The Gift of Prayer
A. What’s the very best thing that you could do for people in trouble?
I once put that question to a year twelve Scripture class in Brisbane. It aroused a lively discussion with many different answers. Eventually, most of the students agreed that it would be best to stick up for them and be a friend to them. One shy girl agreed that it would be good to do that, but added that it would be even better to pray for them, because by praying for them you offered supernatural rather than human help.
If you are like me, you don’t need anyone to tell you how valuable prayer is in your spiritual life, and how much you can help others by praying for them. Our trouble is that we fail to pray except as last resort. We keep trying and failing. And then we feel guilty about failure. It seems to be harder to pray than anything else that we do. So we need all the help that we can get to become praying people.
That’s not new: 12 disciples had the same problem. They knew that Jesus was a man of prayer who drew guidance and strength from his heavenly Father in prayer. So, one day after Jesus had finished praying, one of his disciples said: Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. They expected him to tell them what they were meant to do when they prayed.
But Jesus surprises them by his response to their request. He does not tell them how to pray but actually helps them to pray. He does not just tell them what they have to do, but gives them the gift of prayer. He shifts their focus away from what they are supposed to do to what they will receive in prayer.
B. Jesus gives us four surprises in what he teaches us today about the gift of prayer.
1. He gives us unexpected help to pray.
He gives us his own prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, as our prayer. He invites us to join in with him as he prays for us and the whole world.
In it he puts us in his own shoes as we approach God the Father. He gets us to identify ourselves with him as God’s Son and impersonate him by saying: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. We have same status as Jesus and enjoy the same reception from God the Father as Jesus does. We share in his sonship and holiness, his royal status and his mission on earth. In his prayer he shares himself and everything that he has with us.
In his prayer he also stands in our shoes and joins us in our troubles. He identifies himself with us and our needs by saying: Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation. He takes up our three basic needs as his needs: our need for daily bread, our need for forgiveness for our sins and the power to forgive those who have hurt us, and our need for help to overcome the temptation to mistrust God and to give up hoping in him.
Jesus gives you his own prayer, so that you can pray together with him for yourself and others.
2. Jesus gives us unexpected reason to pray.
He says: Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.” And suppose the one inside answers, “Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.” I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your boldness he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
Jesus helps us to pray by confronting us with people who need what we cannot give. He gets us to imagine that we have unexpected visitor at worst possible time with an impossible demand. Our problem is that we have nothing to offer. But we can borrow what we need and they need from the friend next door.
So what does Jesus do to show you who to pray for, and for what? He presents you with people who require what you cannot give, such as a sick person, or children in trouble, or somebody in a broken marriage, or someone who has turned away from God, or just a friend in need. Their demands are meant to teach you to pray. So think of at least one such person whom God has sent to you recently and pray for that person as you come to Holy Communion here today.
3. Jesus gives us the promise of unexpected benefits when we pray.
He says: 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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
We don’t have to pray in order to remind God of our needs, or persuade him to help us, or to twist his arm to get something. We pray in order to receive God’s gifts. When we pray, God does not just give us what we ask for but much more than that.
You receive three things from God the Father when you pray. You receive what ask for from him. When you seek God’s help in prayer, you find him as your Father rather than just something from him. When you knock at his door, he does not just open it to find what you want; he opens it up for you and lets you in, so that you can be with him and enjoy his company.
4. Jesus gives the promise of unexpected power to pray.
Our worst problem is that we find it so hard to pray. We want to pray but are too weak and uncertain, distracted and undisciplined. And the devil does all that he can to sabotage us. He makes us doubt whether God really wants to give us good gifts because we are not good enough for him and don’t deserve his help.
Jesus overturns our doubts and fears by getting us to focus on the goodness of our heavenly Father with the three questions that he puts to us. He says: Which of you fathers, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion. If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will you Father in heaven, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? The answer to the first two questions is obvious: even worst father does not put a poisonous snake or live scorpion on the plate before his children. But the answer to the third is unexpected. God the Father does not just give you good things when you pray; he gives you His Holy Spirit to inspire, enable and empower you.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of prayer who prompts you to pray, who shows you what to pray for, and how. St Paul explains this in Rom 8:26: The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. So ask God the Father to give you his Holy Spirit and let his Spirit help you to pray.
C. My dear fellow saints, you are all like the man with the unannounced visitor late at night. You have little or nothing to offer anyone from your own limited spiritual resources. But you do have the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to pray for yourself and others.
You can pray to God the Father with boldness and confidence in the name of Jesus today after the next song when we pray for the church, the world and people in need. Then you can join with Jesus later in the service by praying the Lord’s Prayer for yourself and others. Then when you come to Holy Communion today, pray for at least one person who needs the help that only God can give.
So ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
