Our Bible lesson tonight, takes place early in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. However, he has already been very busy.
He began his teaching ministry in Galilee where he was initially well received. But it wasn’t long until his teachings began to rub some people, particularly the religious leaders, the wrong way. His teaching caused them to have to move out of their very comfortable comfort zones and they didn’t like that.
The reaction he got was they wanted to throw him off a cliff (ever know somebody like that?)
From there he began his healing ministry beginning with a man possessed with an evil spirit, followed by a woman who had a high fever. This was followed by a man with leprosy. By now, his ability to heal was getting around. Next time people gathered around him there were so many people, that a small entourage made a hole in the roof and lowered a man who was paralyzed down to Jesus. Jesus was becoming a very popular person among the ill and the poor.
Interspersed between the stories of healing, Luke tells us of the times Jesus built relationships with fishermen, spent time socializing with sinners and tax collectors, and throughout people either continued to be amazed by his teaching and power, or developed murderous thoughts about him.
As we read the first few chapters of Luke’s story of Jesus, we see a man whose ministry is dynamic, energetic, intense, and highly motivating.
I can’t begin to imagine the drive it must have taken to cultivate such a successful ministry.
And yet, Luke makes it very clear to us that Jesus always found time to retreat to places alone and spend time in prayer.
It is an element key to the life of Jesus. It is an emphasis Luke, throughout his record, doesn’t want us to miss.
Jesus had a very active prayer life, spending a great deal of time in communion personally with God.
With the many followers Jesus has begun to accumulate, it should not surprise us at all, that we find him this evening, spending an entire night in prayer on the mountain, before making a most crucial decision - who will be his core group of followers that he will cultivate to be leaders with his church.
Tonight, we begin a journey, exploring our faith, exploring our discipleship.
Jesus calls each and every one of us to be his followers. Tonight we begin to explore what that means - to be a follower of Jesus.
What kind of person might we become? What sort of changes would we need to make in our life?
What sort of habits do we need to cultivate?
And I believe as we consider where we are on the journey and explore where we might go from here, we will ask ourselves how our lives might be different.
In the days ahead, we will be looking at exploring the Bible, God’s word, at what faithful worship attendance means, at supporting the ministry of our Lord both financially and physically. Tonight we begin by exploring our prayer life, and as I read these words about Jesus this evening, I am led to ask what our lives might be like
if we pray before making decisions in the way in which Jesus prayed before making decisions.
I don’t remember praying and asking God’s guidance before picking my closest companions as Jesus did. I have to wonder, what will my life be like if I do so in the future - and not only praying before picking my friends, but what will life be like asking for God’s guidance before all such decisions in life?
Shortly after Jesus’ resurrection and after he ascended into heaven, Jesus’ followers found themselves with a decision to make. Jesus obviously took a lot of time and went to a great deal of trouble picking those who would be leaders in his ministry.
One of the 12 - Judas - was dead. The disciples felt it was imperative to find a replacement for him and keep the number of church leaders to 12.
And so they prayed.
They asked for God’s guidance and God’s blessing. They drew lots, and through the drawing of lots, the new replacement was discerned. It appears that the disciples found divine intervention in the way the lot fell.
I have to confess, I don’t think I have it all boxed up so neatly as they appear to have. I just don’t think that if I pray every time, God will tell me which home to live in, which car I should buy, which company I should invest my money in, which novel I should pick to read.
I just don’t think God operates that way.
And yet, we then find ourselves in a dilemma. Why pray before making decisions if God’s not going to tell us what to do?
In fact, we might be led to ask, what happens when we pray, and why should praying before making life decisions make a difference?
Rick Warren notes that three things happen when we spend time in prayer with God.
First of all, prayer changes us. Something happens when we open ourselves up and invite God to make us into the person God wants us to be.
I would suggest that it is an impossible prayer to pray, mean it, not be changed without being truly open to working of the Holy Spirit within us. When we are open to God working in our lives, and are truly able to pray such a prayer of invitation, we find ourselves doing things differently. We will find ourselves becoming different people from our past.
Secondly, prayer impacts people and events. Rick Warren notes a study conducted in the 80’s when a group of heart patients were prayed for by others.
Warren notes, Dr. Randolph Byrd, cardiologist and faculty member of the University of California Medical School, did a study of 400 heart-attack patients. They were divided into two groups.
Both groups were given state-of-the-art medical treatment, but one group was prayed for and the other was not. And no one - nurses, doctors, or patients - knew which group was being prayed for.
At the end of the study, the patients who were prayed for showed marked improvement in several areas.
They were less likely to develop congestive heart failure or to require antibiotics or breathing tubes. Fewer developed pneumonia or experienced cardiac arrest than in the group that was not prayed for.
It is true that God does listen when we pray. We may not always get the answer we are looking for,
and I believe because of our fast paced society it seems that God sometimes takes a long time to respond to our prayers, but God does listen.
Jesus explained it this way:
LUK 11:11-13 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?
If you then, as bad as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
The third thing Rick Warren says happens when we pray is that prayer helps us to remain spiritually strong in times of difficulty - to do battle, Warren says, against spiritual enemies.
In this confidential survey you have completed, some of you have indicated that you find praying empty business. It seems like noone is listening. Of those who made such an indication, I wonder how many are facing difficult circumstances? Facing things like cancer or serious illness, maybe even death. Dealing with relationship problems with children, spouses, or other family members, maybe even divorce. Struggling with financial issues and struggling to survive in our currently difficult economy.
And since September 11, there seems to be an undercurrent of fear and uncertianty in our society today. Its not only that we are hesitant of what tomorrow will bring, we are also afraid of what it will be.
There is a hesistancy about our day to day operations that wasn’t there before. Or maybe it was, but its gotten bigger.
Reflecting on the current situation, I think of those within our world who have faced such feelings in other countries for very long periods of time. And you know what really comes to mind? I think of the Israelites following the capture of Israel by the Babylonian Empire - where Iraq is today.
I think of the people who were made to leave their country and way of life - everything that provided them security - and were taken into captivity. They were relocated in Babylon and told uncerimoniously to settle down and form a new life there.
But they didn’t feel comfortable with their future either. When told to get on with their life, their feelings were recorded by one song writer who wrote:
PSA 137:1-4 By the rivers of Babylon--there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our harps.
For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How could we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?
I wonder how many of us who filled out that survey face such issues of illness, financial struggle, relationship problems, and have that sense of being afraid of tomorrow? Is it no wonder that there is a sense of emptiness for some when they pray, wondering if God is even listening?
I think what Rick Warren is trying to suggest is that when such times come, that is when a committed prayer life becomes most important.
He first mentioned that pray impacts us when we pray invitationally for God to change us. But an active prayer life helps us to endure. Prayer on a regular and committed bases helps us to get in sync with God. Prayer not only changes the way in which we interact with our world externally, but prayer changes the person we become internally - the way we think, the way we hope, the way we survive.
Ronald Stanley talks about prayer in his life this way:
For many years the praying I did was out of obedience. I prayed because I was told I was supposed to pray. I remember as a child, for example, when I was going off to bed, my father would tell me: “Don’t forget to say your prayers.” It was as if there were a commandment that said: Thou shalt pray.
My teenage years were the exception. I was struggling to cope with my parents’ divorce and, then, with a very difficult stepfather. My praying became more frequent and more fervent. I needed to pray to hold my life together. But, as an adult, my praying reverted back to the routine. I prayed because I was supposed to. There was little of me in my prayers. I was generally content to mouth other people’s words.
My forties were again, like my teenage years, a turbulent time for me. I came face to face, like never before, with my own brokenness, neediness. Not unlike my adolescent years, I was faced with a choice—to wallow in self-pity, or to dig deeper and find a strength greater than my own. It was then that I had to rediscover prayer, or die. I learned to pray again, because I needed to pray.
The quality of our praying is not to be judged by how we feel when we are praying. Sometimes we may feel very fervent and close to God. That’s great, but that’s not the heart of prayer. At other times we may feel nothing in prayer. That’s OK. That doesn’t mean we’re not praying well.
How do I know I am praying well? What matters is not so much what we feel, or even what happens, during our prayer, but rather what happens when we are not praying. “By their fruits you will know them” (Lk 6:44). Is our prayer time bearing good fruits in our lives? Are we gradually becoming more peaceful, more loving? Are we growing stronger in our areas of weakness? Are we able to keep things in better perspective? Are we more aware of God’s Presence in our lives when we are not praying? If so, we are praying well. If not, we need to ask whether we are devoting sufficient time and energy to prayer each day. Are we praying? If we are, but our prayer is not gradually producing good spiritual fruit in our lives, then we need to shake up our prayer lives, experiment, try new methods of prayer. The kind of prayer that may have served us effectively during one stage of our life, might no longer be right for us. God may be calling us deeper, to a different form of communion.
What is prayer? There are many ways of looking at prayer—raising our minds and hearts to God, a conversation with One Who loves us. I like to think of prayer as simply putting myself in the Presence of God. God is always present to us, but we are usually too busy to notice. Prayer is when we stop and focus on God’s Presence within us and around us. Our prayer is effective if, when we are not praying, we remain more mindful that God is present in the daily affairs of our lives, that we never walk alone.
As we look at what it means to be a follower of Christ, one of the things we must look at is the prayer life of Jesus. As we try to become more Christ-like, how do we become more like Jesus in our prayer life?
Do we pray before picking our friends? Do we pray, asking God’s guidance in our friendships, in our relationships to be a godly person in those relationships?
That alone makes a huge impact on the person we become, but what happens when we pray, asking God to make us more Christ-like in our financial obligations? In our work ethics? Even in our recreational pursuits?
As we look at the key aspects of our life, what can our live be like when we ask God’s guidance in the places in our life where we have placed priority - and in asking God’s guidance in determining our priorities?
I don’t think God will tell us whether to drive a Ford or a Chevy, but I do believe the kind of person we become and the important decisions we make can be influenced by the prayer life we have.
You have the stairsteps in front of you. Find yourself on that stair step. Ask yourselve, is it time for me to grow?
As Ronald Stanley suggests, is it perhaps time for our prayer life to be shaken up a bit?
Next week we will be making commitments in our prayer life. I invite you to give this careful consideration over the next week. To even be asking God, “Lord, how would you have me to pray?”
Our invitation is to grow in our prayer life, to grow in our communion with God.
Let us pray.
Oh Lord,
We must confess that as wayward children, we don’t spend enough time - quantity or quality -with you.
Often our prayers are fleeting.
Often our attention is not focused on you, our thoughts are focused on our problems and our concerns.
Help us to attend.
Help us to develop the kind of time and the ways you would like for us to spend talking with you.
Help our prayer life to be fulfilling, even there is trouble and we are afraid.
Lord, in the days ahead, help us to be more Christ-like in our communion with you.
Help us to discern what that is and to be committed to that goal.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
