I
received the question below regarding prayer. The writer had been studying Luke
11:5-13. (There is also another passage in Luke that is similar, 18:1-8).
Here’s the question:
“I
am having trouble with] this word "persistence,” [Luke 11:8] I was taught that
when I prayed about something that it was a done deal and if I really believed
that it would be answered, it would be wrong to ask again and again. I
don't know whether I've explained that right but in other words if there is no
answer from God fairly soon, I've felt that I shouldn't bring it up
again. Sounds kinda crazy but I'm really confused.”
The
first thing I want us to look at in the question are the words, “it would be
wrong.” Prayer is relational. When we
think about relationships and we think about things that would be wrong to introduce into a relationship I
think our list can include: lying, deceit, using the other person,
manipulation, and selfishness. There are of course other things that it would
be wrong to introduce into a relationship, but the items I’ve listed are things
that muddy communication, relationship and honesty.
Now
if I am to have an honest relationship with God, is holding a request back from
Him an action of honesty?
Unlike
human relationships, our relationship with God our Father will never be an equal relationship. That is, we will
never be God, and no matter how much we grow in Christ, at our theoretical most mature point we will always be
infants in relation to God. After a zillion years in heaven He will still be
God our Father and we will still be, relative to Him, infants. In light of
this, does it make any real sense for us, the infants, to withhold our requests
from God our Father?
Pagan
religions often have certain prescribed ways to approach their deities. These
ways are legalistic and ritualistic[i] and they are not based on intimate
relationship. They are often based on fear and they involve manipulation
and the pacification of the deity.[ii]
The basic idea is, “If I do this then the deity will do that.” Prayer,
sacrifices and such must be processed through a ritualistic and manipulative
filter, with the worshipper often doing the thinking on behalf of the deity. In
other words, “I must pray this precise way if I don’t want to confuse the deity
or invoke the deity’s displeasure and judgment.”
This
is simply not Christianity, even though many Christians fall into this type of
thinking. When we buy into this mode of thinking we treat God not as our
Father, but as some big prayer computer in the sky that operates according to
the GIGO principle, Garbage In Garbage Out. When we think that we must make
sure our prayers don’t confuse God by inadvertently saying something confusing,
what does this say about our view of God?
Over
the years I’ve heard people say, “Well, I don’t pray for so and so because I
don’t know what to pray for, and I don’t want to pray for something that God
doesn’t want.”
Isn’t
God capable of turning the focus (the people) of our prayers to His glory and
the benefit of others? Isn’t God capable of looking into the heart of our
prayer and answering the prayer of our heart? Or is God really just a computer
and we must be on constant guard not to confuse the prayer computer? Where is relationship in a ritualistic approach
to prayer?
What
matters to God is that we pray for people; God will sort the details out.
Remember, He is the Father and we, relative to Him, will always be infants.
So
the idea of “wrong” is an idea that usually is not very helpful when thinking
about prayer.
Then
there is the implicit thought in the question that “doubt and unbelief are to
be avoided and ignored, and doubt and unbelief have no place in a prayer that
is going to be answered.”
While
the Scriptures encourage us to be not
doubting but believing, nowhere am I aware of a place in the Scriptures
where answers to our prayers are contingent upon us being free of all doubt.[iii] It
isn’t the amount of faith we have that determines answered prayer, it is the
object of our faith. If the object of our faith is our ritualistic approach to
God, then we can have tons of faith but have little answered prayer. If, on the
other hand, Christ is the object of our faith, then we may have large doubts
and little faith but we can anticipate a response from God.
When
we make our works the means of answered prayer we place our faith and trust in
the wrong object; when we trust God and He is the object of our faith then we
can be assured that our heavenly Father will respond to us.
Again,
while I’m not advocating doubt, faith
in the midst of doubt glorifies God and not us; answered prayer in the midst of
doubt glorifies God and not us.
The
words pray and prayer and associated words probably occur over 300 times in the
Bible, and there are likely many more passages where prayer is taking place
without the use of these actual words. For example, there are 150 psalms and
each of them is a prayer. Many of these prayers have their own unique form and
circumstances, and this should not surprise us since they are born out of
relationship with the living and true God, the God who desires intimacy with
His people, the Father who desires intimacy with His daughters and sons. While
there are patterns for prayer in the Bible, the patterns can be quite
different, relative to time and place and circumstance.
Romans
8:14 – 17 teaches us that we have received the Spirit of adoption that causes
us to cry out, “Abba (Daddy) Father.” We are the children of God, we are not
the offspring of a robot, nor of an impersonal deity, nor of a distant deity.
We are also taught in Romans Chapter 8 that we are heirs of God and joint-heirs
with Christ – we have been called into the fellowship of the Trinity. (See also
John 17:20-26 where we are taught that the Father loves us just as He loves Jesus). Are we really to approach God
ritualistically having been called His daughters and sons?
As
to the question of persistent prayer, the teaching of Jesus in Luke Chapters 11
and 18 do teach persistent and inopportune prayer. Therefore we know that we
should engage in such prayer. Perhaps a natural question is, “Why is such
prayer necessary? Surely God doesn’t need to hear me more than once?”
We
know that there is no merit, in and of itself, in repeating a prayer, for Jesus
teaches, “But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For
they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be
like them. For your Father knows the things the things you have need of before
you ask Him.” Matthew 6:8.
So
we see that repetition is not the answer and we also see that our Father knows
our needs without us verbalizing them. (See also Psalm 139:4).
Perhaps
if we consider the nature of prayer
it will help us understand some possible reasons for us to engage in persistent
prayer.
If
prayer is, in its most basic definition, communication with God, then let’s ask
what forms that communication can take. Some words that come to mind are:
worship, adoration, praise, thanksgiving, supplication, requesting, and intercessions.
Prayer can be spoken conversationally, it can be shouted, it can be wept, it
can be written, it can be sung, it can be thought (unspoken), it can be dreamed.
Certainly
there is no argument against persistent worship, adoration, praise, or
thanksgiving. In fact, our problem in these areas is not that we do them too
much and repetitively, but that we don’t do them enough, that they are not part
of the fabric of our lives and of the life of the church.
Where
is the concern then? It is with asking
is it not? Need I to ask God for something more than once? Since Jesus’
teaching contains a “Yes,” then we ask again, “Why?”
Let’s
expand the question into two questions, “Why must I ask persistently for
myself?” “Why must I ask persistently for others?” We are asking two questions
because while many of us have little problem with the latter question, since it
is intercession for the benefit of others; many of us are legitimately
concerned about persistently asking on behalf of ourselves.
I
think one of the problems with both questions, though both questions are good
and legitimate questions, is the problem with many questions about prayer - we
tend to see prayer as a compartmentalized portion of life, as something we “do”
when we need to do it, or feel like doing it, or think we have an obligation to
do it.
When
we talk about prayer we may talk about having (or not having) a “prayer life.” I
don’t think Jesus had a prayer life, nor do I think Paul had a prayer life, and
I’m not sure that we should have a prayer life – but I do think that Jesus and
Paul lived lives of prayer and I do think that we should live lives of prayer.
Prayer should be a natural part of our lives, it should be the rhythm of our
lives, for if prayer is communication with God, then that is what we were
created for, that is what we were redeemed for, that is what our eternal
destiny holds for us – for at the heart of communication
is communion, or as the Greek New
Testament would have it, koinonia –
relationship.
In
the West we tend to think of communication as the transfer of data and
information, and hence we no longer are good communicators in the traditional
sense of the word. We think exchanging or sending and receiving data and
information is communication – “let my cerebral computer talk to your cerebral
computer” is the way we think of communication – little wonder we’re big on
data transfers but our relationships are exponentially breaking down.
So
rather than having “prayer lives” we should consider having “lives of prayer.”
That is, lives in which prayer is woven into the fabric of who we are, embedded
into our relationship with God and with others.
In
this context, sharing with God our Father our needs and desires begins to take
on a new meaning, for it is no more the image of a child you never hear from
unless he wants something, or a friend you never see unless she is in crisis;
rather our needs and desires are now communicated in the context of relationship, in the context of communion, in the
context of koinonia, and in that context our Father God can speak into our
hearts His thoughts, His desires, and His will. And what is the end result of such communion,
of such a life of prayer? It is first and foremost not our specific requests
being answered, though we don’t want to minimize that, but it is rather our
being drawn into ever-increasing intimacy with the Trinity. He becomes our
desire rather than our requests, and our requests become not the centerpiece of
our prayer life; but a facet of our life of prayer.
Persistent
prayer is persistent intimacy.
Luke
11:1-13 begins and ends with an inclusio, that is, it begins and ends with the
same thought, thus establishing a context for the teaching of the passage. That
thought is that God is our Father. “When you pray, say: Our Father…how much
more will your heavenly Father give…” So the teaching of persistent and
inopportune prayer is given within the relational
context of God being our Father and of we being His children.
We
are encouraged to ask our Father that our prayers and desires may be answered:
“And
whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified
in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” John 14:13-14.
“If
you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and
it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much
fruit; so you will be my disciples.” John 15:7-8.
“…Most
assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give it
to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive,
that your joy may be full.” John 16:23-24.
The
above verses are all from the same passage, Jesus speaking to His disciples in
the Upper Room. The thrust of Christ’s Upper Room teaching is our communion/fellowship/koinonia
in the Trinity. The Upper Room account begins with the Father (John 13:1) and
it ends with the Father (John 17:25-26).
There
is a heightened degree of intimacy in the Upper Room passage compared with Luke
Chapter 11. In Luke we have not yet reached Holy Week, and while the Cross is
on the horizon, its shadow is not yet ominous and the time of Christ’s
departure is not yet imminent. The setting of Luke is perhaps more of a young
child with a Father; the setting of John is that of adult friendship, an adult
parent – adult child relationship. Both settings are Trinitarian, for in both
settings not only do we see the Father and the Son, but also the Holy Spirit.
In fact, Jesus’ teaching in Luke suggests that the end result of our asking, seeking
and knocking should be our asking for the Holy Spirit. In John, the Holy Spirit
is He who draws us into the Trinity, for He dwells in us and is the life of
God.
This
leads into our intercessions on behalf of others.
“Therefore
He [Jesus] is also able to save completely those who come to God through Him,
since He ever lives to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25.
Jesus
lived an intercessory life on earth and He has carried that intercessory life
into heaven. Sustained, and therefore
persistent, intercession for us is one of the things Jesus does as our High
Priest.
“For
we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was
in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
of need.” Hebrews 4:15–16.
In
Christ, our High Priest, we find sympathy, grace and mercy. We can find
sympathy, grace and mercy not only for ourselves, but as intercessors who have
been incorporated into the communion of the Trinity we can find sympathy, grace
and mercy for others.
“Therefore
I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men…” 1Timothy 2:1
Just
as Jesus makes intercession for us; we are called to make intercession for
others. Since we are made a priesthood in Christ, 1Peter 2:4-10; Rev. 1:6, it
follows that we participate in the intercessory prayer ministry of our High
Priest.
“Then
he said to me, “Do not fear Daniel, for from the first day that you set your
heart to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were
heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of
Persia withstood me twenty-one days…” Daniel 10:12-13a.
Intercessory persistence was necessary for Daniel. There were
dynamics in the unseen realm of which Daniel was unaware, dynamics that
required his persistence. The nature of intercessory living and of intercessory
prayer is consistent persistence. Inconsistent living and inconsistent praying is
not intercession, rather it is engagement and obedience at our own personal
convenience. Importunity leads to
opportunity to be a blessing to others.
Matthew
7:7 – 12 parallels Luke 11:9-13 with two notable exceptions. While Luke 11:13
points us to asking for the Holy Spirit, Matthew 7:12 points us to, “Therefore,
whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and
the Prophets.” While the “therefore” of Matthew 7:12 is quite likely connected
with the entire preceding section of the Sermon on the Mount, its immediate
proximity to asking, seeking and knocking and the goodness of our “Father in
heaven” suggests that just as our Father gives good things to us that we ought
to give good things to others, and that our asking, seeking and knocking should
be not only on our own behalf but also on behalf of others.
So
back to our stated question, “Is it wrong to ask more than once? Is it wrong to
be persistent?” Absolutely not. Now if God gives you peace about a request and
tells you to trust Him for its fulfillment, rest in that assurance from your
heavenly Father, in fact, then you can move from requesting to thanksgiving.
But the timing of all answers to prayer lies within the hands of our heavenly
Father, who desires only good for us and who truly knows what is best.
And
to the implicit question that, “If I doubt or display any unbelief won’t that
hinder my prayer?” God has called us into relationship with Himself, He will
meet us where we are and He will bring us to where He is. He will be glorified
in the midst of our doubts, anxieties and unbelief – and then there will be no
doubt about who should receive the glory. The issue isn’t the amount of our
faith; the issue is the object of our faith. Let us seek to live in
relationship with our Father, with our Lord Jesus and with the Holy Spirit, and
we can trust them to work their good will in us.
[i] To avoid
any possible confusion, I am not
talking about liturgies in Christian churches.
[ii] Such
approaches are superstitious
[iii] James
1:2-8 might be viewed as an exception, however, I think the context of James
has to do with the fabric of life and the fabric of one’s heart and mind, hence
the term “double-minded.” The issue in James is whether our lives are
consistent in Christ, if they are not, then the instability of doubt will
permeate our prayers and that is a different matter.
