Praying

Why do you pray?  No, really.  It’s not a stupid question.  Why do you pray?  If you’re like most of the people I talk to, your answer will be something like this:  “I pray in order to ask God to take care of needs in my life and in the lives of others.  I pray for strength, healing, provision and enlightenment.  I pray because the Bible says I should.  I pray in order to communicate my feelings and circumstances to God so that I may know what He wants me to do.”

That seems reasonable, doesn’t it?  After all, we are taught that prayer is communication with God.  We are taught that God wants us to share all of our concerns with Him.  We are taught that prayer changes things; that prayer unleashes the power of the divine.  Of course we should pray.  We want blessings and victories and comfort.

There’s just one tiny problem.  Most of the people that I know who speak about prayer in this way admit that a large percentage of their prayers are not answered.  I don’t mean that they are told, “No” or “Not yet.”  I mean that they simply get no response at all.  That is definitely not what the Bible tells me about prayer.  The Bible says that God answers prayer; that He hears the cries of the righteous and responds to them.  The Bible tells me that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.  Things happen!  Jesus, James, John, Paul, Peter and many others are examples of men who expected and saw real results from prayer.  I can’t imagine reading a verse in the Bible that says, “God only answers prayers when He feels like it so get used to it.”  If the Bible anticipates that God answers, then the problem with my prayers and the prayers of those I know can’t be on God’s side of the relationship.  There must be something wrong with what I am doing.

In the last few days, several close friends have really tried to come to grips with this issue.  It started over a request to pray for the healing of a little girl who was hit by a truck.  If anyone seemed to need prayer, she did.  Lying in a hospital bed, her life hung in the balance.  An entire community of believers gathered in prayerful vigilance.

“Lord, if it be Your will, please heal Kaley.”

But that’s the problem.  Instead of praying to know God’s will, we pray for God to fulfill our desires.  Prayers that are not self-serving are still about our desires, even if those desires are the completely rational, altruistic desires to see this little girl healed.  “If it be Your will.”  That phrase is a sort of caveat in prayer.  What it really says is this:  “I don’t really know what you have in mind, God, and so I’m going to prayer for what I have in mind and if it’s the same thing that You think, then it will happen.  But if it’s not what You have in mind, then this prayer won’t result in what I want, and I accept that too.”

Now I ask you, “What kind of prayer is that?”  It’s prayer that doesn’t really believe anything in particular.  It’s a kind of plea to the clouds in the sky that whatever will happen will happen and I hope it’s what I want to happen.  How can that be effective prayer?  This kind of prayer doesn’t really know what it believes.  “Lord, just in case You are going to heal Kaley, then I will pray for Kaley to be healed.  But since I don’t really know if You want to heal Kaley, then I will hedge my bets by saying, “if it’s Your will”.”

Maybe the reason that we don’t hear from God as often as we would like is that we don’t really pray with faith.  We pray with one foot in heaven and one foot on earth, just in case things don’t quite work out the way we want.

I don’t mean to suggest that somehow we should get more faith.  One of the subtle and seductive lies of the enemy is that faith is sort of like gaining weight.  If I want to see god really work, then I have to add a few pounds to my spiritual dimension.  Most of this mythology comes from not understanding the whole idea of faith.  Faith is not something I accumulate.  It is not a “something” at all.  Faith is a verb!  It is acting on the basis of what God has already done and Who God already is.  I can’t build up my reserve of faith or add to my faith bank account.  Faith is doing things according to God’s perspective.  So, when Jesus says that all we need is faith like a mustard seed, He is not suggesting that we collect a jar full of seeds.  He is saying that we need to start breathing, moving, living, acting according to God’s point of view, regardless of the apparent mountains in front of us.

The prayer of faith is the prayer that leads me to act as God would act.  This is the prayer that says, “Lord, I know what You would do in this situation and therefore I am going to do it.  Now take this step with me!”  Pharaoh called for Moses in the midst of the seventh plague.  While the lightening and hail crashed around them, Pharaoh repented.  Then Moses said something amazing.  “As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease and there will be hail no longer” (Exodus 9:29).  What’s amazing about this statement?  Moses did not ask God for His plan to stop the lightening and hail before he announced it.  He told Pharaoh that God would do what he, Moses, asked.  That is faith!  Do it and expect God to be there.

But you complain, “I have prayed that way.  I have asked God to answer, expecting that He will, and then nothing happens.  How come Moses is different?”  Let me tell you.  Moses could walk out of the city, lift up his hands and ask God to stop the lightening and hail because Moses already knew the mind of God before he asked.

If you want to pray for results, you must first know God’s mind about the things you ask in prayer.  Don’t be a coward.  Stop praying, “If it be Your will.”  Know what God’s will is, then pray accordingly!  Throw yourself on the ground and plead for God to reveal His mind about the matter.  Don’t quit until you know what God thinks.  Then stand up and pray according to His will.  Nothing will prevent that prayer for being answered exactly as you ask for “no plan of His can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).  Moses walked out of Pharaoh’s palace with the mind of God in his head.  Of course he could ask for the storm to stop.  He knew what God wanted to do.  Jesus stood in front of the tomb of Lazarus.  Do you think that He had any doubt about what God wanted to do?  Did Peter have any doubt about what was no God’s mind when he said, “Stand up and walk.”  Our prayers are anemic because we have forgotten the first step:  the effective prayer begins with knowing God’s purpose before we ask.