I recently reached out for prayer on a Facebook prayer group of which I am a member. I normally would not have put things out there quite that public, but I am going through some pretty dark times right now. God is navigating me through a very low point in my life. Although I trust Him, i also am apprehensive about where He is leading. My experience brought back a memory from a few months ago. A young man called me and had been injured and was uncertain what the eventual outcome would be. He asked, " will you pray for me?" The answer is obvious, of course I will. There was one problem, and admittedly It may have hindered my praying. My first thought and the one that lingered with me even as I prayed was, " Is this guy serious?" He has, and outwardly displays a complete disdain for the truth of Scripture, and anything moral and Godly. He flaunts a deplorably sinful lifestyle and hates anyone who attempts right living. He is so blinded by Satan that He honestly believes He is ok in the sight of God. He thinks God will work in His life while He has no sense of repentance in His heart. I found myself wondering, " is this guy for real ?" Apparently He has no concept of what Prayer is all about or the power of it. As I prayed, and found a generic and gentle way to also pray about His spiritual condition, I found myself wondering, " Does He know what He is getting into." A thousand page book could not teach us everything we could learn about prayer. There are a few principles though that we need to understand when we pray and especially when we ask another to pray for us.
PRAYER REQUIRES BEING SERIOUS WITH GOD.
God has in no Scripture promised to answer any prayer of a lost person, except the prayer of confession and repentance, for salvation. In fact He has not promised He will hear and answer every prayer of a Christian. David said, " if I had cherished sin in my heart, The Lord would not have listened." Psalm 66:18 Jesus said that if we abide in Him and His word abides in us we shall ask what we will, and it would be done for us. John 15:7 Make no mistake about it we are all sinful people and none pf us really deserve God's blessing and answered prayers. Daniel said, " We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy." Dan. 9.18 Jesus's story of the Pharisee and the tax collector probably tells the story best. The Pharisee in His pompous arrogance, was not heard, but because of His humble submissive heart the tax collector was justified. Make no mistake about it We will not achieve perfection in this life, and we all sin daily. At the same time we understand that God is under no obligation to answer the prayers of a rebellious child. When we come to Christ in prayer we must come with a humble repentant spirit. We must be willing to get serious with God.
PRAYER CHANGES US NOT GOD
We are told to ask in His name. John said that we have confidence that if we ask according to His will He will hear us. I John 5:14-15 It has always been in God's will to bless us, but He has to maneuver our lives into a position where blessing is possible. God, like a good parent can never reward bad behavior, so the young man of which I spoke cannot expect much if his prayers stand alone. Prayer is an intimate communication with God wherein He changes our hearts to be in line with His will. He is not doing anything for us that He did want to do before we prayed. What He is able to do in our prayers is to change our hearts so that what we want falls into line with what He wants to do anyway.
When the Disciples said, "Lord teach us to pray." the model prayer that followed has a certain human psychology built into it. It deals with our human need both physically and spiritually. It deals with our relationship to God. It then deals with our relationship to others. Prayer covers every facet of our lives. We use the cliche' Prayer changes things, and it is true, however Prayer never changes things until it first changes us.
PRAYER UNLEASHES THE POWER OF GOD
We need to understand first, that the very act of prayer whether serious or not, whether personal or requested of others is an acknowledgement that there is a God that can be talked to. The young man of which I spoke may not be interested in God enough to be repentant of Sin, but had enough faith in God to realize that He exists and answers prayers. That is a very dangerously wonderful position to be in. He does not realize that by allowing enough light to shine into His life to reach out for prayer He has opened the door for God to begin to speak on matters of His life. As an old preacher I grew up under used to say, "He's on saving ground." There is a power that exists in prayer by numbers. In Matthew 19:18 Jesus said that if two of us agree as touching, He said that anything we ask would be done for us. This is why we reach out to other believers for prayer support. This is primarily why no one, no matter how hard the heart, or vile the life, is out of the reach of God. The hardest most shielded armor, if a crack exists gives way for the light to shine in. If the smallest of lights can get in then the door is open for God's light to flood in. Light is always more powerful than darkness. Remember that Saul of Tarsus was so far from God that He persecuted and Killed Christians. He to thought that His life was great, until God blinded Him on the Damascus road. I have many times from the pulpit in jest, said "if you want to get even with your enemy, pray for them." It sounds funny and sometimes get a laugh, but it is true. Paul in Romans quoted and affirmed Solomon's statement that it heaps coals of fire on their heads. Some would say that this is praying punishment down on them, but nothing could be further from the truth. What is happening is that when God begins opening Himself up to and revealing Himself to the hard of heart, He turns up the heat in their lives until they pay attention. I served with a wonderful gentleman who had been paralyzed by a motorcycle wreck. He was not in any way bitter but He went to His grave believing that God had allowed the wreck and His paralysis in order to get His attention. I don't know about His case but i do know that the man I knew in the wheel chair was one heck of a great Christian man. Using Saul of Tarsus as an example one preacher i heard said, " How dramatic God gets in your life depends on how deep you've sunk. pretty good words of wisdom. For all the stories and talk the message is this. Prayer especially when joined to the agreed prayers of others unleashes the power of God, in amazing ways.
There is a cliche' that says, " be careful what you ask for you just might get it." The truth is that you may even get more than you asked for. You may be asking prayer for a physical, financial, relationship, or whatever need, but when you open yourself up to the working of God in your life, you may well be in for a radical life changing experience. The good news is that the sinful life you that you think you enjoy and have no intention of leaving, will not even be a second thought when God brings you out of it. What God does in our lives is always intended to bring us joy. He changes us, not the other way around.
