Prayer
Luke 11:1-13
Sometimes a good person will say to me, “I prayed but nothing happened.” Another then will say, “I prayed and God answered me beyond my wildest dreams.” I think many of us live between nothing and something; silence and answers. There are those times when like the prophet we cry, “ O Lord, how long shall I cry and you will not hear! (Habakkuk 1:2)” And there are those times, we say, “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles! (Psalm 34:6)” Prayer can be both mysterious and revealing; puzzling yet fulfilling. We do not always know what will happen and not happen when we pray? One day the disciples of Jesus asked, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” What follows is a clear but weighty understanding not to prayer in general but to Christian prayer, that is, to the way the followers of Jesus Christ pray.
First, Christian prayer recognizes a personal God. When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Let your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation. When his disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray he gave them a model. Learn this and let it guide you. Strong prayer involves liturgy, that is, a set format to carry us through when we don’t know how or what to pray. We have an automatic pilot to switch on until we get our bearings. In my first pastorate in Central America the city hospital would call at the most inopportune time when they were having immense difficulty with a patient who had listed me as their pastor. At two o’clock one morning they called me about Rose. She was upsetting the ward with her incessant screaming and tossing about. They had no sedatives that would calm her down other than to call a preacher. So I arrived and assessed the situation and all the time wondering what could I possibly do? Rose swung her arms wildly from side to side yelling in great agony. The nurse backed off and watched as I walked over to her bed. I held her swinging hands and told her who I was. It made no difference. I prayed and then I asked her to pray with me in her mind the Lord’s Prayer. We began, ‘Our Father’ and as we finished reciting it she calmed and went to sleep. This format of a prayer made the difference in her pain. She found rest and so did everyone else. The key to the prayer is the way God is addressed, Father. Once my three-year-old son asked me to read a book to him for bedtime. I was busy so I handed him a book. Not to be denied he seized my face saying, “I want your face reading this book to me.” Prayer is intensely personal. We want a face. We don’t pray to an ‘it.’ We don’t pray, “O Heavenly Thing, hear my prayer. O Great Cosmic Generator turn on the power for me.” Rather we do as Jesus taught us. We address God as Father or ‘Dad.’ It is as if we pray, “Dad, I need your face. I’ve hurt myself and I need your help. Or Dad, my friend is in a bad way and I need you to help him out.” This is the level that Jesus invites us to pray on. This is the level that enables human hearts to find rest and renewal in God.
Second, Christian prayer anticipates God’s favor. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Jesus wants us to know that prayer works. He couches this truth in story of someone rapping on his neighbor’ door at midnight for bread. An unexpected guest has arrived and there is no bread in the cupboard to complete a needed meal. The awakened neighbor grumbles, “Tarnations! Who could be knocking at my door at this time of night?” “Mama, will you get up and answer the door?” “No! You get up.” “But I need my sleep. You do it.” “I’m tired too.” “Would somebody get the door before the baby and goats wake up?” The irritable neighbor finally relents, opens the door and honors the man’s request. Jesus used this story to assure us that in our daily needs we don’t have to knock down heaven’s door to get a sleepy God up from His nap. It is as Psalm 121 says, “He that keeps you will neither slumber or sleep.” The light is on. God is waiting up for you. In prayer you are not overcoming God’s reluctance but laying hold of his willingness to come to your aid. The only reluctance that you have to overcome is your own. For he who seeks finds!
Third, Christian prayer involves us in God’s answer. How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? What a strange answer? I prayed for a job, for reconciliation with my wife, for my wayward child, I prayed for more people to come to church, for the preacher to do his job, for the government to get it right and God answers that He is sending me the Holy Spirit. How does such a reply equate with real need? I mean I need money, health, and a job. I need some justice and real down to earth hope, not a religious, abstract answer. When I read this I think of Jack and the Beanstalk. His mother says, “Jack we need food in the house and we have no money. Take our cow down the town market and sell her. Then bring the money home so I can go shopping for food. Jack returns home having traded the cow for a poke of beans. His mother is aghast at the seemingly bad deal. She angrily tosses the beans out in the yard while she ponders their abject poverty. But we know the next morning the beans sprout into a vast plant winding all the way up into heaven. Eventually from that climbing vine comes an unexpected solution to their dire need. Jack climbs that plant and returns with the goose that lays the golden egg. They’re rich! The beans were not a welcomed answer but they led to a needed answer. I believe the Holy Spirit, as God’s gift to prayers, is another way of God saying, “I am sending my Special Agent to help you in this matter of concern. He will not only give answer to the present situation but will prepare you to climb and do your part in bringing the answer to all concerned.” For example if I am praying for reconciliation with someone, then by involving the Holy Spirit, the answer comes in a bigger way for everyone. The prayer is no longer limited to getting my angry wife home, but creating a movement for the better in my attitude and demeanor that compelled her to leave in the first place. Our prayers are serious business with God and His answer often begins with a change in us before there can be a change in the circumstances we are concerned with. Thus the ‘giving of the Holy Spirit’ is not an unreal reply from God but His way of saying, “Let’s sit down and think about what we need to do before we do anything. We want to get it right for everyone!”
Dr. Gerald A. Little
Bainbridge, Georgia
July 25, 2010