What is Prayer for You
St. Peter Lutheran Church, Doss, TX
Acts 1:14 They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.
In Acts 1, Prior to the day of Pentecost, the disciples were waiting it in prayer. When Paul and Silas were in jail, they were singing songs of praise and praying. When Peter was in jail, he prayed. What place does prayer have in your life? Do you pray for our nation? Do you pray for police officers or healthcare workers? How about patients in the hospital that you know or your neighbors? Do you pray for your family? Ae you praying for the families in Uvalde? The world says our prayers mean nothing. The good news is that their spiritual blindness and deafness can be healed.
One person said that the greatest people on the earth are not those who hold high office, nor make a lot of money like sports players or movie stars. Nor is it great scientists or scholars, but rather those who pray. Prayer turns things upside down. At the turn of the last century, there was an evangelist in England who had a group of people in the church basement who were praying for those who were worshipping and listening to his sermon. If he seemed to be losing some of his listeners, he would stomp on the floor of the pulpit and the people down stairs would pray even harder. The revival strength was in prayer.
On a Via de Cristo retreat, people are praying around the clock for each participant and team member by name. Martin Luther said that he had so much to do that it would take him four hours to pray about it. Where are you with prayer? Prayer is asking for help and thanking God. Prayer is confessing sin and praising God. Where are you with prayer? Remember the parts of prayer: p a c t – Petition, (help me), adoration (love You), confession (I’m sorry) and Thanksgiving (thank you).
Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given you, seek and you fill find, knock and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) He also said, “When you pray, go into a closet and keep it between you and God.” (Matthew 6:6) He said ‘when’ you pray, not if you pray. Jesus went off by Himself into the wilderness to pray. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He taught them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. (Matthew 6:9ff) It is Jesus’ gift to us. You are taking God seriously when you believe that He listens to and answers prayers. The answer may not come as you have asked, but it comes just as God’s Kingdom comes. To pray for what the scripture asks of you such as for love of God and neighbor, for faith in Him, or to respect of others as fellow image bearers is pleasing to Him and He will answer that. To pray for personal or congregational revival so that we are actually in mission and not hiding out in the upper room is pleasing to God. Seven weeks earlier, the disciples were hiding out in fear. We don’t have to be afraid. We are good at being afraid, but we don’t have to be afraid to talk about our faith stories with others when the opening is there.
God allows us to go through rough times so that we have stories to tell our children, grandchildren and friends. These are stories that we depend on Him. We have been called salt and light, but we cannot do so by being spectators. It all starts with prayer. Look through the scriptures and time and again, it is prayer that is essential to what important occurrences.
Prayer is not snake oil anymore than our faith in God is a guess or a gamble that maybe someone or something is there. Prayer represents the cry from the hole in your life that was made for God that nothing can fill – not travel, education, pleasure, material wealth, security, admiration of peers, health of body and mind –nothing can fill that hole, but God Who created us and gave us His Spirit..
Prayer is that listening as well. When I have had some deep personal struggles in my life and have gone to God, I knew He was there and it was not my mind talking to me. Know why? It was because He had a different will than I had. I could sense that. And when I cried out in anger at Him, He simply said, ‘I love you.’ I heard that in my head. I know He is real and I know that through prayer. When God says, ‘I love you,’ there is nothing you can say in return that is not disrespectful. I don’t know about you, but that is the last thing I want to do would be to disrespect God.
What is prayer to you? Table grace? Daily prayer by yourself? Prayer with your family or spouse? Prayer only on Sunday when someone else is praying?
What is prayer for you? It can be a growing link between you and God. God has a plan for you and your greatest joy will come in following that plan. You discover it in His Word and in prayer. The great work of God’s Spirit is built on prayer.
Elisha, the prophet, prayed, and life came back to a dead child. Many of our children are dead in trespasses and sins. Let us do as Elisha did; let us entreat God to raise them up in answer to our prayers. Is this not a time of distress with a great number of our fellowmen? Are there many whose hearts are burdened? As we go to the throne of grace, let us remember that God answers prayer.
Look, again, at Samson. He prayed; and his strength came back, so that he slew more at his death than during his life. Job prayed, and his captivity was turned to prosperity. Light came in the place of darkness, and God lifted him up.
Daniel prayed to God, and Gabriel came to tell him that he was a man greatly beloved of God. Three times that message came to him from heaven in answer to prayer. The secrets of heaven were imparted to him, and he was told that God’s Son was going to be cut off for the sins of His people. We find also that Cornelius prayed; and Peter was sent to tell him words whereby he and his family should be saved. In answer to prayer, this great blessing came upon him and his household.
Look at Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi. As they prayed and sang praises, the place was shaken, and the jailer was converted. Probably that one conversion has done more than any other recorded in the Bible to bring people into the kingdom of God. How many have been blessed in seeking to answer the question – “What must I do to be saved?” It was the prayer of those two godly men that brought the jailer to his knees, and that brought blessing to that jailer and his family.
You remember how Stephen, as he prayed and looked up, saw the heavens opened, and the Son of Man at the right hand of God; the light of heaven fell on his face so that it shone. Remember, too, how the face of Moses shone as he came down from the Mount Sinai where he had been in communion with God. So, when we are in communion with God, He lifts up His countenance upon us; and instead of our having gloomy looks, our faces will shine, because God has heard and answered our prayers.
I want to call special attention to Christ as an example for us in all things: especially, prayer. We read that Christ prayed to His Father for everything. Every great crisis in His life was preceded by prayer. Let me quote a few passages. I never noticed till a few years ago that Christ was praying at His baptism. As He prayed, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him. Another great event in His life was His Transfiguration. “As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering.” We read again: “It came to pass in those days that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” This is the only place where it is recorded that the Savior spent a whole night in prayer.
What was about to take place? When He came down from the mountain, He gathered His disciples around Him, and preached that great discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount – the most wonderful sermon that has ever been preached to humanity. Probably no sermon has done so much good, and it was preceded by a night of prayer.
In the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus at the grave of Lazarus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me; and I know that You hear Me always; but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” Notice, that before He spoke the dead to life He spoke to His Father. If our spiritually dead ones are to be raised, we must first pray to God about them.
We read again, in the twelfth chapter of John, that He prayed to the Father. He was about to make atonement for the sin of the world. He said, “Now is My soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour; but for this cause I came to this hour.” He was almost under the shadow of the Cross; the iniquities of humankind were about to be laid upon Him; one of His twelve disciples was going to deny Him and swear he never knew Him; another was to sell Him for thirty pieces of silver; all were to forsake Him and flee. His soul was exceeding sorrowful, and He prays; when His soul was troubled, God spoke to Him. Then in the Garden of Gethsemane, while He prayed, an angel appeared to strengthen him. In answer to His cry, “Father, glorify Thy Name,” He hears a voice coming down from Glory – “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”.
We read that His disciples came to Him, and said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The prayer our Lord taught his disciples is called the Lord’s Prayer. Today’s Gospel has a portion of the longest prayer on record that Jesus made.
You can read it slowly and carefully in about four or five minutes. I think we may learn a lesson here. Our Master’s prayers were short when offered in public; when He was alone with God, it was a different thing. He could spend the whole night in communion with His Father.
Prayers don’t have to be long though. Think of how short the publican’s prayer was: “God be merciful to me a sinner!” The Syrophenician woman’s was shorter still: “Lord, help me!” The prayer of the thief on the cross was a short one: “Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom!” Peter’s prayer was, “Lord, save me, or I perish!” when sinking into the stormy water.
So, if you go through the Scriptures, you will find that the prayers that brought immediate answers were generally brief. Let our prayers be to the point, just telling God what we need for ourselves or others.
In the prayer of our Lord, in John 17, we find that He made seven requests – one for Himself, four for His disciples around Him, and two for the disciples of succeeding ages. Six times in that one prayer He repeats that God had sent Him. The world looked upon Him as an impostor; and He wanted them to know that He was heaven-sent. He speaks of the world a few times, but makes mention of His disciples and those who believe on Him many, many times.
Christ’s last prayer on the Cross was a short one: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
You get the picture. For our own personal revival, for our congregation’s revival, for our community and nation’s revival, it begins with prayer just as did the birthday of the Christian Church on the first Pentecost that we celebrate next Sunday. Let us pray often. AMEN
