(This is the introduction to a series of blogs over the next several weeks. It is the intro to a study on prayer taking place at Canaan Baptist Church on Wednesday evenings which began April 23, 2014)
It’s easy to
understand why so many questions surround the topic of prayer. People struggle with not getting the answer
they were seeking, feeling like they didn’t get an answer at all, talking to
someone they can’t see – or hear, and not really knowing if they are doing it
right or wrong. The questions can range
from a curiosity with how prayer works, to a complete lack of faith in the
practice. You would think that
non-believers would be the main people to struggle with prayer, but really believers
also struggle with it quite a bit. They
know they should, but getting started, staying consistent, and keeping it fresh
so that it does not become something that is simply repetition, all seem to be
concerns for believers with whom I have talked.
We have a
lot of scripture about the importance of prayer:
Ephesians 6:18 “Pray at
all times in the Spirit with
every prayer and request, and stay alert in
this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.” HCSB
1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 “Rejoice always! Pray
constantly. Give
thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
HCSB
Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us approach the throne of grace
with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the
proper time.” HCSB
1 John 5:14-15 “Now this is the
confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.” HCSB
Mark 1:35 “Very early
in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way
to a deserted place. And He was
praying there.” HCSB
Luke 5:16 “Yet He often withdrew to deserted places and
prayed.” HCSB
Luke 6:12 “During those days He went out to the mountain to
pray and spent all night in
prayer to God.” HCSB
Acts
1:13-14 “When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were
staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew,
James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,and Judas the son of James. All these were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including
Mary the mother of
Jesus, and His brothers.”
HCSB
Here are
some questions we hear asked at times.
Maybe you have even had some of these thoughts at one time or another.
The universe
is an incredibly vast space that seems to go on forever. We don’t even know big it is. Even with the most powerful telescopes we
have today, we still can’t really see all of outer space that exists. We look at the tremendous number of stars and
planets and know that there is so much more that we don’t understand and we
think about the God who created it all.
He has to be a really big, powerful God.
Does
the God who created the universe (the giant universe that goes on in every
direction into places man cannot even see yet) really care about the things
that are on my heart?
God has the
ability to be everywhere at once. He is
omnipresent. He cares about every detail
of your life. He knows everything about
you and me. He knows every hair on your
head and every freckle on your body. He’s omniscient, or all knowing. He is
able to do anything He desires to do. He
has the power to do anything that needs doing.
He is omnipotent, or all powerful.
God’s word teaches us that the God of the universe, who is able to be
everywhere, knows everything, and has all the power to do what needs to be
done, wants to hear from you. He loves
you. He desires relationship with you
and He made a way through prayer.
Hear Hebrews
4:16 again, “Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness,
so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.” HCSB
We can be
assured that this huge, powerful, all knowing, present everywhere God listens
when we pray.
If
God already knows everything before I even pray it, then is it really necessary
for me to spend time talking to Him about it?
Certainly His time is more valuable than that.
We are going
to look at the Lord’s Prayer during the next few weeks. But look at the scripture before the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew 6:6-8.
“But when you pray, go into your private
room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father
who sees in secret will reward you. When
you pray, don’t babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you
need before you ask Him.”
The Father
already knows what you need. You don’t
have to convince God to care about what you care about. He already does care about those things
because they’re concerns for you. You
don’t have to beg and babble on and on about what you need. Just ask in faith, knowing that whatever God
does is going to be part of His perfect plan.
Again, it’s all about the relationship, not about getting what we think
is best for us. We are like a child
coming to his father. We really need to
tell Him what’s on our heart, not because he doesn’t know, but because that’s
how we build our relationship with Him.
Sometimes a child comes and says, “Daddy, I want...” But that doesn’t mean it’s best for him. Our Heavenly Father always parents perfectly.
The fact that He may say “No” to whatever we are asking for does not make Him
any less perfect. God is good all the
time and all the time God is good.
How
can we be sure that time spent in prayer is worthwhile?
Prayer is
absolutely worthwhile. As mentioned a
moment ago, it’s where we find the relationship with God. If you claim to be married but you never talk
to the person you are married to, what kind of relationship do you really
have? God desires to hear from us. He
speaks to us through His Word, the Bible, and by the Holy Spirit. He hears from us when we pray. He loves hearing from us. If you have children, you wouldn’t like it
very much if your children stopped talking to you. You would want to hear from them. We will spend a larger amount of time over
the next few weeks discussing what we should talk to God about. Rest assured, the point of prayer is a
relationship with your heavenly father. There
may be times when you are struggling to ask God for anything for yourself. In those times, intercede for other people. We can always find someone who needs
prayer. Stopping what we are doing and praying for
people at the moment they are sharing their need says “I care.”
Does
prayer make a difference?
It definitely
makes a difference. E.M. Bounds, wrote on
p. 9 of his small but impactful little book,
“Power Through Prayer”, “What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new
organizations or more and novel methods.
She needs men whom the Holy Spirit can use – men of prayer, men mighty
in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on
men. He does not anoint plans, but men –
men of prayer.” The Holy
Spirit flows through all Christ-followers.
However, Christ-followers who are not deeply devoted to communion with
God each day through prayer become powerless to accomplish anything for His
glory. If you want to have the mind of
God on a matter, prayer is the way to know it.
Prayer is definitely a difference-maker.
We are powerless without it.
Since
there is so much suffering in the world, so many people needing to be saved, so
many who are hungry and need all sorts of ministry, do we really have the time
to pray?
Once again,
you can try to do something about all of that without prayer but your
effectiveness will be limited. We are
finite, God is infinite. We are limited
in our ability, God is limitless in His ability. We know some things about a particular need,
God knows everything about it. We
witness to people hoping they will be saved and we worry and fret and beg and
keep begging over and over again for them to be saved, and cry ourselves to
sleep over their salvation; God already knows whether they will be saved or
not. And salvation is His alone. We do have a responsibility to tell people
about Jesus and pray for their salvation.
But always remember, you are in the telling business, He is in the
saving business; so pray for Him to save that one you love and have been
witnessing to. If we try to do everything
that needs to be done in our own power, we will most definitely run out of power. We must have the power of God on our life to
accomplish what He needs us to do. We
also need the realization that whatever we are incapable of doing, He is more
than capable. We are an instrument for His use but we are powerless on our
own. We can get so busy for God that we don’t take
the time to pray and soon we are ineffective for Him. Or, we can pray and seek Him, and ask Him to
empower us and guide us in what we should do?
He will.
Over the
next several weeks we will discuss more fully, why God wants us to pray and how to do it effectively. We will talk about different kinds of
prayer. We will think about what it
means to pray without ceasing. We will
hear from scripture as well as from great men of prayer.
