Martin Luther said, “As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.” Christians must pray.
Matthew 6:5–15
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Is it not remarkable that God; the almighty God, the King of kings, the eternal Creator of all things visible and invisible, the infinitely holy God, has provided access for us into His throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need? Is it not a great wonder that God has time and space for such worms as we are? What is man, O God, that you are mindful of him? Who are we that you care to listen to our poor prayers? Yet, the Lord hears and answers our prayers. Therefore, this is a call to pray – ceaseless prayer.
Acts 2:42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The early church devoted themselves to the prayers. They knew that apart from God they could do nothing. Although they had been with Christ, and had seen the Holy Spirit descend upon them in the form of tongues of fire, yet they still devoted themselves to the prayers. They had the ministry of the apostles, who had been personally commissioned by the risen Lord, yet they devoted themselves to the prayers. How much more should we? We cannot pray enough! Since we have infinite needs we also should pray as much! We must especially pray considering that the Lord tell us that we have not because we do not ask (James 4:2). We need to be more ardent and fervent in our prayers. Oh what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
The word translated ̳devote‘ means, to continue to do something with intense effort, with the possible implication of success despite difficulty. These dear brothers and sisters who constituted the early church, who met locally in Jerusalem, persisted in prayer. We are to be persistent in our prayers. The Lord commended the persistent widow because of her importunity. In the same way we are to devote ourselves to prayer. The Lord hears our prayers.
What is it to pray?
It is to make requests to God. To pray is to plead with God to act on your behalf. It is to ask God to undertake for you. It is to submit to God‘s will, power and grace knowing that He is able, He is God, He is worthy and He is near. He hears, He knows, He is willing and He is able. When the church gathers to pray, they are humbly looking to God to show them such favour as to act on their behalf, for His glory. John Bunyan, the 17th.Century pastor has defined prayer this way:
Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to His Word, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.
Why do we NOT pray?
Donald Whitney in his book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life asks the question, "Why, then, do so many believers confess that they do not pray as they should?" He then provides seven possible reason of why we do not pray as we should. I will list them here:
· The problem is primarily a lack of discipline: Prayer is never planned since there is not time allotted for praying! If you do not plan, then you plan to fail! While lip service is given to the priority of prayer, it always seems to get crowded out by things more urgent. We plan a time to prepare to preach and a time to eat (breakfast, lunch and supper). We plan when we sleep! Why do we not plan when to pray? Is it because we do not want to pray? Possibly!
· We doubt that anything will actually happen if we pray. Of course, we don’t admit this publicly. But if we felt certain of visible results within sixty seconds of every prayer, there would be hardened knees for every Christian. Prayer involves communication in the spiritual realm. Many prayers are answered in ways that cannot be seen in the material realm. Many prayers are answered in ways different from what we asked. For a variety of reasons, after we open our eyes we do not always see tangible evidence of our prayers. When we are not vigilant, this tempts us to doubt the power of God through prayer.
· There are periods when life seems quite manageable. Although Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), this truth hits home more forcefully at some times than at others. In pride and self-sufficiency, we may live for days as though prayer were needed only when something comes along that’s too big for us to handle on our own. Until we see the danger and foolishness of this attitude, God’s expectation for us to pray may seem irrelevant.
· Sin is a great hindrance to prayer. When we are living a sinful life, communion with God is almost impossible because of guilt and shame. Adam and Eve ran and hid from God after eating the forbidden fruit. We also constantly do the same.
· A lack of sensing the nearness of God may also discourage prayer. There are those wonderful moments when the Lord seems so near that we almost expect to hear an audible voice. No one needs to be prodded to pray in such times of precious intimacy with God. Usually, though, we don’t feel like that. In fact, sometimes we can’t feel the presence of God at all. While it’s true that our praying (as well as all aspects of our Christian living) should be governed by the truth of Scripture rather than our feelings, nevertheless the frailty of our emotions frequently erodes our desire to pray. When the desire to pray is weakened, we can find many other things to do.
· When our awareness of the greatness of God and the gospel is dim, our prayer lives will be small. The less we think of the nature and character of God, and the less we are reminded of what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross, the less we want to pray. When I think of what Christ has done and saved me from, when I recall the shame He endured so willingly for my sake, when I remember all that salvation means, prayer is not hard.
· Many Christians haven’t learned about prayer. We hope to learn not just why not, but also why and how to pray. I also hope to encourage your prayers by showing you the power of prayer.
Why do we pray?
We pray because of God. God commands and expects us to pray.
Jesus taught us how to pray. In Matthew 6 He taught, ― And when you pray... And when you pray... Pray then like this...” (vv. 5,7,9). The Lord himself prayed (Luke 11:1) and this gives us sufficient example and motivation to pray. His disciples prayed and he chided them when they did not pray. His church devoted herself to prayer.
We pray for our own good and advantage. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord encouraged his disciples to pray when he said, ―Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you‖ (Matthew7:7). The assurance that God answers prayer is enough motivation for us to pour out ardent prayers. ―What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit! O what needless pain we bear! All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer! (Joseph Scriven, 1820- 1886).
Yet, one of the sad characteristic of our prayers is that they are not saturated with God enough. They are full of petitions and very little of God. Clearly our understanding of what makes prayer is so wanting... and why so? Could it be because of ignorance of God‘s word?
Applications
1. Pray at all times. Whatever you do or do not do, make sure that you are constant and fervent in prayer. You are to pray and praise in different life circumstances without fail for the Bible says, “…Let him pray… Let him sing praise.” The Elders of the church are told, “…let them pray. And the church is expected to pray, for we read, “…pray for one another.” Finally, we read of the prayer of Elijah, “… he prayed.” I repeat, – Pray without ceasing!
2. Be open with your needs, especially to God. The Bible says here, ask, seek and knock. The Lord assures us in Matthew 7:7–11,
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
3. Do not hide your sins but confess them. Since we have established that sin is one of the greatest hindrances to communion with God, then you ought to constantly confess your sins to God and one another. He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but he who confess and forsakes will obtain mercy (Pro. 28:13). We should be constantly confessing and constantly forgiving. The Lord our God is great in forgiving sins and iniquities.
4. We should learn how to pray from the Scriptures. James takes us to the Biblical example of Elijah. Indeed we can learn how to pray from others. How do you learn to pray?
- By praying
- By meditating on Scripture
- By praying with others
- By reading about prayer
- By praying other people’s prayers
NB: This is the first of the messages being preached in Kiswahili, which will be available for free download at the Trinity Baptist Church Nairobi YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0y9ZDTkCi4&t=785s
