t give up—actively press in for the answer: Ask, Seek, Knock. Oh, the temptation to become lethargic in prayer and wonder whether it’s doing any good. If Jesus words can be trusted—which we know they can—then even if we have not yet seen the breakthrough it will—it will come!
Let me give you Luke 11:9-10 in the Amplified Bible. “So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking, and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking, and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking, and the door shall be opened to you. For every one who asks and keeps on asking receives, and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds, and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking the door shall be opened.” We are to pray with the assurance in our hearts that what Jesus is saying here is indeed true.
Our study comes full circle in verses 11-13 all the way back to the issue of relationship. Because of our relationship with God and because of His attitude toward us we can rightfully expect to receive good things from Him. Of course, the very best thing He could give us is God Himself, the Holy Spirit.
Now look at Jesus’ logic—verses 11 and 12. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” No father in his right mind would ever do such a thing. Fathers delight in giving gifts to their children. The greatest joy parents experience at Christmas is the joy of seeing their kids face light up when he or she opens that special gift from Mom and Dad. That’s a reflection of God’s delight in giving to us. But Jesus uses the words in verse 13 “how much more”—“ If you then, though you are evil (selfish compared to God), 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!" Luke focuses on the gift of the Holy Spirit because his emphasis is upon the prophetic nature of God’s people. Matthew states it in more general terms.[13] (How much more—than an earthly father)
Going back to the story in verses 5-8 there is also a strong contrast. The friend would not disturb his family to loan the bread to his friend—he was selfish, and not a very good neighbor or friend. In contrast to that, God is love. God is always, always looking out for our best interest. We can count on it. We can pray expectantly not because of our great performance as Christian—because if that be the basis of our faith and expectation we are building upon the sand. But the basis of our expectation is the goodness of God and His loving attitude toward us. Never forget that God loves you and He is for you.
It’s not that we somehow wrestle the answer out of God’s reluctant hands because of our persistence. It’s that we are persistent because we know He wants to bless us and meet every need.
What have you been praying for—the restoration of a wayward child, the salvation of a spouse, an open door for ministry, financial breakthrough, healing? What is your specific desire before the Lord? He has sent you this word to encourage you to continue in well doing. Continue in prayer. Pray expectantly because He is faithful and His attitude toward you is benevolent. It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.[14] May we persevere until the breakthrough comes!
Let us pray
TEXT: Luke 11:1-13
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."
2 He 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.’" 5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ’Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 "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.’ 8 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. 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. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him 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? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 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!" (from New International Version)
Richard Tow
Grace Chapel Foursquare Church
Springfield, MO
www.gracechapelchurch.org
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[1] The text which was read at the beginning of the service is available at the end of this manuscript for easy reference. All quotes are in New International Version unless otherwise indicated.
[2] In our second service we altered the intro and used the DVD testimony of Gracia Burnham available at www.bluefishtv.com in Volume One of Illustrate produced by Marty Mosley in Plano, TX. These testimonies are powerful tools available at Christian book stores.
[3] James 4:3
[4] Psalm 37:4 When our delight is in the Lord our desires are such that the Father can righteously grant them.
[5] Matthew 6:10
[6] Isaiah 40:22; Job 9:12; Job 38
[7] Mark 11:22
[8] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Luke (Volume 3 of Tyndale New Testament Commentaries)(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980) p. 195
[9] Luke has placed the Greek particle “ge” next to the articular “avnaideian” which brings special emphasis and sharpens the contrast being expressed in that sentence. BDAG p. 190 indicates “at least because of (his) shameless persistence.”
[10] Friberg Greek Lexicon (Bible Works 6). The enclitic particle (ge) adds emphasis to this in the text.
[11] Actually popped a balloon to illustrate the point.
[12] 1 Peter 1:7 KJV also see James 1:2-7
[13] Matthew 7:11
[14] Luke 12:32
