Prayer and the Bible
A man was late for an important meeting and couldn't find a parking space. He’s driving around and finally got so desperate that he prayed, he said, "Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking space, I'll go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life, and not only that, I'll give up drinking."
Instantly, a parking space appeared.
The guy looked up again and said, "Never mind. I found one."
Every miracle looks like a coincidence in the rear view mirror.
I think that’s part of why it’s so hard to make ourselves pray sometimes. When we want God to do something, so we pray and pray and pray—when it happens, we’re like, “that was probably going to happen anyway.” And if it doesn’t we’re tempted to wonder if God’s there at all.
Sometimes our prayers are just dumb. We’re like the kid who turned in his geography test and was afraid he wasn’t going to do well so he prayed, “God, please let London be the capital of China.” God might have mercy on the kid but He’s probably not going to answer the prayer exactly the way it was requested and rearrange the map of the world.
Here’s what I know: if we fail to pray, we fail at everything. Tim Keller said “Failure to pray is to fail to treat God as God.” If we fail to pray, we fail.
God is always more willing to hear our prayers than we are to speak them.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says,
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
It’s a command. If we want Jesus to be our Savior then we have to do what He says, He also has to be our Lord—can’t have one without the other. He told us to pray. It’s an order. Rejoice. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in every circumstance.
1 Samuel 12:23 says,
“As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.”
So why bother praying when God’s gonna do what He’s gonna do anyway? Because He told us to. Why? Because He wants us to.
The disciples asked Jesus how they should pray. There were all kinds of theories—various religious leaders taught their followers to pray in different ways. Memorize long complicated liturgies, commit the entire book of Psalms to memory, jump through countless hoops. The disciples were ready for Jesus to lay down the law. They were probably gonna have to pray in Latin while standing on their head and slowly crawling up a mountain of broken glass on their knees. Whatever Jesus told them, they were sure it was gonna be almost impossible.
But Jesus gave them a simple little prayer. Just 66 words. Even a small child can easily remember it. Also, it was so profound that we can spend our whole lives contemplating it and never get to the bottom of it. It’s the key to understanding prayer, it’s the key to understanding everything. 66 words.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
Then we add this liturgical form of praise, a doxology, to the end: For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. AMEN.
Luther was asked by his barber one day how to pray. He wrote a short letter to his barber, whose name was Peter, called “A Simple Way to Pray, for Peter the Master Barber.”
In the letter he describes what he personally does when he prays. He admits that prayer can be hard and everything in the world seems like it tries to keep us from getting around to it. That a lot of times he doesn’t feel like praying and it’s hard to focus. Can you relate to any of that?
He said that if we don’t make prayer the first thing we do in the morning and the last thing we do at night, we’ll probably never get around to it. Procrastination is the death of prayer. He said if we start our day with prayer, then we can make everything we do all day long a continuation of that morning prayer—everything a believer does in faith becomes a type of prayer. That’s how he understood “pray without ceasing” to work. Our lives are to be a living sacrifice of praise. Every time we don’t wrong someone, or every time we bless someone—our faithfulness becomes an extension of the prayer we started that day.
He warned his barber friend to not be lazy about prayer. He said, get out of bed, and say the Lord’s Prayer out loud. Stand or kneel or fold your hands or close your eyes or look to the heavens—whatever helps warm your heart toward God. After you say the Lord’s Prayer, then go through one or more of the parts of the Lord’s Prayer, the petitions, and pray breaking them down in our own words. Like, repeat “Hallowed be your name” and pray something like, “Yes Lord, your name is holy. Thank you for putting your holy name on me. Help me to keep it holy in everything I say and do. Give me courage to do whatever you would have me to do to keep your name holy in this unholy world.
See how that works? You say the Lord’s Prayer, then you riff on one or more of the lines.
Thy kingdom come. Pray that you would do whatever God wants you to do throughout the day to bring the reign of heaven into your life. To do God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.
Are there things going on in your life that need to be submitted to His kingship? I’ll bet there are. Are there decisions you’ll be making that need to be brought under His Lordship? Yeah. This is a big one.
Give us this day our daily bread. Thank God for everything He’s provided in your life. All your needs. All your wants. Then let Him know what your heart desires. Mix this daily bread with doing His will and you’ll start to really see the glory of this simple prayer.
We come to God and ask Him to change the world, we might even come off like we’re asking Him to change His mind—but what really ends up happening is He changes us. We start off praying to avoid pain and end up with the strength to endure whatever happens. We start off asking for more and He shows us how to be thankful for what we have and how to manage it better. How to be generous with what He’s given us. But He also promises to give us what we need and what we want. He’s our Father. He loves us.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. And as we pray this, we have to call things what they are. Sin is sin. Don’t try to sugarcoat it. Don’t be like:
Benevolent and easy-going Parent: We have occasionally had some minor errors of judgment, but they're not really our fault. Due to forces beyond our control, we have sometimes failed to act in accordance with our own best interests. Under the circumstances, we did the best we could. We are glad to say that we're doing okay, perhaps even slightly above average. Be your own sweet Self with those who know they are not perfect. Grant us that we may continue to live a harmless and happy life and keep our self-respect. And we ask all these things according to the unlimited tolerances which we have a right to expect from you. Amen.
No. We need to own up to our sins. They’re not just mistakes. We didn’t do the best we could and we know it. Lord have mercy on me, a poor miserable sinner. And help me to show the same kind of forgiveness and kindness to people who have hurt me, abused me, stole from me, and hated me.
Lead us not into temptation. Lead me away from temptation. Help me to be faithful. To not do the things I shouldn’t do. Say the things I shouldn’t say. Help me to control my anger, overcome my addictions, love people and not be a selfish jerk.
Deliver us from evil, including our own. Life is so full of misery and pain and uncertainty—the days are full of evil—help me to not grow weary and give in to it all. Help me to not get depressed. Help me to not be overcome with sadness or hatred. Don’t let me be a victim of evil people, driven by pure evil in this world of flesh and demonic power. Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world.
Because Jesus is the one with all the power. He brought His kingdom. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Lord may Your glory be revealed to me and through me, in Jesus’ name. AMEN.
That’s how Luther told Peter the Barber to pray. I think he was onto something.
He said you could do the same thing with the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Psalms, and pretty much any part of Scripture. Read it. Then pray through it. The reason to do this is to prepare our heart for prayer. So our mouth doesn’t babble while our mind is distracted thinking about everything else. It’s good to usually start with something written or memorized but at some point you need to get off script—once we’re a little more focused on what we’re doing. God is merciful but we don’t need to tempt Him with distracted prayers. I think when I get to heaven, He might make me spend a few weeks listening to my sleepy-time prayers that drift into shopping lists and movie plots and things I need to do later. Preparing our heart by reading Scripture or slowly, thoughtfully saying the Lord’s Prayer is a good way to start our prayer time.
By praying through Scripture or the Commandments or the creed—it also helps to make sure we’re praying to the real God who’s actually there, rather than some imaginary god we make in our own image.
Especially the Psalms, reading through them, praying through them—the Psalms are the Bible’s prayer book, we learn that God expects us to pray in any circumstance and with whatever emotion we happen to be feeling. There are Psalms that are prayers of thankfulness and praise, as you might expect, but there are also prayers of anger, rage, revenge, despair, gloating, and impatience. There are complaining Psalms and Psalms where the prayer is basically, “God, if you don’t do this for me then Your enemies are going to think You’re a wimp”—which is basically blackmail. God wants us to be honest when we pray. He doesn’t seem to get annoyed.
In Luke 11, right after Jesus teaches them the Lord’s Prayer, He keeps talking about prayer and says,
“Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
In other words, keep bugging God until you get what you want. He has other parables that basically say the same thing.
In some ways, and no one likes it when I say this, God kinda wants us to throw our tidy little theology out the window when we pray. He wants us to pray as if it’s really gonna change something—like we’re gonna influence Him. Pray as if He’s listening, as if our Father loves us and is interested in what we have to say, like if we keep hounding Him we’ll actually get what we came for.
He’s still probably not going to make London the capital of China, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.
Then there’s Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. Remember that? He was about to be arrested and tortured and die for the sins of the whole world. It was gonna suck. He didn’t want to do it. Listen to what He prayed in Luke 22:42:
“He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.”
Notice two things: first, He prayed “I want your will to be done, not mine.” Second, that wasn’t the end of His prayer. He kept praying. Even more fervently. He didn’t end His prayer with, “But whatever. Do whatever you want.” Sometimes we think we’re being like Jesus when we pray, “Lord, heal me—but Your will be done not mine. AMEN.” No… it should be more like, “Lord please heal me. Your will be done and not mine. But for reals. Heal me. Like that’s what I really want. I know You can. I believe You can. The fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much. This is me being fervent. Like really fervent. As fervent as a heart attack.”
Sometimes we get what we want. Sometimes we don’t. Jesus went willingly to the cross and gave His life so that you could be forgiven of all the super lame sins you’ve done. The evil thoughts you’ve had that no one knew about, the terrible things you’ve said and done. Even the accidental mistakes that hurt other people and yourself. He had to die in order to save you from the consequences of all those things. So He went to His death willingly. But He didn’t want to. Thanks be to God He did. We are, literally, eternally grateful.
He knew why He came to earth. He knew the path He was on led to a cross. His theology was perfect, He knew He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—but His honest prayer… His honest prayer was “so anyway God, could You maybe do this another way?”
God wants our honest prayers.
It comes down to this: Why does it matter if I pray or not? Because in a mysterious way that you and me will never understand, prayer is the way God accomplishes His will in the world. Let that sink in. Prayer is the way God accomplishes His will in the world. He waits for us to pray before He does things. I don’t know why. It’s just the way He wanted to do it. Listen to this from John 15:16:
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”
When we fail to pray, we fail at everything. As we read through the Bible this year, please make it your practice to pray through it as well. We must pray. It’s how our faith is formed. It’s how God works in the world. It’s the most important thing you’re gonna do every day. My friends, may we pray in the morning, in the evening, and throughout the day in everything we do, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” AMEN
Jesus prays for you without ceasing. He is always before the Father interceding for you. Do you know what His constant prayer is? His constant prayer is “Father, forgive them, they are mine, they’re with me.” Because you are forgiven, that’s why you can be so bold as to talk to God. In the name of Jesus. AMEN