I really believe prayer works. I have here some of my prayer notebooks from 1982, the year Bronwyn was born.
DID YOU EVER NOTICE THAT JESUS PRAYED A LOT.
He prayed early in the morning.
Mark 1:35: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Jesus sometimes prayed all night
Luke 6:12: “Jesus went out into the hills to pray, and the spent the night praying.”
Jesus prayed before every great crisis of life.
He prayed before choosing the 12; before the sermon on the mount; before, before death on the Cross!
Jesus prayed after every great victory of life.
After he fed the 5000, they wanted to make Him a King. Matthew 14:23: “After he had dismissed them, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.”
Jesus prayed when life was unusually busy.
Luke 5:15-16: The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came . . . But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Sometimes He had no time to eat (Mark 3:20) – sometimes He had no time for rest or sleep (Mark 6:31,33,46), but He always took time to pray.
We would do well to learn this secret from Christ and when life is more busy than usual we set aside an unusual amount of time for prayer.
WHY DID HE PRAY SO MUCH? WHY BOTHER TO PRAY?
Three simple reasons.
1. Prayer allows us to know the heart and mind of God.
2. Our prayers interact with God’s will to bring changes on earth.
3. Prayer is where the action is.
1. PRAYER ALLOWS US TO KNOW THE HEART AND MIND OF GOD.
Emphasis on the word, “know,” has to be an intimate relationship.
George MacDonald: “It is not what God can give us, it is God we want.”
PSALM 105:4: “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.”
Gaze at God’s face; glance at his hand.
God
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gaze
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me—glance—Hand
It is possible to get our gaze and glance mixed up. Whenever we spend more time looking at God’s hand for what He will give us than looking at His face to know Him, we set up circumstances which can cause us to stumble.
Illustrate with financial need. Brother comes to you in need of house payment. Can you loan me the $1,000? You have noticed your brother’s poor stewardship. He had the $1,000 he just spent it on all sorts of luxuries and toys. Easy to be the answer to his prayers. But,
Maybe God has something else in mind. Perhaps God is forcing his to learn to handle money well. Short circuit God’s processing if we just provide the money.
Maybe God is testing faith and He is going to provide it some other way.
Must look at God’s face and see what He has in mind.
Man’s definition of prayer is to get his needs met. The Bible’s definition of prayer is that we may know Him.
When we gaze at our requests they will dominate our prayers – we tell God what needs to be done and that is dangerous.
We can always tell when our gaze and glance our reversed. We get upset when things and circumstances are not what we wanted.
My humanity says, “God heal my body, fix these circumstances, turn around this tragedy.” But God says:
2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For that is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
We must develop an eternal perspective so that we never allow earthly discomfort and problems to destroy our view of God.
See Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He also needed to see life from God’s perspective!
READ LUKE: 22:42: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet, not my will, but yours be done.”
Let me Illustrate. Several years ago one of the young mothers in our congregation was stricken with a brain aneurism on a Friday afternoon. I went to see her in the hospital. God told me she would be healed and would live to raise her children. I prayed for her and her tumor disappeared.
Tell Ruth Ann Prather Story
1. PRAYER ALLOWS US TO KNOW THE HEART AND MIND OF GOD.
2. OUR PRAYERS INTERACT WITH GOD’S WILL TO BRING CHANGES ON EARTH.
Prayer is like mixing a recipe in cooking. Our prayers mix will God’s sovereignty to effect changes on earth.
God has brought us into full partnership with Him. Let me show you some verses.
LUKE 12:32: “Fear not, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”
1 CORINTHIANS 6:2-3: “Do you not know that saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life.”
MATTHEW 16:19: “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
God makes His decisions in heaven – but the responsibility for implementing those decisions He has left to His church on Earth,
Notice our sphere of influence. “On Earth” “On Earth”.
Like safe deposit box at bank. Bank has key and you have a key. Neither alone will open the box. But insert bank’s key and insert your key and box opens.
God has a plan and a will for all sorts of things to happen on earth. But the Bible teaches that much of his will only occurs when we pray. God’s will + our prayers are both needed to make things happen on earth.
Let me illustrate:
King Hezekiah received letter that Sennacherib the Assyrian is going to besiege Jerusalem and destroy the city and all the inhabitants. Hezekiah went to the temple and spread the letter before God on the altar and prayed for God to deliver them.
ISAIAH 37:14-21: “Because you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, I will deliver you.”
That night 185,000 Assyrians died in a plague.
Remember when Abraham was pleading with God for the salvation of Sodom: “If we find 50 righteous men, 45, 40, 10. “All right, I will do it for ten.”
God begs us to pray:
MATTHEW 7:7: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Why does God have a system like this? Is God dependent on us to act? He is almighty! He is ultimate Judge and Jury and Executioner! Why does God wait for our prayers?
Because our Christian life on Earth is “On the Job training” for Eternity.
God will never do over the head of his Christians on Earth. He will not sabotage His training program. Only by exercising our full weight and responsibility can God bring us to the full stature of maturity of one day being co-sovereign of the universe!
If we do not pray then God will not act! He will not take things out of the church’s hands! He will let the whole world go to destruction first!
We can change the course of world history – By prayer. Keep our loved ones safe – change personalities – By prayer. Our children and loved ones and friends need our prayers!
And many of us are too busy. Somehow our priorities are mixed up.
Watching TV – following sports – hunting – fishing – swimming – boating – moonlighting…
We’re so busy with iphones, technology, new cars and new homes, new appliances, new furniture – that we don’t have time to pray.
We are not only cheating God, and the world, but ourselves, and our families by our failure to pray. Pray, because you care about the lives of the people around you.
2. OUR PRAYERS INTERACT WITH GOD WILLTO BRING CHANGES ON EARTH.
3. PRAYER IS WHERE THE ACTION IS.
Exodus 17 – Israel and Amalek – war in valley. Action was on hilltop with Moses, Aaron, and Hur.
Exodus 17:8-13: “Aaron and Hur held his hands up. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.”
I think prayer sometimes suffers from a poor image. We tend to think of it as something for the weak and more delicate saints to engage in while those-who-get-the-job-done are up and doing.
Let me illustrate. I remember an episode of the Lone Ranger when I was a child.
The Lone Ranger and Tonto were outside a little Spanish mission talking to a monk with a bowl haircut, wearing a coarse brown robe, with a length of rope. His hands are clasped prayerfully together; he appears meek and fragile, unworldly, unsophisticated and undernourished (from fasting)
He stands there gazing up at the Lone Ranger and Tonto, their steeds straining at their reins, flared nostrils snorting, legs dancing amid exploding clouds of dust. The Lone Ranger and Tonto have drawn their guns and their faces are fixed in determination.
The monk says something about going with them.
“You are a brave man, Father,” the masked man says. “But it may be dangerous. You had better stay here where it is safe.”
“But I want to help.” says the monk.
The strong yet kind eyes of the masked man fasten on the eyes of the monk: “You can pray.”
Suddenly the great white horse rears up on its hind legs, and with a wave of his hat and a hearty “Heigh Ho Silver – Awaaaay!” the Lone Ranger and his faithful companion gallop off to the danger that awaits them.
The camera does not follow the priest into the mission to watch him pray. It chases after the Lone Ranger and Tonto. That’s where the action is.
But the God says there is something powerful going on inside the mission in prayer.
Prayer is not a substitute for work, nor is it merely preparation for work. Prayer is work. It is hard work.
Did you see the recent article, PATIENTS HELPED BY PRAYER IN STUDY?
Growing bodies of scientific evidence that people who are prayed for recover faster than those who are not prayed for. More than 130 blind studies of people organized to pray by name for patients. Those who receive prayer experience shorted hospital stays and faster recoveries than those who aren’t.
Let me tell you about RALPH REED
Wycliffe Translator at the Catalina center. Anaphylactic shock when bitten by insect. Coma. We all prayed. Now over a week. Basically no brain waves. It didn’t look good. Called for elders to pray on the basis of James 5.
Prayed. Saw no reason for God to take him. Translation not finished. My age. Not time to die. Prayed for God to heal him. Sensed that was His will.
We enter the room in intensive care. Anointed with oil the comatose man. Nurses came in and out. Very encouraging. Three hours later he was sitting up in bed talking. I am not surprised any more.
Prayer is where the action is.
