Sunday August 31, 2008

Prayer-Does It Really Matter?
James 5:16-18

(Skit on How to Pray, from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuE-EPzII6Y)

I’m not going to be talking about “How to Pray” today – I think you learned a few things from the skit about that (and what not to do!). But I want to share a few thoughts on prayer and why we should even pray.

I’ve been thinking about prayer a lot lately. It began with a lesson on prayer that I had in the Church Administration
course I’m taking for ordination. I’m speaking this message to myself as much as I speak it to you, because I have been realizing the importance of prayer and feeling a need to grow in this area lately. This is why I feel it is important to share
these thoughts with you today.

Some of the things I will share come from a chapter I read in my course book, Leaders on Leadership. It begins with
these words:

“Christian leaders can lead with or without prayer…Christian parents can raise a family with or without prayer. Christian students can study with or without prayer…[but] [w]hatever Christian people do, things will go better with prayer. This…includes…a pastor leading a church, a coach leading an athletic team, a construction supervisor leading a work
crew, an office manager leading a staff or you name it.” (281)

I began to think about what the writer of this chapter, Peter Wagner, said. I thought about all the things that are
successful without any prayer going into them whatsoever. Microsoft, Fred Meyer, MacDonald’s, and many other companies do very well without prayer being a major part of the organization, as far as I know. Then I thought about
groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons – they are alive and growing, yet their members don’t have a
relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. And here the writer is talking about Christians who do things without prayer – it can actually be done. Then I thought of my own life, how a lot of things are basically going well, but how little
I’ve prayed about many things that are actually really important to me.

There are so many things to think about in discussing prayer that I can’t even begin to cover the whole subject. Many
books have been written on this topic. But I want to talk about prayer today, what the Bible says about it, maybe answer some questions, and hopefully encourage you to pray.

So going back to the statement by Peter Wagner – how can we do all these things without prayer? I think it is because
they are built on principles that work, many of which can be found in the God’s Word – things like honesty, integrity, and hard work. When I live my life according to God’s truth, things will often go well. I try to be honest and work hard, and I
do my best to live by God’s principles, so my life isn’t falling apart because of addictions or spending my money on wrong things. In general, I see God’s blessing on my life.

So, many times I think we don’t pray because we don’t really see the need for it. I think if any one of us were asked, “Is prayer important?” each one of us would answer, “Yes, of course.” Everyone seems to agree mentally on that point, but when things seem to be going well, in general, often we don’t live like we actually believe prayer is very important. When a major crisis comes along, like a serious physical condition or impending financial ruin we become a bit more desperate and spend more time in prayer. We sometimes pray for others when they have a critical need as it is brought to our attention,
but often we pray most seriously when something affects us, because we are concerned about our pain or what’s going
to happen to us. Many times our prayers are centered on ourselves.

Or I think sometimes we don’t pray more because we aren’t really sure it will make a difference. Maybe we’ve prayed before and nothing really happened, or it seems like we’re too insignificant to accomplish anything.

But this is a very small understanding of what prayer is. I believe prayer is much bigger than we realize. God has chosen to give us the opportunity to labor with Him to bring about changes in the world, and we hardly even take it seriously! I’m reading another book called Satan and the Problem of Evil by Gregory Boyd, and he writes about how the whole world is
in a state of warfare. There is a battle going on, and we have a part to play in it. There are many examples of Scripture
that confirm this view:

Ephesians 6:12 says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

And 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons
of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.”

We also read in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not
see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” – Satan is active in people’s lives.

Satan is busy fighting the battle whether we are or not. There’s warfare going on whether we realize it or not.

So there’s a lot of bad stuff going on in the world, and people wonder why God doesn’t do something about it. But God
has given people free will, and many wrong choices have been made, bringing about much pain and suffering in the world.
If God stepped in and made everything right, that would be the end of time as we know it. Instead, He waits to give people an opportunity to come to Him, and to give us, His children, the opportunity to work together with Him to see His will
come to pass. He told us in what we call the Lord’s Prayer to pray: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

But besides the spiritual warfare aspect of prayer and how we help bring about God’s will on earth, there is another
reason I believe that God chose to give us the responsibility and privilege of prayer:

God wants to be in relationship with us – that’s why He created us. By making prayer an important thing that we can do
to make things happen, He established it as something that will help us be in relationship with Him, and He actually has empowered us to influence Him through our prayers. This also brings up an interesting point – in a relationship, both people communicate. Prayer is not just us talking to God; it’s also Him talking back to us. Even when we have times of silent
prayer, or we follow along when someone else is praying, we’re usually just expected to be praying to God. But we also need to learn how to listen to Him – He can speak very personally to us, and He can also guide us in our prayers.

So God has given us this awesome privilege, and He has given us a lot of scriptures to teach us about prayer, why we
should pray, how we should pray, and lots of stories about prayers that were answered as an encouragement. God wants
us to pray!

Scripture clearly shows us that our prayers make a difference.

The Old Testament is full of stories of prayers that changed things: Abraham prayed for a son, and God answered him. In Exodus the Children of Israel cried out to God for deliverance, and He answered them. Many times Moses prayed to God as the Israelites traveled in the wilderness, and God answered him. Hezekiah prayed for his life to be extended, and God granted his request.

In the New Testament many prayed to Jesus for healing and they were healed. People prayed for Peter when he was in prison, and God let him out.

There are real life stories from today as well – Peter Wagner tells about the time he fell off a ladder and landed with the
back of his head and neck on a cement floor. He could have seriously injured, but he wasn’t, and he discovered later that right at that moment someone he knew who was several miles away sensed a need to pray strongly for him. God used that person to intercede for him and protect him. I also believe little Alexis’s physical turnaround came as an answer to
our prayers.

One of the clearest passages of the effectiveness of prayer is James 5:16-18: “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the sky poured rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”

The implication from James is that these things would have been different if Elijah had not prayed. Elijah was a human just like all of us, and we learn here that we can actually change history by our prayers! God will do all He can to turn any situation for good, but our prayers can actually be a part of bringing about His will in the best way possible.

This sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? We get to participate with God in making all these things happen!

But there’s a problem in all this, and that is that our prayers don’t always seem to be answered. Why is that, and how can
we pray in faith if we can’t know that God will answer? My answer to this is – “I don’t know.”

I don’t know for sure, but there are some thoughts that can help us to start to understand and to pray more effective
prayers. There seem to be some requirements to our prayers, and other insights that we read about in the Bible:

* Our prayers need to be according to God’s will (1 John 5:14-15 – “This is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us…and we have the petitions that we ask of Him”). Sometimes God’s will is clear from Scripture, and sometimes we need to wait on Him to know His will – this is also where listening comes in.

* We may be praying with wrong motives (James 4:3 – “You as and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures”).

* We need to pray in faith (Matt. 21:21,22 – if we have faith like a grain of mustard seed we can move mountains). If we know we are praying according to God’s will we can pray in faith.

* Sometimes we need to persevere in prayer over time (Luke 18:1-8 – story of the widow who came to a judge for legal help and persevered in her request – it ends with saying how shall God not even more answer the cries of His people).

* Even the number of people praying may make a difference sometimes (Matt. 18:19-20 – where two or three are gathered in His name; Jim Cymbala’s story of his church praying for his daughter in Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire).

* Sometimes there may be spiritual warfare going on that we don’t see (Daniel 10:10-13 – Daniel prayed for three weeks and the angel bringing an answer was held up by the “prince of Persia”).

* Sometimes the answer may be different than we expect (we pray for patience and frustrating things start happening so God can teach us patience).

* Sometimes the answer may be no – God knows best (2 Cor. 12:7-9 – Paul’s thorn in the flesh – he prayed three times for it to be taken away, but God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness”).

Looking at these reasons helps us to understand that prayer is not always a simple thing. But I’m not going to stop praying because I’m afraid that what I’m praying for won’t happen. I know God wants to bring people to salvation, so I will pray
for that. I know God has power to heal people, so I will pray for that. I know God wants to provide for people, so I will pray for that. I will keep pressing on in faith, because what else can I do? I will be persistent, and pray until I see an
answer, until God releases me from that prayer, or until He gives me a clear “no.” God may not answer every prayer the
way I expect – but I need to still pray.

Our church can do pretty well without prayer – and I know there are some of you do pray for the church and for other
things that God puts on your hearts – but I think as a church we have just scratched the surface. Can you imagine what
could happen if we all really prayed? There are strongholds in our community. There are people who need to be set free from all kinds of bondages and addictions. Do we want to settle with things just going okay or do we want to really see God’s highest happening in our midst?

I don’t know about you, but I believe God is urging me to pray more for our church, my family, and people I know who need Him. God wants to accomplish great things if only we will pray.

There is an opportunity for prayer coming up this Friday and Saturday – our 36 Hours of Prayer, from 7:00 a.m. on Friday till 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. You don’t have to be a great prayer warrior or put on a show like the people in the skit; if you
are afraid to pray out loud with other people around, it’s all right – we won’t make you do that. But I encourage you to
come and make a difference – participate in doing warfare against the kingdom of darkness and helping to see God’s will
be done on earth.