Are we commanded to listen for God in prayer?

 I opened a can of worms on Facebook the other day with a post about the practice of listening to or for God in prayer. I should have anticipated that a brief post on the subject might offer more confusion than clarity, but that possibility didn’t dawn on me at the moment. Several friends of mine commented on the post respectfully and thoughtfully, and I’m glad they did. Their effort to start a conversation has given me a chance to reflect on the subject, and I’ll offer the first fruits of those reflections in this post.

 

For anyone who did not see my Facebook post, here is what I said: “Where have we gotten the idea that we're supposed to listen to/for God in prayer? Can you think of a single passage of Scripture that commands us to do this, explains how to do it, or clarifies what to expect from God when we do it? Instead, passages on prayer tell us to make our requests known to God, to offer thanksgiving and praise, to confess our sins, etc. In other words, prayer is when we express our thoughts to God. God's communication to mankind is found in the Bible.”

 

As I reflected on my friends’ comments, I had to ask myself, “Why am I having such a strong reaction against the idea of listening to God in prayer?” Two possible reasons stood out to me as I thought about it. First, I feel there has been a growing trend to make this practice part of the essence of prayer—in other words, to say that a person really is not praying unless they take time to see if God will speak to them in that moment. Now of course everyone agrees that each instance of prayer doesn’t have to include all the elements that might make up your prayer life as a whole, but I think more and more people are saying that you must not merely seek to speak to God in prayer, but you must also seek to hear from Him—otherwise, you’re really not praying. I have reacted strongly to this idea because in passages that explicitly teach us about how to pray, I find a conspicuous absence of teaching on the idea of listening for God. More on that in a moment.

 

Here’s a second possibility that I must humbly consider at greater length. I am currently taking a class that critiques occult beliefs and practices from a biblical perspective, and this class includes discussion of all the various ways that occult practitioners seek to communicate with spiritual beings or “the higher power.” I am trying not to see an occult bogeyman behind every tree, but I must consider whether I am overly sensitive to such concerns right now. As every student knows, when you focus intensely on one subject for several months, your opinions can become out of balance. As time passes, you often re-gain a more balanced perspective. Am I out-of-balance at the moment? I think humility would demand that I consider this, and so I will try to consider it, though I am aware that my reaction against listening for God in prayer goes back before I ever started this class.

 

A few clarifications

Perhaps it will be helpful if I clarify a few things before I ramble on further. First, in my original post, I meant to comment narrowly on the idea of listening to God in prayer. I didn’t intend to comment on the various ways in which God might guide us to make certain decisions. One commenter mentioned the avenues of wise council and circumstances. I would certainly affirm that God does lead us through such means. Another commenter asked if I meant that God can only teach me, comfort me, and convict me by reading the Bible. No, I would say that those things can happen even when I’m not reading the Bible. Sometimes they happen through other people teaching me, comforting me, or convicting me. Sometimes the Spirit simply brings things to my mind in a more direct way, though I would say that the Spirit makes use of the knowledge of Scripture that I’ve gained prior to that moment.

 

One commenter brought up the testimonies of Muslims who say they’ve had a vision of Jesus that leads them to hear the Gospel. Though that’s a bit of a different issue than a born-again person praying, I’d like to mention that I don’t discount those testimonies. I don’t see a Scriptural reason to deny that Christ would do that, so I rejoice that He seems to work with people whom Christians have been somewhat slow to reach with the Gospel.

 

I’d also like to clarify that I won’t pretend like I can explain the various experiences that people have that they attribute to the Holy Spirit. I will simply say that we must not assume that we cannot err when we interpret our circumstances. I think we are far too quick to assume that we know exactly what gave rise to our experiences and that we know exactly what our experiences signify. Can’t we all attest that we’ve misunderstood our experiences before? I think we need to submit them to a more objective standard like the Bible.

 

A conspicuous absence

My greatest concern with the notion of listening for God in prayer comes from the fact that I don’t believe I, as a church-age believer, can find any explicit or implicit command to do it or any teaching on how to do it if I should try. I certainly don’t find enough teaching on the idea to elevate it to the status of being an essential element of prayer. As I say this, I’m thinking of passages like Matthew 6:5-13 (which includes the Lord’s Prayer), Philippians 4:6, Ephesians 6:18, 1 Timothy 2:1, Colossians 4:2, and 1 Peter 5:7. In passages like this that are meant to tell me what to do in prayer, I find no mention of the idea of listening.

 

A few comments on my FB post mentioned some specific verses as possibilities, so let me comment on just a couple of them.

 

My sheep hear my voice—and other voices, too?

John 10 was mentioned in the comments as one passage that may speak on the question of listening for God in prayer. I think everyone reading this would agree that Jesus isn’t explicitly teaching about prayer in this passage, meaning that He didn’t make these comments with the express intention of teaching us how to pray. The remaining question, then, is if Jesus’ words imply anything about prayer. I do not believe they do.

 

Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees in this passage, who have just denied their spiritual blindness (9:40). The Lord goes on to contrast their leadership over the children of Israel (which is self-seeking) with His own leadership over His sheep (which is self-sacrificing). In this context, He states that His sheep hear his voice. By this statement, is Jesus encouraging us to listen for His voice when we pray? To me, that seems like a big stretch given that this conversation did not arise from an intention to teach about prayer.

 

If we take that statement to apply to listening for God in prayer, I think that move also raises a troubling scenario. Jesus also mentioned that the sheep hear the voices of strangers (10:5). If we move this conversation into the context of prayer, are we to conclude that as we try to listen for the voice of God in prayer there will be other voices trying to talk to us at the same time—like demonic voices, perhaps? This possibility is all the more troubling given that everyone I’ve heard who teaches on listening to God in prayer says we cannot recognize His voice right away—that we have to work to hear it and learn to refine that skill.

 

But here, Jesus asserts that His sheep know his voice and will follow him. There is no suggestion that hearing His voice is a skill that must be refined or developed. I think it is far more accurate to interpret this passage as an explanation of conversion—in other words, the sheep who hear Christ’s voice are unbelievers who are effectually called by God to salvation. They hear the Gospel, become convicted of its truth, and thus follow Christ. I am not convinced that there is an application to be made here for prayer. If you believe there is, I would like to hear what you make of the “voice of strangers” in this passage. Is it a demonic voice that tries to talk to you as you pray?

 

Romans 8:16 and the internal witness of the Spirit

One commenter mentioned Romans 8:16 and the activity of the Spirit that is mentioned there. I mention this verse because of an interpretive possibility that we have to consider—that this activity of the Spirit is not actually directed toward us, but is instead directed toward God the Father. It depends on how we understand the word “with” in the phrase “the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” It is entirely possible that what Paul means is not that the Spirit speaks to us, but that the Spirit speaks to the Father with us or alongside us; that as we cry “Abba! Father!” (v. 15) the Spirit speaks to the Father to support and confirm our claim of being a child of God. If this understanding is correct, it would be the Spirit’s complement to Christ’s intercessory work that is mentioned in Romans 8:34.

 

Though the tenor of my whole discussion might suggest otherwise, I’m not denying the possibility of the internal witness of the Spirit—that in some way He provides internal re-assurance to us of the reality of our salvation. We may have to find that notion in another passage, however. But even if we take Romans 8:16 as teaching the internal witness, it should be noted that we are not told that we have to listen for it in prayer. Perhaps you think I’m just being far too narrow in my definition of prayer at this point. A fair objection! I’ll have to give more consideration to that thought.

 

Some other passages were mentioned that are certainly worthy of consideration as well, such as 1 Thessalonians 5:16-21 and passages that speak of waiting on the Lord. As I want to give careful thought to all the suggestions made, I must continue to ponder and consider some of those passages, and I am grateful that they were suggested. Perhaps I will try to write on them further at a later date.

 

Perhaps as you read this you feel some degree of pity for me, believing that I am missing out on a significant and meaningful part of a relationship with God. I’m not convinced that that’s the case, but if you are, you may feel free to pray for me. If you’d like to comment further on what I’ve shared here, please do so on my Facebook page as I do not have comments enabled here on my blog. Thank you to those who have challenged my thinking already.

Is God more likely to grant a prayer request if lots of people ask for it?

After reading the title of this post, you might be wondering, “Why is Pastor Tim bothering to write about a question that should so obviously be answered ‘yes?’ Of course God is more likely to grant a prayer request if many people ask for it!” Well, I’m writing this post because—from a biblical perspective—the answer to this question is NOT obviously “yes.” In fact, the answer is a definite “maybe, maybe not.”

Let me be perfectly clear on this point before I say anything else: there is nothing we can do to FORCE God to grant our prayer requests—absolutely nothing. We cannot, through any means, bind, coerce, manipulate, or otherwise control God’s decision about our prayer requests. Now to be sure, the Bible does mention human attitudes and actions that will accompany effective prayer. A short list would include repentance (Isaiah 59:1-2), confidence in God’s generosity and goodness (James 1:5-17), obedience (John 15:7-10), persistence (Luke 18:1-8), and treating your wife properly (1 Peter 3:7; yes, it actually says that, guys—look it up!). But here’s the irony—a lack of such attitudes and actions in your life will definitely hinder your prayers, but the presence of such attitudes and actions will not definitely get your requests answered!

Now, does the number of people making a request belong in the category I just mentioned? Will a lack of larger numbers definitely hinder your prayer request? Certainly not! On the flip side, though, will the presence of larger numbers definitely assist in your request getting answered? The MOST we can say is, “maybe, maybe not.”

The one passage I’m aware of that joins together prayer and numbers is 2 Corinthians 1:11 (Note: the statement in Matthew 18:20 about “two or three gathered” is NOT a general teaching about prayer.) In 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, Paul has been speaking of his hope that God will deliver him and his co-workers from physical danger. He writes in v. 11, “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” Paul’s stated desire is that a larger number of people will become thankful to God since they have also made the same prayer request. The request answered would thus be their request as well, and they would be grateful to have it answered. I certainly have to think that, all other things being equal, more gratitude to God is better than less gratitude to God. This thought could therefore be a good motive for us to share prayer requests with others.

But does God take the potential numerical impact of a request into account when deciding on an answer? This passage simply does not say, nor does any other passage of Scripture that comes to my mind. We had better be very cautious, therefore, before we assume that a greater number of requesters brings with it a greater likelihood of receiving the request.

I wrote this post today to help you in two specific ways.

1. To help you think twice before sharing sensitive information as a prayer request.

If you’ve attended church very long, you’re likely familiar with what some have jokingly called the “organ recital”—times for sharing prayer requests that often become dominated by health concerns. When we or someone we love is facing trouble of any kind, we often want to call in the prayer cavalry right away. We want to get the word out so that other people can start praying for that person.

Those of us who are very familiar with how churches often operate can easily forget that not everyone wants to have personal, sensitive information shared quickly or broadly. Some people don’t mind this information being shared for the purpose of prayer, but some people aren’t comfortable with it. We should respect their decision without thinking their request is less likely to be answered if it’s not broadcast.  In this day when companies bend over backwards to protect our personal information, we should do the same for our friends. Make sure you have permission before you share information!

2. To help you not lose hope for your own requests.

We’ve all seen lots of prayer requests go viral on social media. People all over the world get to praying for someone they don’t even know. It can be encouraging to someone to know they have that much interest in their need.

But have you wondered if your own requests are at a disadvantage if they don’t garner that much attention? Perhaps you even put your request out there, but few people seem to pay attention. Does that influence God? Is He swayed by the number of likes, shares, and re-tweets?

I see no reason to think He is. Rather, we are assured that the God who knows the number of hairs on your head is concerned about you on a personal level. He knows what you need before you even ask (Matthew 6:8)! He is listening to you even if no one else is, so don’t lose hope for your requests if they don’t gain much notice from others. God’s children may always come with confidence to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), even if no one re-tweets the fact that you were there.

Did God promise to grant any request made by two or three people gathered in His name?

A few days ago, a post by a Facebook friend caught my eye and stuck in my mind for hours (that’s rare for me for a Facebook post!). This lady was asking for prayer for a baby who is facing a heartbreaking illness. It is good to invite people to pray, and her compassion was obvious.

What stuck in my mind, however, was the claim that her post made about God and his promises concerning prayer. I don’t know if this lady wrote these words or if she was simply sharing them from someone else’s post, but here’s what it said:

“The power of prayer. God says where ever there is three or more gathered in his name in complete harmony he will give them whatever they ask for. So please let’s all be in complete harmony and say this prayer…” What followed was a suggested prayer that we could all pray for this baby.

This claim about God grieved me deeply and stuck in my mind for hours. Why such a strong reaction, you ask? Because the truth is this:

If God made that promise, then he is utterly untrustworthy.

How did I reach that conclusion? Just think about what your own experience has taught you. How many times have you and a group of family or friends all made the same specific prayer request to God, only to see it go unfulfilled? I would suspect we have all lived through that experience a number of times.

Do you see the dilemma that our experience raises in light of that claim? If God did in fact make such a promise about prayer, then he has failed to deliver on it repeatedly. If any other person you know repeatedly fails to deliver on a promise, don’t you eventually conclude that he is not trustworthy? Logically, we are backed into a corner on this one – if God made that promise about prayer, we would be foolish to trust him, because he has failed to deliver on it time and time again.

So we have a crucial question to consider – did God in fact promise that “wherever there is three or more gathered in his name in complete harmony he will give them whatever they ask for?”

This language of “three or more gathered” is found in Matthew 18:15-20. Here is that whole passage, so you can get the context of the whole train of thought:

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."

A couple of questions at this point will bring us some much-needed clarity regarding any promise that God is making in these verses. First of all, why are the two or three gathered in this passage? We quickly discover that they are not gathered for any general purposes regarding prayer, but rather for a very specific purpose – to help resolve a dispute that has arisen within the church body. Initially, they are gathered in verse 16 to provide evidence that the claims of the offended brother are indeed true. Then, they are (presumably) gathered with the rest of the church in verse 17 as the church makes a pronouncement regarding the unrepentant brother’s status within the church body (the meaning of “let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector”).

Second, what would the two or three be asking about in this context (their asking is mentioned in verse 19)? Here, we have to trace the line of thinking from verse 17 forward. At the end of verse 17, an action is prescribed as the end result of church discipline for an unrepentant brother – let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. This statement would refer to the removal of the brother’s privileges and responsibilities within the church body (it certainly does NOT mean anything like “act mean and nasty toward him”).

This act is then referred to in verse 18 as “binding” and “loosing.” Notice then that in verse 19, Jesus begins by saying “again I say to you.” The word “again” would indicate that Jesus is about to refer back to the action at the end of verse 17 in different language than what he used in verse 18. So then, what would the two or three be asking about in verse 19? The most natural answer, based on the context, is that they would be asking God to approve and confirm their decision to remove the unrepentant brother’s privileges and responsibilities within the church body.

Only now can we properly understand the statements “it will be done for them by my father in heaven” and “for where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Jesus is promising that if we take the proper care and caution in overseeing the discipline of the church, God will approve and confirm the decisions that are made through this process.

There is no general promise made here about any and all prayers that may ever be spoken. It’s very important that we don’t conclude that God is making such a promise here. Why is it so important? Among several reasons, this one stands out:

People sometimes lose their faith when they expect God to grant a request and he doesn’t.

This whole discussion thus becomes very relevant very quickly. We MUST make sure that the expectations we have for God are based on what he himself has said in the Bible and not simply on popular sentimentality. Otherwise, we may end up disappointed with God for no legitimate reason, but simply because we have embraced a misunderstanding about him. That is a very sad state of affairs, indeed.

We must be very careful when we start saying “God promised us this…” or “God promised us that…” We do not want to put God on the hook for things he did not actually say! There certainly is power in prayer. May I be the last person to ever discourage people from praying! But we don’t want to find ourselves in a crisis of faith that could’ve been avoided by simply spotting an unfortunate misunderstanding.

What to Say to God When You Pray--Life With God Series

            We all know that communication is very important in relationships, but sometimes our communication with others can be hindered by nothing more than that nagging feeling that we just don’t know what to say to them. Every one of us has avoided conversations at times because we felt like we just didn’t know what to say to that other person, or if we did have some thoughts in mind, we didn’t know how to express them in just the right words.

            As we’ve been learning in this series recently, we have a cycle of communication in our relationship with God – he communicates with us through the Bible, and we communicate to him through prayer. As with all of our other relationships, our efforts to communicate with God through prayer can be hindered by that same old feeling that we just don’t know what to say.

            Fortunately for us, Jesus has given us a model prayer that teaches us the kinds of thoughts and statements that we should express to God when we pray. By getting more familiar with this model prayer, we can get a better understanding of what we should say to God when we pray. So today, we’re going to take a look at what we usually call “The Lord’s Prayer,” as it is recorded in Matthew 6:9-13.

A Striking Observation

            Once you find that passage in your Bible, if you will just take a glance over the page on which it’s written, you might notice something rather striking about this model prayer – it’s not very long at all! The Lord’s Prayer only takes about 25 seconds to read out loud, and that’s if you read it carefully with great expression!

            Now it could be that this model prayer is short because it is, after all, only a model, an example. We know that these verses don’t say everything that Jesus wanted to communicate about prayer because he had more to say about prayer at other times in his teaching.

            But it could be that the length of this model prayer is meant to teach us that our prayers don’t necessarily have to be very long. I believe we get the same impression when we remember what Jesus had to say back in verses 7-8 [READ Matt 6:7-8].

            Notice the main point of these verses – a multitude of words does not make our prayers more effective, so we should not think that they do. We don’t need to drone on and on because our Father knows what we need before we ask him. These observations have led me to think that it is okay – and perhaps even preferable – to keep our prayers short.

            This thought may not be earth-shattering to you, but I’ve got to tell you, it’s been very challenging to me. To be honest, I think I’ve spent most of my life believing that effective prayers have to be long prayers – in other words, if I want to have any chance of God answering my prayer, I need to make it long.

            I don’t know when or where I picked up that idea, but I can tell you, it really has affected my prayer life. For a long time now, I know I’ve thought that if I want to truly have a “good” prayer time, I’d better be prepared to pray for at least 20 or 30 minutes – the longer the better, even if I wind up repeating myself, and even if I find my mind wandering a lot during that time.

            But as I’ve started to reflect on Matthew 6 and some other passages of Scripture, I’ve started to think that a much better principle to follow might be this:

When you pray, say what’s on your heart, then say no more.

            At times, you may have many people that you’d like to pray for in the same prayer, or you may have a heavy burden that you need to bring to God. Those prayers will naturally be longer, and of course, there’s nothing wrong with that! But at other times, you may simply want to say “thank you” for a small blessing or you may need to confess a sin that you’ve become aware of. I believe we should feel free to simply say those things without feeling like we have to make a 10-minute production out of our prayer.

            Effective prayers are not necessarily long prayers. When you’ve said all that’s on your heart, that will suffice. Don’t drone on with half-hearted words just because you feel like your prayer needs to be a certain length. Say what’s on your heart, then say no more.

A Well-Balanced Prayer Diet

            Now I do believe that The Lord’s Prayer mentions the kinds of thoughts that we need to express in our overall habits of prayer. We don’t want to neglect any of these thoughts even though we may not include all of them in every single prayer we pray.

            To help us remember these thoughts, I’d like to tie The Lord’s Prayer together with a commonly used acronym that serves as a helpful memory device. It’s the acronym ACTS. As we go through this acronym, please don’t think of this as a hard-and-fast outline that each of your prayers must follow. Think of it more like a guide for a well-balanced prayer diet. You can achieve a well-balanced diet for your body even if you don’t eat foods from every food group in each meal. Likewise, you can have a good balance in your prayer life even if you don’t touch on every part of this acronym in every prayer that you pray.

A—Adoration

            The letter “A” in this acronym stands for adoration. That word refers to statements that express our praise to God or our love for Him.

            In The Lord’s Prayer, we find adoration expressed in the statements, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” The Lord’s name refers not just to the title that we might use for Him, but to His reputation and His fame as well. It’s similar to when we say, “So-and-so is really making a name for himself.”

            “Hallowed” is not a word that we use often. We may use it at times to refer to the “hallowed grounds” of a battlefield, and we mean that that location has a sacredness to it and is worthy of special honor because of its history.

            So “hallowed be your name” might be paraphrased as “may you receive the unique honor that you deserve.” It’s a statement that expresses how valuable we believe God is, and that He’s worthy of our love and honor. These are ideas, then, that we want to regularly express to God in our prayers.

C—Confession

            The “C” in this acronym stands for confession. In this model prayer, Jesus teaches us to confess our sins to God when he says, “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Notice how Jesus ties this aspect of our relationship with God together with the way that we treat other people. Tuck that thought in the back of your mind for now, because that idea is going to be the subject of another sermon soon to come. We’ll talk about how our relationship with God is affected by the way that we treat other people.

            For now, I want you to remember that this model prayer is given for people who can call God “Father.” In other words, it is given for followers of Christ – Christians. This little observation would teach us that even after we have become born-again, there is still a need for us to confess our sins to God and ask him for forgiveness.

            It’s not that we’re asking him to save us all over again or to adopt us into his family all over again. The reality is this – when we are born again, our relationship with God moves out of the courtroom and into the living room, because we are his children now, we’re family. And as with any family, we have a need to ask for forgiveness when we have done hurtful things that bring grief to our family members.

            And so, we need to confess our sins to God when we become aware of them. If you sense that you are not regularly aware of your sins, ask God to give you a greater sensitivity toward your sins. If we ask God to make it clear to us when we have sinned, I think he will be happy to answer that prayer.

T—Thanksgiving

            The “T” in this acronym stands for thanksgiving. Ironically, we don’t find the words “thank you” in this prayer, although we can certainly see gratitude peeking out from between the lines of these verses.

            Other passages of Scripture make it clear that we should offer thanks to God in our prayers. For example, Philippians 4:6 says, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Colossians 4:2 likewise says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”

            If we would keep this thought in mind, we would find ourselves with numerous opportunities every day to say thank you to God. In fact, this could be a good way to carry out the command of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing.” If we would offer a very brief prayer of thanks to the Lord as our various blessings come to mind, we would find ourselves saying thank you quite often.

S—Supplication

            The final letter in this acronym stands for supplication, which is just a fancier word for “making requests.” This may be the most humbling truth about prayer – we are invited to bring our requests to the Lord. It certainly makes sense for us to speak statements of adoration, to confess our sins, and to thank the Lord because after all – we are speaking to our superior, our Creator and Savior. The fact that he is willing to hear our requests is an example of sheer grace.

            We see supplication communicated in the three statements of this prayer: 1) your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven; 2) give us this day our daily bread; and 3) and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

            Notice how the first statement of supplication is based on promises that God had already made. He had already promised that he would establish his kingdom of righteousness in this world; he had already promised that one day his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Jesus was teaching us that some of our requests at least should be informed by and fueled by the promises that God has made in the Bible.

            So for example, we can request that Christ would return soon; we can request that God would show us how his strength is made perfect in our weakness; we can request that God would make his presence with us clear to us, since he promised that he would be with us always. Knowing God’s promises, then, gives us an important base of knowledge that should influence what we ask for in prayer.

            As far as the other two examples of supplication, notice how they give us a balance between our physical needs and our spiritual needs. We need to pray about both kinds of needs without neglecting one or the other. Sometimes our physical needs can feel so urgent that they dominate our prayers and leave us with little energy or concentration to pray for our spiritual needs. On the other hand, it might feel selfish at times to pray about your own physical needs when you remember the great spiritual needs of so many people all around you.

            The goal would be to not get off-balance in either direction. Remember your physical needs and remember your spiritual needs. Remember your own needs and remember the needs of others.

            So by learning some lessons from this model prayer, we don’t have to remain tongue-tied whenever we pause to pray. With these thoughts as our guide, we can simply say what is on our hearts, then we don’t have to feel pressure to say more, as though God has a minimum word count requirement for our prayers. With Christ’s example before us, may prayer become more delightful to us all the time.

Your Greatest Allies in Prayer--Life with God Series

            Teachers and their students have a rather ironic relationship when you think about it. On the one hand, teachers are given the responsibility of enforcing the academic standards of the classroom. They are the ones who test the students and evaluate them, and ultimately they are the ones who give the students a grade.

            But on the other hand, teachers are also the ones who give their students the most help to meet the academic standards of the classroom. They are their students’ greatest resource and biggest supporters at the school. So at the very same time, teachers are enforcing the standards and giving their students the most help in meeting those standards. That’s kind of ironic, don’t you think?

            In a similar way, we also see this irony in prayer. God, of course, is the one whom we pray to, asking him to hear our appeals, but as we are going to learn today, he is also the one who gives us the most help in prayer. So as we make our appeals to him, he is – at the very same time – the one who gives us the most help in offering our prayers.

            Today we will see how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each work in various ways to encourage us to pray and to help us overcome the general weakness that hounds us as we journey through a fallen world. We can be very encouraged today to see just how much God assists us so that we might pray!

We will look at each of the members of the Trinity in turn.

1. The Father draws us into prayer through His kindness

            To see this truth, we can review some of what we learned last week in Matthew 6:7-8. In those verses, Jesus contrasted the way that the Gentiles prayed with the way that we should pray. The Gentiles had no particular reason to think that their gods cared about them, but we enjoy a very different relationship with our God. He is actually our father, as Jesus reminds us in verse eight, and when we remember how he sent his own son to die for us so that he might forgive us and adopt us as his own children, we have reason to believe that God’s ears are open to our prayers because of the kindness of his heart.

            So when my mind says, “Do you really think God will care about what I pray?”, my spirit can say, “Yes, because I am his child, and he has shown such a great love to create this relationship.” So God’s kind love draws us to pray to him by convincing us that he cares and that he really will consider what we have to say.

Since we spent a little more time on that last week, let’s move on now to see how the Son helps us in prayer.

2. The Son leads us into prayer through His sympathy and intercession

            To learn more about this truth, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews. If you’ve ever wondered, “What is Jesus up to right now?”, the book of Hebrews tells us about one of his present-day activities. In the early chapters of this book, we learn that Jesus is in heaven serving as our high priest before the Father. That is a very rich image from the Old Testament, but today we might be a little more familiar with the idea of an ambassador or advocate – someone who represents our interests in the presence of an authority figure.

            This is one way in which Jesus is helping us right now. Notice how Hebrews 2:14-18 describes this [READ Heb 2:14-18]. Jesus knows what it’s like to deal with the weakness of a human body. He understands the temptation to be grouchy when you haven’t had enough sleep, or to be impatient when someone makes one more request of you after you’re already worn out. He understands these things because he has been through them, too.

            The author of Hebrews picks up this theme again in 4:14-16 [READ 4:14-16]. How wonderful that Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses! He has been through the same struggles that we’ve faced, so he can serve as a merciful advocate. This should give us great encouragement to pray to God.

            Don’t we all find ourselves less than enthusiastic sometimes to talk to people who haven’t been through the things we’ve been through? We don’t feel very eager to talk to someone when we think that they just can’t understand what we’ve experienced. We may still labor through a conversation, but it’s likely to be hindered because of those feelings.

            Sometimes as we walk through life in this fallen world and we consider prayer, we find ourselves thinking, “What does God know about pain and suffering? He’s way off, somewhere up there in heaven being worshiped by angels. How could he really understand what I’m going through?”

            It is for that very reason that the Bible reminds us about the experiences and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and tells us that he is right there in the presence of the Father to sympathize with us and to intercede for us.

            Consider the variety of hardships that Jesus faced in his life, and consider if he can understand what you have been through. He likely lived in a level of poverty that none of us has ever experienced. If our historical research today is correct, he grew up in a home that was carved out of a cave – literally a hole in the ground! Every one of us lives in great comfort compared to that!

            Also, from the biblical story, we have very good reason to think that Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, died during Jesus’ lifetime. Jesus would know, then, what it is like to feel the grief of losing a parent.

            Jesus also knows what its like to be misunderstood and opposed by your own family. We read a couple of times in the Gospels that his brothers thought he was crazy and tried to bring him back home from preaching all over the countryside.

            Jesus knows what it is like to live under the heavy hand of an oppressive government; he knows what it is like to pay unfair taxes; he knows what it is like to receive injustice at the hands of a judicial system; he knows what it is like to be stolen from; he knows what it’s like to be betrayed by your best friend; he knows what it’s like to face public humiliation.

            Do you remember that he even knows what it’s like to feel abandoned by God? As he bore our sins on the cross, there was that fateful moment when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Perhaps in that moment, Jesus felt the full weight of the Father’s anger toward sin. He would know what it’s like, then, to feel that God Himself is opposed to you.

            And let us not forget what the author of Hebrews emphasized—Jesus has experienced every kind of temptation that we have. So when we speak to God in prayer, we know that we have a great high priest in Jesus Christ—an advocate who truly understands what we’re going through because he’s been there. Since God did not remain distant from the pain of this world but stepped down into it and experienced it, he is sympathetic toward our needs and is able to commiserate with us.

3. The Holy Spirit helps us in prayer to overcome our weakness

            In Romans 8, we learn about an incredible ministry that the Holy Spirit performs to help us in prayer. Beginning in Romans 8:18, the Apostle Paul discusses the tension that we feel between the sufferings of this present time and the glory that awaits us as children of God. According to Paul, the glory that is to be revealed is incomparable, but at the present time our souls ache and groan because we live under the curse of sin.

            Our natural limitations as creatures are only exaggerated by the effects of sin on our bodies and our minds, and so in this sense we live in a general state of weakness. Should we despair, then, because of our weakness? No—just look here at verse 26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.”

            Now, I don’t believe Paul is saying, “Shame on you! You should know better than to ask for the things you ask for.” No, I think he’s saying that we cannot always know what to pray for. We pray according to the best of our knowledge, but our knowledge is limited. Sometimes this life can be so disorienting that we don’t even know where to begin when we speak to God. We don’t know whether to ask for this or to ask for that.

            There’s certainly nothing wrong with praying for the things we desire to have come about, but in our limited knowledge, we just don’t know exactly what God’s plan will be. Before I ever met Carmen, I spent a whole summer praying that a certain girl would become my wife. We were good friends, and I’d heard from some mutual friends that she was interested in me, so I had some high hopes. During that summer, I can remember frequently taking walks in the evening, praying that God would bring us together and anticipating what that would be like, because I had high confidence that God would grant my request.

            Well, when the school year started up, we reconnected and re-kindled our friendship. After about three weeks, I asked her out on a date, and would you know that I didn’t even get one date with that girl? She politely declined, and I asked her if this was a “no” for now or a “no” for good, and she said it was a “no” for good.

            I couldn’t believe it! I had prayed about it for months, and I thought it would be a great match, but God declined that request because he had a different plan in mind.

            Now, I didn’t know that, and I couldn’t have known that, so should we just give up on prayer, then, because of this confusion? No, we can offer our prayers and trust in what the Spirit will do for us. Continued reading in v. 26—“but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

            Just think of this grace and sympathy—the Holy Spirit supplements our prayers to bring them into accord with the will of God. He speaks up for us even when we don’t know what to say, or when we might say something amiss.

            Since I’ve had children, I’ve come to learn that I can often understand what they’re trying to say even when other people can’t. I know how they say things and when they might mix up certain words, so if they’re talking to someone else and not getting through, I can usually step in and say, “Here’s what they were trying to say.”

            Perhaps that’s how we should think of the Holy Spirit’s help for us. As we struggle to communicate our desires to God or the depths of our grief, the Holy Spirit intercedes and says, “Here’s what they’re really trying to say.”

            If I could put all of God’s help for us in prayer into one picture, I think it would look like this—the Father stands out in front of us, calling us through kindness to come to him in prayer. As he calls, Jesus stands beside us and takes us by the arm, saying, “Yes! I’ve been where you are. This is the right step to take. Go to him and you’ll find mercy and grace.” Behind us, with a hand on our shoulder, ready to steady us, is the Holy Spirit, saying, “Go ahead. Don’t worry—I’ll help you!”

            Though we appeal to God in prayer, he is the very one who gives us the most help for our prayers. So don’t decline his kind-hearted call to ask, seek, and knock. Don’t think that he can’t understand, because Jesus can—and He does! Don’t worry if you’re not entirely settled on what to say, because the Holy Spirit will help you. Let us take advantage of this great outpouring of help from the Lord.

Speaking to God in Prayer--Life with God Series

            When I play board games, I’m the kind of person who likes to play as an individual. If a game is designed for me to have a teammate, that’s fine—I can live with that. But sometimes, I find myself at a gathering that has 12 people, but we have a board game that only allows for four players. Now what? Some of you don’t mind just pairing up with another person, but I would rather bow out and watch everyone else play than play with someone as a team.

            The reason for that is pretty silly, to be honest—when I think I have a winning strategy, I get so stubborn that I don’t want to have to work with anyone else! They may not see the obvious superiority of my strategy, and they may have the audacity to suggest a different plan!

            Playing a board game as an individual is one thing, but there are some activities in life that simply require partnership and cooperation. Communication is definitely in that category. We’ve all been in one-sided conversations before, and we can all attest that they are a far cry from real communication. Communication truly is a two-way street; it involves sharing and receiving. If only one person is truly interested or active in a conversation, communication simply will not take place.

            In the last couple of weeks, we’ve learned that God communicates to us through the Bible. Today, we’re going to start talking about how we communicate to God, and that is through prayer. Along with obedience, prayer forms a major part of how we respond to what God communicates to us in the Bible.

            Since prayer does form a major part of our response to God, it’s just like God to give us plenty of teaching about it in the Bible. Today, we’re going to start taking a look at the model prayer that Jesus gave us which we often call “The Lord’s Prayer.” We’ll take a close look at the Lord’s lead-in to that prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, and in that lead-in we will find the roots of fruitful praying.

The Roots of Fruitful Praying

            If I had to sum it up, I would say that the roots of fruitful praying are to pray in a manner that fits with what our God is like. We must pray in a way that is befitting the kind of character that God has, as He has revealed it to us through His promises and actions. In that light, we find two attitudes in Matthew 6:7-8 that could give us a disease in the very roots of our prayer lives if we don’t watch out for them.

Diseased Attitudes About Prayer

1. God can be manipulated into answering my prayers

            Notice the warning that Jesus gives us in Matthew 6:7 – “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Let me focus here not so much on what these non-Jewish people did, but on what they thought – they thought their prayers would be heard because of their own actions. Their confidence for answered prayer was not in their god, but in whether or not they did things in the proper way.

            In this case, Jesus highlighted the practice of offering long, drawn-out prayers, but the actions could be anything. He could’ve mentioned offering the proper sacrifices or demonstrating sorrow in a visible way like cutting yourself, because those were also common practices among the Gentiles.

            This attitude toward prayer is a hallmark of false religion. There are many examples of this notion that I can make my prayers effective by my own actions. Consider the Muslim habit of prayer, for example. They believe that their prayers will be effective if they offer them at precisely the right times of day, facing the proper direction, and with the proper order of standing, kneeling, and bowing. Or we could consider Hindu practices, such as crawling for miles to a temple in order to show your sorrow over your sins.

            Whenever I start to think that I can force God’s hand by something that I do, I am catching a disease at the roots of my prayer life. Yet it’s very easy to slip into this mindset. I might think to myself, “If I just get down on my knees and stay there until my knees are raw and my back aches, then God will see how serious I am about this prayer business, and he will answer my prayer.” Or I might think, “If I can just work myself into tears about this, then God will see how desperately I desire this request, and he will give it to me.”

            I have a friend who preached at a church one time, and during the course of the service he prayed a prayer from the pulpit. After the service, the elders of that church were furious with him because he didn’t end his prayer in the way that they thought was necessary. They told him that he had to end his prayer with, “In Jesus name I pray.” They thought his prayer wouldn’t be effective with any other ending.

            My friends, let me be clear about this – when God grants us what we request, it is not because of anything we have done, but simply because of what God is like. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He is willing to answer prayer because he is good, not because we have made him cry “Uncle!” by using the right postures or the right phrases.

Remembering what God is really like is the key to avoiding the second diseased attitude.

2. God needs to be convinced to care about me

            The Lord continued his teaching on prayer by saying this in verse eight: “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” In their religions, the Gentiles had no reason to think that their gods really cared about them. Perhaps their gods kept tabs on them, but there wasn’t really a notion of personal concern or affection.

            For that reason, their prayers were more like uninvited interruptions, and if you’re going to interrupt your god and make a request, it had better be good, right? You had better speak eloquently, or you better offer lots of compliments. Or better yet, you might try to butter him up by offering some gifts or making some vows.

            But what a drastically different situation we face when we pray to the true and living God – the God of the Bible! As Jesus reminds us here, he is our Father, and one way he demonstrates that is by keeping up with our needs – anticipating them and knowing them before we even realize that we have them!

            When we go to God in prayer, we are like a weary traveler who stops at a home to ask for shelter only to find that the table has already been set for our arrival! The bedsheets have already been turned down in expectation of our visit! Prayer is not a means to convince God to care about us because he already does!

            When we feel like God needs to be convinced to care about us, the result is that we will not pray about very many things. We will consider most things to be too insignificant to merit God’s attention, so we won’t pray about them. Consequently, we will miss out on a multitude of opportunities for God to strengthen our faith by showing his faithfulness through his compassion and care.

            We know God cares about the “big” problems in our lives. We know he cares when we are diagnosed with a devastating disease, or when we receive that eviction notice – but does he still care when we’ve lost our car keys for the third time in a week and we have to get to an appointment? Should we think that we have an invitation to pray even about that, or should we feel like it would be an interruption?

            I’ve certainly had my ups and downs with battling this prayer disease, but I can tell you that when I have chosen to pray to God about the “little” things, he has so often delighted my heart by showing me that he cares. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed that we could find a child’s blanky at bedtime! And you know what? We still have their blankies!

            I remember a time a few summers ago when I was briefly working for Matthew over at United Suppliers. I was driving a delivery truck, and I usually had to leave pretty early in the morning to make my deliveries. On one particular morning I arrived at the warehouse and for some reason, my key simply would not unlock the door! It was like someone had changed the lock; I just couldn’t get in.

            Because it was so early, I didn’t want to call Matthew and bother him, so I said a prayer something like this: “Lord, I really don’t want to have to bother Matthew right now, but our customers need this delivery. Would you please help me get into the building?” I don’t know if an angel came and straightened out my key or something, but I put it back in the lock, and that knob turned as if it had just been freshly oiled!

            When we fail to pray about the little things, we miss out on so many opportunities for God to show his concern and to build our faith. God cares about you, and he even cares about the little details of life. You don’t have to convince him to care, so go to him with all of your concerns.

Now that we have dismissed these diseased attitudes about prayer, we might be left asking ourselves…

What is Prayer All About?

            If prayer is not a way to make God work for me, what is it all about? If it’s not a method to convince God to care about me (since he already does!), then what is its purpose? If it’s not even a tool to inform God about my needs (since he already knows them), then what is it really for? By remembering that prayer is part of a cycle of communication, I think we can readily see one purpose.

1. It is a way to express my love to God

            Even if you know that someone loves you deeply, it’s still good to hear it again, isn’t it? And even if I’ve expressed it to my loved ones a thousand times, it’s still good for me to say it again – “I love you!” Expressing your love has an interesting way of expanding your love. When you express your love to God, it reinforces that love and builds it.

            When you pause to pray, that choice communicates that you value your relationship with God. Even if you don’t speak the words “I love you,” your actions demonstrate it. Expressing love is a healthy and vital part of any relationship, and prayer is one of the ways that you can express your love to God.

And when we think about what God wants to build in our lives, I think we can see another purpose for prayer.

2. It is a way to express and cultivate humility in my heart

            Whenever you pray to God to thank him for something or ask him for something, that act is a tacit admission that you cannot live this life on your own. Praying to God reveals that you understand your need for him; praying to him even about the little things in life demonstrates that you know you need his power and intervention every moment of the day.

            Perhaps more than anything, a lack of prayer should be seen as a symptom not of busyness or forgetfulness, but of pride. When I do not pray frequently, my actions express that I believe I can make it through most of life just fine on my own. In those moments, I am treating God more like a safety net than a shepherd, as if he is simply something for me to fall on when I’m in trouble rather than a kind master whom I have to trust for every need in my life.

            I’m starting to think that the main reason that God answers prayer is this – because prayer expresses humility, and God has promised to give grace to the humble. James and the Apostle Peter both remind us that God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Because God is good, he delights to respond with kindness and grace toward those who humbly approach him.

            Why would we ever hesitate to pray to a God like that? Why should we ever doubt whether he cares about the things that concern us? He has given us this wonderful way to express our love and our humility to him. May we not be negligent to use it!

Pray for One Another--Ephesians 6:18--Being the Body Series

            Her heart must have been pounding inside her chest as she stepped into that room—that room where no one was welcome without an invitation, that room where coming uninvited could get a person killed. But as the king heard her footsteps and lifted his eyes to see who had dared to come into that room, his heart was filled with compassion. When he saw the face of the one he loved, he raised his scepter to indicate that she was welcome.

            The story of Esther reminds us how difficult it has always been to get an audience with people in positions of high authority. Just imagine if you wanted to have a conversation with the President. For the average person, it would be practically impossible.

            And yet, as Christians, we have free and ready access to the highest authority of all—God himself! At any moment we choose, no matter where we are, we can simply turn our thoughts toward God and express our thoughts to Him, and He will hear us. Isn’t that amazing?

            With such an amazing privilege at our disposal, we should ask ourselves, “How am I using this opportunity?” Am I making the most of this incredible gift? Am I perhaps using it in a merely selfish way? I heard a great question recently that I think really helps put things in perspective—if all of my prayers were answered tomorrow, would only my life be different, or would the whole world be different?

            Today, we’re going to take a look at a scriptural command for us to pray for one another. It is no hollow cliché to say that the best thing we can do for each other is pray for each other. We’ll find out a bit more about how to do that in Ephesians 6:18.

            Beginning in Ephesians 6:10, the Apostle Paul uses the metaphor of warfare to discuss the battles that we face against the schemes of the devil. He makes a vital point in v. 12 when he writes, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The titles “rulers” and “authorities” refer to the spiritual beings—the demonic beings—who are working with Satan to do battle against us.

            So our struggle is against spiritual beings and their powers, and as the old saying goes, you have to fight fire with fire. You’re not going to win a modern-day war with bows and arrows, and likewise, you’re not going to win a struggle against spiritual beings with merely human resources. This is one reason why prayer is such a vital tool in our spiritual arsenal, and it is why we need to employ it on behalf of others.

            In vv. 13-17, then, Paul calls upon us to embrace certain attitudes and behaviors, and he memorably compares them to different pieces of armor that were worn by Roman soldiers at that time. Then in v. 18, he ties it all together with this instruction about prayer—“praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.”

Let’s dig deeper into this verse with a few simple questions.

When Should We Pray?

            According to this verse, we should pray “at all times.” If we were to ask the Bible whether we should pray in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening, it would simply say, “Yes!” Every time of day is a good time for prayer!

            Recall that in John 15, Jesus said (and I paraphrase), “I am like a vine, and you are like the branches coming out of the vine. Apart from me, you can do nothing!” He meant, of course, nothing of spiritual value. We can do plenty of sinning on our own, but to do anything good, the guidance and strength of Christ are absolutely essential.

            If that’s true, then as people who need Jesus like a branch needs its vine, we should never be very far removed from our last prayer, and we should never be very far away from our next prayer. Texting conversations provide a great illustration of what that might look like. You can carry on a texting conversation with someone all day if you want, and yet at the same time, you can take care of the business you need to attend to that day. But that conversation is always in the back of your mind, and every so often you fire off another text to that person.

            That’s a great model for what it might look like to pray at all times. In the back of our minds, we should have an ongoing conversation with God about our day, and then every little bit, we bring that conversation to the front of our minds, and we pray a prayer to God.

            So think about your typical day and ask yourself, “Do I have some pretty long stretches of prayerlessness?” Or ask yourself this—“If I ate only as often as I pray, what would my physical health be like? Would I be well-fed or malnourished?” Well, if you endure long stretches without prayer, don’t you think your spiritual health suffers? So, we must pray at all times.

How Should We Pray?

1. In the Spirit

            When you hear this phrase, don’t picture yourself going into a trance or some kind of altered state of mind. The idea is to pray with the resources that the Holy Spirit provides. What kind of resources does He provide for our prayers?

            The first resource we should mention is confidence. The Holy Spirit reminds us that we are children of God, and as such, we have the right to come to God in prayer. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Thus, we don’t have to wonder, like Esther did, whether the king is going to lower His scepter to us when we approach his throne. We can thus pray with confidence.

            That same chapter—Romans 8—mentions another activity of the Spirit to help us in prayer. Verses 26-27 state, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

            Notice how the Holy Spirit steps in for us. We don’t always know the right thing to pray for, do we? Sometimes, life is so complicated, we don’t even know what the best thing to ask for is. So as we wrestle with what to even say, the Holy Spirit assists us in the process. It may not be far off to think of Him acting like a translator—as I’m stumbling over my words, He can step in and say, “Father, what Tim really meant to say was…” And so, the Holy Spirit can give us great confidence for prayer.

            Second, He can also give us content for our prayers. Notice that Ephesians 6:17 says that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. God’s Word is a powerful tool that the Holy Spirit uses to shape our lives—to give us teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). As the Spirit teaches us the promises of God, we can use them to inform our prayers. As He convicts us of sin, we can find the remedy in Scripture, and pray over it. A Scripture-saturated prayer is a powerful prayer indeed, and the Holy Spirit can impress those Scriptures upon our hearts.

2. With all prayer and supplication

            Think of this directive as a goal to make your prayers a “well-balanced diet.” The word “prayer” is a more general term that could encompass anything you might say to God—whether you’re thanking Him or praising Him or confessing sin. The word “supplication” is a more specific term that refers to making requests.

            Taken together, these terms describe a well-rounded prayer life. If anything, I’ll bet we’re tempted to go heavy on making requests, and perhaps go a bit light on everything else. Or maybe your prayers are like a form letter—you always end up saying the same things, and the only section that ever gets an update is the request section.

            This statement from Paul instructs us not to neglect any aspect of prayer. Reflecting on The Lord’s Prayer is a good way to find some balance in your prayer life, because Jesus uttered that prayer in order to teach the disciples how to pray. It can teach us, too, if we’ll reflect on it a bit and learn what the Lord was saying.

3. With alertness and perseverance

            This phrase may surprise us a bit, because I think it paints prayer in a different light than the light in which we’re used to seeing it. Paul’s language here is perfectly suited to the context, since he’s been using this metaphor of warfare. A soldier in battle must always remain alert and must persevere through difficulty.

            And remember—a soldier in battle is precisely how Paul envisions you and me in this passage. That observation puts the practice of prayer into an important context. I believe we are often tempted to think of prayer as being like a perk or a fringe benefit of being a Christian—kind of like a bonus that God tossed into the gift of salvation.

            But prayer is no fringe benefit in the Christian life—it is much more like the communication that occurs in a time of battle. If you’re a soldier, communicating with your commander isn’t a bonus or something optional—it is absolutely crucial to the success of the mission and to your own safety and well-being.

            In his book Desiring God, John Piper suggested that many of our problems in prayer and much of our weakness in prayer come from the fact that we have taken a wartime walkie-talkie and turned it in to a civilian intercom. Rather than use prayer to go on active duty for God, he says, we use it to try to call the servants to bring another cushion into the den. We’ve turned it into something like a call button for an airline stewardess—something we can just use to call for another Coke whenever we’re thirsty.

            We must never forget that we are constantly under attack by the schemes of Satan. It is in that light that we must pray—as if our very survival depended on it. We must not let Satan catch us during a season of drought in our prayer lives. If we truly are at war with the Evil One, why would we cut our own line of communication with our commander by not praying? Or why would we render it moot and useless by trying to use it for the wrong purpose?

For Whom Should We Pray?

            At the end of this verse, Paul states that we should make supplication for all the saints. At a minimum, I’m sure Paul was telling these Christians in Ephesus to pray for all the other Christians there in their local church. To that, we could add other believers with whom they had personal contact, like the Apostle Paul, and then beyond that, we could add other Christians as they came to hear about them.

            Here is where we really get to the heart of the command to pray for one another. Our prayers should not be all about ourselves and our own concerns. Other people should have the starring role in our prayers—then, we can just bring ourselves in for a cameo appearance!

            That balance may ebb and flow with different prayers. A prayer to confess sin will, of course, be intensely personal, and it will focus on yourself. In other prayers, you may have a very urgent personal need that receives most of the focus. But in the bulk of your prayers overall, other people should be blessed by being the focus of your prayers.

            I would encourage you not to simply rely on your memory to help you pray for others and their needs. Use other tools to help faithfully pray for others. We supply several different tools through our own church—our recurring prayer list that we now print once a month, our urgent prayer list that we print in the bulletin, the selected family to pray for each week. If you will make use of these tools, they will provide you with a systematic way to pray for all of your brothers and sisters in this church.

            Praying for each other is a great privilege and a necessary tool in our battle against Satan. It also reminds us of the unity that we have as a result of our Lord’s sacrifice for our sins. Whenever we celebrate The Lord’s Supper together, we are reminded that we all have a stake in the sacrificial death of Christ; we all have been washed clean by His shed blood. May we partake of it today with our unity in the forefront of our minds!