C018 2/27/55
© Project Winsome International, 1999
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THE PRAYER LIFE OF A LAYMAN
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Matt 7:7-11
Prayer is by all odds the most misunderstood, misused, and misinterpreted force
in the world. Dr. Leslie Weatherhead, minister of the Great City Temple in London,
England, recalls how he, as a boy of 15, experienced a grave disappointment
in prayer. He wanted very much to pass a certain school examination. He remembered
the Bible said whatever we ask in Jesus' name shall be done, and thinking that
meant every little thing one might desire, he fervently prayed for success in
his examination. When the results were announced, he found he had failed. His
faith in prayer was sadly shattered.
A few years back, there was another incident which cast grave doubts in the
minds of many about the value of prayer. Perhaps you remember the case of little
Cathy Fiscus, out in California. She had been playing in an open field when
she fell into a narrow well which had been left uncovered. Frantically, a crew
of workmen dug away at the earth in an effort to free her. The story was front
page news. Millions of people prayed for her safety. When, at last, the rescuers
reached her, she was dead. Indeed, she had already been dead for several hours,
hours during which literally millions of prayers were being offered on her behalf.
Now, all this has its effect. In fact, none of us can escape the impact of it.
We cannot help but ask the question, "Why?" The only difference between the
person who is wise in the ways of prayer and the person who is not, is the kind
of "Why?" he or she asks. The skeptic's question "Why?" is one that raises serious
questions about the faithfulness of God, and the dependability of prayer itself.
The skeptic's attitude is one of, "See, I told you it wouldn't work. Why pray?"
The Christians "Why?" is of a totally different nature. It is one that asks,
"Why will people continue to misunderstand, misuse and misinterpret the meaning
of prayer? How long will they continue to think of God as some sort of 'Cosmic
Bellhop,' whom they can badger into doing what seems right to them? When will
they learn that real prayer is cooperating with God rather than some sort of
magic string-pulling which makes God cooperate with them?"
An even greater tragedy is the fact that vast oceans of prayer which are offered
up prove to be ineffective. Why is that? There are several reasons.
For one, many people look upon prayer
as a religious duty rather than a privilege and delight. To them it is
always a last resort, used only after every other possible avenue of help has
been explored.
Still others look upon prayer as a
kind of spiritual first aid. They view it as something applied in times
of real emergency. And even then, instead of joining Samuel in praying
"Speak Lord, thy servant listens" (I Sam 3:10G),
they blunder into the presence of Almighty God and blurt out,
"Listen Lord, Thy servant speaks!"
Perhaps the strangest of all attitudes toward prayer which people have is a
feeling of fear that possesses many folk when they think of praying.
In some mysterious way, they tighten up inside whenever someone suggests it
might be a good idea to pray about the particular issue before them. It almost
seems as if they look upon prayer as a sign of weakness when, all along, it
is a sign of strength.
In one of his books, E. Stanley Jones points out,
"The strongest character that ever walked our planet prayed. His first public
act was to stand on the banks of the Jordan river and pray. His last public
act was a prayer, 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.' Between that
first and last act, his whole life was saturated with prayer."
The strongest character who ever lived, the man who changed the whole course
of history, was not ashamed to pray. No! Prayer
is not only strength for the weak, it is fortification for the strong.
Why pray? I think that central question can best be answered by taking a circular
route, by asking and answering, at least in part, two other fundamental questions:
"What true prayer is not," and then "What true prayer is."
What True Prayer Is Not
Dr. John Sutherland Bonnell has a very poignant paragraph on the question of
what prayer is not.
He says:
"First off, prayer is not a blank check
on which God's signature appears, guaranteeing us anything upon which we
may set our hearts. Infinite wisdom does not put itself at the mercy of the
whims and foibles of finite men and women.
"Second, prayer is not a rabbit's foot
or other charm used to preserve us from misfortune. During the last war, some
such talisman was carried by many soldiers to bring them good luck. This was
not an expression of faith. It was a reversion to primitive superstition."
"Third," Bonnell says, "prayer is not
a parachute project to be reserved for us to use in some extreme emergency."
Or as I like to put it, prayer is not some kind of escape hatch we can expect
to bail us out when we find ourselves in a predicament that is over our heads.
"Fourth," to continue Bonnell's list, "prayer is not
a child's letter to Santa Claus. It is not just an appeal devoted to
securing things. This type of prayer is often given a central place in our thinking.
While the saints and seers and mystics, who were experts in prayer, regarded
petition for material things as legitimate, they unfailingly relegated it a
secondary place.
"Fifth, true prayer is not an attempt
to change God's mind, or to bring Him around to our way of thinking.
It is not a bludgeon to be used to overcome the divine reluctance. It is not
a campaign to persuade God to do something He otherwise would have left undone."
Prayer is not a device for getting
our wills done on earth through heaven.
It is a desire that God's will may
be done on earth through us!
Finally, Bonnell says,
"Prayer is not an escape from duty.
It is not some kind of magic which makes up for our slackness or failure to
do our job." God will never do for us what we can do for ourselves. As a matter
of fact, the very opposite is true. It is always our extremity that is God's
opportunity.
Now, these six fallacious ways of looking at prayer are by no means exhaustive,
but their removal will help clear the way for a constructive, true and Christian
understanding of what prayer really is.
What True Prayer Is
I have discovered a little formula which has helped me very much in understanding
the nature of true prayer. It is the little word: ACTS. The four letters stand
for four words which outline the content of true prayer.
Adoration.
Confession.
Thanksgiving.
Supplication.
Adoration
The first characteristic of prayer is adoration. If you will take the time to
analyze the model prayer which Jesus gave us, you will notice it begins with
a note of worship:
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name."
Likewise, it closes with a word of praise:
"For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever."
Worship, then, is part and parcel of prayer.
Suppose a husband never said anything to his wife except when he asked her or
thanked her for something. What part of their conversation would be missing?
Why, the part she enjoys the most. Those little words of quiet adoration,
"Gee, you look pretty in your new dress." Or
"I'm sure proud of you when we're with other people." Or
"I'm so glad God gave me you." Or
just the simple "Honey, I love you."
But what of our conversation with God? Of course we will be bringing before
Him our petitions and our words of thanksgiving for the blessings He has wrought.
But if that is all there is to our prayer life, we are omitting the very first
element of all: adoration. And who shall say this is not the part God values
most?
More than that, who shall say this is not the part we need most ourselves? It
is in those moments of deep worship that our minds become keenly alert and sensitive
to the difference between right and wrong. We become aware of our imperfections.
The wrongs in our lives stand out in bold relief. This enables us to better
shape our lives in keeping with His will.
Worship, then, is the growing edge in the transformation of an individual. It
is in those holy moments that "new spiritual tissue is formed as the new Adam
gradually replaces the old Adam."
As someone has said so beautifully,
"Worship is a person in the process of passing from mortality to immortality."
The first character of prayer then is praise and adoration.
Confession
The second is a natural consequence of the first and it is confession. As I
have said, we cannot be long in the presence of God without a growing sense
of our imperfection. The very glory and majesty of God tend to drive us beyond
the pinnacle of the Mount of Pretense which we so often rest upon, and it drives
us into the Valley of Confession. Here again is a characteristic of prayer which
is greatly misunderstood.
To appreciate the place and importance of confession, we need to recognize confession
implies humility, a virtue which, in God's sight, is of tremendous value.
D. L. Moody tells of a farmer who took his boy out into their wheat field to
see if it was ready for harvest. The boy pointed to a bunch of wheat stalks
standing straight and tall. "These must be the best ones," he said to his father,
"see how straight they hold up their heads. Those other can't be of much value
for their heads hang down."
The farmer plucked the stalk of each kind and said, "You're wrong, my son. This
stalk which stood so straight is lightheaded and almost good for nothing. While
this other, which hangs its head so modestly, is full of the most beautiful
grain."
Is this not true in life? How often, if we but take the time to give it some
thought, we discover the biggest boaster is one who feels most inadequate inside.
The biggest bully is the one who has the greatest sense of his insecurity. And
likewise, the one who commands our highest admiration is the one who is least
aware that there is anything about them worth admiring.
So often our words of confession are vague and general. We pray,
Oh God, if I
have sinned this day," or "Dear Lord, show me where I have done wrong," as if
we didn't know, as if we weren't fully aware of when, where and to what extent
we have sinned!
There is nothing very mystical about this business of confession. In fact, it
is quite logical. here is a little three-point outline that has helped me in
this matter. Perhaps it will be of help to you.
Sins committed in private should be confessed privately.
Sins committed in public should be confessed publicly.
Sins committed against God should be confessed to God directly.
Let's look at them in reverse order. Sins
committed against God should be confessed to God directly. Actually,
this means we are to confess all sins to God because, as we learned in our study
of Leviticus a few weeks ago, all
sin, is wrong done to God. If we sin against our brother or sister, in the last
analysis we are sinning against God, for each of them, be they male or female,
was made by God and belongs to God and bears on their image the stamp of God.
When, as individuals, we sin against ourselves we are, in the last analysis,
sinning against God, for we too were created in His image. Our body is also
the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the first step in the prayer of confession
is to recognize that all sin, both public and private, should be confessed to
God directly and, I might add, privately.
Second, sin committed privately should
be confessed privately, and if another person is involved the confession
should be made to that person. Often we short-circuited our prayer life because
of some feeling of ill will we're holding against a brother or sister. That
doesn't mean we must be perfect in order to pray effectively. But what it does
mean is that a sense of unconfessed sin is a hindrance to real prayer and, if
we have wronged our brother or sister, we must go to that person directly with
our confession of that wrong.
Finally, sin committed in public should
be confessed publicly. If the wrong we have done has had wide-spread
ramifications and its effects have resulted in harm to other people, we have
a holy obligation to confess that wrong in public in order that our desire for
forgiveness and our willingness to make restitution might be known by those
whom we have wronged.
This, then, in the spirit of Christian confession.
Sin committed in private is to be confessed privately.
Sin committed in public is to be confessed in public.
Sin committed against God is to be confessed to God in private.
Thanksgiving
The third ingredient in prayer is thanksgiving. This seems axiomatic. And yet,
how often we omit any word of thanksgiving in our conversation with God.
God may not need to receive our thanksgiving, but we need to give it. A few
years back I thanked a fine layman for serving as a personal worker in one of
our crusades. He said, in a sense of real Christian humility,
"I wish you wouldn't thank me, it was my privilege. I don't need to be thanked."
He was right, and we can only wish for many more like him who serve with that
same spirit. But, in that gracious humility, he forgot one thing. While he did
not need to receive my thanks,
I needed to give it! The first
sign of a degenerating relationship is when we begin to take one another for
granted. And the spirit of thanksgiving between two people is just as important
as it is between us and our God.
Some have asked the difference between thanksgiving and adoration or praise.
Here's a simple formula which has helped me.
We thank God for what He does,
for the numerous blessings He bestows upon us.
We adore and praise God for who He is,
our "maker, defender, redeemer and friend."
Supplication
The final phase of prayer is characterized by the word Supplication.
Some of you will remember our talking about supplication in one of the Hour
Of Power sessions last fall. We discovered that supplication is not merely the
presenting of our petitions to God. This is our modern idea of the word. But,
it is grossly inadequate. In its original sense, the word had nothing whatsoever
to do with the idea of begging, pleading or enticing. Actually, it meant to
fold or bend, to become supple. Malleable. And that is the sense in which it
must be used in prayer. It is the act of folding or bending our will to God's.
It is not a matter of saying to God, "Give me," but rather, "Make me." The story
of the prodigal son is a case in point. He said to his father, "Give me." His
petition was granted. But it lead to a life of prodigality which landed him
among swine, coveting their husks, and miserable. When he changed his prayer
and ceased asking for things and began to confess his unworthiness, when he
prayed, "Father, make me," he was richly blessed. To be sure, it was a long
road which the prodigal traveled from "Give me" to "Make me," but only then
did he receive his Father's best.
If in some wonderful way I was suddenly granted one wish, if I could have the
answer to one great heart's desire, I could only wish with all of my heart that
each of you whom God has entrusted me for light and guidance might learn the
secret of supplication. If I had a thousand Aladdin lamps, that
would be my wish. I would wish that you might know the delight of living when
your will is bent or folded to the will of God,and you walk in union with the
One whose only concern is your joy and welfare.
And so you see, there is an answer to the question, "Why pray?"
If prayer is an act of adoration
and through worship we praise God for who He is, and if in the process we experience
a holy intimacy with God which reveals our imperfections and makes it easier
for us to fashion our lives according to His will, then we need to pray.
If prayer is an act of confession,
a time when we can conquer the mountain of pretense and descend into the valley
of remorse, and by confessing our sins remove the barriers to victorious living,
then we need to pray.
If prayer is thanksgiving, an
expression of our gratitude to God for He does for us day in and day out, and
if we need to give thanks even
though God may not need to receive
it, then we need to pray. And --
If prayer is supplication, the
bending of our will to His, and if it be true that no greater prayer has ever
been prayed than that which was expressed in the simple words: "Thy will be
done," then we, indeed, need to pray.
I think this bit of prose bundles up all I have been saying in a little package
you can take away with you this morning.
"He asked for strength that he might achieve,
He was made weak that he might obey.
He asked for health that he might to greater things,
He was given sickness that he might do better things.
He asked for riches that he might be happy,
He was given poverty that he might be wise.
He asked for power that he might have the praise of men,
He was given weakness that he might feel the need of God.
He asked for all things that he might enjoy life,
He was given life that he might enjoy all things.
And so, while he received nothing that he asked for,
Yet he received everything he hoped for.
His prayer was answered.
He is, of all men, most blessed."
Jesus said:
"Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall
be opened unto you. For everyone that asks receives, he that seeks finds, and
to him that knocks it shall be opened" (Matt.7:7).
Wow!
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