Keep Praying!
July 25, 2010
Last week we looked at the story in Luke 10 of Martha and Mary – and discovered how we need to be – as I called it – “Prayerfully Active” – not feeling like we have to choose between being like prayerful Mary or active Martha – but realizing we need to be both prayerful and active. As we looked at this we noticed that being prayerful is the first step to being prayerfully active – but as you thought about it afterwards you may have thought – well – how should I pray – how often should I pray – and what about those times I don’t feel like praying?
I thought that we might need to look at the passage that immediately follows the passage on Mary and Martha – the passage in Luke 11:1-13 – because here Jesus teaches us not only how to pray – but to keep praying!
Here in our passage for today we have Jesus leaving the group of followers to go off by Himself to pray. When he finished and rejoined the group, one disciple asked what the rest of them might have been thinking: “Master, would you teach us to pray?”
Now — what do you think they had seen that prompted them to want to pray like Jesus was praying? Was it the language Jesus used? Was He using complicated theological terms? Was He being dramatic or did He have a special stance He was using that they wanted to copy? Was He using some kind of special effect that prompted their curiosity?
I don’t think so. I think the disciples could sense something in Jesus’ praying – they could sense the depth of spiritual community Jesus was experiencing with the heavenly Father when He prayed. I think they saw a kind of fellowship Jesus had with His Father as He prayed – and they said: “I want that” – “I want that closeness and fellowship.”
Several years ago a friend of mine and I went to a weekend Blue Grass Concert in North Wilkesboro, NC. After the Friday night festivities we stopped at a Mexican restaurant on the way back to the cabin we were staying in and noticed that — at a table nearby — there was a woman and a man holding hands across the table, talking quietly, gazing into each other’s eyes. They were obviously in love. My friend and I noticed what was going on at that table – and both of us reached for our cell phones at the same time and said: “Excuse me. I have to call my wife.” I’ll never forget thinking about what was motivating the calls. It was that picture of a deep, satisfying, relating conversation. It made us think: That’s what I want to participate in with my wife. I want to talk to her. I want to call home.
Jesus’ followers might have seen something in the way Jesus related to his Father, and said: “Teach us to pray like that.”
You know – it’s sad but true that many Christians find their prayer life diminishing over the years.
One of my colleagues shared with me not long ago that he had folks confide in him over the years that, to their shame, they don’t pray like they had prayed earlier in their lives. I’ve had folks tell me the same thing from time to time. My colleague related to me that one person described it this way:
“When I was a new believer, the thought of talking with the God of the universe, the thought of him listening to me, responding to my cares and concerns, was so overwhelming I could barely take it in. I prayed all the time when I first discovered I could. I prayed when I got up. I prayed on my way to work. I prayed when I sat at my desk. I prayed at lunch. I prayed with my kids at dinner. I prayed with my kids when I put them to bed. I was a praying monster. It brought me such joy. God was answering my prayers. My life was changing, and I could see others’ lives changing. Then, I don’t know what happened. The whole deal just cooled off. I don’t pray much any more.”
My colleague assured me that this fellow was still a Christian and active in the church, but he was going through a rough period in his prayer life.
My colleague said he told him: “Almost every follower of Jesus Christ experiences exactly what you’ve described. I have.”
And, you know – it’s true – at least it is for me. When I look back over the course of my spiritual life, I see times in which I prayed eagerly and often, filled with joy and anticipation. At those times it seemed that supernatural things happened in and around my life and the lives of those people for whom I prayed. Then for some unknown reason, my prayer life would begin a mysterious descent, until I almost gave up on praying. I’d still pray at meals and at church functions, but not a lot more than that. Then something would happen that would get me going again and the activity of God would flood into my life again, and I would pray like crazy for a time. Then the fade would begin again.
Can any of you relate to the rhythm of prayer I’m talking about?
I think you probably can.
Why do you think it is that people stop praying?
One reason might be a lack of consistent prayer patterns.
I think people stop praying or at least start to fade when the life is calm and everything is ok. It’s human nature. When the storms are raging in your life, you find yourself praying like crazy. Almost all of us pray, fervently, repeatedly, hopefully, maybe even desperately when there are storms and problems in our lives. Then when the storm passes and the seas settle down and life is calm and God proves Himself faithful one more time, a big part of our motivation for fervent prayer subsides. And the great prayer fade begins.
In the Old Testament, God traces His kindness to the children of Israel. He says, “Every time you got in a jam and you prayed for divine intervention, every time you needed protection and guidance and you pleaded for rescues, I came through. Then after the storm passed, you didn’t remember me. You don’t talk to me much once the storms pass.”
How do we keep this from happening in our lives? Most of us don’t want it to happen that way. One way I know to keep a “big fade” from happening in my prayer life is by keeping to a regular pattern of praying that is not contingent upon the ups and downs of my life. Jesus said in Matthew 6,
“When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to the Father, who is unseen Then your Father will reward you. Avoid vain repetitions.”
When Jesus was teaching on this way of praying, he was making some points for us to ponder. First, he was saying establish a time of praying. He says when you pray, not if you pray. He’s asking us who claim to be his followers to arrive at a daily rhythm for a quiet time of prayer. Be it early morning, midday, late at night, late afternoon, it doesn’t matter. It might change over the course of your life. Jesus then tells us to establish a place. Choose a spot that can become a refuge or a sanctuary for your prayer time, a place that affords you sufficient comfort and privacy, a place that over time you begin to think of as a holy place for your prayers.
Some of us studied Richard Foster’s book The Celebration of Discipline a few months back and found that establishing a consistent time for private, personal prayer was one of the “spiritual disciplines” he says we need to grow in our walk with God.
My time for personal, private prayer is early in the morning – from around 6:00 to around 7:00 — and my place is the room in the house we call “the office” because that’s where the desk top computer is set up – and – until we bought a laptop and a wireless printer – that was where I would work when I worked at the house. Your time for personal, private prayer might be different from mine – but whatever seems to “work” for you, find a time and a place for daily personal, private prayer. As much as I love and benefit from the Prayer Group I participate in at the store most mornings, I still need that personal, private time for prayer – and I believe we all do.
I read about one guy who prays on the Northwestern commuter train in Chicago five days a week. He prays from the time he gets on the train until he arrives downtown. He says the seat of the Northwestern commuter train is like a holy place for him. While this would not work for me, it might for others. Whatever time and place works for you, do it – have a time of private, personal prayer every day. This is the best way I know of to really have a relationship with God and keep from the habit of going through “dry spells” in your prayer life
Jesus tells us to avoid vain repetitions. Beyond having a set time for consistent, personal and private prayer learning to pour your heart out to God is another way to improve your prayer life. Don’t just go through mechanical motions. Don’t get in a formula that can become repetitive and the same all the time. There aren’t any special words you have to use when praying. If you’re struggling with something, tell God in your own words. If you’re being tempted, tell Him in your won words. If you’re feeling defeated talk to Him about it in your own words. If you’re feeling lonely and discouraged, tell Him. If you’re feeling good and are rejoicing in what God has done in your life, by all means – tell Him – in your own way. You don’t have to use special words in your prayers – your own words that express your own feelings work the best.
Some folks do this verbally. They whisper their prayers to God in their private places. Some write out prayers to God because it helps to stay on focus. Some of use lists. Some of us read Psalms of praise to God from our Bibles. I do that myself. Some put on worship tapes and sing along with them.
How you do it is not the main thing — the main thing is that you integrate a personal, private prayer time into your daily life — just like you would eating or sleeping. I dare say you don’t go very many days without sleeping or eating – and in the same way you need to have such a commitment to your daily personal prayer time. If you will make this time important to you, you can begin – or continue – or close your day saying: “I just met with God. I talked with him. I listened to him, and we connected on a soul level” – and that is so important to be able to say that. If you do that on a consistent basis, you’re likely to take the big swings out of your prayer life.
Sally and I went to North Carolina last Thursday to help a friend celebrate her 80th birthday. On the way we saw a sign in front of a church that said:
“Pray every day of the week that ends with a Y”
That’s pretty consistent prayer!
Beyond not having a habit of consistent, personal and private prayer, there’s something else that can affect your prayer life – and that is clinging to sin. Yea — clinging to sin tears us away from God – and is a second cause for that slide from relating to God.
At the times I have talked to folks about a lapse in their spiritual lives, I might say: “Let’s backtrack. Do you know where the train left the tracks?” Some folks will say something like, “It was about the time I started partying heavily. I started running around a lot and letting my life get out of control.” Or someone else might say, “It was when things got really busy at work and greed got its hooks in me, and making money started to be the driving force in my life. Then I started to drift.”
Yea – sin is strong enough to create an gap in your relationship with God. The wider the gap, the less likely it is that you’ll pray consistently.
I know that one time in my life I was letting my anger over something that had happened take over my life — and at the same time I was wondering why my prayer times seemed cold and mechanical. I had the time and the place for personal, private prayer down pat — but when I got to the “be real with God ” part, when I was trying to pour out my heart to God, it seemed did not want to talk to God about my anger. I wanted to avoid confessing that. Then I read Malachi 1:9, where God confronts His people for sinning: “After you blatantly sin against me, and won’t confess it, you have the gall to entreat me for favors? You pray and you expect me to come through like I usually do? You rebel against me and don’t confess it – and expect me to bless you? You shake your fist at me, and then you expect me not to be affected by your disobedience and waywardness?” God says, “Excuse me, I am affected by it. It breaks my heart. I feel betrayed when one of my precious children says, ‘I’m going my way, not your way.’” Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked.” If we don’t live in submission to Him and confess your sins to Him, you’ll lose the warmth and closeness that accompanies a loving obedient relationship with God.
Back when we lived in North Carolina we had a fenced in back yard. The fence had 3 sides – the back of the house was the fourth side – so when we put our dogs out at night we would just put them our the back door – then call them when we were ready for them to come back in. Well, sometimes I’d put Buster out at night and – when he was finished doing what he needed to do — I would call him to come back in. I might call: “Buster, come on in.” And sometimes under the light of the backyard spotlight I would see him sitting and looking at me – tilting his head back and forth as if deciding if he was going to come in or not. I then might say: “Come on. Get in here.” and sometimes he would but sometime he might keep looking at me like: “Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t.” Then I would usually say: “I’ll give you a treat if you come in.” – and most of the time that gets him and he’d come running in. He would run into the house — stand by the laundry room door where the treats were – and once I gave him a treat, he would walk away. At other times, though, I would call to him: ”Buster, come on in,” and for some reason he would run the other direction and look back at me – as if to say: “You want me? Come and get me.” So I would chase him down. When I finally would grab hold of him and take him into the house, he’d run over to the laundry room door – stop — look at the door – and look up at me, begging for a treat. I’d then say something like: “What are you thinking? Get away from that door.” He’d then take off and dive under the couch or the bed. He would know there were no treat for him with the way he acted. You see — even a dog knows you don’t defy the powers that be and expect business as usual.
Someone once wrote: “There is no fellowship with a superior without total obedient to them.”
Some Christians don’t pray because they have an inner spirit of conflict. There’s part of them that wants to be in close fellowship with God – they may want to pray and have it be like it used to be — but they know the barrier they’ve created by their sin. They know they’re going to have to get squared away before they can be in that completely yielded, warm, and loving fellowship with God again – but they are not ready to do that just yet.
Is that how you are?
Is there a sin you aren’t confessing that is creating a barrier between you and God?
Scriptures says that God stands with an extended arms and invites you to come back. In Isaiah 1:18, God says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” He says, “Admit your waywardness. Tell me you fouled up. Come back and we’ll relate closely again.” God knows your sins – but stands ready to forgive you – if you will confess them. Then you can enjoy that fruitful prayer life with Him you long for.
So – a lack of a consistent, personal prayer time and the presence of unconfessed sin in your life can make you drift away from God and affect your prayer life.
There’s another reason why people drift away from God and give up on prayer. It might be the most obvious — disillusionment. Maybe they prayed fervently that Dad would survive the surgery, but he didn’t. Maybe they prayed that their wife would reconcile their marriage, but she wouldn’t. Or maybe they prayed that their business would withstand the new competition, but it couldn’t. So they gave up on prayer – feeling that it did not work.
For some, it’s a hard, cold, practical reason why they don’t pray any more. Why waste your breath? If heaven doesn’t listen, if God doesn’t care, if he lacks the power to change things, why pray? Let’s all stop kidding each other about this stuff. It just doesn’t work.
I would bet every honest Christian who has had a crushing disappointment that prayer didn’t fix has felt this way. When you feel like that, you’ve got to regroup and say, “What do I believe about this thing called prayer?” It’s true Jesus would say the Father doesn’t answer every prayer the way we fallible humans wish He would, for reasons we will understand only in heaven. But Jesus says: “Keep praying. Don’t lose heart.”
You have no idea how much your conversations – your prayers — mean to God. Every time you pray, God feels excited that you have come to Him. You have no idea how carefully God listens to every one of your concerns. You have no idea how thoroughly He enjoys you spending time with Him. You have no idea how earnestly He engages in the concerns you bring his way and how eager He is to do that which is best for you not always exactly what you want.
I read about a minister who baptized an older woman who had come to accept Christ. After the service he bumped into her daughter — who was sobbing. The minster thought that this was a little odd, since the service was so joyful – but the daughter told him she was crying tears of joy.
“My mom was baptized today.” She said. “I prayed for her every day for almost 20 years. The reason I’m crying is because I came this close to giving up on her. At the 5 mark I said, ‘Who needs this? God isn’t listening.’ At the 10 mark I said, ‘Why am I wasting my breath?’ At the 15 mark I said, ‘This is absurd.’ At the 19 mark I said, ‘I’m just a fool.’ I just kept trying, kept praying. Even with weak faith I kept praying. Then she gave here life to Christ, and she was baptized today. I will never doubt the power of prayer again.”
Well — what about you? I know some of you have had some prayers that have gone unanswered, and you’ve almost bailed out on prayer because of that. I would tell you again on behalf of Jesus Christ, don’t lose heart.
You want a close relationship with God?
Keep praying!
Establish a consistent time for personal prayer where you can pour your heart out to God. Having a personal prayer time with God on every day of the week that ends with a Y is indeed excellent advice!
Confess sins that may be blocking your relationship with God.
Pray even when you are disillusioned and don’t feel God is listening.
Yea — Keep praying!
Amen.
