5/29/16-Luke 11:1-13-”Pray, Pray, and Pray Again”
Nothing is more basic to the life of a Christian than prayer. It jolts us to the frontier of spiritual life, and it is vital because it brings us front and center into God’s presence.
Through prayer God reforms, shapes, and molds us into the image of Christ. Like a painting, in prayer God adds the brushstrokes, to create in us a masterpiece that looks like Jesus!
It gives God joy to make us more like His Son. Yet, when we think of prayer, we could all list some reasons why we may not take advantage of this most holy of practices.
Remember friends, prayer is our spiritual nourishment. It is how we partake of the divine. Just as it is impossible to sustain our bodies without physical food, it is impossible to sustain our souls without spiritual food through prayer.
When prayer becomes an empty ritual in our lives, it becomes boring, but when we realize that God values the time we spend with Him, it shifts focus from us to Him it is enjoyable and we are excited to pray.
Think of prayer like a child coming to their parent. Just as a child should come to a parent with complete openness, honesty, and trust, so we too can come to God that way, reverent and humble, but also fearless and bold.
Think of prayer like God inviting us to sit with Him in a safe place and present our needs, wants, dreams, and desires. Be truthful with God, no matter our emotions, because He knows our requests before we even ask.
We can never pray too much and we will never tire God out! With that in mind let us look at the story.
It teaches us that when it comes to prayer, God wants us to be as bold and persistent as if we were firemen rescuing people from burning flames!
We start off with the Lord’s prayer, which could be a whole sermon series, but right before Jesus starts the prayer, the disciples ask Him, “Lord teach us to pray”.
The disciples had prayed their entire lives (they were Jews after all), and many of us grew up being exposed to prayer (grace before dinner, bedtime prayers, and such). Yet this request shows us a joyful truth: if you think you are not that good at praying, don’t worry, Prayer can be taught! If you keep practicing, you will get better.
Look at how bold and persistent the man in the story was. Now this next part is important.
Jesus then goes to vs. 9-13, and by saying this, Jesus is not stating that God is going to be worn down by our prayers, and say “oh fine, I will grant your request if you just leave me alone!”
Quite the contrary! Jesus is explaining how different God is from us. If persistence and boldness eventually wore out a wicked person and forced him into generosity, how much more will our good and generous Father be excited to give us good gifts, first and foremost, the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is God living in our hearts. The best gift God could give us is Himself. He gave us Himself when Jesus died on the cross at Calvary, and He gave us Himself when we accepted His grace, and became a Christian.
The Holy Spirit is in our hearts, and we are God’s Temple, God’s people. The Holy Spirit is to be our leader, to empower us here to do God’s work in the world, so that we don’t rely on our strength but His.
And if we are God’s people, we need not hesitate to be bold and to persist in our prayers for we know our Father hears us. We must start, continue, and end everything in prayer.
If we practice, prayer will become to us as naturally as breathing and as joyful as a phone conversation with our best friend.
Look at the Scriptures, those we read in the Bible prayed as if their prayers could make a difference. Do not wait until you are perfect to pray! None of us are, but God loves the prayers of imperfect people.
Pray and trust God with an expectation that change will occur. God has done it before with us here at Conemaugh, and He can do it again. We must pray for our loved ones, for our enemies, for strangers, for our church. We must pray against evil, for the devil prowls around like a roaring lion waiting to devour. We need to be protected by the blood of the Lamb.
Whatever God does, He won’t ever give us something evil, like a stone for bread or a snake instead of a fish. He won’t give us all our wants, but will provide our real needs. Pray always-Ask, Seek, Knock, for everyone who asks receives, seeks finds, and knocks the door is open.
When we have prayed God does one of two things, and they both involve change. God will either change the situation or change us to reassure us He is to be trusted