Wrestling in prayer

Wrestling in Prayer

Isn’t it amazing how quick the pace of life is?  Are you not astounded that every 18 months or so the speed of a computer doubles?  We all use to think the www was quick with a dial up connection but now we have broadband and isdn lines.  We have instant everything.  You can go and get your glasses made in an hour at vision express.  You can do banking on line.  Everything is at such a speed.  Yet when it comes to prayer speed is not of any importance at all.  In fact the one thing which we need in prayer is not speed but perseverance.  We actually need to learn how to wrestle in prayer over a long period of time and not just in short bursts of speed.  The truth is that for many believers today their prayer lives reflect the pace of their lives – hectic.  Everything is hurried.  Everything, even prayer, has to be slotted into a time frame.  How often do you find yourself praying and your mind is wandering all over the place?  You are actually thinking of things that you could, note I said could not should, be doing if you were not praying.  We often even fall into the trap of thinking ‘this time spent praying is wasted.’  Ever found that thought in your head when you are praying or about to pray?  Of course you have, we all have at some time.  Yet we are exhorted by Jesus and the Word of God to pray and to not give up praying.  So in  this post I want to encourage you to ‘wrestle in prayer’ – basically to keep going over the long haul and to not give up or give in.

A myth slain.

Allow me right at the beginning of this post to slay a myth in the area of ‘wrestling in prayer.’  It is quite common to hear people hold up the example of Jacob or the Syro-Phoenican woman who came to Jesus as examples of people who wrestled in prayer and got the answer they desired.  The implications of what is said is that you should wrestle with God and not let Him go until He has answered.  That sort of teaching in wrestling in prayer is quite common, you may even hold to it yourself but it is not biblical.  Such teaching makes God out to be a reluctant giver of blessing.  It makes out that we have to literally wrestle the answer out of God and wring out the blessings from His hands.  Such an image of God is wrong.  God is not reluctant to answer prayer, nor does He begrudgingly bless.  Listen to these words spoken by Jesus in Matthew 7.10 – the key phrase being ‘how much more…’  God does not hold on to blessings or answers until we somehow manage to prise them out of His grip.  Let us remember that it was God who came to meet Jacob and to wrestle with Jacob.  Jacob had deceived his brother, his father and sought to manipulate situations to fulfil the promise God had made to him – he would not wait on God’s time.  In the struggle Jacob was changed by God and left with a limp to remind him of the night of wrestling with God.  Jacob learnt that God was in control and he was blessed with far more than he had ever requested.  He wanted a right relationship with Esau.  Jacob got that. Far more importantly he also had a restored relationship with God. 

So please understand that when I speak of ‘wrestling in prayer’ I am not talking about a struggle with God to get Him to answer.  Many passages speak of God’s desire to hear and to answer our prayers. Wrestling in Prayer – so what do we mean by that phrase?  I want to look at two aspects of ‘wrestling in prayer:’

Firstly, I want to look at Ephesians 6.10-12, 18 where we are instructed by Paul that we are in a spiritual battle when it comes to prayer and the Christian life.

Secondly, I want to encourage us all to persist in prayer, to wrestle in prayer over the long haul and not just the short term.

Spiritual Battle – Ephesians 6.10-12, 18.

When you became a Christian the bible says your were ‘born again.’  Now let me ask you a question:  Into what were you born?  Physically at one stage you were born – born in a hospital, most likely.  As a Christian when you were ‘born again’ you were born in to a battle.  You were in fact born on a battle field and into an army engaged in a war.  You and I are not always aware of the battle, but it is real and it is of eternal consequences.  The truth is our prayer lives would be better if we were more aware of the spiritual battle which is raging all around us.  By the very fact that we do not think about it, or don’t believe it there is such a battle raging, our prayer life suffers immensely.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 that we are engaged in a battle against ‘spiritual forces’ which are evil, wicked and dark.  Look closely at verses 11-12 – notice how often the word ‘against’ appears.  Here is the battleground of the Christian believer.  It is not against people but against powers, authorities etc.  Paul begins by saying it is against the ‘schemes’ or ‘wiles’ of the devil.  The battle begins, continues and ends on the ground of ‘Truth.’  Do you see that?  The wiles of satan, literally the deceptions and the lies of satan are what we stand against.  Satan and his cohorts are the foe of every believer. 

In Ephesians 1.19-22 Paul has already spoken of the victory over these forces which Christ has won. I want you to note that in your bible.  We are never exhorted to win the victory over satan and his cohorts.  The victory has already been won, on the Cross of Calvary.  We are urged to stand firm in the victory won for us by Christ.  Remember that – we stand in the victory we are not called to win what has already been won. That is a fact.  These ‘powers and authorities’ are a defeated foe but they refuse to acknowledge defeat and at this moment in time they continue the spiritual battle against God and His kingdom.  Paul says that they rule the realms of darkness but in 5.8 he tells us that in Christ we have been freed from such darkness.  But I want you to read verse 18 READ.  Did you notice what he instructs them to do?  As they put on the armour of God, provided by God, they are ‘to pray.’  As the hymn writer wrote ‘each piece put on with prayer.’  Paul warns the believers at Ephesus, and us, that they wrestle not with people but with spiritual beings whose character is wicked and whose realm is darkness. In verse 18 Paul emphasises prayer in this struggle.  In order to stand firm you need to put on the armour of God and you do this by prayer.  Prayer is the calling for and the appropriating of the armour of God.  Prayer is foundational in the deployment of all other parts of the armour of God.  Note will you how often the word ‘all’ appears in this verse.   Paul wants the believers at Ephesus to ‘stand firm’ and the only way for them to do that is to ‘wrestle in prayer.’ 

Friends when you come to pray remember Paul’s admonition ‘be alert and pray.’  Jesus had warned His disciples of the very same thing – Matthew 26.41.  Where did Jesus learn this lesson?  I believe it was learnt during the time of His temptation in the wilderness, Matthew 4.1-11.  What is the temptation all about?  Is it not about satan trying to deceive Christ into going another way other than the cross?  Was it not Christ’s battle against the powers and authorities of which Paul writes in Ephesians 6?  If that is what satan brought against Christ what will he bring against you?

In 1 Peter 5.8 we are warned that satan prowls around seeking whom he may devour – that is destroy.  When you come to pray remember there is one who is coming against you as you seek to pray.  Remember that satan and his cohorts will do all they can to stop you praying.  Remember you are on a battlefield.  Too many Christians think they are in a playground and are seeking toys for pleasure when they should be seeking weapons for war.  Paul was under no illusions and he desired that the eyes of the believers at Ephesus would also be open to the spiritual reality around them.  Oh, that this day/evening our eyes too would be open to the spiritual battle going on right now for our souls and for our service for God.  This struggle, this wrestling never ends.  The battle is continuous – that is why Paul urges them to pray continually.  That is why Jesus urged His followers not to give up in payer and that leads me to the second point of ‘wrestling in prayer.’

Perseverance.

You know we could learn a lot about persistence by observing children when they want something.  They don’t give in easily.  They ask time and time again.  Friends the truth is we give up on prayer very easily.  We talk a good talk but we don’t actually walk a good walk.  We are not people who persevere in prayer.  We encourage others not to give up on prayer but to ‘pray without ceasing.’  Yet the reality in our own lives is that we give up very quickly.   If the answer seems to be a while in coming we fail to persevere in prayer.  We lose heart very easily and give up.

Even a quick glance though the pages of Scripture sets before us time and again the example of people who persisted in prayer.  Abraham repeatedly prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 18.  God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah but Abraham had persevered in prayer for their deliverance right up until God’s wrath descended.  Moses prayed for 40 days and nights to stay God’s wrath against Aaron and the people of Israel in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 9.18-29.  God heard and spared those who repented.  Elijah prayed 7 times before the rain cloud appeared 1 Kings 18.44.  Look at 1 Samuel 1 and the story of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, who year after year went up to the temple to ask God for a son.  Eli, the priest, misunderstood and thought she was drunk but God had not only heard her prayer He also answered it.  She persisted year after year.  She wrestled in prayer year after year.  1 Samuel 1 tells us of the anguish of her soul as she prayed.  I am sure there were many occasions in Hannah’s prayers that tears flowed but she did not give up and she did not give in – she persisted in prayer.  Daniel prayed for 3 weeks before God answered, Daniel 10.  Nehemiah prayed persistently when rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem.  When the Canaanite woman came to Jesus seeking healing for her daughter she persisted until he heard her cry and answered, Matthew 15.21-28.  Blind Bartimaeus did not give in, he did not give up.  He persisted in his cries until Jesus heard him and healed him, Mark 10.46-52.  The four men did not give up when they saw the crowd outside the house where Christ was, Luke 5.17-26.  They climbed on to the roof, opened a hole in the ceiling and lowered their friend down before Christ to be healed.  Jesus taught His disciples to be persistent in prayer in the parable of the persistent widow, Luke 18.1-8.  Her case was answered because she did not give in and kept asking until the judge heard her case and answered her cause.  Throughout all those passages there is one glaring lesson – perseverance in prayer.  None of them gave up until God had answered. 

The superficial pray-er will give up when no answer appears to be forthcoming.  The superficial pray-er will go silent and move on when time seems to pass and no answer is forthcoming.  But the man of prayer hangs on and perseveres in prayer.  He follows the example of the men and women of faith in the scriptures and does not give in or give up. 

The man of prayer follows the example of Christ who persisted in prayer until an answer came from His heavenly Father.  Turn with me to Matthew 26.36-45.  Let me linger here for a moment with you as we finish.  This is a familiar passage to us all but we often fail to understand its significance in teaching us to wrestle in prayer.  I said at the beginning of this post that we had to slay the myth concerning wrestling in prayer that we persist until God reluctantly gives an answer or we prise a blessing from His hands.  Does the Garden of Gethsemane not kill that lie?  Jesus, the beloved, the only-begotten of the Father, is praying and asking if there is any other way for mankind to be saved and for atonement to be made then let it be so. He is sweating drops of blood in His pleading before His Father.  He was pleading for His Father to lift this cup of salvation from Him.  He persevered until the answer came.  Three times He returns to this prayer and at the end of the third time of prayer He hears the answer in the sound of the feet of Judas and the soldiers coming to arrest Him.  I hope you notice that when the answer comes Christ gets up and walks towards the answer – the Cross.  You can say three times is not very often but I want you to stop and think on this for a moment.  All through His life Jesus knew why He had come.  Don’t you think that at this moment, in the garden, He was articulating a prayer He had spoken many times to His Father?  Do you really believe that it was just at this moment that He decided to pray this prayer?  What do you think the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was all about? Was it not about perseverance in prayer?  Now in the garden,  knowing that death was a matter of hours away, Jesus focuses His prayer on the very purpose of His life – His death. 

Friends, if our heavenly Father desired His only begotten Son to persist in prayer until an answer came then why would He desire anything different from you and I?  We give up so very easily.  We give in and our prayers go silent all too soon.  We need to learn the discipline of wrestling in prayer.  We need to remind ourselves that the wrestling is part of the battle in to which were born when we came to faith in Christ.  We need to be aware that our enemy, satan, will do all in his power to stop us from praying.  We need to take deep into our hearts and minds that prayer is the foundation block to putting on the armour of God which will help us stand firm in the knowledge of the victory Christ has won for us. 

We need to learn perseverance in prayer.  We need that discipline and practice of persevering until an answer comes, even if it is years in coming.  Athletes talk about ‘muscle memory.’  That is where they do something repeatedly so that it becomes second nature to them.  They repeat the action so that even under pressure their muscles instinctively know what to do.  They persevere in doing this time and time again, so that when the moment comes they know it will happen. You know some of you have persevered for years learning to play the piano, to play golf, to do a certain thing.  You had the willpower and the determination to stick at it and to reap the benefits from it.  What is so amazing is how little willpower and determination you have when it comes to persevering in prayer.  Are you not appalled at yourself?  Are you not ashamed at how easily you give up praying about something or for someone?  You are more faithful and persevering at your hobbies than you are at prayer – does that not say something is wrong spiritually in your life?  Does that not send warning signals to your mind?  Is it not time to waken up spiritually?  Don’t you think satan has you just where he wants you spiritually?  This morning can I encourage, and challenge, you to wrestle in prayer.  That we can only do by actually doing it.  By being people who pray over the long haul.  Who reject the ‘instant answer’ mentality of this world and have ‘eternity’ written on our hearts and minds.  Amen.

What Prayer is

What Prayer is

 let me ask you a question ‘What is prayer?’  I have no doubt that all of us expect to pray at some point during our service of worship.  No doubt many of you said prayers with your children at bedtime last night.  Some of you may have prayed this morning ..  What were you doing?  Do you believe it makes a difference?  What do you pray about?  Do you find it easy or difficult to pray?   

I want to concentrate on a couple of bible verses  in answering; ‘What prayer is.’  Read Luke 18 verse 1.  I want to draw your attention to the question the disciples asked of Christ – read verse 1.  Now think a moment about Jesus.  Here are 12 men who have spent three years with Jesus.  They have listened to Him preach with great power and authority.  They have witnessed Him work wonderful miracles.  They have listened to Him debate with the religious elite of His day.  Yet they come and ask Him to teach them how to pray.  I was really struck by that.  They could have asked Him to teach them all sorts of things and yet it is how to pray that they desire teaching on – Why? Why prayer?  I believe the answer to that question is found in what they had witnessed of the life of Christ – His life was bathed in prayer.  We read that He rose early in the morning and sought a quiet place to pray.  We read constantly of Him withdrawing from the crowds to pray.  Before major events in the gospels we find Jesus praying.  At the very end of His life what does He do?  He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and prays.  From the gospel accounts Judas knew where Jesus would be – illustrating that this part of the garden was a familiar place of prayer for Christ.  So the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray.  So let us now see what He taught them.

Read Matthew 6.5-13.  When answering the request of the disciples; ‘teach us how to pray’ Jesus begins by assuming that they do pray.  Look at verse 6 ‘when you pray.’  There is an assumption there that the disciples do pray.  Jesus assumes that those who would be His followers pray and that it is a daily occurrence.  He then sets down some simple guidelines for them, and we should follow them also.  He tells them to go somewhere quiet and private – a place away from public gaze and distraction.  It is not that Jesus is saying we should not pray in public, nor with others – but that daily prayer is to be a private devotion.  So we are to go somewhere we won’t be seen by anyone but our heavenly Father and Jesus makes a promise to His disciples, and us – the Father will hear and answer.  So those are some of the practical things that we need to consider when we come to pray.  But what is prayer?  What are we doing when we pray?  Well let me share with you two things the Bible teaches about prayer.

Relationship.

I want you to look at Matthew 6.9.  When Jesus begins His prayer He tells the disciples to call God ‘Father.’  He uses the everyday term ‘Abba, Father.’  A biblical scholar called Joachim Jeremias has studied all the teaching on prayer in Judaism at the time of Christ and he says that nowhere did he read of God being addressed as ‘father’ in any Hebrew prayers or teaching on prayer.  So for Christ to address God in such a way was in fact quite revolutionary, almost scandalous in fact.  Yet the reason He did so was that right at the very heart, the very core of His teaching on prayer is that it is primarily about a relationship with God as Father.  Let me repeat that.  At the very heart, the very core, prayer is about a relationship with God as Father.  That is why Jesus begins His teaching on prayer with an intimate term of endearment.  He addresses God as ‘Father’ and teaches the disciples to do the same.  The address is to a personal God and not to something or someone unknown.  Such a personal address implies a personal relationship. 

If you go back to the Old Testament you will see time and again  that those who pray, pray not to some unknown god but, to God who is known to them and with whom they have a relationship.  For example how often do we read of God revealing Himself as ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.’  God constantly and consistently reveals Himself as personal. 

Read James 4.7-8.  Prayer is also the means of coming near to God.  James exhorts us to come to near to God because in drawing near to God we will be blessed by God drawing near to us.  The means of this drawing near is prayer.  What happens in this drawing near – READ 1 John 1.9 God assures us of the forgiveness of our sin.  God assures us of our relationship with Him that was once non-existent because of our sin but in prayer God assures us that our sin is forgiven and the relationship with God is restored.  Having that assurance in our souls we know the peace of God in our lives (Philippians 4.6-7). 

Prayer is therefore a relationship with God who is personal and who speaks.  Which leads us to the second point.

Communication.

  Read Revelation 3.20.  I know you have often heard them quoted in the context of coming to a personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus but I believe they also speak to us of communication in prayer.  Prayer is the speaking part of our relationship with God.  Our relationship with God depends upon birth – being born again.  However our fellowship (the quality) of our relationship with God depends on our behaviour.  Let me illustrate that for you.  Your children are your children by birth.  You cannot change that fact, nor can they.  However the quality of your relationship with your children is not determined by the fact that you gave birth to them.  The quality of the relationship depends upon their behaviour and your behaviour.  They remain your children but the relationship is maintained, strained or broken by behaviour.  We know from the Word of God that God as our Father is completely consistent in His behaviour towards us (He loves us unconditionally) but our fellowship with Him is maintained, strained or broken by our behaviour (our sin primarily).  Prayer is a means of maintaining our fellowship with God. It is the speaking part of our relationship with God. But please hear this – it is a two way communication – it is a dialogue and not a monologue.  We are often guilty of seeing prayer as us speaking to God, as something we do.  But look again at Revelation 3.20.  Do you notice who takes the initiative?  Jesus takes the initiative.  He is standing at the door.  He knocks.  He speaks and then we respond.  Please note that – our words in prayer are a response to God’s Word to us in Christ.  Our words are a response and not primarily an address.  We open our hearts and He comes in and eats with us.  He moves us to pray.  Our prayers are always a response to God moving in our hearts.  We may think we take the initiative but that is not true – God is in control and leading our hearts to prayer.  Prayer is a response.  Yes we bring petitions and requests to God in prayer but this only happens because God has moved our hearts to prayer.  I think we sometimes need to remind ourselves that prayer is our response to God having spoken first.

God wants us to pray but He does not need us to pray.  God knows already what we need.  Read Isaiah 65.24.  God said that even before we call He answers.  He knows what we need and He knocks on the door of our hearts to move us to prayer so that we might open the door of our lives and accept the gracious blessings He has in store for us- Matthew 7.9-11.  The key phrase in those verses is ‘how much more.’  However much we may think we know what is best for us in our lives God has even greater gifts of grace to give us.  God never has to answer our prayers but He does answer because as He said in Jeremiah 32.40-41 ‘I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.’  He answers because He delights to do good for you His children.  Therefore He motivates us to ask. 

Listen to these words of Paul in Romans 8.26-27.  These verses are commonly interpreted as meaning we don’t know the right words to speak and so the Holy Spirit takes our hearts cry and intercedes before the Father for us.  Yet that does not do true justice to the text.  What Paul is saying is that the Holy Spirit comes to our aid to help us pray aright.  It is a case of that we do not know what we ought to pray (ignorance) and also we do not pray well.  So the Holy Spirit comes and puts into words what we ought to pray but also enables us to pray aright – since He already knows the will of the Father.  So even in our weakness, in our inability to put into words the deep longings of our souls God in His desire to communicate with us has given us the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us.  The Holy Spirit gives expression to the inexpressible longings of our souls. Again I want you to note that it is God taking the initiative in prayer.  The Holy Spirit intercedes because we are unable to.  One writer wrote of this action of the Holy Spirit;  ‘this prayer is the very breath of the soul.’  I think that is a wonderful description of what the Spirit of God does in my soul in prayer – He breathes life into my prayers.

Conclusion.

I want to finish  with a word of warning to us all.  Often today prayer is treated as something to ‘start things off’ or to ‘bring things to a close.’  Often if there is a pastor present he will be asked to ‘say a wee prayer.’  Often people want me, or you as the christian, to pray for them because they treat prayer as a superstitious good luck charm.  All of these things take prayer lightly and are in fact belittling of prayer.  The words we use when we pray are sacred and not to be taken lightly.  Let me read  one pastor’s fantasised response to being asked to ‘get things started with a little prayer, will ya?’  ‘I will not! There are no little prayers!  Prayer enters the lion’s den, brings us before the holy where it is uncertain whether we will come back alive or sane, for ‘it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’’ (William McNamara, The Human Adventure, p.89).  I think we all would do well to take those thoughts on board when we come to pray.

Amen.