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“TEACH US TO PRAY” Luke 11: 1 -13

Sunday July 25, 2010

Moheb Ghali

In the Gospel lesson today the disciples’ request of Jesus: “Teach us to pray” and in response Jesus teaches three things regarding prayer:

• What to pray,

• How to pray, and

• What to expect.

Most of the time we remember only the first part: that He taught them what to pray-what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. We forget the second teaching: our attitude in prayer- pray with boldness and persistence, as well as the third: pray with expectation that God will respond.

You are probably thinking “Oh, No, not another sermon on the Lord’s Prayer, Please!” I suspect that you have heard many expositions and meditations, and probably read books on the Lord’s Prayer, so I promise you that I will not even try to talk about the Lord’s Prayer – not that I can add anything to what has already been said and written. I will instead address the other two subjects that Jesus taught: our attitude in approaching prayer and our expectations.

I do this because the disciples asked Jesus “teach us to pray” not “teach us a prayer”, and Jesus wanted them to know that the attitude and expectations are as important as the words we say in prayer.

PRAY WITH BOLDNESS AND PERSISTANCE:

Jesus told his disciples that they must pray with boldness and persistence. Right after teaching them what to pray in verses 2 – 4, beginning in verse 5 He tells them a story of the man who went to a friend’s house in the middle of the night to ask for bread he ends by saying: “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's persistence, (and in the NIV it is boldness), he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

With stores open 24 hours, this story may not resonate with us today. To bring it closer to home, suppose you are sound asleep and in the middle of the night the phone rings. A friend tells you that he needs your help: his car broke down on the way to the airport to pick up a friend. Would you please come pick him up and then pick up the friend at the airport as there are no taxis available? Your immediate angry reaction may be that of verse 7: “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you a ride” But then you may have a second thought: he called me because he has faith in me, he trusted me to meet his need – if he did not trust in me he would not have called. Because of his confidence and trust in you, you would get up and go to pick him up.

When we pray we are essentially showing our confidence in God – we are sure that he will act – otherwise we would not have asked. Timid prayers are no prayers! If we are not sure that He will act, He will not act. St. James puts this bluntly as follows: “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.” [James 1: 6 -8].

A few chapters later in Luke, Jesus, still teaching His disciples how to pray, tells another story about persistence: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, `Grant me justice against my adversary.' For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, `Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” [Luke 18:2 – 8]. Persevering in prayer, crying out to God day and night – not that we are trying to wear Him down as the widow did to the judge – is another indication of our trust and faith that He will respond. Jesus told this story to emphasize the necessity of persistence in prayer.

Suppose we do ask boldly and persist in prayer but do not see results, should we then assume that God does not wish to answer and stop praying? Put differently, when should we give up? This is where confidence comes in. I believe it is important that we persist in prayer and not be discouraged. David did not stop praying even when he did not receive an answer, he prays: “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”[Psalm 13:1.] “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.”[Psalm 22: 1 -2]. Daniel had a vision concerning a great war, and was distressed because he could not understand the meaning of the vision. He prayed and fasted for twenty-one days before an answer came through an angel. The angel explained the reason for the delay –he was detained by the king of Persia until the Archangel Michael came to his help. He told Daniel that though Daniel’s prayers were heard when he first started, it took this long because of the resistance he met. [Daniel 10:12 -13] He explained the vision to Daniel – it is a description of the end times which is remarkably similar to that revealed to John in the book of Revelation. [Daniel, chapter 10 -12].

We need to distinguish between boldness, persistence and confidence in His love on the one hand and arrogance on the other. It is arrogant to demand that God delivers on His promises. Demanding presumes worthiness – we deserve it and He owes us! We need to remember the prayer we say before communion: “We are not worthy to gather up the crumbs under your table…” When we recall His promises in our prayers, it is to assure ourselves of His love. We are not reminding Him of His promises and calling on Him to pay up on His debt!

Although it would be nice if God would answer our prayers right away – in real time as the expression goes, our prayers are answered in God’s perfect time. St. Peter writes: “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” [2 Peter 3:8]. God knows when we are ready to receive the answer and when the circumstances are right for the answer– if only we do not give up, for if we give up we will not hear or recognize the answer when it comes. Had Daniel stopped praying after two weeks he would have missed out and lived the rest of his life distressed for not understanding the vision!

Some time ago I was praying boldly and earnestly for something that is very important to me. I prayed every day, for years. Nothing seemed to happen. After a few years I got discouraged and stopped praying for that – it was time to move on! One night I had a dream: I was standing somewhere in heaven and Jesus was there – no I did not see Him, I but was sure He was there. White smoke, like that of incense was rising continuously. I asked Jesus: what is this smoke? He answered: “This is the prayers that you offered over the past few years.”

I was at that time not at all familiar with the book of Revelation. When I finally read Revelation I discovered that this is exactly how our prayers are lifted up before the throne of God: “Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.” [Rev. 8: 3 -4] That is saint’s with small “s” – that is your and my prayers that are lifted up before God! What that experience taught me is that my prayers are always there before God – they do not disappear in a void!

WHAT TO EXPECT IN RESPONSE TO PRAYER:

How do we know that God will respond? According to Jesus the response is guaranteed! In verses 9 and 10 of today’s gospel Jesus tells His disciples: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” I would emphasize the word EVERYONE.

Does this mean that whatever we ask for in prayer will always be granted? Jesus appears to promise that: “Ask and it will be given to you”, and “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”[John 14:14] However, we need to remember that when we pray as Jesus taught us, recall the Lord’s Prayer, we are requesting that God’s will be done. Our prayers will not be granted if they are not in accord with God’s will, that is, if we want Him merely to deliver what we desire.

St. James, again, puts it bluntly as: “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”[James 4:3].

God is the perfect Father; it would be against His nature to grant a request when it is not good for us. This is why Jesus adds in verses 11 and 12: “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” When Jesus taught His disciples what to pray He put “Thy will be done” before the petitions for “our daily bread”, “lead us not into temptation” and to be “delivered from evil.” God’s will comes before our specific and perceived needs.

At times what we ask for in our prayer is not granted because we are asking God to spare us the consequences of our choices. If I choose to jump off a tall building and on the way down I pray that God would keep me from being hurt, I should not expect Him to spare my bones. It is not that God cannot intervene to suspend the laws of nature, He can. In Scripture we find examples of fire not burning people [see Daniel 3:19 – 26], and of a man falling off a building and not being hurt [See Acts 20:9 – 11]. In these examples God intervened to protect people from consequences that did not result from their own choices. However, when we make a choice God will not negate the consequences of our choice, for otherwise choice would be meaningless. St. Paul writes: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” [Galatians 6:7].

If we are to pray according to God’s will, how are we to offer prayers when we do not know His will? Note that Jesus ends His teaching on prayer by saying: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Our Father in heaven gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him to enable them to pray according to His will. St. Paul faced the same issue and advises us that: “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” [Romans 8:26-27]. When we pray according to God’s will what should we expect? We should expect to receive; “Ask and it will be given unto you” and “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

CONCLUSION

In the Gospel reading this morning in response to the request “Teach us to pray”, Jesus:

• Gives us a model prayer.

• Tells us to pray with boldness and persistence.

• Tells us to expect that God will answer.

• Assures us that when we ask according to God’s will, we WILL receive.

• To enable us to pray according to God’s will, He promises the Holy Spirit will be given to those who ask.

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