Prayer in Times of Need

 

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!

God promises to answer our prayers. He knows our needs. But we are to pray to God about these needs so that He can show that He hears and answers prayers. Yet we are to remember that God does not satisfy our greeds or meet our whims, He is the wisest Father who wisely, compassionately meets our needs, abundantly, even exceedingly above what we ask or even think.

Ask for Needs not Greeds!

We must constantly ask ourselves before we go to God with petitions, whether they are driven by need or greed. We are in a society that is so much powered by greed than need. To our shame, we tend to ever go before God always wanting more. Do you find it hard to be satisfied with what you have? Then you know what I am talking about – I wish I lived in this or that estate, or had this or that car or I wish I could get promoted or I had a Masters or Doctorate degrees, etc. Sadly this has taken its toll on our prayers! You will discover that you often turn to God with grossly selfish requests. We must learn to examine our motives as we make our requests to God… we should request what we need.

Prayer is one of the means that God uses to teach us contentment. “…Give us this day our daily bread…” (Matthew 6:11)

Read James 4:3 on motives – You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Our motives for the things we need or desire has to be not to simply spend it on our passions but to honour God. We must not think that God is there to simply gratify our fleshly appetites. The Lord God in his omniscience knows what goes on in our minds, and hearts so that He will give what we need.

We may bring any requests but be careful not to bring selfish requests. How do we guard against greed in our prayers? Contentment with God’s provision – for contentment extinguishes greed. In 1 Timothy 6:6–10 we read, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” Contentment is here contrasted with the a deep desire for the things of this world. People who are contented appreciate what the Lord has given them. We must not only fight away covetousness, but also be appreciative of what the Lord has provided for us. Let us therefore pray for the true needs, genuine needs. And the Lord makes the promise – ask and you will be given!

Seek and you will find.

Seeking Changed. Do we try to change God through prayer? Are our requests intended to compel Him to act in ways He did not already intend? Since God is unchanging, why do we bother to pray at all? Whenever we ask God to grant something we need, we are asking Him in effect to direct the events of the world. When we seek, we are to be careful to seek only the will of God in our lives. We are to seek what the Lord would have us seek. But then most of the times we do not know what the Lord’s will is. So we are to seek in submission to the will of God which will be revealed with what God will supply in due time. So we ask, do our prayers and petitions change God or his mind? Why do we pray then if God’s will is not changed by our prayers?

1)    Petitions do not certainly change God

God has a comprehensive and unchangeable plan for His creation. His designs for history have been set and cannot be altered: Proverbs 16:4; Isaiah 46:9-10; Job 23:13-14

Clearly our petitions cannot interrupt God’s plan for the universe any more than a trampoline can break the power of gravity to reach the moon! What benefits do we derive in this knowledge? This means that even when going through all sorts of difficulties, even from the devil himself we can take solace in the knowledge that our holy God has ordained the events of history for our good and His eternal glory (Romans 8:28). He works all things together for the good of those who love him and whom he has called according to his purpose.

2)    Prayers are ordained by God Himself as a means of moving Him to action! (We must always achieve the balance of both)

Why pray when God already knows and controls everything? Why go to a doctor? Why work? Why evangelize? God’s plan is so comprehensive that it not only includes the final destinies of things but also includes the secondary means and causes. All the creaturely processes that work together to accomplish these ends are in the mind of God when answering individual prayers. Not only that but also all tertiary input are considered, with time, and effect on all the people, and all the creatures in the purpose of God.

God did not only ordain light but He also created the sun and the moon! God does not just ordain that someone will recover from sickness but has given medical knowledge, doctors and medication to accomplish the healing. God has established these creaturely actions as vital creaturely means for accomplishing His purposes. Prayer is one of the secondary causes through which God fulfils His Plans. So we should be careful not to neglect prayer since it is equally God’s means.

See the example of Moses’s prayer in Exodus 32 after God had already said that He was going to annihilate the Israelites for being so stiff necked. And yet the Lord relented from what He had intended to do. God expects us to seek his intervention and help in every circumstances. More often than not we think that we can do without his divine interventions, to our own detriment. But God knows that when we pray, we not only derive joy when we get favourable answers, but also our faith is strengthened and our resolve to follow him and his ways further established.

Knocking on your Expectations Not Resignations!

What kinds of expectations may we have when we make requests to God, request his help and seek his interventions? What do we think will happen when we knock at his door? Will He give us what we want or not? Some tell you that “Believe with your whole heart as you pray and you will get it” True or false? Others will tell you, “Trust in the will of God. Pray not for your will but for God’s will, and trust Him to do the right thing.” Which one is true?

We have to learn that faith requires humble trust in God, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not in your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight (Prov. 3:5-6) Our desire should be to see the will of God done – your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt 6:10) Our greatest desire should be to see the will of God realized in the affairs of humanity as it is in the perfection of heaven. The example of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane is also instructive:

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” Matthew 26:42

He prayed. He prayed again! He prayed with expectations. But the Lord also prayed with submission to the will of God. Why did Jesus pray like this when we knew that it was a predetermined plan of God? Even when we know that God predicted this sad occurrence so many times in the Bible we see the Lord pray! We must not be prayer less into a state of fatalism. Jesus’ prayer teaches this in the loudest way possible. Can a true believer pray like this,

“God, You already know everything and you have the power to do everything, I therefore do not need to present any request to you – please take care of it since you are God. Amen!”

NO in times of trouble we go before the Lord with serious consideration and seek His help.

We must work towards enthusiastic prayerfulness, rather than resign to weak or prayerless attitude. Contrary to the attitude of resignation, Jesus taught that prayer involves expectation as well. Consider the following verses:

John 14:13–14 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

John 16:23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.

1 John 3:21–22 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

Others think that simply repeating in their prayer, “…in Jesus’ Name…” will make their needs to be met. Prayer in Christ’s name is more than repeating a formula. It involves a wholehearted communion with him in which the believer is conformed to Christ and His purposes. In John 15:7 the Lord taught, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

What does it mean to pray in Jesus’ Name? It is to pray in harmony with Him, seeking His intercession and submitting to Him as Lord. Christ does not assure us that all our petitions will be granted when we pray in a certain method. Rather He teaches that those requests that are in accordance with His Name, that is, His holy character as our intercessor, will be granted by the Father in His own wisdom.

Despite our good motives and high hopes, much of what we pray for simply does not materialize. We may want people to be converted, career advancements, healing from afflictions and even believe with the whole of our hearts. Yet these hopes are not fulfilled. What if God chooses to say no? How can we avoid severe disappointments in these situations? What expectations can we have as we pray? Expectation in prayer operates on two basic levels:

1)    We must always maintain a general confidence in the goodness of God (Psalm 34:8)

2)    God will particularly show His goodness to His people (Psalm 73:1)

Since God is good we should always expect His responses to be good.

Psalm 25:7

            Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;

                        according to your steadfast love remember me,

                        for the sake of your goodness, O LORD! (ESV)

Caution: to affirm that God always does good is not to say that all of God’s responses will seem good to us. Often the perfect actions of God can appear to be less than good from the human point of view… a prayer for recovery of a sick one who ends up dead, a country praying for peace ending up in violence or war.

In all these situations we must recognize that human limitations and biases can skew our perceptions so that we do not see the reality. We can also have confidence in prayer also to take a form of compelling certainty that particular things will be granted as the Holy Spirit works in us to give us a level of this conviction. Beware also of too much confidence.

Prayer can be Learnt

 

Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Many people do not know how to pray. The disciples confessed they did not know how to pray. The Scriptures tells us that “We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us… (Rom. 8:26). The good news is that we have Christ, and we have the Spirit. We have His Word. From the Word we can learn how to pray. We know that through Christ we have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18). The Spirit helps to pray by interceding for us, and the Son too intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).

For prayer is learned and yes, you should learn to pray. This should give you a new hope and resolve to pray. Anyone can learn how to pray. Anyone can begin the Christian life without any knowledge or experience of prayer and yet along the way learn how to pray. No matter how weak or strong your prayer life is right now, you can learn to pray and grow even stronger in your prayer life to become a prayer warrior!

How or even where do we learn how to pray?

1.     By Praying

Just like you learn a foreign language by speaking it, so you learn prayer by praying! “Reading a book about prayer, listening to lectures, and talking about it is very good, but it won’t teach you to pray. You get nothing without exercise, without practice. I might listen for a year to a professor of music playing the most beautiful music, but that won’t teach me to play an instrument.” Andrew Murray. In the same way, learn how to pray by praying, “Lord, teach me how to pray!”

2.     By Meditating on Scripture

This is one of the most compelling concepts on prayer. Meditation is the missing link between Bible intake and prayer. The two are often disjointed when they should be united. We read the Bible, close it, and then try to shift gears into prayer. But many times it seems as if the gears between the two won’t mesh. In fact, after some forward progress in our time in the Word, shifting to prayer sometimes is like suddenly moving back into a neutral or even reverse gear. Instead, there should be a smooth, almost unnoticeable transition between Scripture input and prayer output so that we move even closer to God in those moments. This happens when there is the link of meditation in between.

So what is meditation?

Psalm 19:14: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Notice that both verses are prayers and both refer to other “words” spoken in prayer. Yet in each case meditation was a catalyst that catapulted David from the truth of God into talking with God. In 5:1 he has been meditating and now he asks the Lord to give ear to it and to consider it.

Meditation allows us to take what God has said to us and think deeply on it, digest it, and then speak to God about it in meaningful prayer. As a result, we pray about what we’ve encountered in the Bible, now personalized through meditation. And not only do we have something substantial to say in prayer, and the confidence that we are praying God’s thoughts to Him, but we transition smoothly into prayer with a passion for what we’re praying about. Then as we move on with our prayer, we don’t jerk and lurch along because we already have some spiritual momentum.

Anyone who has heard the story of George Muller ponders the secret of his effectiveness in prayer. Although some argue for one thing as Muller’s “secret” and others argue for another, I believe we must ultimately attribute his unusually successful prayer life to the sovereignty of God. But if we look for something transferable from his life to ours, my vote goes for something I’ve never heard credited as his “secret.”

How do we learn to pray? How do we learn to pray like David, the Puritans, and George Muller? We learn to pray by meditating on Scripture, for meditation is the missing link between Bible intake and prayer.

3.     By Praying with Others

The disciples learned to pray not only by hearing Jesus teach about prayer, but also by being with Him when He prayed. Let’s not forget that the words “Lord, teach us to pray” didn’t just come as a random idea. This request followed a time when the disciples accompanied Jesus in prayer (Luke 11:1). In a similar way, we can learn to pray by praying with other people who can model true prayer for us.

There are always other believers who can teach us much by praying with them. But we pray with them to learn principles of prayer, not phrases for prayer. One fellow Christian may give biblical reasons to the Lord why a prayer should be answered. Another might show us how to pray through passages of Scripture. By praying with a faithful intercessor we might learn how to pray for missions. Praying regularly with others can be one of the most enriching adventures of your Christian life. Most of the great movements of God can be traced to a small group of people He called together to begin praying.

4.     By Reading About Prayer

Reading about prayer instead of praying simply will not do. But reading about prayer in addition to praying can be a valuable way to learn. “As iron sharpens iron,” says Proverbs 27:17, “so one man sharpens another.”

Read the lessons learned by veterans of the trenches of prayer and let them sharpen your weapons of the warfare of prayer. “He who walks with the wise grows wise” is the teaching of Proverbs 13:20. Reading the books of wise men and women of prayer gives us the privilege of “walking” with them and learning the insights God gave them on how to pray.

We’ve learned from experience how others can see things in a passage of Scripture we cannot, or how they are able to explain a familiar doctrine in a fresh way that deepens our understanding of it. In the same way reading what others have learned about prayer from their study of Scripture and their pilgrimage in grace can be God’s instrument of teaching us what we’d never learn otherwise. Who hasn’t learned about praying in faith after reading of George Muller’s prayer life, or who hasn’t been motivated to pray after reading David Brainerd’s biography? When we read about prayer, we are sparked into praying.

There are many good books to encourage us to pray. Here is my top ten list of books on prayer:

1)    The Valley of Vision – A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions by Arthur Bennet

2)    Praying the Bible – Donald Whitney

3)    A Call to Prayer – J.C. Ryle

4)    The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer – E.M. Bounds

5)    Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation – D.A. Carson

6)    The Power of Prayer & Fasting – Ronnie Floyd & Bill Bright

7)    Praying: Finding our Way through Duty to Delight – J.I. Packer & C. Nystrom

8)    Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy – Tim Keller

9)    The Hidden Life of Prayer – David McIntyre

10) A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World – Paul Miller

Hopefully this convinces you that you can learn to pray by reading about prayer! No matter how difficult prayer is for you now. If you will persevere in learning how to pray you will always have the hope of an even stronger and more fruitful prayer life ahead of you.

In conclusion this is how you should pray:

Fervently: I draw your attention to an Old Testament prayer, a prayer of David. Yet we know that David did not know as much Scriptures or revelation as we have now. He did not know of the immense privileges we have in Christ at this time. He greeted most of our blessings from afar (Hebrews 11:13,39-40, 1 Peter 1:12). Yet the way he led the national prayer meeting cannot be compared with our church prayers today!

Unceasingly: The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). We must never be tired of bringing our needs to the Lord. We should always remember what a Friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! Have you no words to pray? Ah! Think again! But words flow apace when you complain and fill your fellow creature’s ears with sad tales of all your cares! It should be more than half of your breath is spent sending prayers, supplications and thanksgivings and praise to the throne of grace in heaven.

According to God’s will: We must pray according to God’s will is the best for us. We must be those who pray like the Lord, “…Not my will but yours be done, O LORD.”  James warns us against the sin of presumptuousness in James 4:13-17. One of the instructions he gives is this, “Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (v.15).

In Faith. James says that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit (James 5:17-18) He says that the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick (v.15). We need to fully trust in God’s power to do what we are requesting and depend on his grace to do us good. We must also trust him to give what is best, better than what we can think or imagine.

How May we Pray? (1)

 

Matthew 6:9-15

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.

We must not forget that prayer is an offering up of our desires to God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.

God has given us directions on how to pray in the Bible alone. Therefore, the whole Word of God is of use to direct us in prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is the special rule of direction which Christ taught His disciples.

The Lord’s prayer has the essential elements which must not be lacking in any prayer. After all when the disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray, the Lord gave them a model prayer. It is not that the Lord’s prayer should be repeated thoughtlessly, but it is a kind of mould upon which we must base our prayers. It has the following essential elements of prayer:

The preface of the Lord’s Prayer

The preface of the Lord’s Prayer is, “Our Father in heaven,”  This teaches us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, who is able and ready to help us. That He is ‘our Father’ shows that we should pray with and for others. Yet, we must also acknowledge that the phrase “Our Father” presupposes adoption into God’s family. Not every person on earth is a child of God. Only those who are in Christ, washed by his blood, regenerated by the Life-giving Spirit are truly children of God. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13).

If you have not been saved by the grace of God, then you cannot pray, “Our Father” because God is not your Father. God is only the Father of those who believe in His Son and are indwelt by His Spirit. If you call on the name of the Lord today, you will be saved. When you are saved, you become a child of God and you receive all the privileges of being children of God. God being your Father is willing to listen to and answer your prayers, exceedingly and abundantly beyond what we ask or imagine.

What a great privilege it is to belong to God as his own child! What a blessing to have the heavenly Father as our Father? Behold, what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we are should be called children of God; and so we are! … Beloved, we are God’s children…! (1 John 3;1, 2).

What do we pray for in the first petition?

In the first petition, which is, “Hallowed be your name,” we pray, for two things;

a)     That God would enable us and others to glorify Him in all that He makes Himself known. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. We were created by God to be instruments of his praise. We are to glorify God whether we eat or drink or whatever we do (1 Cor. 10:31). We are also to call and invite others to come and glorify God. Those who are redeemed, are also called to live in such a manner that God would be glorified. Therefore it is our prayer that God would be glorified in us, and so we petition the Lord to give us the ability to glorify him.

b)    That He would dispose all things to His own glory. We are also to pray that God would act in such a manner, for us, that all things around us will bring glory to Him. May the Lord God in his grace cause and dispose all things to bring glory to Him.

What do we pray for in the second petition?

In the second petition, which is, “Your kingdom come,” we pray for:

a)     That Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed. The gospel is the primary weapon which has power to demolish the kingdom of Satan. The Lord is building His church as the primary instrument for pulling down all the strongholds of the evil one. The church destroys the kingdom of Satan by building Christ’s kingdom on earth, as the gospel is proclaimed, the saints are gathered to worship God, to live upright and godly lives in the present evil world, hastening the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. The church will ultimately be the only kingdom.

b)    That the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it. The advance of the kingdom of Christ as more sinners hear the gospel, believe in Christ, added to the church, conveyed into the kingdom of Christ, and so the kingdom of Christ is established in different parts of the world. When we pray that Christ’s kingdom may come on earth, we are also commiting to be instruments of building the kingdom by our witness. Our testimony must showcase the glories of Christ.

c)     That the kingdom of glory may be hastened. We pray that the Lord Jesus Christ may soon return. Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God is our business. We are waiting for new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells.

This is a big petition for we have the interest of the progress and prosperity of the kingdom of Christ. We are not just thinking of ourselves, but we are thinking of Christ, and his kingdom.

What do we pray for in the third petition?

In the third petition, which is, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we pray that God, by His grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to His will in all things, as the angels do in heaven. There is no better will than the will of God. God being holy and omniscient, disposes only good things to his people. His will is the best and we wiser to trust his will more.

What do we pray for in the fourth petition?

In the fourth petition, which is, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we pray that of God’s free gift we may receive a competent, that sufficiently satisfying portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy His blessing with them. We have material needs. We need food and clothing. We need good health. We need work to meet our needs and those of others. We need God’s provision every day and so we are to look to Him to provide for us. He is willing to provide for us, just any father provides for the needs of his children. 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 gifts to those who ask him! (Matt. 7:9-11)

What do we pray for in the fifth petition?

In the fifth petition, which is, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,” we pray that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by His grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others. We are to be willing to forgive others more liberally, seeing how much the Lord has been merciful to forgive us such a great debt of sin. Forgiveness should flow in every vein of every child of God.

The Lord speaks about this some more in verse 14, where the Lord says, “For if we 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.”

What do we pray for in the sixth petition?

In the sixth petition, which is, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted. This aknowledges that we are in a fallen world with many enemies of our souls. The devil, the world and the flesh are an evil trinity which seeks to destroy our souls. But thanks be to God who delivers us from all of them!

What does the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer teach us?

The conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, which is, “For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen,” teaches us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise Him, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to Him.

In testimony of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.