Effective Prayer
When we pray, we should always
seek to voice requests that are
in harmony with God's will.
Here's Gene:
John ends this little epistle
on the subject of prayer.
And one of the things that he wants us
to do is to pray in God’s will.
And so he says:
This is the confidence we have before him:
If we ask anything according
to his will, he hears us.
And if we know that he hears whatever we ask,
[that is according to his will,]
we know that we have what
we have asked of him.
Now how do we know when
we’re praying according to the will of God?
Well in some respects that’s a mystery.
In other respects it’s not a mystery
because God tells us
in many, many respects what his will is.
And so we can pray according to his will
in relationship to what we know is in
the Word of God.
But there are many things that
we face in our lives that are not spelled out
in the Word of God.
So that’s a great mystery
in some respects.
Prayer is a great mystery.
In fact there are many mysteries
in Christianity, which is the uniqueness of Christianity.
Ken Boa has written a book
entitled, “God, I Don’t Understand.”
And he raises several questions
that are mysteries. For example:
How can Jesus be both God and man?
Try to explain that.
That Jesus was perfect God and perfect man.
That’s a great mystery.
Here’s another question:
How can the Bible be both divine
and human in origin?
Written by man but inspired by God.
That’s a great mystery.
Here’s another question:
How can God be three persons and yet one God?
Now there are some people that use all kinds of
illustrations to try to illustrate that.
But you never can.
I don’t care what human illustration you use,
it falls short of what it really means
for God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit
to be one, and yet three persons.
Another question:
How can God be sovereign
and we’re still free to choose?
That one is one that we’ll spend eternity
probably trying to understand
and comprehend.
And we could ask this question about prayer
because prayer too is a mystery.
How can prayer be reconciled
with God’s providence?
Now providence is a word
that’s not used in Scripture.
Neither is the word Trinity.
But still we have the Trinity—
the truth of the Trinity.
And we have the truth of God’s providence.
And what is God’s providence?
Well let me give you several definitions.
This comes from Dr. Augustine Long:
“Providence is that continuous agency of God
by which He makes all the events
of the physical and moral universe
fulfill the original design by which He created it.”
That’s God’s providence.
Here’s a definition from J. Oliver Bushwell:
“God is not only the creator of all things,
but He continuously sustains and rules
all His creation.”
That’s God’s providence.
Here’s what T. H. L. Parker says:
“The doctrine of providence tells us
that the world and our lives
are not ruled by chance or by fate
but by God.”
That’s God’s providence.
And so we have God’s providence and prayer.
Now if these definitions are
biblically accurate—and I believe they are—
how does prayer fit into God’s
sovereign and providential plans?
In many respects that’s a mystery.
Someone might argue that if God has
planned everything and the plan is
going to be fulfilled,
why pray at all?
Why pray at all?
And yet God tells us to pray.
And that’s a mystery.
Here's another thought.
If God has planned certain things,
won’t they happen anyway?
Then why pray?
Well God tells us to pray.
And so the best way to answer these questions
is to go to the Word of God.
And since we’re looking at what God wrote,
let’s notice requirements
before God will respond to our prayers.
Now we’ve already looked at
a first guideline.
Number 1: We must act according to God’s will.
And that’s a powerful, powerful statement.
But here’s number 2:
We must be in close fellowship with God
for God to answer our prayers.
These are simply statements from Scripture.
John 15:7:
If you remain in me and
my words remain in you,
whatever you want [and] it will be done for you.
1st John 3:21 and 22,
which we’ve already looked at:
Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us,
we have confidence before God
and receive whatever we ask from him because
we keep his commands and
do what is pleasing in his sight.
And so God says clearly
that if we’re going to have answers to our prayers,
we must be walking in close fellowship with him.
And then here’s another guideline.
We must ask with pure motives.
James spoke to this. He said:
You ask and [you] don’t receive
because you ask with wrong motives,
so that you may spend it
on your pleasures.
And there he’s referring to pleasures of sin.
And that’s kind of contradictory, isn’t it?
I’m going to ask God to give me
something so I can sin.
But evidently these believers that
James wrote to were doing that.
And he said:
You ask and you don’t receive because
you ask with wrong motives.
Those wrong motives are:
so you may spend it on your pleasures.
But here’s a fourth guideline.
I love this one and t’s very simple.
We must ask.
And James said right in the same context:
You do not have because you do not ask.
Now these are statements that are
given to us in view of the fact that
prayer is related to God's providence.
And yet God says that there are
certain things that must be true
for us to experience answers to prayer.
And regardless of the mysteries,
God answers prayer.
And there are certain guidelines
where he will not answer prayer.
And there are certain guidelines
where he will answer prayer.
And when we get into these great mysteries,
we simply have to go back to
the things we understand.
And live with those great truths
that we can understand.
You know, I’ve raised a Reflection and Response
question here and that is:
Why is Nehemiah’s model
so significant in understanding prayer?
And Nehemiah’s model relates
to the fact that he was cupbearer to the king.
He was in captivity.
And about five or six hundred miles away the
walls of Jerusalem were broken down.
And the Jews that were there were
in great turmoil and great pain
because of the enemies of Israel.
And Nehemiah didn’t know what to do except pray.
And he gives us a beautiful model prayer.
First of all, he acknowledged
God’s greatness. He just simply said:
God, you’re awesome.
And you can do anything you want to do.
Secondly he reminded God of his promises:
God, you’ve made certain promises
to my people Israel.
And you said if we’d do certain things,
you’d answer prayer.
You’d deliver us.
Now God has made certain promises
to us too as his children.
So it applies to us.
Nehemiah confessed his sins
and the sins of his people.
And we’re told to confess our sins and
not to be asking with wrong motives.
And then Nehemiah was very specific
in his request. He said:
Grant me favor with this king,
Artaxerxes, that he served.
Now God answered that prayer.
And I’ve used that model prayer many times.
And I’ve seen God answer prayers.
But there’re still mysteries.
Some of you know that at one point in my life,
I had a serious bout with a very serious illness.
It was known as Covid-19.
And at my age, I was very vulnerable.
In fact about the second or third week
I was in the hospital,
my family gathered together at the
advice of the doctor to say goodbye.
That I was going home to heaven.
But obviously God had other plans.
And I turned around and
I was in the hospital and care centers
for eight months
before I was able to go home even.
And I had certain things that resulted
from that serious disease.
And one of them is it affected my legs
so that I couldn’t walk.
Now I’ve been athletic all my life
and that was a whole new experience for me.
And those of you who follow
my teachings and
have actually come up to 1st John,
this little epistle, and
the last several Principles that I’ve done.
You may not have noticed
but I’m sitting down.
Up to that point I was standing up.
But I’m sitting down because I can’t stand up.
Now I’ve really prayed and
I’ve asked God if he might heal me.
And I’ve searched my heart.
I’ve tried to practice the Principles
we’ve talked about today.
To confess sin in my life.
To walk in fellowship with him.
And at this point in time,
God hasn’t answered that prayer.
But the interesting thing is, you see,
I don’t really know what the will of God is about
my legs.
Because God never told me for sure
or any one of us that he would heal
us from physical illnesses
for sure.
We have to pray: If it’s your will.
And we don’t know what the will of God is.
Now Paul, you see, prayed three times that
a serious thorn in the flesh would be
removed from him.
And God said: No, my grace
is sufficient for you.
But the fact of the matter is,
God spoke directly to Paul in ways that
he doesn’t speak to most of us—
at least not to me.
So you see, I don’t know what God’s will is
about my legs.
But I’ve told the Lord:
Lord, if it could be your will,
I’d love to walk again.
It’d be a lot easier to serve you
if I could walk again.
But I’ve also told the Lord:
Lord, if you want me in a wheelchair
the rest of my life,
I want to serve you that way.
But you know I’m not going to stop praying.
I don’t know what his will is
but I’ll continue to pray: Lord,
if it’s your will, heal me.
Prayer is a great mystery.
We don’t understand it all.
But one thing I know:
We’re to feel free to pray
and ask God to do anything--
if it’s his will.
Assuming that we’re walking in his will
as we know it in Scripture.
So here’s the Principle to Live By:
When we pray,
we should always seek to voice requests
that are in harmony with God’s will.