Questions on Prayer I
A few weeks ago, I received an email with a question about prayer. The question was so heart-felt and sincere, that I felt it necessary to share that question and its answer with you. In fact, this week and next, we will be looking at several “questions about prayer.” I would like to invite you to submit your questions concerning prayer…you can do so by writing out your questions on the tear off portion of the bulletin and dropping it in the offering basket at the conclusion of our service.
Prayer sermons always leave people feeling as if they are failures. But prayer is not given to us to be a burden or a duty to fulfill, but to be a joy and a power without limit. It is given to us so that we can find “Grace in to help us in our time of need” (Heb 4:16). Prayer is more meant to be an invitation than a command to be obeyed.
1. As I was preparing for this message, I looked at my own life, and my own struggles with prayer.
a. I noticed I had more books on prayer than any other subject in my bookcase.
b. I know a lot about prayer, both from my studies as well as from my experience.
c. And yet, it seems that even for me, it is easier to talk about prayer than to actually pray.
d. From time to time I try to evaluate my prayer-life, and the biggest shortcoming I find is that I rarely dedicate the long, uninterrupted times to God. I find most of my praying is “on the run” and just before I need to call upon God’s help.
i. It is like I prefer to “snack” on prayer than to go to a sit down dinner because of the time and effort it takes.
ii. I know that God uses my snack prayers, and that He hears them. But I also understand that relying on snacks for nutrition will leave me less than healthy.
iii. This leads us to the first question:
2. Why should we bother to pray (for a change) if God already knows what is going to happen. If he has a plan for us and knows everything before we do, then why pray to change it?
a. This question perplexes more of us than we realize.
b. The wrong answer to this question will lead us to Prayer Paralysis. – prayer paralysis is when a barrier forms in our lives either from a mistaken belief or an attitude, resulting in a lack of sincere and concentrated prayer.
i. I believe that the wrong answers to the fundamental questions about prayer can paralyze us spiritually. False beliefs and half-truths can rob from us from the power and life that God desires to give us, through prayer.
ii. I don’t believe that the root cause to prayerlessness is laziness.
1. I don’t believe it is always selfishness.
2. Some people get down on themselves and say, “I am lazy, I don’t pray as I ought.”
3. But beating yourself up won’t bring you to break prayer paralysis.
c. Prayer Paralysis:
i. What is paralysis? It is the “inability” to move a part of your body because of some sort of damage to the connection between that part of the body and the mind.
1. Usually it occurs in the spinal cord.
2. If you have ever seen someone who has been paralyzed for very long, their unusable limbs become withered, the muscles become atrophied, and the limb becomes a lifeless looking appendage.
ii. What would prayer paralysis be like?
1. When a mind has believed a lie about God, it is as if the connection between them and God is damaged.
2. Since prayer is the communication link between us and God, prayer paralysis actually leads to spiritual life paralysis.
3. Our souls become spiritually atrophied because we have cut off the life from our souls to God.
4. The spinal cord of connection is gone.
5. We don’t feel anymore. We lose our ability to act. We wither. We become useless. And we don’t pray.
d. So, what are some of the lies we believe?
i. At the root of most prayerlessness is the mistaken belief my prayer won’t make a big difference in what happens.
ii. (move to another spot) At other times, we are paralyzed by the fear that either God won’t give me what I want.
1. It is as if we are so afraid to hear the “NO” word that we simply give up praying.
iii. I also think that one of the barriers to prayer is the fear “of insignificance”
1. I am reminded of the California wildfires and the thousands upon thousands of homes that were destroyed.
a. I can imagine that many of the people who lost homes prayed that God would spare their homes.
b. And many of the people whose homes were spared also prayed that God would spare their homes.
c. Whose prayers were answered?
2. Is it just a coincidence that our prayer ministry prayed that Wednesday evening that cooler weather and rain would come and stop the fires, and less than 12 hours later, snow and rain and a wind shift came into S. California and the fires were brought under control?
iv. How do we make sense of this?
v. How do we comprehend the role our prayers have in the course of this world?
vi. Would God have still extinguished the fires if our church hadn’t prayed?
1. This is the millennial question for believers.
2. My guess is, yes, because others were praying too.
3. But, keep in mind, who MOVES people to pray for specific needs?
4. The Holy Spirit.
vii. I am reminded of a passage that the Apostle Paul wrote, 2 Cor 1:11 “And He will yet deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through {the prayers} {of} many.
1. It may be that only 2 people needed to pray for the Apostle Paul that he be delivered. Jesus himself said, “that wherever 2 of you agree on a thing it will be granted to you.” Yet Paul tells here of the advantage of many people praying for something…it leads to the multiplication of thanksgiving!
2. Let me tell you what happened during our prayer meeting the week following when we had prayed for those in California. We gave thanks to God for allowing us to be part of the solution to this crisis! For allowing us to participate in praying for this need!
3. So part of the answer to this question of “why should I pray if God is going to do it anyway is so that thanks may be given by many persons
4. Do you see that our prayers are not insignificant?
a. Let me illustrate this with a story about George Mueller, a man from the 19th century who built orphanages in England that took care of over 5,000 orphans at on time…and he did it without asking a single person for a single cent. In fact, he took great joy in saying that God alone provided for His needs, that God moved people’s hearts through his prayers to give.
b. I may show you that video next Sunday evening in which his story is told.
c. But the particular story that illustrates the idea of God already answering a prayer (before it is spoken) is found when his orphanage needed 50 crowns (this is a large sum of money) to pay for a need that was coming due in a several days. The staff and children of the orphanage prayed earnestly for day after day, that God would meet this extraordinary need. On the day that the bill was due, the postman brought a piece of mail from a Missionary in India who had heard of George’s work. The missionary and the Christians in impoverished India, had taken up a collection to help with the orphanage and sent that collection in the form of a bank check. The amount? 50 crowns. And when was the check mailed? 6 months before…it had traveled by train, ship and horse carriage to arrive on its appointed day, guided by the sincere prayers of those who needed it.
d. The reality that it had been sent before they had asked was not lost on this group of faith filled Christians. It INCREASED their thanksgiving as they realized the GREATNESS of God’s provision.
viii. Your prayers can be powerful as well. God is interested in what your needs are. I believe it is a lie of the enemy that tells us that God won’t really be bothered with your needs or prayers.
1. I cannot tell you how many times I have encountered a person in the hospital, who think that they are “selfish” if they pray for their needs for health.
2. Or they believe that God cannot be bothered with their troubles.
a. As if God can only pay attention to one person at a time?
b. As if He is limited by our limitations?
c. Wait a minute…He is God! He has no limitations!
3. In fact, God is honored by our requests, because prayer is the acknowledgement that He is God and we are not.
a. When you turn to God with your need, you are making the bold statement that you aren’t God.
b. That you cannot “do it” on your own.
c. In fact, there is no more powerful prayer than that which rests in what God can do and surrenders to the truth that you cannot do it.
d. In December, I will be conducting a sermon series on “Entering God’s Rest.”
i. We will examine the why and how of resting entirely in Christ and refusing to rely upon our own efforts to accomplish God’s will.
e. Lets look at another aspect of this first question. “If God has a plan, why pray to change it?”
i. This makes a big assumption…that we know what God’s plan is.
1. In fact, many people, take the opposite tact, and close their prayers, “If it be your will.”
a. This is kind of like an insurance policy against the “no” answer, so they won’t be disappointed. The prayer can be written off as “it wasn’t God’s will.”
2. But if you really, really know what God’s will is, then it is vital that we pray for it to happen!
a. Prayer is the work of the believer in bringing God’s will to earth.
i. God willingly limits much of His activity on earth to the prayers of His people.
ii. When His will is not done on earth it is because we haven’t prayed for it to be done.
1. (We either are trying to do it ourselves)
2. (Or we figure that He is going to do it anyway, why does He need me?)
ii. The early church didn’t hesitate to ask God for His intervention. In Acts 12, the early church was faced with a terrible dilemma. Peter had been arrested and was in prison for preaching the gospel. He was about to face the same fate as James. The church knew that he would be executed. Acts 12:1-14:
1. Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. 2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. 4 When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people. 5 So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.
2. 6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, (do you see the urgency?) Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly." And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." And he did so. And he said to him, "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me." 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting." 12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
3. This is an incredible answer to prayer. In fact, it was so incredible, the disciples could scarcely believe it themselves when Peter was at their doorstep.
a. I really don’t believe that the disciples were praying prayers like, “O Lord, Set Peter free…if it is your will.” That doesn’t sound too fervent!
b. Fervent prayer sounds like a mother or father next to their sick baby praying and asking God for healing.
c. Fervent prayer is the kind of prayer that doesn’t let go until it gets the answer. Did you notice that the disciples were still in prayer when Peter knocked on the gate? They hadn’t stopped yet. They had been praying for days.
d. They could have said, “Ah, God won’t let the leader of his church die. We don’t need to pray for him.” No, they realized that they had a role to play, and unless they participated in that assignment, God was not going to move!
f. The opposite extreme to this attitude is a false teaching that has deceived many into thinking that God will always answer their prayers in the way that they want if they have enough faith or "confidence" in Him.
i. They misapply Mark 11:23-24. Whatever this passage teaches, it is not teaching that we can demand of God anything and as long as we believe it, it is bound to happen.
ii. There are other passages in the Bible which relate conditions of prayer to us that we must note.
iii. Prayer is a matter of faith, but it is faith in God and not faith in our ability to ask Him for whatever we want.
g. So then, what kind of prayer does God hear? Obviously we have needs we want met and God is the only One who can meet them.
i. Are we going to find a way to manipulate God into giving us what we want?
ii. That would hardly be prayer, would it?
iii. That would be controlling our diety on a string, our magic genie.
iv. Rubbing the bottle just the right way, saying just the right words…and God would respond to us like we want Him to.
v. We need to be careful that we don’t create a magic formula to get our prayers answered.
h. John 15:7 Jesus tells his disciples that “If you abide in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.”
i. I have done at least one sermon on “abiding” here at HHBC, but to tell you again in a nutshell, to abide in Christ means to make Him the entire center of your life, your choices, your intimacy, your heart. It means to be so close to Him that you can hear His voice. In a very real way, if you are abiding in Him in this manner, you will desire the things God desires. And when you ask for something, you are walking in such a way that what you are asking for is in compliance with God’s plan.
3. James 4:2-3, “You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
a. The answer to this question I posed at the beginning lies at its root in this passage. It is simple. We do not have because we do not ask
i. We mentioned earlier that if God is going to give it anyway, why do I need to ask?
1. We do not know that God is going to do it. In fact, God willingly limits Himself to the prayers of His people.
2. The model prayer that Jesus gave the disciples clearly says, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
3. God has a heavenly plan, but unless it is prayed into existence on earth, it will not happen.
ii. Have you ever noticed some of those divine appointments we have in life? Those “amazing” coincidences? Do you think that those just happened?
1. Larry and I went to visit a family in Ashtabula…we purposely prayed together before we left for a divine appointment. We prayed that hearts would be tender and that we would have the opportunity to share the gospel. And we did. 2 people prayed to receive Christ as a result, without distractions. It was perfect in its opportunity.
2. This would NOT have happened had Larry and I not taken the time to pray and ask God to create a divine appointment, to prepare the hearts of the hearers. We are certain that the relatives of these folks also had been praying for them. Prayer in a real way was like a plow preparing the soil for the word of God.
b. James warns, about your motives when you pray for things. His words are right on target –
i. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (4:2-3)
ii. We must ask according to His will. 1 John 5:14-15. That is, if something is plainly revealed in His will, we must be in harmony with this as we pray.
1. For example, Christians are told to repent and pray to God for forgiveness of sins. 1 John 1.
a. If we do this, then this is according to His will. I doubt there is anyone here who doubts that when they PRAY for forgiveness that God hears them and answers them.
b. How do we know it? Because it is plainly in the scripture.
c. We can know if something is written plainly in the bible, we can be assured that He answers us according to His will.
2. Here again, we are encouraged to get to KNOW God’s will.
a. We cannot take the shortcuts and put in disclaimers in our prayers “Lord, if it be your will…” and expect that to absolve us of the work and responsibility to get to know God’s will.
b. But George Mueller never prayed for a thing just because he wanted it, or even just because he felt it was greatly needed for God’s work. When it was laid upon George Mueller’s heart to pray for anything, he would search the Scriptures to find if there was some promise that covered the case. Sometimes he would search the scriptures for days before he presented his petition to God. And then when he found the promise, with his open Bible before him, and his finger upon that promise, he would plead that promise, and so he received what he asked. He always prayed with an open Bible before him.
3. If you “know that you know” God’s will concerning something, you pray with peace and faith because you have the “assurance of things hoped for” in your heart. That is why George Mueller would pray the promises of God.
a. The promises of God reveal His will in many areas.
4. SLOW ANSWERS
a. I feel as if I need to address this just enough to give you some hope. Some of us have prayed for a long time for a need…a job, salvation of a loved one, or something else.
b. But God sometimes for some reasons, delays His answer.
i. Maybe it is because of spiritual warfare.
ii. Maybe it is because we aren’t praying correctly.
iii. Or maybe, in God’s perfect wisdom, it isn’t the right time.
1. George Muller, one of the greatest men of prayer of all time, had to pray over a period of more than sixty-three years for the conversion of a friend! Who can tell why? "The great point is never to give up until the answer comes," said Muller. "I have been praying for sixty-three years and eight months for one man’s conversion. He is not converted yet, but he will be! How can it be otherwise? There is the unchanging promise of Jehovah, and on that I rest."
2. Was this delay due to some persistent hindrance from the devil? (Dan. x. 13). Was it a mighty and prolonged effort on the part of Satan to shake or break Muller’s faith?
3. For no sooner was Muller dead than his friend was converted -- even before the funeral.
iv. Have you ever seen a father give his baby boy a razor when he first asked for it?
1. No, the father would say, “wait until you are older, bigger or wiser and READY”
2. That is often what our Heavenly Father says to us as well. Wait.
5. The Riches of Christ available through prayer:
a. The child of God ought to expect answers to prayer.
i. God means every prayer to have an answer; and not a single real prayer can fail of its effect in heaven.
b. The bible says, "All things are yours, for you are Christ’s" (I Cor. iii. 21), seems to be so untrue for you and I.
i. They are ours, but so many of us do not possess our possessions.
ii. The owners of Mount Morgan, in Queensland, toiled arduously for years on its barren slopes, eking out a miserable existence, never knowing that under their feet was one of the richest sources of gold the world has ever known.
1. There was wealth, vast, undreamt of, yet unimagined and unrealized.
2. It was "theirs," yet not theirs.
iii. The Christian, however, knows of the riches of God in glory in Christ Jesus, but he does not seem to know how to get them.
c. The answer is through prayer. Begin by asking and begin by spending enough time to discover God’s will.
d. Perhaps you have a need for prayer today. You have asked over and over for your need to be met and God has been silent. I will pray with you today. Joe is available as well. We will pray with anyone who desires prayer today, and we will agree with you in prayer.
Lets pray.
