Belief in Prayer

I think we are way underestimating this thing called prayer.  

About five or six years ago I visited a village in rural Kentucky where the people did not use any electricity.  The people operated a lumber mill adjacent to a small creek that was all run by waterpower.  The water turned a wheel which had belts attached to it.   They had an elegant system whereby they could loop the belts on to their machinery that would then cut the wood.  These machines were beautiful.  (I am a woodworker; I think strange thoughts like this!) These folks had purchased large industrial saws, but they had taken the motors off of the machines and thrown them away!  You see, they did not believe in electricity. 

That is an interesting sentence… “They did not believe in electricity”…Does that mean they did not think electricity exists?  I am sure they did.  But truly they did not believe in it.  They did not trust it.  They did not rely on it.  They did not use its power at all.  They could not see the benefits of electricity.  They did not see any purpose at all in electricity.  But in some ways they still “used” it. 

I am not trying to be too critical of these folks.  I am just stating my observations about how they chose to live life. But they had these machines, these big beautiful machines.  Oh, they had this band saw that could cut through walnut like butter!  I wish I could have a band saw that nice. 

Hey, does it take electricity to build a band saw?

They transported the beautiful white oak and walnut and cherry wood on a wagon from the mill to my friend’s truck. They had put wheels on the wagon that were from a Chevy pick-up.  But they took the rubber tires off and threw them away so only the steel rims of the wheels rolled on the rocky ground.  Hey, better than the antique wood wagon wheels!

“Mr. Hoover, I just have to ask you one question.” I truly tried to be respectful, but I could not stand it any longer.  “Why do you have wheels but no rubber, manufactured machines but no motors, and plastic windows on your building?”  I worked hard not to sound sarcastic, because there was so much about these people that I admired.

“Well, I guess that is just where we draw the line.”   

Again, I admire these people for their simplicity, their practical knowledge, their woodworking skill and their purity of life, but I was disappointed by that answer to my question.  It seemed arbitrary to me.  I had expected to hear this fine principle of life that would make it clear why they had all of this handcrafted mechanical structure in the mill and the building and their hand-made clothes but still used plastic windows, mass-produced stainless steel rims and imported radial arm saws.  It seems like they arbitrarily limited their use of electricity.

There are consequences for not “believing” in electricity.  As much as I think these folks were “missing out” on something God created for the good of His creatures, I do think that the consequences of their choice are not hugely significant.  Many had gone before them living without electricity.  They had created much good without its direct use, which benefitted my friend.  And I doubt there are many eternal consequences of not believing in electricity.  Yet they still were quite dependent on electricity for certain things and the inconsistency in their thinking did not seem to bother them much. Nevertheless, I wish they had seen that God had created electricity for their good, even though it can be dangerous.

My dear friends do we treat prayer like these delightful Mennonite folks treat electricity? Do we use prayer to get us out of an occasional jam or is it our connection to the Personal Power Source of the Universe. Unlike an ignorance of electricity, if our belief in prayer is stunted the consequences go much deeper than mere temporal affects. When we don’t trust in, rely on, see the whole purpose of prayer we are missing out.  And not only are we missing out but others are missing out...perhaps for eternity.

“Now them thar are big charges, pardner!”, you might be thinking. “Hold on there just a minute! I pray several times a day for people to be healed and to get jobs and for wayward children to come home! Don’t tell me I am not believing in prayer!” 

KEEP PRAYING LIKE THAT!  We might have been allowed those trials we pray about to drive us to pray in the first place.  The answer to prayer is not the disappearance of our problem.  “The answer to prayer…is more prayer!” said P. T. Forsythe.  In praying we get God Himself.  (cf. Job 38)

So might I suggest that just maybe we have taken the powerful electric motor off of the band saw (a saw that was made in a factory by electric motors)?

Might it be that prayer was created for even bigger purposes than we imagine? Have we drawn an arbitrary line demarcating when we pray and do not pray? Have we arbitrarily limited our use of prayer?

Pascal said, “God instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of causality.”  

God created us in His image and that means we too are “creators” just like He is.  God created creators.  We also know that the original sin was to choose to live independent of God.  The whole purpose of creation was for us to be creators in partnership with God.  That is why the Bible talks so much about God doing things with us.  Prayer is God’s eternally powerful electricity.  It is not to be used merely for some things.  Prayer is to be used for everything.   Have we thrown the rubber tires off of the wheels?

C. S. Lewis said, “For [God] seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures.  He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly in a twinkling of an eye.  He allows us to neglect what He would have us do, or to fail.  Perhaps we do not fully realize the problem, so to call it, of enabling finite free wills to co-exist with Omnipotence.  It seems to involve at every moment a sort of divine abdication.  We are not mere recipients or spectators. We are either privileged to share in the game or compelled to collaborate in the work…He allows soils and weather and animals and the muscles, minds and wills of men to co-operate in the execution of His will.” (From The World’s Last Night and other Essays)

When we work with God in prayer He elevates our everyday “temporal” work to eternal significance.

My dear friends, it is so good to have prayer chains and prayer emails and prayer rooms where we pray for the tremendous and real needs people have.  Healing is done.  Jobs, and better, purpose is found.  Young, wayward children and older wayward husbands come home as a result!  This is eternally good.  But my dear friends don’t just use the saw, put the electric machine back on the saw.  Prayer is larger. 

Are you plugged into prayer for all things, all the time?  Paul said, “Pray without ceasing.”  Are you praying at work for your work?  Some of the best prayer work in history has been done while washing dishes. (cf. Brother Lawrence) Your work might be your main place of “creating” with God.  Or are you living independent of God? Did I hear you say, “Well that is just where we draw the line.” Wouldn’t that be the first temptation? 

Prayer will take the earthly, work of your hands and turn it into something with eternal significance and goodness! “Ora et Labora.”  Pray and work.  Notice the order!

Paul also said in Romans 12 to be “Devoted to prayer.”  I know many men that I would say are devoted fathers.  One friend has had to repeatedly pick up his child from jail.  He is a hero. He does this in love and it is obvious that he is devoted to this child.  My point is that if one is devoted to something it is so obvious that it goes without saying.  I have another friend that is devoted to a particular football team.  Just look at his Facebook page during the playoffs!

And I bet you, my friend, are devoted to electricity!  Just look at the number of texts you sent on your iPhone.  Look at the meal you just cooked with electric current and the food that came out of that electric box which you trust in to keep your food cool or those batteries you just replaced in the fire alarm you rely upon to keep you alive.  You see the purpose for electricity for just about every earthly task, don’t you?  You are devoted to electricity.  It’s obvious. That’s not necessarily bad.  God created it for your good. 

But are you devoted to prayer as much as you are electricity? 

My prayer mentor Peter Kling is devoted to prayer.  He has told me a thousand times, “Prayer is not preparation for ministry and work, prayer is the ministry and work.”

I would like to speak into those of you that are leaders.  That means most if not all of you.  The best two examples of leaders in my mind are Jesus and Paul. And they are amazing pray-ers.

But I am surprised by what they don’t pray for.  Paul and Jesus prayed public prayers…out loud.  (Corporate prayer is something we have taken off and thrown away recently.)  But we get to see and understand how they prayed.  Yes, Jesus prayed that the Father would give Him Power to heal, but when he taught people how to pray or when he prayed out loud, He mostly prayed for things beyond the immediate physical needs of people.  You can see how Paul prayed because in just about every letter he writes his prayers for his People.  Here is how he prayed in Philippians:

  

“9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

Do you pray like that?  Just insert the name of the members of your flock or family wherever it says “you” or “your” and prayer will take on a whole new meaning and affect.  You can pray like Paul! Today!

You can see similar prayers in almost every one of his letters.  In 1 Thessalonians Paul starts so many prayers that it is hard to know when he is praying in the letter and when he is speaking to the people.  Prayer flowed through Paul’s life and words as much as blood flowed through his body.  Prick him anywhere, and out flows blood.  Speak to him and out flows prayer.  And Paul prayed for spiritual needs.  I don’t want to draw too big of a distinction between spiritual and temporal. God created many good temporal things, like electricity.  Indeed I already implored you to elevate your earthly work to eternal status through prayer.  But Paul’s prayers focused on internal needs because internal goodness produces eternal fruit. Often it is not just what we create that matters, but how we create it. He prayed that people would understand the riches and goodness of God, or that they would be filled with love, with joy, patience and peace, and that they would live a fruitful God-glorifying life. 

Jesus prayed in John 17 that we would be as unified and in love with each other as the Triune God is unified and in love with each other.  I cannot remember hearing someone pray like this.  There is no place where there is more love or unity as there is in the Trinity.  And that love union, replicated in us, is the outreach program God instituted.  Our love for each other will signify the reality of our belief in Jesus.  There simply is no other outreach program.  Our love for each other does not just give credibility to our mission, love for each other is our mission.  And it is brought to being through prayer. 

My dear friends, I am going to pray for you this way.  I am going to pray for your love, joy, peace, patience, and intimate knowledge of God, not because I am special or “more spiritual”. I am not.  I simply want to believe in prayer the way I believe in electricity.  Please understand, you don’t think someone is better for believing in electricity. 

If you believe in things like the resurrection or prayer you don’t get more points for eternity’s sake.  No if you believe in prayer and the resurrection you get to live in a different reality, you have access to a different kind of life here and now!  If you trust in, rely on, see the whole purpose of prayer you have a richness of life, a fruitful life, a powerful life on this earth, even if you remain sick and out of a job!  And that life is lived in such a powerful and creative way that it affects the lives of others…for eternity!  Others will want to believe in and live in that Reality too.  That, my dear friends is why I am asking for more belief in prayer!