June 22, 2002

Prayer

Questions to discuss:

1. In view of God's sovereignty, what is the role of prayer in a Christian's life? (Does prayer actually change things?)

2. What does "Ask and ye shall receive" mean? Can I ask for whatever I please? What are the conditions to getting what I prayer for?

3. Does God really speak to us, and if so, how does He communicate to us?

4. Does it make a difference if I pray five minutes a day or fifty minutes or five hours, and does it make a difference if one person prays, or fifty, or five hundred?

· Before we begin talking about these questions, I do think it would be useful to talk about what prayer is. What is prayer?

· The definition can be quite simple, can’t it? Prayer is our way of talking to God. God made us and redeemed us for fellowship with Himself, and prayer plays an important part in that relationship.

· God talks to us through his written Word, which the Holy Spirit takes and applies to us and enables us to understand. The way we can communicate back with God is through prayer; prayer about Himself, ourselves, and other people. The way we communicate back is, of course, based on what He has communicated to us in the first place.

· The most emphasized aspects (or elements) of prayer are the ones that the word “prayer” itself seems to bring to mind: petition (or supplication). However, prayer has other important elements as well: adoration and praise, confession, and intercession.

· Of course, the most wonderful example of prayer is our Lord’s prayer that we all know very well. R. C. Sproul in “The Bible – God’s Story Through Time and Eternity” says that he was surprised that when the disciples asked “How should we pray?” the Lord actually gave them an example. Why’s that? Because they already had 150 awesome examples (what would these be?). And that’s true for us as well. Read Psalms if you want to know how to pray.

· Is prayer important? If you’re a Christian, you bet it is! In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Paul says: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

· Also, at the end of Ephesians, in chapter 6, after Paul presents the armor that we are to put on as Christians he concludes (v. 17, 18): “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” Prayer is an important part of the armor that we are to put on in order to be able to stand the “wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:11).

· Also, prayer is the way we can bring our problems before the Lord. In Philippians 4:6, 7, Paul says: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;” and the consequence of doing that: “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts an minds through Christ Jesus.” And also in 1 Peter 5:6, 7 (another well-known verse): “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

· And a last (but not least) point. Prayer is definitely important due to the importance that our King and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus, gave to it. In the Gospels, we see Jesus oftentimes spending a great deal of time in prayer, talking to His Father. Is there a better example?

· Lesser examples can be found in the lives of great men of faith who have as a common characteristic a healthy prayer life (we will see an example in a little bit).

· Let’s move on to the questions! For the answers I have used R. C. Sproul’s “Now, That’s a Good Question!”, a book that I highly recommend. (I’ve made other recommendations before (“The Bondage of the Will” by Martin Luther, “Putting Amazing Back into Grace” by Michael Horton, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards (a sermon, actually), for instance) and I don’t know how many of you actually took them seriously. I do think however that you should think seriously about what you’re feeding your mind upon. And my personal opinion is that you’ll benefit much more from reading this book (or any of the others I’ve mentioned) than from reading the so-called “biblical fiction” novel “Left Behind” or any other such masterpiece of modern evangelicalism. But I am digressing…)

1. In view of God's sovereignty, what is the role of prayer in a Christian's life? (Does prayer actually change things?)

What do you think? Can prayer change things? First, we’ll at an answer that puts an interesting spin on the question. Prayer definitely changes things and the first thing that it changes, it changes us. Like I mentioned earlier, one of the important aspects of prayer is adoration. What happens to a Christian who learns how to adore God in prayer? That person is changed. That person clearly realizes to Whom he or she is praying. And this is paramount! Understanding to Whom you are praying makes all the difference. Why? Because many a time nowadays we become so accustomed to praying that we adopt quite a flippant attitude towards it and the things we say. Let’s not forget that we come for an audience before the eternal throne of the Almighty God having the Lord Jesus as the foundation of our boldness. The words we use and the attitude we have cannot be the same as the attitude we have when we talk to our buddies. Think about it! “God looks upon the heart” you might say. That is so very true but you cannot argue that the attitude of the heart will have no impact on outward appearances as well.

What happens to a Christian who learns how to show gratitude towards God? That person will now become more and more aware of the hand of Providence in his or her life. Another aspect of prayer is confession.

What happens to a Christian who learns how to confess his sins? He always keeps in the front of his mind the holiness of God and the importance of living a life pleasing to Him.

Now, we come to the initial meaning (or intent) of the question. Can prayer change things that have been ordained by God? In other words, can my prayers change God’s mind? Or even more, can God change his mind?

Let’s take them in order. The first two: Can prayer change things that have been ordained by God? Can my prayers change God’s mind? Definitely not! At this point everyone (still awake) should go: “Whoa!” Okay. Go ahead! Let it out! When God sovereignly declares that He will do something, all the prayer in the world won’t change that. (“Whoa!” again) What do I mean? God has sovereignly ordained His plan according to His perfect will. He has ordained ends, but He has also ordained means. Prayer is one of these means. This is very much like election and evangelism. The end is ordained by God and he uses instruments, such as our prayers, to achieve it. And so, we are to pray!

Can God change His mind? Once again, the answer is no. (Don’t mean to be sacrilegious in any way, but even if He did, how would we know? Anyway…) But some of you (the brave awake ones) will say: “Wait a second! But it says in a few places in the Bible that God felt sorry for something that He had done and also that He changed His mind regarding things (punishments in general) that He was about to dispense.” (Genesis 6:6; Numbers 14) First of all, we cannot look at these passages alone and decide on the question. We have to look at the whole of the Bible and the attributes of God that are obvious from it. God is immutable (Malachi 3:6) (or “unchangeable” for the those of us not inclined towards using fancy words) and does not change His mind (Numbers 23:19).

How do we explain what Genesis 6:6 and Numbers 14 say then? We explain it thusly. When the Bible talks about God, it uses anthropomorphic terminology (or “human language” again for those of us who have a “no-more-than-three-syllable-words” policy). God knows everything from eternity past so there is no way He can be surprised and determined change His mind about something. When we pray we say things He already knows. Nothing we say adds to His knowledge. In the case of Numbers 14, Moses’ intercession did not change God’s mind. It was God’s assumed principle that repentance, or intercession by someone in a priestly way, will be followed by the aversion of wrath. In other cases when God seems to change His mind due to people’s prayers, it is His will do to wait for us to ask for things because He wants us to work with Him in the glorious process of bringing His will to pass here on earth. (ends and means)

2. What does "Ask and ye shall receive" mean? Can I ask for whatever I please? What are the conditions to getting what I prayer for?

There are certain things that we can ask for and we are guaranteed we will be granted what we ask for. There are clear promises in the Scripture that guarantee that. For instance, we are told that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. (1 John 1:9). Also, like I mentioned earlier, Paul and Peter urge us to bring our problems before the Lord and lay them at this feet. He did promise He would be with us through the stormy times of our lives.

There are other things that, if we know the Scriptures, we won’t ask for. Things that are in flagrant conflict with God’s word are futile requests before the throne of God. (You can probably come up with a few of these. “I pray the fact that I stole this money will not be found out.”, for instance)

There are however, things that fall in-between. For those things, we must “Let God be God.” This is what Martin Luther said to his parishioners in Wittenberg when they came complaining that their prayers weren’t being answered. We can bring our prayers before God but it is the Father’s decision as to what the answer will be.

3. Does God really speak to us, and if so, how does He communicate to us?

A good question this is. One cannot help feeling suspicious when someone says “The Lord told me to do this and that.” The next question that should come to mind would be: “What does His voice sound like?” God did speak audibly to people in the Old Testament on quite a few occasions. In the NT as well, God spoke audibly during the Lord Jesus’ earthly ministry. However, since the Lord’s ascension the instances recorded in the Word are few.

God does speak to us though. How does He do that? Through His written Word. But studying the Word takes time and effort (and, gasp! reading stuff). Some people just prefer to go by intuitions and inclinations and make those like a divine mandate that the Lord gave them.

You might say “Well, that all nice and fine, but how do I find out what God wants me to do in a particular situation?” I don’t see a “Guide to Choosing a College in the Table of Contents of my Bible”. (“You don’t? That’s strange…”) Making a decision is a multi-faceted process. Prayer is a crucial part of it. Reading the Word and studying it is just as important. Speaking to experienced people is part of it as well, although not as important as the first two. Consulting your family and loved once is part of it as well. Looking at practical aspects of the situation also helps (to follow the same illustration, you’re not likely to have trouble deciding between going to “University of Alaska at Juneau” and “University of Texas at Dallas.” (Choose the former!)

4. Does it make a difference if I pray five minutes a day or fifty minutes or five hours, and does it make a difference if one person prays, or fifty, or five hundred?

The answer to this question should be obvious. What do you think? Some people opt for the “short and sweet” approach. While that might be appropriate in some cases (Nehemiah prayed really quickly before he addressed King Artaxerxes. Nehemiah 2:4) it has been the case throughout Christian history that people with rich prayer lives were God’s great warriors. Martin Luther is again a good example. He is known to have said: “I am going to have such a busy day today that I cannot start it without three hours of prayer.” “Whoa!” the awake among you go again. If you’re busy, what are you doing praying for three hours? I’m not saying we should all do that, although it’d be good. (Here I’m not lecturing; I’m including myself too.) However, if we keep in mind that prayer is not just an exercise but time spent in God’s presence learning about Him and ourselves, it seems it would be a good thing to spend as much time in prayer as we can. A lot of time in prayer might be 15 minutes for some of us; it might be 1 hour for others. However, we have to make this a priority (again, I’m talking to myself here as well).

The answer to the second question should be obvious as well. In James 5:16, the Word says: “The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” If that’s true for one person, how much more for 5, 50, 100?