In this sermon, Dr. Green shares a few Biblical insights into the joy and discipline of prayer. Preached at New Philadelphia on Sunday, August 30, 2009.
In Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck himself talks about prayer. He says:
Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray everyday, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn’t make it out no way.
I set down one tie back in the woods, and had a long think about it. I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don’t Deacon Winn get back the money he lost? Why can’t the widow get back her silver snuffbox that was stole? Why can’t Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain’t nothing to it.
Later in the book Huck falls back on prayer, but this passage shows us a window into the life of Samuel Clemens A.K.A. Mark Twain, who was one of many who have given up on prayer.
Some people who give up on prayer are not as calculating as Huck. They pray for God to give them the little things that they need, or want, or think they want, and when those things are not forth coming they gradually and thoughtlessly drift into a state of prayerlessness. Prayer for them is like an unused library card tucked away in one’s wallet that expires without notice.
Some people who give up on prayer are even more calculating than Huck. Immediately they give up faith in prayer, they give up faith in God. These are they who have asked for things more important than fishhooks and silver snuffboxes. These are they who have pleaded in prayer for the life of a beloved child, or spouse, or a parent, or friend, or themselves, without apparent effect. Mark Twain was one of these.
I suspect that disappointment in prayer is a chief cause of disappointment with God. And I suspect that disappointment with God is the chief cause of lack of faith.
I think we make three mistakes with regard to prayer.
1) First we make more of prayer than God intended. 2) We make less of it than God desires. 3) Because we make less of prayer than God desires, prayer does not work for us in the way that God intended it to work.
I
First, we make more of prayer than God intended. I don’t think God ever intended prayer as way of proving his existence.
For every Elijah in scripture—who received a dramatic answer to prayer, there is a David who is denied the boon that he seeks.
You know the story of Elijah from 1st Kings chapter 18. He had a showdown in prayer against 450 prophets of Baal for the affections of Israel. The prophets of Baal set up their altars, and cut up their sacrifice, and prayed for Baal to prove himself by lighting the fire of sacrifice. All day long they danced, and pleaded, and abused themselves, and nothing happened. Elijah laughed at them and suggested that Baal did not answer them because he was musing, or had “turned aside” —that is bathroom humor, it means “to go the bathroom,” or was asleep and needed to be awakened.
Then, according to the story in it was Elijah’s turn to put up or shut up. So he cut up his offering, and built his altar, and dug a ditch around it, and had the prophets of Baal haul water to pour on the altar, and they did—twelve large jars full, until it soaked the sacrifice, and filled up the ditch. And then Elijah called upon God saying:
“O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this
day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and
that I have done all these things at thy word.”
And God lit up the sacrifice with a fire so powerful that it devoured the sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones of the altar, and even licked up the water in the ditch.
The text says that Elijah did all that he did in response to God’s word or command. The text implies that God responded to Elijah not just for the sake of Elijah, but for the sake of a nation.
People ask me if I believe this story, the meat of it. I do, because this miracle is at a key point in the history of salvation. It is akin to the miracle of deliverance that the nation experienced during the Exodus at the Reed Sea. (By the by, fire from heaven is small potatoes compared to a resurrection.)
David’s story is more akin to our own. He prays not at God’s direction, but out of his own situation. His situation is not a good one. David has fathered a son by Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife. Nathan has told him that the child will not live. When the child is born, he is terribly ill, at the point of death. So David set himself to praying. He fasted. He covered himself in sack-cloth and ashes. He laid himself down in the dust.
Then despite all his prayers, David’s son died. He did not give up on God. Rather, David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD, and worshiped; he then went to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.
His servants said, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” And David responded:
While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. (2 Samuel 12:22-23 RSV)
David’s prayer was answered in the negative, but he did not give up on God. He did not turn his prayer into a proof of God’s existence.
Even the saints have been disappointed in prayer. You have heard of David’s disappointment. Add to it that of St. Paul, who three times asked God to remove his thorn in the flesh. And three times God said, “Paul, my grace is sufficient for you; my strength is made perfect in weakness.” And what about Jesus, who prayed, “Father, if possible; let this cup of suffering pass from me; nevertheless not my will, but your will be done.”
God does not intend that prayer be the proof of his existence or the test of God’s love for us. If God answered all our prayers for fishhooks, and lost money, and lotteries, then we would not need faith.
Perhaps you have heard of “Rice Christians?” When the first missionaries went into China, they offered a daily bowl of rice to all who would submit to baptism. There was a famine. The people converted in droves. When the famine ended they drifted away.
If God answered all our prayers, we would all be “Rice Christians,” connected to him not by choice but by convenience. God wants us to choose God.
And need I point out that when we choose God over godlessness, we also choose eternity over time.
Prayer is not just for time, but for Eternity. Jesus died, but on the third day God vindicated him, and raised him from death. That means that God has also removed Paul’s thorn in the flesh, and that David and his son by Bathsheba have been reunited.
But let me return to my main point. When we make our faith in God dependent upon God’s answer to prayer, we make prayer more than God intended.
II
Some people make more of prayer than God intended, but they make less of prayer than God desires.
There is one thing that I am sure of about this Christian life: God wants us to pray.
Jesus taught about prayer, both verbally and by example.
He taught that there was a place for prayer. In the text before us, he rose up while it was early, and went to a lonely place. He taught his disciples that prayer should not be showy
And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6: 5-6)
Jesus also taught that there was a time for prayer. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to pray saying, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Daily prayer is the way we deal with our daily needs
Martin Luther was said to spend three hours of each morning in Bible reading and in prayer. If his day was to be a particularly hard one, he would often spend longer. Henry Drummond was not quite so lavish with his time as Luther. He said, “Ten minutes each day with Christ, nay, two minutes each day with Christ, will make the whole day different.”
Finally, I would mention that Jesus taught his disciples that they should be confident in prayer. He said:
Or what man of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11 RSV)
Paul also taught the value of prayer. He said that we ought to “pray without ceasing.” Life should be a prayer. The Holy Spirit is as close to us as the air that we breathe, and we ought to live our lives in conversation with God. When we see a sunset, we see evidence of his creativity. When we see a person in need, we remember his command to love one another. When we enter the room of the sick, we remember to pray for the sick. When we meet with those who rejoice, we remember all that we have to be thankful for. Prayer is not finished until we have considered every circumstance of our day. St. Paul wrote:
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything, with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.
III
First we make more of prayer than God intended. Then we make less of it than God desires, and finally, because we make less of it than God desires, it does not work for us in the way that God intended it to work.
Some people will say, “Well, it doesn’t work for me at all. Why not?”
Several answers to that question.
First, remember that God answers prayer in three ways: 1) Yes, 2) No, and 3) Not Yet!
We like it when God says, “Yes,” and hate it when God says, “No.” But the truth is that sometimes the thing we get is not what we wanted at all, and at other times we live long enough to see that the thing that God refused is the thing that lifted us up. We ought always to remember that God knows the end of a thing from the beginning and we do not. And what about, “Not Yet?” “Not Yet!” is not a “No.” if we really believe a thing is right we ought to continue to try for it, and to work towards it.
Second, there are hindrances to prayer. Let me mention the following:
1. We don’t pray. “We have not because we ask not.” I am ashamed of the things I have not asked God’s help with! There things that I care about, and people I care for that I have not lifted up before God, and I have resolved to do better.
2. We lack faith. In Hebrews 11:16 we read: “…without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Some say that the value of prayer is all subjective. “Prayer changes things; prayer changes the pray-er.” I believe that, but that is not all. The Bible teaches that God grants objective answers to prayer. When we pray, God works in response to that prayer. As P.T. Forsyth has said, “Prayer is the great two-handed engine at our door.” I have seen answers to prayer, many. I would mention just one. Year ago, in another church, I gave a list of 18 potential members—nine young couples, a few with children, to a shut-in, and asked them to pray that they would join the church. I forgot about it. Many months later she returned the list, and, when I looked, every name on the list had joined! I know it is not a proof of prayer, but it is a use of prayer.
3. We are guilty of sin. Sin is a hindrance to prayer. In James 5:6 we read that the “prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.” It never says that words offered up to God by sinners will be heard and approved. David said:
“When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. [Selah] I acknowledged my sin to thee, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; then thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. [Selah]” (Psalms 32:3-5 RSV)
4. We do not pay enough attention to what God wants. In John 14 Jesus promised his disciples that we would do greater works than he has done. He said, “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”
Today many people add the phrase, “In the name of Jesus,” to the end of their prayer as if it were a magical formula.
Adding “in the name of Jesus” to the end of a prayer can be an act of devotion, and it is often appropriate; but it is interesting that, in the New Testament itself, not a single prayer ends with the phrase, “in the name of Jesus,” not even the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples as a model prayer which we call, “The Lord’s Prayer.”
When Jesus invites us to pray in his name, he is inviting us to ask for the things that he would ask. This is a powerful responsibility.
Let me use a simple illustration. When I was in service I worked for the regimental commander of the 8th Marines as the Officer in Charge of the 8th Marines Field Skills Training Regiment. It was my job to take the troops assigned to our three battalions from Paris Island and give them their advanced infantry training. At the time I was a 1st Lieutenant, yet I often had to issue written orders to battalion commanders, all of whom were Lt. Colonels. Yet they always obeyed those orders. Why? Because I always singled them, “By direction.” When they saw those words, they knew that I was asking “by the direction of” our regimental commander. The details of running FSTU were left to me, but you can bet that I never, ever issued an order that our Regimental Commander did not desire or approve.
5. Lack of persistence is a hindrance in prayer. As we have mentioned, when you think a thing is right, “Never give up, never give up, never give up.” Jesus told the story of the woman who went to an unrighteous judge and asked him to vindicate her against her adversary. He said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.” And Jesus said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?” (Luke 18:2-7 RSV)
6. Finally our prayers are hindered because our lack of personal commitment is a hindrance in prayer. The ancient Rabbis said that no prayer was genuine unless we ourselves are willing to be a part of the answer. When you ask God for a job are you willing to actively seek it? When you ask God for healing, are you willing to go to the doctor? When your pray for your neighbor, are you willing to help her? When you ask God to grow the church, are you willing to share your faith? In his book Song of Ascents, E. Stanley Jones tells the story of leading a mission conference at Asbury College. The committee decided to pray for at least one missionary to come from the conference. On the last day of the conference no one had stepped forward. Stanley Jones saw that his prayer would not be answered unless he himself volunteered. He did, and he became one of the premier missionaries of the 20th century, bearing witness before kings, and presidents, and heads of state. In the days before Billy Graham he preached face to face to more people than any evangelist and missionary of the 20th Century. He put feet on his prayer. That is a secret of prayer many of us could learn. No prayer is sincere, unless the one who prays it is willing to be a part of the solution.
Three things are out of kilter in the prayer life of many. 1) First we make more of prayer than God intended. 2) We make less of it than God desires, and 3) because we make less of it than God desires, it does not work for us in the way that God intended it to work.
Finis