A group of young people on a summer’s mission trip to the
party Island of Ibiza asked the local Anglican priest what the prayer needs of
the Island were. Ibiza was in the middle of a really bad drought, so the priest
asked them to pray for rain… like in our bible reading from James today… they
prayed for rain and they were very surprised when minutes after they had stopped
praying Ibiza was hit by a very unseasonal
thunder storm. In fact they later discovered that it hadn’t rained so hard on
the Island in July since 1976. Coincidence? Answer to prayer? Anyway the
English press got hold of it and it became a big media story. “God Squad claim
first miracle on Ibiza” The leader of that group Pete Greig… says it’s one of
the glory stories that Christians like to tell.
However Pete Grieg is honest enough about prayer to have
written the book ‘God on mute’ about a real life struggle with his faith as he
was woken one night by his wife who said “Something is wrong, I can’t feel my
legs” which was the start of a five year battle with a brain tumour and an
ongoing struggle with a severe form of epilepsy.
And it seems that God was silent and Prayer ineffective.
When we pray we find ourselves between these two extremes.
There are times when I am surprised by just how awesomely God answers prayers
and others when I have found myself with a friend or parishioner in desperate
need crying out to God and it seems that the doors of heaven are shut.
In scripture we are invited in all situations to pray. Jesus
tells his disciples in the passage we had read in Luke’s gospel to always pray
and to never give up. The passage we had read from James seems a practical
outworking of that. If we are in trouble we should pray, if we are happy we
should well pray, sing psalms, if we are sick we should pray, and gives some
specific instructions about a way of gathering the Christian leadership and
community together to do that. If we have done wrong well we should pray we
should confess our sins and get it sorted. ’ Have you noticed how people wander
around with their cell phones out these days focused on the screen in constant
communication with other people over the mobile networks and Internet. We are invited to have that
same connectivity with God. But not in a way that shuts out the world, that
puts us in danger of stepping out in front of that bus, or at the expense of
the real life face to face relationships but that brings the world and those
relationships into contact with a God who cares, who hears and who acts. RVG
Tasker says ‘the habit of prayer should be, and indeed is one of the most
obvious features which differentiate a Christian from other people.” Our
heavenly father extends to us a standing invitation to draw near to God, which
no experience of joy or sorrow and no conditions of prosperity or adversity
have any power to cancel.”
In light of that great invitation I want to go through some
nuts’n’bolts of praying for someone else, praying for people in times of need.
Some of those nuts’n’bolts will be very practical and some of them will be very
theological. This part of our churches season of prayer, as a parish council we
have identified prayer as one of eight key areas we need to work on to help our
church be an authentic, vibrant sustainable community, growing as followers of
Jesus and inspiring others to join us on the journey. So let’s work through a series of questions
about praying for people.
The first one is Prayer actually effective? Does it make a
difference or does it just make me feel better that I’ve been able to do
something with my concern.?
Scriptures answer is that Pray is effective it changes
things. In the passage we had read from Luke today Jesus says that the
effectiveness of Prayer is based on the very character of God. He tells an
interesting parable of an unjust judge, who tries to ignore the case of a poor
insignificant widow. The encouragement for us is that God is not like that, he good
and loving and just and is quick to see his people get justice.
James provides us with a very practical example of the
effectiveness of prayer. Elijah had prayed and it had not rained for seven
years and then he prayed again for rain, and a storm front rolled in over the
Mediterranean Sea.
What happens if I you don’t receive an answer right away?
Does it mean that God has not heard my prayer?
The classic answer to that is that God always answers
Prayer. We have to deal with the fact that it maybe ‘no’ or ‘not now’ or not in
the way in which we had thought it should be. Our reading in Luke comes at the
end of a block of Jesus teaching about the last days, the consummation of the
kingdom of God, and Jesus parable in it finishes with Jesus asking when the son
of man comes will he find faith on earth. It is only in this long term eternal perspective
will we see how God has answered all our prayer. The call to us, the invitation
for us is to live in the meantime trusting in and drawing near to God, to pray
and never give up. Roy Christian says that he believes that God answers every
prayer for healing, for some it is by healing, others it is that they get a new
sense of God’s presence and peace in the midst of suffering and other times
that prayer is answered in death. For a person to go and be with Christ, in a
place of no more suffering, no more pain and decay, because as Paul says in 1
Corinthians 15, in Christ’s resurrection death has been swallowed up in
victory. Peter Grieg’s wife Sami has the last word in his book God on Mute’ and
she writes of where she has come to in her own prayer life… she says “I don’t
always understand God’s ways in my life, but I’m absolutely certain that he can
be trusted.”
God will answer my prayer only if I’m good enough? Or if I
have enough faith and I doubt that I do?
In James we hear the prayer of a righteous person is
powerful and effective, and we might think it’s refereeing to those rear and
wonderful super spiritual saints…right…wrong… The gospel of Jesus Christ is
that we have all been made righteous through the sacrifice of Jesus on the
cross. We are made right with God. In the same passage we also hear that we
should confess our sins to one another, we re all flawed and broken. If we
waited to feel good enough for God to respond to our prayers, I don’t think I’d
ever get round to praying, would you… But Christ died for us, he took away the
stain of our sin and invited us in… as loved family.
I have a friend whose daughter is terminally ill,
we often prayer for her in our services. I wrote to my friend asking if there
was any way I could help…”his reply was “not really, except if you know a doctor
who has a cure for this kind of cancer that would be great”… I didn’t have the
faith to write back and say ‘we’ll I know the great physician and I’ll ask
him”, but I prayer for my friend’s daughter every day. I don’t know if my faith
is big enough in that situation. In Luke the parable that Jesus tells has two
names ‘ the parable of the unjust judge’ and the parable of the persistent
widow’. The answer to this question comes in those two. Our faith when it comes
to pray is in what we know of the character of God. It’s not the amount of our
faith it is the one in whom we have put that faith. Secondly the widow in the
story is poor and powerless, she is amongst the least in her community, yet she
is persistent and her case get heard. WE may feel in that same position,
powerless, helpless… but if we draw near to God and are consistent and
persistent that is the main thing.
Now in James, we see that he encourages people who are very
sick to call the elders together to
pray. Does this mean that there is something special about elders? NO…the
elders represent the whole community praying. In the end if someone brings and
issue or a problem to you, in the sovereignty of God you just may be the very
person whose prayers and help and compassion are needed in that situation.
Do I need to say the right words? Are their formula's to how
we should pray?
Paul Ashman is the vicar at St Matthias and at the life
course on Thursday he spoke on ‘how does God speak to us through prayer’. One
of the things that spoke to me from what he said is that when we pray, God
wants to hear from us, God wants to hear from you. Yes there are great
liturgical prayers and psalm which help us pray, but in the end its about God
simply wanting a relationship with each of us. Where we are real and honest.
The other great thing is that when we pray we don’t pray alone, God has sent
his Holy Spirit to dwell in all who believe and the holy Spirit it tells us in
Romans 8:26 helps us in our weakness to pray. Our bumbling words may just be
beautiful in God’s ear. Our articulate cries and sighs of compassion and care may just resonant with the heart of God.
But just a couple of tips, it’s always good to know who we
are praying to. We are not simply calling off into the universe we know who God
is, so we pray to God. We know that we can come to God because of Jesus Christ,
in fact Jesus invites us to pray in his name. It does not mean we have to slavishly
say ‘in Jesus name amen at the end or it won’t find the right address. But it
is good to remember that it is because of Christ’s life death and resurrection
that we are able to come to God in prayer, that we know what God is like, that
we can ask as children of a good and gracious Father.
What if I pray the wrong thing? How do I know what God’s
will is in any given situation?
That is a tricky one. The answer to that is really that
God’s will is not some hidden secret agenda, Christians do not believe in fate,
we are a gracious people not fatalistic. The answer is we do know what God’s
will is. In the first section of 1 Timothy Chapter 2 Paul urges all kinds of prayers to be given
for all people. For kings and rulers because God desires is that we live in a
peaceful and just society. Then he says to pray for everyone because God’s
desire is that all may come and know Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour. God
wants everyone to come to a saving knowledge of him, to know his grace and grow
to Christian maturity. In all situations as we looked at last week that is what
we should be praying for people. Secondly we know that Jesus prayed for people
to be healed that sickness and death are a result of a fallen and broken
creation so it is right that we pray for the one who has conquered sin and
death, to deal and elevate its consequences.
When I pray for someone in a ministry situation I also think
it’s important to listen. To listen to what the person has to say, as it gives
you directions as to what to pray for, but also to listen to the Holy Spirit to
give direction in what to pray. For me that might come as a word in my mind,
that small still voice, or a bible passage will come to mind. I was praying for
some pastors on Thursday wrestling with the death of a friend and having to
take the funeral and the laments of the Psalms came up, where people poured out
their sorrow to God, but which are also such strong declarations of faith in
God. So I used that as a basis for praying for them. That they would be able to
grieve and pour out their pain and sorrow to God but also to hold on to that
deep faith in God and be able to share that as they ministered to others at the
funerals.
let me finish by saying… Prayer is like most other things in
life you get better if you practise. So we are going to stop now and I am going
to invite you to break into little groups of about three or four, and share
with each other one thing, one person, one situation that you would like the
other people to pray for or join you in praying for. Then I’m going to invite
you in that group to pray for each other. In fact why not simply pray for the
person to your left in that group. And will you commit yourself to praying for
that person and that situation for the week to come.
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