I was really struck by that video. It’s one thing to pray when everything in your life is smooth. But how do you pray when you are in trouble? Something that strikes me about Matthew’s gospel are these sweeping descriptions of Jesus’ ministry of healing. One example is Matthew 4:23-25:
“Jesus was going all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Then the news about Him spread throughout Syria. So, they brought to Him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases, intense pains, the demon possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And He healed them. Large crowds follow Him from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.”
It was in my early twenties that I started getting gout attacks. One day I was on my way to make a hospital call. The guy I was visiting wasn’t in terrible shape. When I left my house, I was 100% fine. By the time I got to the hospital, my ankle felt sprained. By the time I’d finished the visit, I needed crutches! I called Lara from the lobby of the hospital wondering whether I should go to the emergency room. I went to prompt care, they gave me a big green pill, and within hours I was fine.
But the attacks continued, then worsened. I started getting them in my large toe joints. First my left foot, then my right foot. I would be on crutches. I would wear a blue special shoe, drink tons of water, pop anti-inflammatories, and a few days later be okay. In the beginning it was days, then it would take a week to get well. Few things make you pray as hard as pain! As bad as gout felt in my toes, it would get worse.
A few years ago, it started to get into my knees. When the gout entered my knees, I was no longer able to control it with water, anti-inflammatories, or anything. There were nights when not only could I not sleep, but the only way I could find any relief was to wail and slap the floor with my hand. For hours on end, I’d cry out to God for healing. If there was a way to be more full of faith in that moment, I don’t know what it would be. God was so real to me. His presence and power was so real. But that pain persisted and escalated. And after one knee got better, the gout entered my other knee, and the whole process started over again! My primary care doctor didn’t have any answers… and the Great Physician seemed strangely silent!
When have you been “afflicted”, and prayed? When have you, or someone you’ve loved, suffered from “various diseases” or “intense pains”? When have you tried to chase off “demons” of fear, anxiety, depression, addiction, sexual temptation, anger, impulsivity but to no avail? The demons? When have you dealt with “epilepsy,” or “paralysis”, or something for which there is no quick fix? Prayers takes on a different level of intensity when you are in trouble. {And that trouble can just as easily be legal trouble, financial, marital, family, work-related}
Over in Luke 11:1 there was a moment where the disciples turned to Jesus and asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” A lot of people learn to pray out of a desperation. Maybe if we had the perfect prayer life, we’d never hit rock bottom. But it’s better to learn to pray in seasons of desperation, than to have never learned to pray. When I look back, I’m thankful not so much for pain (I hate pain!) But I’m thankful for the kind of intimacy with God I’ve found both through pain, and after pain subsides.
The disciples wanted to know how their prayers could be more effective. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t struggle with prayer. Here are some things that I continue learning about prayer:
First, Prayer is a Conversation. For a lot of people, prayer isn’t a two-sided conversation, it’s a one-sided conversation, it’s a monologue. In Matthew 6:7 Jesus warns against “babbling like idolaters.” Have you ever tried to have a relationship with someone who never lets you get a word in edge-wise? Their never quiet, they never ask any questions, they never stop to listen. They just go on babbling.
As bad as babbling might be, it’s even worse when combined with idolatry. Idolatry is when you put yourself, your will, your wants/desires before God. So instead of seeking to understand God’s will, your praying (babbling), wanting the whole world to turn around your will. For many people prayer is nothing more than self-centered babbling. When the disciples asked to be taught about prayer in Luke 11:1, Jesus gives the same response as he does in Matthew 6. Prayer must be centered on God. “Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.”
Let me ask, when you pray, who are you praying to? For a lot of people prayer is kind of like throwing a “hail Mary” into the end zone, hoping it will be caught. We pray into the Universe, hoping some Deity is out there listening! If you never have the Scriptures open when you pray, you’re probably just throwing hail Maryss… having one-sided, babbling, idolatrous, self-centered conversations.
The Bible orients us to the God who is really there. He is our Father. He is Holy. Prayer isn’t about my kingdom, but God’s Kingdom. Prayer isn’t about my will, I pray for God’s will be done. Prayer requires far more listening than talking.
Second, Prayer is a Relationship. Sometimes we pray, “God, if it be your will…” Yet when we pray, were praying to a God who not only wants to be known but has made himself known through his Son Jesus Christ. If we’d truly contemplate the words of Jesus, we’d enjoy such greater clarity about God’s will. We’d revel in God’s love, in his power and majesty, in his holy character. We’d find joy not just knowing God’s good, pleasing, perfect will but in actually praying it, doing it, pleasing God in every way!
A relationship is something intimate, and dynamic, and never formulaic. Suppose I related to my wife Lara, like some pray. Suppose I didn’t listen to her (sometimes she accuses me of that). Suppose I never looked into her eyes, or touched her, or served her. Suppose I never showed any gratitude, and just made demands, “do this, do that.” Suppose I’d just go through the motions of conversation, “uh huh. Yep. Okay. mmm hmmm.” There is nothing life-giving about a transactional relationship—and that’s just as true whether it’s w/your spouse, as w/God!
There is an acronym a lot of people pray with. It’s spelled A.C.T.S.: You begin your prayer with Adoration, contemplating all Who God is in His personhood. You continue with Confession, because God is affected by who you are, and what you think, and do, and say, and we’ve not always pleased God. And then you offer Thanksgiving—because if you really know God, you sense his goodness, and you’re overwhelmed by his faithfulness, and mercy, and grace. And you offer Supplication. By ending with requests, you’re assured of having first offered what God most desires: intimacy, affection, worship instead of it being an afterthought!
Third, there is Help for Prayer. If you’re prayers have been ineffective, let Jesus become your prayer coach! This week I got to thinking. What assumptions do I have about God when I pray? What assumptions should I have when I pray? What if one of Jesus’ purposes was to help us pray rightly, and effectively, to God? Did Jesus think about prayer, did he approach prayer with different assumptions, then we do? You can literally take the gospel of Matthew and make a list of things Jesus taught about prayer.
First, God is Good. In Matthew 6:31 Jesus asks how if God feeds the sparrows, and clothes the flowers of the field, how will he not do much more for you? In Matthew 7:11 Jesus asks what father, if a son asks for bread, gives him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish gives him a snake? Isn’t it interesting that in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread? Isn’t it interesting that one of Jesus biggest miracles is the feeding of the 5000—Jesus seeing people’s dire need—multiplies the fish and loaves? In Matthew 6:32 Jesus says, “Your Heavenly Father already knows what you need.” In Matthew 7:12 Jesus says, “If you though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?”
Second, the Heart Matters. In Matthew 5-6-7, you have people praying for mercy while refusing to show others mercy. You have people offering gifts on the altar while sinning against their brothers/sisters. You have people praying to look spiritual, not sincerely. You have people praying hypocritically, with no intention to do God’s will. You have people praying/fasting to draw attention to themselves, and to cause others to have pity, “woe is me.” James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.”
Third, Faith Matters. Faith is a prerequisite for effective, powerful prayer. And whatever your faith, God responds. In Matthew 8:33 you have the story of a leper; whose faith was tepid. He says to Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched the man saying, “I am willing! Be clean!” Moments later in Matthew 8:8, you have a Roman Centurion with extraordinary faith. He was like “Lord, only say the word, and my servant will be healed…” In Matthew 17:20 Jesus says, “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” This ought to be encouraging to us all—the smallest amount of faith inclines the heart of God. Not just the greatest, even the smallest. When you pray, don’t obsess whether you have great enough faith. Just pray. Tiniest amount works.
Fourth, God Welcomes. We so often think. I’ve sinned. I’ve drifted so far from God. What does Jesus say in Matthew 7:7-12, “Keep asking and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.” God won’t shut you out!
Fifth, God Heals. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Who is weary, who feels burdened?
In Matthew 8:23-27 the disciples are caught in a storm, their being pounded by the wind and waves, their boat is sinking, they are in fear of their lives. But Jesus knows their fear and says, “‘Why are you fearful, you of little faith?’ He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.” How many of you have a storm in your life that needs to be called? God sees your fear.
In Matthew 8:14-17 he heals Peter’s mother-in-law of fever. Matthew 8:17 says of Jesus, “He Himself took our weaknesses and carried our diseases.” Why should we assume God has changed? Do you have a weakness? Do you have disease? Why wouldn’t you ask God for healing? I’ve prayed for God to heal my gout. A few months ago, I started taking this tiny little pill. It took a while, but it is purging my body of all the uric acid crystals that have triggered my gout attacks. I wake up and there isn’t any pain. I go to bed, no pain. I work out in the yard, or garage, standing on my feet for hours… my feet get tired, but the pain is gone. Someone will say, “Yea, but you didn’t get healed, you have to take a pill.” But what does James 1:17 say? “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Thank you, Great Physician Jesus it just takes a tiny pill!
Sixth, God saves. In Matthew 9 a paralyzed man seeks healing, but what he most needs is forgiveness, so Jesus forgives him first. When we pray, we can trust that God will always do the thing that leads us to repentance and forgiveness and salvation before he does the thing that just makes our life a little better now. Jesus would rather our body be destroyed and our soul saved than our body saved and soul destroyed. If it takes pain to save a soul, I suspect God will allow pain. If it takes healing to save a soul, I suspect God will bring healing. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prays to be delivered from death… but it was God’s will that Jesus die for the sins of many. When it comes to salvation of many, God allowed the death of his One and Only Son. Jesus posture was, “Father not my will but your will be done…” He is our example.
Seventh, Church Matters. In Matthew 18:18-20 Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. If two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” In Matthew 21:13 Jesus declares that God’s house should be a house of prayer!
Confession Time: I don’t pray enough. Our Elders/staff don’t pray enough. Our church doesn’t pray enough. Our churches at large, do not pray enough. Your family doesn’t pray enough. You don’t pray enough.
But that only means one thing—we’ve not even begun to tap into the power of prayer. There is so much room for us to learn, and grow, and taste God’s goodness, and grow in faith and righteousness, and seek God, and receive healing, and find forgiveness/salvation, and grow as a community of faith.