3.7.09
Does
Prayer Do Any Good?
Philippians 4:6, 7
Short answer:
it depends.
Today we will
look a little deeper at this issue. A
lot of people are wondering about prayer.
They come at it from many angles.
Some people see Christians here and there who talk about prayer, and
they sometimes see people pause to pray before they begin their meal in a
restaurant. They are observers.
Others look
for opportunities to negate the
practice of prayer altogether. They
criticize people of faith because, as they say, “They are shallow-minded geeks
who are stuck in prehistoric times!” For
these people, prayer is relegated to a by-gone era of superstition and demons.
Still others
come at prayer quite differently. They
are of the age of Aquarius, and they often engage in their brand of prayer—deep
meditation, thoughtlessness, relaxation, at-one-ment with the universe. For these mystic ones, prayer means essence
of being.
Lots of ways
of coming at prayer. Prayer is an
art. Prayer is a science. Prayer is a topic. Prayer is an action.
Today, in the
uncertain economic times that we’re in, I think prayer is on peoples’ to-do
list more than ever, regardless of what they think about it. Somehow desperation and emergencies bring out
the prayer-life in most of us!
So, does
prayer do us any good, or what?
Enquiring minds want to know.
First of all,
let’s look at what the Master-Teacher, Jesus, had to say about prayer.
“But I say to
you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate
you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in
heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain
on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew
5:44, 45
The principle we get from
this passage is that we should not only pray, but that when we do pray, we
should pray for even the mean and unfair people in our lives. Jesus says that by doing this, we will be
drawn out of ourselves, and that God the Father will consider us His children.
“And when you
pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in
the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go
into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is
in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you
openly.” Matthew 6:5, 6
The idea that screams out
of this statement of Jesus, is that prayer is a very personal thing—something
we should do to grow our relationship with God, and not to show off. One’s motivation is being discussed
here. There is so much that we do that
really has selfishness at its core.
Usually we aren’t aware that we are being selfish or trying to come
across a certain way to someone else.
Prayer is a gift that we have been given. It is meant to be an island of peace and
safety, alone with God. If we come at it
with this in mind, we will derive a benefit from it.
“And when you
pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that
they will be heard for their many words.”
Matthew 6:7
The principle here is that
prayer should come from the heart—a conversation between us and God. Although there is a place for the memorized
prayer, as in the case of the Lord’s Prayer, for the most part we should try to
be real with our heavenly Father. It’s
not so much our many words that matters most, says Jesus. In fact, Peter didn’t use very many words
when he prayed “Lord, save me!” But it
was an effective prayer nonetheless.
We must also leave room
for God to speak. If we ask Him
something, we should pause and listen.
He may bring something important to mind, or reveal something to us, or
remind us of something He has said in Scripture. So easily half of our prayer time should be silence—listening to our Lord. We should say, along with young Samuel of
old, “Speak, Lord, your servant heareth.”
“Therefore do
not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you
ask Him.” Matthew 6:8
Here Jesus reminds us that
the Father knows all about our every need long before we express them. Notice He does say “want”, but rather
“need”. This may be a fairly short verse,
but it expresses a profound truth. Here
is the situation: we think we know
what we need most of the time. But we
are blindsided. Often—if we pray at
all—we pray actually for our wants and wishes and desires. We even convince ourselves that we really
need something badly, when all it is is a much-desired thing.
Well, God is smarter than
us. He loves us so much that He would
rather not grant us something that is somehow bad for us, even though we may
truly desire it. Jesus says the Father
knows us very well. He knows our true
needs. He knows what will make us happy,
productive, spiritually sound people. So
He would rather keep from us the things that will hurt us or drag us down, or
somehow get in the way of our spiritual development.
So, if we pray and we
don’t get what we are praying for, or it’s sure taking Him a long time to
answer us, we should take that as a signal that we need to have a serious talk
with the Lord, and do some soul-searching to find out if our request is truly
in our best interest. When we do that,
we come closer to God and we start to see things the way He sees things. And the way He sees things is wonderful.
God has multi-directional
vision. He sees the end from the
beginning, and next month just as clear as last year. And God has multi-scopic vision as well. He sees the BIG PICTURE that we are part of,
while all we see is our own life, and even that is blurry. He sees the MACRO side of things. And God also sees the micro side of things. He sees deep
within us as individuals—taking in all of our motives, our longings, our
dreams, our hurts, our schemes that even we are blind to.
So we can trust God to
answer our prayers in a way that is consistent with His vision. We can trust Him to answer in a way that is
consistent with His love for us. He only
wants what’s best for us.
In the book of Matthew,
the next thing that Jesus does, after talking about prayer, is show us an
example prayer. It’s called the Lord’s
Prayer, because the Lord uttered it. The
first thing we notice about this prayer is that it doesn’t start with a
request. It starts with giving glory to
the Father:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
And that’s not all. Jesus goes on to talk about the Father’s
kingdom and the Father’s will:
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus is teaching us that
heaven is a wonderful, glorious place because it’s part of the Father’s
kingdom, and because the Father’s will is carried out all over the place
there. Jesus is saying that He would
like to see earth become more like that—more like heaven. He is saying that when the
We can learn from the
prayer of Jesus. We too can put God
first in our prayers—His kingdom, the people He is trying to reach. We too can tell Him that today we will do
things the way He wants us to do things.
This brings heaven to earth. It’s
the same mindset as heaven. When you are
focused on His kingdom and His will in your life, that’s exactly the atmosphere
of heaven—only magnified by billions of angels and beings.
We should not be so quick
to blurt out our requests. He loves to
hear our requests. But honoring and
hallowing God and putting His kingdom and will first prepares our hearts in
prayer. We are now ready to ask Him
something.
In His prayer, Jesus
succinctly gives us three categories—three kinds of needs that we are to
present to the Father.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
The three categories are:
personal needs, salvation needs, and spiritual warfare needs. Notice that it’s daily bread, and it’s for
“this day.” Jesus teaches the value of
taking one day at a time, asking for just what we need for this day, and not
trying to tackle what lies ahead.
Personal needs are things
like food, shelter, health, work, school, relationships, etc. God is interested in these things, and He
wants us to talk with Him about them. In
fact, the apostle Paul tells us, in Philippians 4:6, 7, that instead of being
worried or preoccupied about our daily needs, we should regularly present those
needs to God.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians
4:6, 7
Paul says that
when we share our personal needs with the Father, with thanksgiving, the Father
will give us profound peace that protects our minds. So, in the very asking we find peace from
God.
When Jesus
talks about the forgiveness of God coming to us as we forgive others, He is
addressing matters of salvation.
Salvation needs are even more basic than personal needs. Unless we are right with God and have acceptance
and approval from God, what does it matter if we have all of the food, shelter,
and all of the other personal needs met?
Without God, we are still EMPTY and WITHOUT HOPE in this world. And when we come to the end of this very
brief life, that’s it. Party’s over.
So Jesus
includes in His model prayer salvation needs.
We need forgiveness and renewal with the Father. He is willing to forgive us, if we are
willing to forgive the people in our lives in return. The Father is able to forgive our sins, because
we accept what His Son, Jesus Christ, has done for us on the cross. He has given His life for us. He has given us the opportunity to receive
forgiveness of sins, a new heart, a new life.
When we pray, let us not forget to renew our relationship with the
Father and the Son. Let us not skip over
basic salvation needs in a hurry to get to other things.
Next we have
spiritual warfare needs.
And do not lead
us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and
the glory forever. Amen.
Jesus here is addressing
the very real spiritual war that we are in daily. We are constantly being attacked by the enemy
Satan. His demonic team is at work to
hurt, destroy, tempt, degrade, dehumanize, pervert, weaken, disorient, and
confuse us. We need to pray that the
Lord will deliver us from the evil one during this new day. If we ask God to do this, He will. He delights to do so.
Jesus reminds us that the
kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to the Father forever. So when we ask for spiritual protection, we
know we are appealing to the highest power in the universe. His strength can be ours, if we truly want
it, and ask for it. But many times we
forget to ask. We forget to pray
altogether. And we wonder why we can’t
say no to sin. We wonder why we are so
weak. It’s all in the prayer life.
One principle
that Jesus’ prayer teaches us is that God is not merely a divine vending
machine, from which we obtain things. We
are often so much in a hurry to get something from God, that we neglect the
kingdom issues, the salvation issues, the spiritual warfare issues. These issues help to keep us grounded in the
will of God when we pray.
If we are
concerned about the growing of God’s kingdom in the lives of others, we will
pray for those people. If we know how
important our salvation is, we will daily surrender our lives to our King. We will also get serious and pray for divine
intervention and power for ourselves and others. When we add these dimensions to our prayer
life, our requests will take on a more sober, God-centered flavor.
God is much
more likely to answer a prayer that keeps His kingdom in view.
So, if it
doesn’t seem like we are getting the answers we want, maybe we need to take a
closer look at how we are praying. Are
we using the basic template that Jesus has given us? That is our basic guide.
Conditions of Prayer
Faith
Obedience
"How to exercise faith
should be made very plain. To every promise of God there are conditions. If we
are willing to do His will, all His strength is ours. Whatever gift He promises,
is in the promise itself. 'The seed is the word of God.' Luke 8:11. As surely
as the oak is in the acorn, so surely is the gift of God in His promise. If we
receive the promise, we have the gift." Education, 253
What are we
presently doing that is violating God’s will?
Ask God that question, and He will definitely show you. Then give it over to Him.
Results of Prayer
(changes us,
not God)