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“Prayer is the key to Heaven but faith unlocks the door.”
That line is from one of the first Christian songs I ever sang and it holds a simple yet profound truth.
In Luke, the eleventh chapter, we learn a great deal about prayer and about persistent faith. I’ve read this portion of scripture many times through the years and have heard many sermons preached on the Lord’s prayer. However, recently as I was studying this passage I saw something I had not seen before and it was a great encouragement to me and I trust it will be to you.
Jesus and his disciples were together somewhere and Jesus was praying, perhaps off a little ways from his disciples, maybe only silently, moving his lips as He communed with His Father. We don’t know the exact circumstances but we do know that one of his disciples witnessed this time of prayer and asked, “Lord, teach us to pray…”
So Jesus responded by giving them a simple pattern for prayer:
I believe this was given as a pattern for prayer, not a mantra to be used to solicit spiritual favor.
I’m a huge sports fan. I particularly love football but I must tell you, I find it almost a little humorous and at times offensive when the team, often comprised of some who will be cursing a blue streak in mere moments, who were out drinking, carousing and dishonoring God and their own bodies the night before suddenly unite with, “Our Father who art in Heaven…”
Hoping to perhaps gain some competitive edge they chant on… “deliver us from evil.” Of course, the team in the other locker room is doing the same thing. It must put God in a tough spot! Actually, I don’t think He’s into fixing games based on locker room prayer performance.
The prayer is more about giving us a pattern, a prioritization, if you will, of concerns to be addressed: recognize God is Holy, seek for the advancement of His kingdom, look to Him for all your daily provisions and seek forgiveness. Don’t forget to forgive others and ask for help in regards to temptation.
I repeat The Lord’s Prayer occasionally and I believe it is fine and appropriate to do so as a way of remembering His words and honoring the instruction of scripture. It is a pattern for what to pray but I believe the more important lesson here is how to pray.
This is what I had never seen so clearly before. By way of application of Jesus’ teaching concerning prayer, He launches into a parable.
He says, “What if one of you has a friend come to visit and you have nothing to feed him? So you go to another friend’s house, knock on the door and say, ‘Please lend me some bread for a friend has come to visit and I have no food for him.’ From inside this friend says, ‘don’t bother me, my kids and I are in bed, I can’t help you.’”
We could certainly discuss what kind of friend this was who won’t get up, but let’s leave that for another time. The important thing is this is where Jesus teaches us how to pray!
“I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”
If you’re like me there is something or perhaps several things you’ve been praying about for a long time. Sometimes you feel like your prayers are becoming vain repetitions. You don’t know how else to say the same thing. You begin to consider the sovereignty of God and start to think, “well He is who He is and He does what He does so maybe I should just move on and not bother Him with the same old request.”
Interesting that Jesus says: not because of the friendship but because of the persistence. Our friendship with God is a given if we are His. He will never turn us away but according to Jesus’ teaching He does want us to persist and on that basis expect to receive.
For He goes on to say, “Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. “ In the original language the better and more accurate translation is, keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking.
Then He goes on to say, “For everyone who keeps asking, receives; and he who keeps seeking, finds; and to him who keeps knocking, it shall be opened.”
Everyone! Not some, not a few, not even most….Everyone. This is how to pray: persistently, timelessly and continually.
Oswald Chambers says, “Prayer is not so much about getting something from God as it is just getting God.”
By persisting we continually come into God’s presence and thereby not only gain the answer but gain Him and all He wants to do in us and for us even above what we would ask. Remember this, you will receive but perhaps not in the way you expected and probably not on your time schedule.
I believe I’ve missed recognizing some of God’s answered prayers because I was so sure it was going to come in a way other than it did. There are no unanswered prayers but there are sometimes unrecognized answers to prayers. He is always faithful; He cannot lie; His word is true.
Someone once said, “Prayer is like hitting a large boulder with a small hammer. We strike it once, a dozen times, a thousand times or ten thousand times and it seems to no avail. But then in that 10,001st strike the boulder breaks. We would wrongly suppose it was that one blow that broke the boulder. In fact, it was the accumulation of all the blows that finally achieved success. The very first blow began the fracturing process, though unseen to the one striking the rock.”
So it is with us. Keep striking the rock! Never cease to keep asking, for everyone who does these things will receive!
In Christ,
Dallas Holm
P.S. Linda and I just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary. We are also rejoicing in 40 years of ministry. Please keep us in your prayers for continued guidance, health and provision. Persist in prayer with us for the continual effectiveness of this ministry. In your prayers please ask what you can do to help us financially. I believe God will use some of you to be part of the answer to our prayers. Thank you and God bless you.