What Prayer is NOT!

In my many years now as a believer, I have discovered that there is a huge difference between the traditional view of prayer and what the Bible teaches.  Most of us have been taught that if we would just pray long and hard enough and not give up, that eventually God will answer our prayers.  Terms like, “we need to bombard heaven”, or “we need to storm the gates of heaven and give God no rest”, all reflect our view that we need to wear God down.  Others think that God is moved to answer by the number of people praying for their need, so they try to get as many people as possible praying for their need.  Maybe then God will answer?  There is strength in numbers is what they believe.  This is the whole logic behind prayer chains and all night prayer events.  If we can get enough people praying around the clock, God will be touched by our perseverance and answer our prayers.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with asking people to pray with you concerning your need.  The Bible encourages us to pray for one another.  What I am saying is that praying is NOT begging.  Prayer is NOT us trying to convince God that we need help.  The way we pray reflects how we view God.  The reason many peoples’ prayers are ineffective is their view of God is wrong.  They see God as this adversarial God who you must badger and beg, that He is too busy running the universe to be bothered by you and your needs.  That’s not true.  Our God is not some uncaring judge that must be begged to move on our behalf.  That’s ridiculous and blasphemous.  Our Father loves us and will respond to our prayers.  What if you came to my house and observed my children begging me to give them something to eat and I just ignored them?  They cried out to me and said, “please daddy, I know I didn’t make my bed this morning, but please have mercy on me and give me some food”.  If you saw this, you would call social services on me!  Of course, I wouldn’t treat my children like this and neither would any father.  Why do you think God would treat you that way?

Luke 11:9-13 (NKJV)

 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Jesus is saying in the above verses that if evil earthly fathers will provide for their children and not hurt them, how much more will our Good and Gracious Heavenly Father provide for and not hurt us!  A loving Father could do no less! If your son asks for bread because he was hungry, would you give him a stone to eat?  A stone that would break his teeth and hurt him.  If he asked for fish, would you give him a snake to bite him and hurt him?  If he asked for an egg, would you give him a scorpion to sting him and hurt him?  Hopefully not.  God will not hurt you either, you won’t ask for one thing and receive something else.  Where did we ever come up with these wrong views of God and prayer in the first place?  I’m sad to say in church.  Most of us have been given a wrong view of God and prayer from two of Jesus’ parables.  In Luke 11:5-8 and in Luke 18:1-8, Jesus gave two parables that illustrates the heart of the Father toward us.  Most preachers have used these two parables to teach us that you must beg and plead with God to get Him to answer your prayers, when actually Jesus is teaching the opposite.  Jesus was making an argument through contrast.  He was not giving a comparison.   In Luke 11, He talks about a person that is supposed to be a friend to a man who comes to him at midnight with a need.  The man refuses to get out of bed and help his friend, but because the man will not leave him alone, eventually the “friend” reluctantly gets up and grants his request.  Jesus was not teaching that this is the way the Father is, He was saying that God will not treat you like this.  He said just ask and you will receive!  In Luke 18, Jesus is telling a parable about a judge that “did not fear God nor regard man”.  This judge wasn’t loving or caring.  He was indifferent to the plight of the widow woman, yet was eventually worn down by her persistent begging.  This is the way the average Christian sees God as one you have to badger and beg.  And if you will give Him no rest, you can eventually wear Him down into submission to your desire.  What a joke!

The truth is that Jesus was not making a comparison but a contrast.  He was saying that if a wicked, uncaring judge will answer her prayer, how much will God answer our prayers!

Luke 18:6-8 (NKJV)

Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said.  And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?  I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”    

Do you see it?  God not only said that He would avenge His own, but also that He would do it quickly!  Praise God!  God is not reluctant to answer you like the unjust judge.  That’s the problem, the average Christian sees God as their judge.  If you’ve been born again, He’s your Father, not your judge.  Our relationship to God is not judicial.  God is not sitting on a throne of judgement toward you, but on a throne of Grace, where you are to come boldly and find help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).  You can approach God boldly knowing that He doesn’t have to be persuaded to care about you and your request.

A lot of people think that prayer is to inform God of our crisis.  He already knows your need before you ask Him (Matthew 6:8).  Some of us think that if we tell God how pitiful our situation is, that He will answer our prayer because of our desperate circumstances.  Desperation is not the same thing as faith.  Faith works by love!  God is not moved by how desperate your situation is, but because of His love for you and your faith in Him.  God is not moved by the number of people that you have praying.  You don’t have to come with a prayer petition signed by hundreds of people to convince God to rule in your favor.  Your heavenly Father is already on your side, He is for you, not against you.  You need to know that, THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO, OR PRAY, TO MAKE GOD MORE DISPOSED TO YOU THAN WHAT JESUS HAS ALREADY DONE.  GOD LOVES YOU!  Prayer is simply receiving by your faith in His Goodness what His Grace has already provided.  That’s the truth of His amazing Grace!