A primer on prayer

What an interesting observation Jesus has of the church in Laodicea. I think He is insulted they approach Him with lukewarm prayers. Even though they have knelt in prayer, there was no praying.

I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich and well off; I have all I need.’ But you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked, and blind. – Revelation 3:15-17 GNT

They had become a church who were prayerless.

When we do not pray, we show that we believe we are self sufficient. God help us to see that apart from You we can do nothing.

Prayerlessness is pride. When I do not pray it is because I have become proud. A praying person knows they need God’s help. When I pray, I am pleading for God to provide. When I pray I am asking God to provide for others.

What do I do when Jesus is standing at the door of my heart and is knocking?

Listen! I stand at the door and knock; if any hear my voice and open the door, I will come into their house and eat with them, and they will eat with me. – Revelation 3:20 GNT

When I open the door, I am committed to imitate Him. To repent, forgive, all through prayer and for God to give me peace.

Just as I desired to open the door when I heard Him knocking, I desire to pray with reverence and thanksgiving – to please and honour Him.

I think that my short, simple, straightforward prayers are the best kind of praying I can do. Similar to how Mary’s conversation went with Jesus.

You may know the story in John’s Gospel about Jesus attending a wedding celebration with his mother, Mary. At one point early in the festivities, Mary came to Jesus and said, “They have no more wine” (John 2:3, NIV). Chances are, either the bride or groom was related to Mary and Jesus; in any case, they both would have known that running out of wine at a wedding feast would be a major embarrassment to the family.

But Jesus’ answer sounds odd: “Woman, why do you involve me?… My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4, NIV).

Nonetheless, Mary told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5, NIV).

You probably know, of course, that Jesus eventually instructed the servants to fill giant jars with water, which when they served it up turned out to have been transformed into high-quality wine.

But I think Mary’s request often gets lost in the account of that water-to-wine miracle. Remember? To our knowledge, she spoke only five words to Jesus: “They have no more wine.”

She didn’t tell Jesus what to do (maybe because His initial response was, well, a trifle off-putting). She didn’t whine or wheedle or cajole. She laid out the problem—short, simple, straightforward—and left it in His hands.

But she did something else that we often neglect. She prepared for the answer. She told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

It’s a pretty good primer on prayer. She knew where to go (to Jesus). She knew what to say, briefly and simply and straightforwardly mentioning the need. And she knew what to do next—prepare for the answer.

If we would pray with power, we should pray with fasting. This of course does not mean that we should fast every time we pray; but there are times of emergency or special crisis in work or in our individual lives, when men of downright earnestness will withdraw themselves even from the gratification of natural appetites that would be perfectly proper under other circumstances, that they may give themselves up wholly to prayer. There is a peculiar power in such prayer. Every great crisis in life and work should be met in that way. There is nothing pleasing to God in our giving up in a purely Pharisaic and legal way things which are pleasant, but there is power in that downright earnestness and determination to obtain in prayer the things of which we sorely feel our need, that leads us to put away everything, even the things in themselves most right and necessary, that we may set our faces to find God, and obtain blessings from Him. R. A. Torrey

Prayer neglected

When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he called together 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. He intended to go to war and restore his control over the northern tribes of Israel. But the Lord told the prophet Shemaiah to give this message to King Rehoboam and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin: “Do not attack your own relatives. Go home, all of you. What has happened is my will.” They obeyed the Lord’s command and did not go to fight Jeroboam. – 2 Chronicles 11:1-4 GNT

What a sight to see when prayer is neglected. I cannot imagine gathering 180,000 soldiers together and then telling them to all go home because the game plan changed. Of all his faults, King Rhoboam had two things going for him – his pride did not rule his life and he honoured the word of God.

How many times will I do something, put my plans all together, and then God says no — and unfortunately I move forward with my plans. While I am still blessed in the sense that I am successful, I can sense the presence of God favours me, just not what I am doing. What I am doing is not the best thing for me and it is taking me away from giving my best to God.

I pray more these days before going forward, but there are still times where I have to back away because God has said no. While it is still hard, and my pride is definitely afffected, I prayerfully back away because it is what He has asked me to do.

The earnestness that we work up in the energy of the flesh is a repulsive thing. The earnestness wrought in us by the power of the Holy Spirit is pleasing to God. Here again, if we would pray aright, we must look to the Spirit of God to teach us to pray. – R. A. Torrey

School of prayer with an attitude to pray

I never thought I would look at the Book of Revelation with the idea of investigating the prayers that are found there.

Today, as I started to read the first chapter, I am engaged with a vital, vibrant prayer from John who experiences, in the Spirit, on the Lord’s day, a time where he and Jesus were in a conversation.

This symphony of prayer being exchanged, the message and the reactions, tend now to become my own as I engage in prayer.

Happy is the one who reads this book, and happy are those who listen to the words of this prophetic message and obey what is written in this book! For the time is near when all these things will happen. – Revelation 1:3 GNT

Prayer and praise become part and of the dialogue.

He loves us, and by his sacrificial death he has freed us from our sins and made us a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father. To Jesus Christ be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen. – Revelation 1:5b-6 GNT

My prayers must have a component where I am listening to God, a God who speaks to me. While I am intent at getting to making my asks, I must prioritize my praise for His love and for His gift of Jesus from whom I receive my strength, hope and salvation.

My prayer then sees the love of God on the Cross and I am then asked to live consistently as a disciple of Jesus. When I am consistently in prayer, I am reawakened with the sense of His presence in my life – both past and present. His presence moves me into the future for I am sustained, guided, given hope and I am never alone for it is my life blood.

In this time I see clearly my relationship with Jesus. I can see Him, hear him, understand His call to action, the needs of the community, and I am close to Him.

I am John, your brother, and as a follower of Jesus I am your partner in patiently enduring the suffering that comes to those who belong to his Kingdom. I was put on the island of Patmos because I had proclaimed God’s word and the truth that Jesus revealed. On the Lord’s day the Spirit took control of me, and I heard a loud voice, that sounded like a trumpet, speaking behind me. It said, “Write down what you see, and send the book to the churches in these seven cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

I turned around to see who was talking to me, and I saw seven gold lampstands, and among them there was what looked like a human being, wearing a robe that reached to his feet, and a gold band around his chest. – Revelation 1:9-13 GNT

I love John’s reaction when he hears the voice of the risen Jesus – fulfilling the priestly role of mediator with the Father.

We hear much in our day of the rest of faith, but there is such a thing as the fight of faith in prayer as well as in effort. Those who would have us think that they have attained to some sublime height of faith and trust because they never know any agony of conflict or of prayer, have surely gotten beyond their Lord, and beyond the mightiest victors for God, both in effort and prayer, that the ages of Christian history have known. When we learn to come to God with an intensity of desire that wrings the soul, then shall we know a power in prayer that most of us do not know now. – R. A. Torrey

Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit to make God known

Why should I pray in the power of the Holy Spirit?

To keep myself in the love of God.

Prayer is a means of divine grace because I cannot keep myself in the love of God on my own terms or in my own strength. God is the decisive keeper of my soul. If God does not keep me, I will not persevere in faith. I will die.

But you, my friends, keep on building yourselves up on your most sacred faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ in his mercy to give you eternal life. – Jude 1:20-21 GNT

It is this kind of praying that gives me the power to pray the kind of prayer that Jesus gave when He was on the cross.

Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father! They don’t know what they are doing. – Luke 23:34 GNT

I wonder what Jesus’ prayers sounded like when He was praying for the Pharisees or the Saducees. On the cross He had no quiet or private space and so everyone heard it.

He knew their blindness was not of their own, no excuse though, and yet He gave them the opportunity to be seen in a different light.

“If ignorance do not excuse a crime, it at least diminishes the atrocity of it. However, these persons well knew that they were crucifying an innocent man; but they did not know that, by this act of theirs, they were bringing down on themselves and on their country the heaviest judgments of God. In the prayer, Father, forgive them! that word of prophecy was fulfilled, He made intercession for the transgressors, Isaiah 53:12.” – Clarke

This has to be one of the hardest prayers anyone has to pray. I am thankful for the miracle in my life that allowed me to do so. Unfortunately there have been many I have discipled that refuse to go down this path and ultimately make the decision to no longer be discipled.

In the Middle East, the power of forgiveness happens more times than in my Canadian context.

I know that I cannot pray this prayer. However, as soon as I invite the Holy Spirit in as my Helper and my Advocate, I can see myself growing in this prayer. To make God known to myself is one kind of prayer but the real power and miracle is seeing Him make Himself known to those are not just wrong and evil, but incredibly lost.

Paul beseeches the saints in Rome to STRIVE together with him in their prayers. The word translated “strive” means primarily to contend as in athletic games or in a fight. In other words, the prayer that prevails with God is the prayer into which we put our whole soul, stretching out toward God in intense and agonizing desire. Much of our modern prayer has no power in it because there is no heart in it. We rush into God’s presence, run through a string of petitions, jump up and go out. If someone should ask us an hour afterward for what we prayed, oftentimes we could not tell. If we put so little heart into our prayers, we cannot expect God to put much heart into answering them. – R. A. Torrey

Habakkuk’s prayer a prayer to follow

Habakkuk’s prayer is motivated by his knowledge of God’s past fame, and his own reverence for the work that God had done in the past.

What would it look like if I prayed like Habakkuk? How can his prayer be my model in my prayers that I will pray today?

I still remember how my life was changed when I started to read a book about martyrs who gave up their life for their love of Jesus. Reading history and learning of how God moved in revivals is also another powerful encouragement that teaches me how to pray. I have this hope because I know it has been done before.

O Lord, I have heard of what you have done,
    and I am filled with awe.
Now do again in our times
    the great deeds you used to do.
Be merciful, even when you are angry. – Habakkuk 3:2 GNT

This prayer leads me to pray boldly. What made these men and women of yesteryear so great was God. God answered their prayers and worked in their situations. It only means that He will work in mine and He will answer my prayers. As I think of what He has done, I am being invited to pray for those great things, and greater things to take place again.

May my prayers for the future be as grand as God’s deeds in the past.

Here is the rest of the first part of his prayer.

God is coming again from Edom;
    the holy God is coming from the hills of Paran.
His splendor covers the heavens,
    and the earth is full of his praise.
He comes with the brightness of lightning;
    light flashes from his hand,
    there where his power is hidden.
He sends disease before him
    and commands death to follow him.
When he stops, the earth shakes;
    at his glance the nations tremble.
The eternal mountains are shattered;
    the everlasting hills sink down,
    the hills where he walked in ancient times. – Habakkuk 3:3-7 GNT

What a picture of the power of God’s Kingdom. May my prayers have such a consuming passion. It is why Jesus prayed for God’s kingdom to come and His will be done. Through this kind of prayer God can ordain such a feat. It is a prayer that can change the direction of our world. It is a prayer that prays for the things that burden the heart of God. It is not about what I want, as Jesus modelled so well. It is about praying with confidence in God’s sovereign rule over everything. I am being called to pray with an adequate and appropriate vision of God’s eternal purposes – that is where my confidence and my hope comes from. I do not trust what my eyes see around me.

Kingdom prayer is a bit of prophetic prayer too – every knee will bow someday. It is a place where I view Jesus on His throne of grace and in glory. It is a place where I turn from doom and gloom to one of praise and hope.

Here is what Jesus’ prayer looked like in the vein that I have been sharing.

Jesus left the city and went, as he usually did, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples went with him. When he arrived at the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

Then he went off from them about the distance of a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed. “Father,” he said, “if you will, take this cup of suffering away from me. Not my will, however, but your will be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. In great anguish he prayed even more fervently; his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.[c]

Rising from his prayer, he went back to the disciples and found them asleep, worn out by their grief. He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation.” – Luke 22:39-46 GNT

Jesus prayed a simple prayer, but it was not simplistic.

He added an element that we have not talked about yet and that is this – if I do not pray, I could fall into temptation. So I can chose to pray or fall into temptation. I must learn how to pray so that I can overcome.

I love the fact that Jesus calls the disciples to pray – not that He would pray for them. I have to remind myself – He is not asking them to pray against sin, but against temptation.

“The Christian most prepared to conquer temptation is the one who prays and plans against it.”

Prayer matters and as sovereign God rules the universe, prayer plays a role. Things happen or do not because His people pray.

When I come to a place where I am not just praying against my sin, but against the temptation to sin, it is in that place that I can see myself humbling maturing.

By praying against temptation, am I not seeking to avoid it? In doing so, am I not becoming a means to God answering my prayer? It is the very act of praying that engages me more deeply in the fight.

“God really does keep us from some temptations in response to our prayers.”

Praying against temptation put me on the path of planning against it as well.

At least I will not be taken off guard by it because of prayer – it is like I am making myself ready for battle. I am most prepared to conquer temptation when I pray and plan against it.

“It is grace not only to be kept from sin but also from temptation.”

That means that I can expect God to answer my prayers in different ways when it comes to temptation. I can expect God to not only keep me from temptation but keep me through them as well.

The secret of effective praying is found in the verse, in the words “WITHOUT CEASING.”
In the Revised Version, “without ceasing” is rendered “earnestly.” Neither rendering gives the full force of the Greek. The word means literally “stretched-out-ed-ly.” It is a pictorial word, and wonderfully expressive. It represents the soul on a stretch of earnest and intense desire. “Intensely” would perhaps come as near translating it as any English word. It is the word used of our Lord in Luke 22:44 where it is said, “He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” – R. A. Torrey