A Perfect Plan
The CEO of one large US manufacturer described business today, "In many places in the world today, businesses are said to be running low on all kinds of goods and services. You name it, and we have a shortage on it." You may have experienced some of this in your own life. A few weeks ago I wanted a simple bag of Frito's corn chips - they were completely out of stock at Wal-Mart at both Merrillville and Valparaiso.
Now that's not really a big deal - and they are back in stock now. But last week I met with a guy about installing a well at our new property. He gave me a few different options, but then told me that two of those options for pump motors were out of stock and he had no idea when they'd be back in because of shortages. I've been told that same sort of story from a handful of contractors.
Some of these 'shortages' are just annoying while others can really affect people's lives. But I read an article that shared a positive perspective. The author noted that while there may be various shortages of assorted material goods - there's 'no shortage in God's supply chain'. And while the world's logistics rely on manufacturing, and shipping and trucking goods to market - we have a method of communicating with God that is impervious to shut downs, lock downs or back logs.
Now last week I talked about 'our response to trials' – and this morning, I’ll again be talking about the subject of…
I. Prayer
Frankly it’s because it’s such a big subject and so important to our life. Last Sunday I talked about the purpose of prayer and how it should be focused on God’s will. I talked about how prayer is not about us getting our will done in Heaven, but rather getting God’s will done on earth. We looked at how much of prayer is about changing us; bringing us closer to God.
And we looked at what is called the ‘Lord’s prayer’ as it was recorded in the book of Matthew for insight on how to pray. But this morning I’d like to look at what was recorded in Luke’s version in Luke 11:1-4 (NIV)...
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." (2) He said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. (3) Give us each day our daily bread. (4) Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'"
And that’s the end... Last week I mentioned that Matthew's version felt like it was missing something. It's actually because the King James version includes the familiar part, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." But older manuscripts were found that don't include that section - so the NIV reflects that omission.
But here - Luke just seems to stop even shorter... For one thing, Luke didn’t record the line “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. He does mention, ‘your kingdom come’ – focusing us back to God’s kingdom; but he doesn’t make as forceful a point as Matthew does in focusing us on God’s will rather than our own. Why? I’m not going to assume to know for sure, but if we continue reading Luke’s version, we can get a bit more insight.
You see, if all we had was Matthew’s version, we wouldn’t be getting the complete picture of Jesus’ teachings on prayer. - Some might assume that if God hasn’t answered their prayers yet – that either God was saying ‘no’ or that their request was simply not in line with God’s will. And at that point, they might be tempted to think, 'Maybe I should I just stop praying.' But if we look more at Jesus' teachings, we see that we are called to...
A. Continue in prayer
“Well I prayed, He didn't answer, so I guess God’s made up His mind – there’s no real point in continuing to pray…” But let’s continue with where Luke left off immediately after the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ starting in Luke 11:5-10 (NIV)...
Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, (6) because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' (7) Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.'
(8) 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 boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (9) 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. (10) For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Some have said of the statement “because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs” that the moral of the story is that we have to be really persistent with our prayers to God. But is it really the point that we have to ‘bug’ God in order to get Him to pay attention to our prayers…?
Is Jesus saying that we need to keep pestering God until He finally gives in and gives us what we want? And is that interpretation consistent with other things that the Bible teaches us about God? - If we look at the story as a whole in the larger context, we can see that Jesus seems to be making a larger point about God’s character rather than just our boldness. He's pointing out that even though a friend might hesitate, but will eventually give into our requests – our Heavenly Father loves us even more than a friend and will be ready and willing to answer our prayers.
In the Old Testament, we find this passage of God talking about His relationship with His people, in Isaiah 65:24 (NIV)...
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.
That doesn’t sound to me like a God who needs to be nagged into listening. God is eager to bless His children. If we interpret the story of ‘the friend at midnight’ as teaching us that we have to keep ‘bugging’ God until He finally gets out of bed to help us - it just doesn’t fit with the picture of the majestic, loving Creator that Jesus has taught us about God.
Now I told you that you don’t need to pester God until you get what you want – but… My next point is basically the same as my previous one...
B. Keep praying
Ultimately prayer is about God’s will, and we don’t have to pester God to convince Him to answer – but that doesn’t mean we should stop praying. It is true that God may answer our prayers with a ‘no’ or He may say ‘wait’ and we don't have to wear Him down in order to get answers – but keep praying! Just because prayer isn’t accomplishing what you may think it is supposed to accomplish doesn’t mean that prayer isn’t doing something.
I shared this quote last week and it applies in this context, too, “Prayer is not a button to push but a relationship to pursue.” Relationships develop over time – relationships are a process. I want us to jump ahead in Luke again to another place where Jesus taught about prayer in Luke 18:1-8 (NIV)...
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (2) He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. (3) And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' (4) For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men,
(5) 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!'" (6) And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. (7) 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? (8) I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
Again - Jesus isn’t teaching we should just bother God until He gives in like the judge in the story. He’s pointing out that even an 'unjust judge' who ‘doesn’t care about anyone’ will eventually do the right thing – but how much more will our righteous, loving God do for us when we ask...? Jesus isn’t teaching us about God’s character in the person of the judge, but rather Jesus is teaching his followers…don’t give up on prayer because God is better than that judge.
Prayer is a source of strength for the believer. Prayer develops our relationship with God and reminds us of our complete dependence on Him. We need to continually go to God each day with our requests even if we don’t see any immediate results.
Jesus taught His disciples that God will not hesitate to bring justice for His people. Don’t give up on prayer - prayer does something powerful when you serve a wonderful, loving God. And sometimes it works very differently than we might think. So, here's a thought we might have - "What if I pray for God's will but He answers differently than I expect and it turns out to be an answer I don't like? What if His answer is something I consider bad or hard? What do I do then?"
Last week I made the point that God is good no matter what. And as a Good God, we have to understand and trust that...
II. God gives good gifts
God wants to give His children good gifts. As we think about how God answers our prayers, I want us to look at Matthew 7:9-11 (NIV)...
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? (10) Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? (11) 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 good gifts to those who ask him!
God gives good gifts – He always knows best what we truly need. And I think there’s even more insight into ‘how’ God answers if we again compare similar passage like this one from Matthew to this one in Luke 11:11-13 (NIV)...
Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? (12) Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? (13) 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!
One passage says ‘good gifts’ and one says ‘Holy Spirit’. God does give us ‘good things’. Sometimes we are blessed with good physical things in answer to our prayers, sometimes with less tangible things like healing – and in other circumstances with something perhaps even less tangible – the best good gift of…
A. God’s Spirit
We don’t talk about God’s Spirit as much as we do God the Father or Jesus the Son. We talk about receiving the gift of God’s Spirit at baptism – but I think we shy away from discussing God’s Spirit a bit because it seems more vague what the Spirit does. But when it comes to prayer – God’s Holy Spirit plays a massive role.
In Romans, Paul talks about the future hope of Heaven, this reality that we can’t presently see…
Romans 8:24-26 (NIV)
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? (25) But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (26) In the same way, 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.
We know what we want, our will - and we know that we are supposed to align our will with God’s will and that we are to continually go to God in prayer. But what do we do when our will seemingly conflicts with what God’s will is…? That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in – He can intercede for us when we don’t even have words. I don't have to know ‘what’ to say to God in all circumstances – but I am called to go to God continually, boldly, persistently in prayer.
Again – not necessarily to get what I think I need, but for that time in prayer to mold me, to shape me. God wants to bless us – He wants us to continually pray to Him; He will give us good gifts – He will continue to give us His Holy Spirit. And the more time we spend with God, the more time we let His Spirit work in us - the more in tune we'll become with Him in our prayer lives.
If you don’t think about God’s Spirit in you as you pray – your prayers may seem like they really don’t ‘do’ anything. But prayer, to the Father, through the power of The Spirit, in the name of Jesus can absolutely transform how you see things and how you relate to God in prayer. And it has nothing to do with knowing the right words – God’s Spirit will ‘fill in the blanks’. God’s Spirit can help us align our will with God’s will – and it’s then that prayer changes things.
And to encourage us to pray more, I want to remind us of yet one more 'good gift' we get from God...
B. God's Church
This has been a rough year with isolation and our Church body being separated. Our fellowship has suffered as we've been limited in our interactions. We all understand the 'why' and the necessity - but this is not God's design for His Church body and we've suffered from this separation. We weren't meant to do this alone. When we struggle to understand why God answers our prayers the way that He does - or doesn't seem to answer - we're not meant to struggle alone.
This past week Joe and Cookie stopped in to drop off an envelope and Cookie made the 'mistake' of asking me how all my kids were... I tried to make it concise; I couldn't. And as I struggled with my words - they encouraged me. Joe, who is dealing with plenty of his own health issues - stood up with his cane and quoted from Isaiah, "those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." I guess that why he's an Elder...
As we pray and wait on God's perfect answer - we can lean on our brothers and sisters in the Church - one of God's best gifts! We need each other!
So What?
God wants to bless you through your prayers to Him - through that relationship with Him and through your relationship with His Church. We know that God's plans are perfect and we need to keep on praying! I need to admit - I'm not always good at 'leaning' - but I wouldn't argue if you were to take out your prayer list and scribble my family's name at the bottom.
And as you look over the prayer list - of course pray for healing, but also remember to allow God's Spirit to help you pray higher than just for physical needs. Pray for endurance and wisdom - pray for those who are struggling to stand firm in the faith! Pray for those who do not know God. Pray that God would soften their hearts. We know for a fact that it is God’s will to bring the lost to Him. Perhaps, with the Spirit’s help – God can use you to bring someone to Jesus.
And in seeing God work, on His timetable, we will start to see the power of prayer as it changes us and brings others to Him. And in spending time with God, we’ll start to see that God’s ways may be a mystery, but His will isn’t hidden. We have to spend time with Him in prayer to grow and trust Him more.