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Prayer: Dare To Ask
Chapter One
TIGHTENING OUR PRAYER NETS
The State of Hawaii recently mandated bigger holes in the fishing nets used in Hawaiian waters. This is good news if you're a fish, at least if you are a relatively small fish. Our prayer life could be likened to those fishing nets. Some of our prayer nets have large holes due to the infrequency of our prayer life. Those nets need adjustment and a tightening of the overall pattern. Others have holes torn by life and its difficulties, or worse, by sin.
This book is for praying people. You probably wouldn’t read it if you didn’t already pray. The goal is to tighten and repair our nets so that our prayer life becomes more effective. A recent survey shows that all but one percent of Americans pray regularly, including those who call themselves atheists. We pray, yet the Bible teaches that we “have not” because we “ask not.” (James 4:2 KJV). There are holes in our nets. We need to come back to the basics in order to tighten and repair our prayer life so that less of what we need passes through it.
Call To Me
Jeremiah had a terrible job. He was a missionary of misery. His job was to stand against his own nation, rebuking their sin. They were believers in God and had known his blessings in prior generations. Jeremiah’s generation embraced other gods and blamed the Lord for most of their troubles. Jeremiah’s job: to inform them of God’s fury. His message was destruction of their cities and the wholesale kidnaping of the entire population. Jeremiah faithfully informed his countrymen that they, and their offspring, would spend seventy years captive to another people. His only problem was God’s slowness in executing the judgement. Everything that he predicted eventually happened and he lived to see it. Problem was, it didn't happen as quickly as he expected.
Jeremiah is called the "weeping prophet" for two reasons. One, because God gave him a vision of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the loss of human life and the suffering that would go on there. The second reason he wept was that he felt sorry for himself. God inspired, Jeremiah preached with anguish of heart, but nothing happened. Jeremiah looked the fool, and everyone hated him. In chapter thirty three of his book, we find him moping in the courtyard dungeon. Other prophets are casting aspersions on his character and call. Some even cast rocks. The general public cry for his death on a daily basis. This guy is in bad shape and whining to God about his situation.
Call On Me -- I will Answer
God shows up with a word of encouragement for Jeremiah. It is elegant, yet so simple that we often overlook it. He says, "Ask me and I will tell you some remarkable secrets about what is going to happen here.” (Jeremiah 33:3 NLT). God further describes the impending disaster and then outlines the healing he plans for his people. But his message to Jeremiah is to call on him in the downtime.
We often forget the truth of that simple message. Prayer begins with a simple request. If there is any lesson I have learned in the last decade of my life it is simply, “Pray!” I recently found myself on a missions trip to Okinawa leading a team of nine people. Two were flying standby. We got to the Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan to find that the standby people would not be able to complete the trip that evening. It was a Japanese holiday and twelve standbys stood in front of them for seats on the already full aircraft. I faced leaving two people overnight, unable to speak the language and knowing nothing about the complicated process (in Japan) of obtaining a hotel room and transportation. We prayed. This was not because I believed it would make a difference, I did not. We prayed because I am a pastor and pastors are supposed to pray in the face of difficulty. I was the most surprised person on the airplane when my two smiling friends boarded at the last minute. God says, “Ask me and I will tell you... what is going to happen here.” I like this better in the old King James translation of the Bible -- it says, "Call on me and I will show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not."
“Great and mighty things,”one of my friends named his company with those words. He is a California film producer. Years ago he felt called to make secular films with a pro-Christian slant. He made a couple of good films, but they never really did anything but lose money. Struggling with God on an occasion when he was about to lose his house, my friend felt God gave him a new name for his company. He renamed his business, “GMT Productions,” or "Great and Mighty Things Production Company." This was his way of trusting God to lead him through the darkness and show him his deliverance. He hasn’t produced any movies, but since that time God prospered his company. He grew into one of the largest sound stages in Los Angeles and has a great Christian witness to thousands of people in the entertainment business.
The message to Jeremiah and to us is, “Learn to look up.” The passage in Jeremiah goes on to report the Lord saying, “Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before.” (Jeremiah 33:11 KJV). God had a plan for fulfilling the prior prophecies and that plan included an ultimate restoration of all that had been lost to Satan. The key to understanding and moving in that plan began with a simple directive to call on the name of the Lord. We need to remind ourselves to call on him “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Ephesians 3:20 KJV).
Ask, Seek & Knock
The New Testament echos and expands on God’s words to Jeremiah. Prayer is the most often mentioned means of accessing grace. Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:7-11 KJV).
Persevere in Expectant Prayer
This Scripture is talking about prayer. Let's relate this to Jeremiah's situation. Jeremiah is in prison. He's not seeing anything happen. There are no changes going on in his life. He knows God called him and he’s seen a few miracles. However, the big stuff isn’t happening. The powerful prophecies affecting the nation seem but words of dust. He is miserable and would like to give up. God shows up and encourages him to do what he’s done ten thousand times before... ‘pray.’
It’s as though God had said, “If you ask, you will receive. If you seek, you find. If you knock, the door will be opened.” And Jeremiah's thinking, "Well fine promise, I’ve done all that and I'm still in prison." Jeremiah may not have put it that way, but we certainly do.
We need to understand the value of tenacity and perseverance in prayer. Jesus spoke in a continuing tense: keep on asking and you'll receive. Seek and seek and seek and you'll find. Knock hard and long, persevere at it, and the door will be opened to you.
One of the ways the devil tries to erode our faith is with little "mind games" he plays on us. One of those recordings goes, "If you had any faith you wouldn't keep praying about this. You'd just trust God." Thoughts like that only lend to discouragement. In truth we need to learn to pray until we have an answer. By an answer, I mean an answer -- we should pray until the Lord shows us something. I don't necessarily mean learn to pray until we have the answer we want. We must learn to pray until God speaks. We can continue calling to him until He says, "Yes, I'm going to do it," or "No, I'm not going to do this." After that we needn’t waste time praying about that subject. We can Thank him expecting God to do the thing that He said. If He says no, then we accept the answer and move on. We cannot force God to do anything; however, we can ask God until we know his decision.
Expect the Best From a Father Who Loves You
Jesus encourages us to pray expectantly because God will hear and answer our prayer. He further qualifies the process by describing God’s love as preventing mistakes in our prayer life.
He allows for us to ask for things we don’t understand and which, if given, could actually hurt us. An illustration of this might be the plastic replicas which serve as menus in Japanese restaurants. You could point to the artfully designed plastic and ask for “one of those.” If the waiter gave you what you asked for you would get very sick or at least break a tooth. He instead gives you the food that will satisfy your taste and nourish your body. What you get looks like what you asked for. But it is food, not plastic. Jesus said it most dramatically, "You parents‑‑if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” (Matthew 7:9-11 NLT).
In Japan I once ate seven little live, wiggly fish in a cup. I needed to appease my non-Christian host and did it to further God’s kingdom. I’m here to tell you -- not for the kingdom, or for any other cause am I going to eat seven live, little snakes. I might eat one dead, but not wiggling around trying to bite my lip. I can freely say that because I know God would never ask it of my, let alone my father. Which of you, if your son asks for a fish, would give him a snake? That's a horribly dirty trick. Neither would you give your son a rock when he expected bread.
But we may look at a "snake" and say, "Oh Father, give me that fish over there." Jesus assures us that God will say no to the snake and provide the fish that we needed all along. This gives me great courage when I pray. My spiritual eyesight isn’t always 20/20 and sometimes I pray for things that would do great damage. I pray with anticipation of “great and mighty things” because he knows how to answer better than I know how to pray.
Like Jeremiah we are to learn to call on God in the midst of our prison. Prayer should be perseverant and with a certain abandon. We learn to cast our cares on him because he cares for us. (I Peter 5:7).
Five Tools For Mending Nets
I’m no fisherman so I don’t know much about mending real fishing nets. But, I spent many years restoring and painting classic cars as a hobby, so I know a little about the tools involved. I remember buying just about every tool available only to find that I didn’t really know how to use them. One day a seasoned veteran invited me to his shop to teach me a few tricks with the most basic tools. Although he possessed very sophisticated equipment, he could do wonders with a few basic tools. After he taught me to use those tools I was able to get started and learned the other equipment by trial and error on my own time. If you can master the basic tools for mending your prayer net, you will posess a starting point for the rest you need to know.
Here are the most basic tools in my own prayer kit. There are just five of them. Perhaps someone else would recommend others, but these are the starting point for me. Whenever I find my prayer life stretched out of shape or torn and ragged I return to this toolkit to mend my net.
1. Trust God, not Your Faith
The first tool is a question. “Who do you trust”? Often we transfer faith to our own ability to pray or to believe God for certain things. This process removes trust from the primary object of prayer, God himself. Hebrews 11:6 says "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." It says he who comes to God must believe first that God exists, and second that he is the one doing the work whenever we pray. I too often get caught up in the words about diligence and see myself as the center of the process.
You may have distorted this truth as well. Sometimes I meet Christians who believe along these lines,"I know that the Lord exists. I also know that He rewards people and He answers prayer, but not mine because I'm such an evil, filthy person." We may supply some varient for evil, such as feeling far from God. Either way, we diminish our own faith by placing the burden on us rather than him. But the truth is, God exists and rewards everybody who calls upon His name.No matter what disappointment, what fear, weakness or guilt-- God rewards those who seek him.
2. Keep Your Heart Pure
The second tool is a pure heart. The scripture carries a warning against mixing faith with active sin, "If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, my Lord would not have listened." (Psalm 66:18 NLT). To refuse to confess means to “make a place for sin.” We are called to turn away from known sin. The word repent means simply to make a U-turn away from sin, returning to God. Repentance and submission to the Lord are the keys to successful Christian living. If you're not walking in repentance, you're not going to have the blessings of the Lord. If you hang on to sin, protecting it, you've made an idol out of it. The Bible very clearly says God's not going to answer your prayer if that's the situation.
3. Be Specific
The third tool in my kit is that of specific prayers. A fishing net with large torn holes is nearly useless. The small mesh of the net does it’s job holding in the fish, only to be nullified by great tears in the net. My favorite passage of scripture gives wisdom on this subject, "Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires." (Psalm 37:4 NLT) You see results when you ask God specifically for the things you desire. I think it starts with praying for the things we desire, assuming that if we lead Godly lives, He must have given us the desire in the first place. After that you pray for all the subsidiary elements surrounding the thing you desire. This might mean praying that an unsaved friend in another part of the world falls in with Christian companions. It may mean praying that a meandering spouse begins to quarrel with the person that is tempting them away from the marriage.
I have a friend whose daughter desired a certain car. She chose the exact model, the color and the type of interior. This was a young girl praying for a used car. She was so specific that she prayed about everything but the mileage on the odometer. The amazing thing was that God delivered. The father, a seasoned Christian, was as shocked as any dad when the Lord answered his daughters prayer right down to the hubcaps.
Jesus reinforced this concept when his disciples marveled that a barren fig tree withered imediately after he cursed it. Jesus replied, "Then Jesus told them, "I assure you, if you have faith and don't doubt, you can do things like this and much more. You can even say to this mountain, 'May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,' and it will happen. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." (Matthew 21:21,22 NLT).
4. Pray in His Will
The fourth tool is praying within the boundaries of God’s thoughts on the matter. We can expect the things we ask for if those things line up with God’s general plan for our lives. In fact we are promised this in a letter the disciple John circulated to the first century Christans, "And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for.”(I John 5:14,15). “Anything” is a pretty strong word and this is a pretty strong statement. God will answer all prayer as long as it confines to his plan for you. This of course necessitates understanding exactly what his will or plan might be.
James, who was Jesus half brother and the leader of the church at Jerusalem gives real hope when it comes to understanding the Lord’s will. He wrote, "If you need wisdom‑‑if you want to know what God wants you to do‑‑ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking.” (James 1:5 NLT). When you're in a quandary and don't understand the road map, ask for wisdom. This means God will show you what to pray for. After that, you can specifically pray back the things that He showed you. So if you don't know what exactly to pray for, ask for wisdom. You can literally insert yourself into the will of God. It's the only way, to pray in His will.
First you ask, "God what is your plan? What is your jurisdiction here? What is it that you want to do?" When He tells you what it is, you say, "God I give into this, if this is your plan for my life; it's my plan too." From this vantage point, you can pray for the details that will combine to makeup the great picture God is painting of your future. One important note here is that about 98 percent of God's will for your life is already written out for you in the Bible. If you take the time to read it, you can pray with great authority -- and that brings us to the last key.
5. Pray in His Authority
The last of the five net menders is to remember that your prayers are backed by the authority of Gods only born son. The rest of us are adopted into the family, but we can pray with the designated authority of the firstborn son.
He gives you authority in two ways. One way is found in John 16:23 (NLT) where he says, “The truth is, you can go directly to the Father and ask him, and he will grant your request because you use my name.”
Ending prayers in Jesus name is a meaningless ritual to most of us. But, Jesus never offers anything without meaning and impact. His word is "Go say I sent you."
If I send someone on an errand or give them some authority to accomplish something, I'll often tell them, "If somebody gives you a hard time, just say Ralph sent you or Ralph told you to do it." Out of deference to me (the person they know), they'll give them (the person they don’t know) whatever it is they're asking for. Jesus offers us the ability to speak to the Father directly. Our words might be, "Oh hey, your son Jesus told me I could ask you for this. I'm calling on a favor."
The second avenue of authority comes through the written word of God. Jesus said, "But if you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted!” (John 15:7). Anyone who has been a parent of young children will know what this is all about. Little kids are famous for "But you said... You promised... You said we could." Jesus taught the disciples (and us) to pray in the same manner, "But you said it. It's right here. You promised." This may seem demanding to some but it is biblical. The purpose is probably to remind us of his promise in order to build our faith. God clearly remembers his words and keeps his promises.
Using God's own words in the Bible as authority is not to "twist His arm." There is no way you can force God to do anything. The purpose is to stir your faith.
Like Jeremiah in the dungeon, we often need to repair our faith in order to gain courage to call on the Lord. The promise of “great and mighty things” remains open for those who will call on the Lord. I once heard Jack Hayford sum this up with a reverse paraphrase of the scripture that says “...the reason you don't have what you want is that you don't ask God for it. (James 4:2). His words were, “If you dont, he won’t.”
