True Spirituality Series
Soul Talk: The Power of Prayer
Matthew 6:5-13
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
A little boy and his father walked along a country road laughing and talking, just having a good old time. They came across a large stone sitting at the edge of the road. The boy looked at the stone and thought for a moment. Then he asked his father, "Do you think I can move that rock?" The father didn’t hesitate. “I’m sure you can—if you use all your strength!”
That was all the lad needed. He ran to the rock. He pushed and he pushed. He grunted and groaned. Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead. But the rock didn’t move. Not an inch, not half an inch! Finally, the boy slumped to the ground, defeat written all over his face. "I can’t do it." His father put his hand on his son’s shoulder. "I still think you can do it," he said. "You just didn’t use all your strength.” The boy looked up with raised brow. “You didn’t ask me to help."
That parable provides a good backdrop for our next mile marker in our journey toward “True Spirituality—Finding the Life We’ve Always Wanted.” Prayer is an absolute essential for the soul that wants to walk with God. Here’s the bottom line. Until you pray, you haven’t tried your hardest. You haven’t used all your strength.
Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus cites prayer as one of three “acts of righteousness” that deserve his follower’s attention. Let’s consider the Master’s teachings on this important topic under three headings: the promise of prayer, the problem of prayer, and the practice of prayer.
First, consider the Promise of Prayer. Sometime ago, a “Family Circus” cartoon showed the father helping one of his kids with homework. The two sat at the kitchen table while mom and daughter were doing dishes. A smaller child played nearby. Dad reviews his son’s lesson, “What is the greatest power source in the world?”
When he asks the question, little cartoon bubbles pop up over everyone’s head revealing each person’s thoughts. Dad thinks of Niagara Falls. The daughter imagines a huge thunderstorm. The oldest son pictures a speeding race car. A vision of a powerful locomotive flashes across the youngest child’s mind. Mom pictures something else. The greatest power on earth that she can imagine is her children kneeling beside their beds saying their prayers.
Jesus assumed his followers would pray. “When you pray . . .” Jesus emphasized prayer’s importance time and time again. He taught, "Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you" (Mt 7:7). He said, “If you remain in me and my words remain you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you” (Jn 15:7).
All of the saints of God through the ages have known of prayer’s power. Abraham, the great man of faith, prayed. Moses prayed. Joshua, David, and Daniel prayed. The Bible says Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed and God answered. Jesus prayed long and often. His disciples were so impressed with his praying that they asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The early believers learned from the Master’s example. The New Testament church was born in prayer. It carried the gospel across oceans and mountains and centuries on the wings of prayer. All of those through the ages who have lived in close fellowship with God have been men and women of prayer. The promise of prayer is an indispensable part of a healthy, growing spiritual life.
That’s the promise of prayer. Now consider the Problem of Prayer. The real wonder of prayer is how little we avail ourselves of its power. It is not that we don’t pray. Too often, however, our prayers are reserved for emergencies. Too much of our praying resembles that little donut spare tire in the back of our cars. It is comforting to know that we have it. We would never want to leave home with out it. But we hope we never have to use it. If we do, we put it back as soon we can. Few would ever think of using it for every day.
Why the reluctance to pray? For many it’s doubt. It is not that we doubt God or his power. Though for some that’s true too. We doubt that God is really that interested in our lives or our problems. It’s our value that we doubt. Perhaps that’s why the most important part of the Lord’s Prayer is that opening phrase, “Our Father which art in heaven.” Remember Jesus’ reminder, “Which of you, if your son asked for bread, would give him a stone? How much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to you?”
Jesus’ words in our text create another obstacle to pray for some. He says, “Your father in heaven knows what you have need of before you ask him.” If God knows, why pray? That’s a good question—if prayer is primarily about informing God. It’s not. It never has been. Prayer is about coming to God. It is about turning to him. It is about a lot of things other than telling God something he doesn’t know.
Behind this issue lies a serious question. How do the will of God and the prayers of people come together? Philosophers and theologians much smarter than me have wrestled with that question for centuries. The bottom line—I don’t know. All I know is this. The Bible says, on one hand, that God is all powerful and has everything under control. On the other hand, the same Bible insists, that our God orders at least some of the affairs of this world in response to the prayers of his people. If we wait until we understand it, we will never pray.
But our biggest problem of prayer lies in another area. Quite to the contrary of what many think, prayer is incredibly hard. Some dismiss it as a lazy way out. When we pray, we expect God to do the heavy lifting for us. I suspicion that anyone who argues that way knows little of real prayer. Prayer is hard work. That’s why Jesus cautioned his disciples to “pray and faint not.” In the Garden, he asked them to pray with him. Instead they slept. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” the Savior observed. So it is with anyone who gets serious about cultivating a life of prayer.
Perhaps it is our human nature or pride that interferes. Or perhaps, it is the fact that the devil knows the power of prayer better than we. He pulls no punches. He will stop at nothing to keep us from developing a praying heart. He knows we are never stronger than when we pray.
We have looked at the promise of prayer and the problem of prayer. Now consider the Practice of Prayer. This brings us to Jesus’ teachings in our text. He teaches us to pray personally, reverently, and simply.
Jesus says not to pray like the hypocrites. Prayer was an important part of the Jewish faith of Jesus’ day. Faithful Jews had prescribed times and places to pray. Certain prayers were to be offered in the morning, others at noon, and still others at sundown. Nothing was wrong with that. However, some were so intent on proving their faithfulness that they arranged their day so that they could be in the most public places when the time for prayer arrived. They prayed to be seen of men.
Real prayer is first personal communication with God. Praying publicly, together, and out loud is certainly not wrong. Jesus did it. The early Christians prayed together. Believers have always done so. But even then, maybe especially, then, we don’t pray to impress others. We are talking to our God. Prayer is personal.
Prayer is also reverent. We are not manipulating God. We don’t order him around. That, Jesus notes, was the common pagan notion of prayer. It still is. Many spin prayer wheels, endlessly chant magic words, or burn candles and incense night and day, thinking that their persistence will compel the gods’ response.
A young boy came home after school one day saying over and over as walked up the stairs to his room, “Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo.” His mother inquired. The boy explained, “I was praying.” “But, why Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo?” The boy replied, "I just took a geography test and I have been praying for the Lord to make Tokyo the Capital of France." There is no magic in prayer. But there is plenty of power in personally, reverently bringing our needs to God.
Aren’t you glad prayer isn’t magic? Imagine the horror of everyone getting everything they asked for. Jesus reminds us to pray, “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is submitting to his will. That’s always good, even when his will is not ours.
Prayer is also simple. At its heart, there is nothing complicated about it. It is a child talking to a loving father! That’s the point of the Lord’s Prayer. It is short, simple, and direct. It is only about fifty words or so, but it is filled with the power of eternity’s God.
Short prayers flowing from sincere faith can be the most powerful. General Stonewall Jackson knew that. He once wrote, “I have so fixed the habit of prayer in my mind that I never raise a glass of water to my lips without asking God’s blessing, never seal a letter without putting a word of prayer under the seal, never open a letter from the post office without a brief sending of my thoughts heavenward, never change my classes in the lecture-room without a minute’s petition for the cadets who go out and for those who come in.” We could all offer such simple prayers.
Rabbi Marc Gellman, a frequent guest on various television talk shows, offers a good summary of prayer’s simplicity. (Newsweek.com, Nov. 27, 2005). He says there are only four kinds of prayer: thanks, gimmie, oops, and wow! Some of us are more familiar with other terms for the same thing. It is said that real prayer is spelled A-C-T-S: adoration (that’s Gellman’s wow), confession (that’s oops), thanksgiving (that’s obvious), and supplication (or gimmie!). Each has its place. Together they form simply, direct, powerful prayer.
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Prayer is not just a nice accessory to the spiritual life. Prayer is the heart of a life that seeks to experience the reality of God. Prayer is to the sincere believer what air is to a deep sea diver. It is a matter of spiritual life and death. Answered prayer is a promise of the God who does not lie. If prayer is a problem, it is on our side not heaven’s. Our God is ready and willing when we are. But answered prayer comes best when we are seeking God’s attention not our neighbor’s.
Billy Graham once said, “Heaven is full of answers to prayers for which no one ever bothered to ask.”
Tucked away in a little town in northeast Alabama is one of those quirky places to which tourists flock. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, AL. The center draws thousands of visitors every year. I have never been there. I intend to stop by on one of our trips to Georgia. My son has been to it and done stories on it for television.
The Unclaimed Baggage Center is part thrift store and part Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The thousands and thousands of items for sale at the store were all left by airline passengers. When someone walks off without something, the airlines hold the forgotten item for a specified period of time and then if unclaimed sell it to the center. The Unclaimed Baggage Center then offers it for sale to the public at a fraction of its value.
You can find almost anything you can imagine and some things you can’t. Coats, hats, gloves, books—all of the items you would expect. The center also offers expensive jewelry, golf clubs, fishing rods, lots and lots of suitcases and all kinds of electronics. Those who have been there almost always walk away thinking, how could anyone not miss that. You can understand forgetting something. But not coming back to claim it!!! I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t an occasional tourist who stops at the center only to discover something they had left on a plane.
I don’t know if the Lord has an unclaimed prayer center in heaven or not. He certainly could. If he does, it would be filled with millions of blessings, dreams, answers that could have been, but never were. “You have not, because you ask not,” the Bible says.
Here’s an idea—resolve from this day forward, I will be a praying person. I will not leave unclaimed a blessing that could have been mine if I had only asked my God who hears and answers prayer!
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
