Prayer Changes Things And It Changes Me

HoHum:

C.S. Lewis: “I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.”

WBTU:

Why do we find it so hard to keep praying for the same people, the same needs, the same things, day after day, without giving up? Had a friend ask me, “Can’t I just pray for something one time and be done with it? If I keep asking for the same things doesn’t that display a lack of faith?” Persevering in prayer is so rare these days. One reason may be that we are lazy. Andrew Murray in his book, “With Christ in the school of prayer” says: “When our repeated prayers remain unanswered, it is easy for our lazy flesh- maintaining the appearance of pious submission- to think that we must stop praying because God may have a secret reason for withholding His answer to our request. Many times to exercise prayer’s power, it must be gathered up, just like water, until the steam can come down in full force. Prayer must often be “heaped up” until God sees that its measure is full.”

Often we think that we are too busy- or think we are. We fill our lives with working, meeting, eating, drinking, sleeping, driving, talking, listening, reading, entertaining (or being entertained), and so on, until there is no room for the things we say really matter. Our schedules are full and our souls are empty. The answer is prayer but we have no time. We have a hard time believing God who said that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

Thesis: If we believe what Jesus says, and follow Him in doing what He tells us to do, we will do the following 3 things

For instances:

Pray until God answers

Jesus repeatedly urged His followers to pray but also to pray desperately, insistently, and persistently. In Luke’s account, Jesus paired the Lord’s prayer with an illustration about a friend who would not be denied: “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:5-9, NIV.

The point Jesus made in that story is often lost. Jesus is not suggesting that God is anything like the sleeping friend who “will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend” but will do so to get rid of a nuisance. On the contrary, the comparison is between us and the guy at the door, the friend who asks for bread (just as the Lord’s Prayer asks for bread). We must keep asking and seeking and knocking until we get what we need. In fact, the Greek wording of vs. 9 (ask, and it will be given to you) uses a verb form that makes that point crystal clear. Bible scholar William Barclay wrote: In Greek there are 2 kinds of imperative; there is the aorist imperative which issues one definite command. “Shut the door behind you” would be an aorist imperative. There is the present imperative which issues a command that a man should always do something or should go on doing something. “Always shut doors behind you” would be a present imperative. The imperatives here are present imperatives; therefore Jesus is saying, “Go on asking; go on seeking; go on knocking.” He is telling us to persist in prayer, he is telling us never to be discouraged in prayer.

Jesus is saying, “Be the same person in prayer that you would be at the door of your neighbor. Keep asking, Keep seeking. Keep knocking. Be shamelessly persistent- undeniable- in praying, and you will receive and find and have the door opened to you.”

Pray until God changes your prayer

Luke gave a parable that the other gospel writers leave out. It is called the parable of the persistent widow: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”” Luke 18:1-8, NIV.