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If God knows everything – why pray?

Jesus in Sermon on Mount – don’t worry about food and drink and clothes – your heavenly Father knows that you need them. God knows what we need – and it seems that we usually get not just what we need but everything we could possibly want as well – so why bother to pray?

As Jesus said He would do anything we ask in His name – why doesn’t he?

Why bother to pray when it doesn’t work?? We may have been disappointed at times when our prayers have not been answered as we had hoped. So we don’t bother to pray!

We don’t pray enough. We don’t pray as much as we could.. Prayer is low down on our priorities! So why should we pray?

Prayer shows our dependence on God

Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the garden of Eden was a declaration of independence from God their Creator. We know best. We don’t need you. We can manage on our own. For human beings tainted with original sin ever since the challenge has been to overcome our pride and acknowledge that we DO depend on God.

ADORATION

Whatever brings us to that point, true heartfelt adoration is always pleasing to God. Remember Mary’s scandalous intimate worship, washing Jesus’s feet with her tears and drying them with her hair, and the lavish extravagance of  anointing his head with precious perfume. Going totally “over the top” in her love for her Lord. And that was pleasing to God! But adoration isn't just buttering God up so that we get what we ask for when we get to the  asking kinds of prayers! Adoration is expressing our love for God, our appreciation for all He is and all He means to us, and that is vital! Adoration focuses our lives on God, expresses our relationship with God and deepens that relationship.

THANKSGIVING

Give thanks in all circumstances (1Thess 5:18) We have so much to thank God for!

Give thanks for God's blessings given to everyone

Thank God for the BIRTH of Jesus; for the TEACHING of Jesus; for the MIRACLES of Jesus; for Jesus's SUFFERING and TRIALS; for Jesus's DEATH on the  CROSS; for Jesus's glorious RESURRECTION ; for the gift of the HOLY SPIRIT;

Give thanks for God's blessings to ME individually

Psalm 103 ^Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits -

Thank God for food and drink and family and friends. for answered prayers. for the hope of heaven. for the Bible and the fellowship of the church. for His peace and protection. for the wonderful joy He gives us. for His guidance and strengthening. You don’t need to teach children how to ask for things.  But you do need to teach them to say thank you. We are not always good at remembering to thank God. Think about the story of Jesus and the 10 lepers. 10 were healed. But only one came back to Jesus to say thank you! We need to WORK at prayers of thanksgiving!

PRAISE

We give God our praise for who He is

Praise God our CREATOR Praise God our LIBERATOR Praise God our LORD Praise God our REDEEMER Praise God the JUDGE OF ALL Praise God our FATHER Praise GOD our FRIEND

We give God our praise for all he Has done for us

Praise God for His LOVE; for His FAITHFULNESS; for His ALMIGHTY POWER; for His COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE; for His HOLINESS; for His GRACE and FORGIVENESS; for His PRESENCE everywhere;

There are other kinds of prayers. Praying for transformation. Prayer changes things – but prayer also changes us. Prayers of confession and self-examination. Prayers of relinquishment and prayers of surrender – “not my will but your will be done.” . To offer ourselves as living sacrifices to do what God commands, instead of what we would ourselves choose. “Freedom from the everlasting burden of always having to get our own way!” Then there are formation prayers – prayers God can use to make us more like Jesus.

ALL THESE KINDS OF PRAYER are important they all express our dependence on God. But the simplest prayers to show how much we need God are the ones we may neglect the most. Asking prayers. Asking for the simple things of life!

Think about the Lord’s prayer – Daily bread, forgiveness, guidance – God’s Kingdom come!

One day Jesus’s disciples asked him, “Lord teach us to pray.” Jesus replied.

Matt 7:7 ¶ "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  8  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

 9  "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  10  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  11  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

We express our dependence on God in “simple prayer”, just asking God to meet our needs. What Richard Foster describes as “Ordinary people bringing ordinary concerns to a compassionate Father.” Coming “just as we are” to God, with openness and honesty and no pretence. “We do not pretend to be more holy, more pure, or more saintly than we actually are. We do not try to conceal our conflicting and contradictory motives from God - or ourselves. And in this posture we pour out our heart to the God who is greater than our heart and knows all things.  “Simple prayer”, making your requests to God, asking, seeking, knocking.

As Spurgeon once said, “Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the Kingdom.”

Foster reminds us, “We never outgrow that kind of asking prayer because we never outgrow the needs that give rise to it.” Our prayers must begin with where we are. “The only place God can bless us is where we are, because that is the only place we are!”

So we must begin by learning to ask God to seek God and to rely on God in our families and jobs, and with our neighbours and friends. Praying about the ordinary events of everyday life. God in involved in EVERY aspect of our daily lives. So we need to learn to trust God in EVERY area of our lives. We are Christians WHEREVER we are. WHEREVER we are is Holy Ground!

Of course we should pray about our Christian activities. We should pray for our church. And its services. And our minister. Of course we should pray about witnessing to friends who are not yet saved. Of course we should be praying for the gospel to spread around the world. There is that challenging question, “If you were to die tonight, would your prayers be missed on the mission field?” We should pray MORE for our Christian lives.

But we also need to learn to see every place as Holy Ground. We can do this by “praying the ordinary”. By turning ordinary experiences of life into prayer; by seeing God in the ordinary experiences of life; by praying throughout the ordinary experiences of life.

We shouldn’t look to find God in the spectacular and the heroic but in the daily and the ordinary. If we can’t find God in the routines of home and shop and family and work and rest and play then we will never find God at all.

If God knows everything – why pray?

So we pray simple asking prayers to show that we depend on God for everything. But do WE? In our everyday lives do we rely on God more than anything else? Do we depend on God from day to day? From moment to moment in every part of our lives? Or do we rely on our checkbooks and credit cards and supermarkets and cars and mobile phones? James and Andrea in Nairobi preparing to move up country to rural Uganda won’t be able to depend on money or transport or technology or healthcare as we do in this country all the time. They will already be learning the value of praying over every meal, over every journey, every time they meet a friend. They are learning to rely on God for the simple things of life. And that will take them on the way to depending on God for bigger things than that.

It was that great theologian Cliff Richard who said, “The more we depend on God, the more dependable we find he is.”

It was lovely to have such a good attendance at our last Powerhouse prayer meeting to welcome back Lyn Cooke from Uganda and to send Andrea and James out! We know that missionaries like James and Andrea and Lyn depend on God’s power. But if I am honest, what I see as disappointing is that we don’t recognise that each one of us needs God’s help just as much!  Our everyday lives rely on God’s grace! Our weekly church activities need just as much prayer as anything missionaries ever do! Prayer expresses our dependence on God.

As Jesus said He would do anything we ask in His name – why doesn’t he?

The truth is that it is only when we have learned to depend on God for the little things of life that we can begin to pray to Him for the big things!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phil 4:6-7

Paul is not saying, “Whatever your problems, one quick prayer and everything will be alright.” It is an invitation to continuous prayer, to pray without ceasing, praying about anything and everything. Paul is saying “keep on presenting your requests to God”. And as you keep on bringing every aspect of your life to God in prayer, God will keep on meeting your needs and so you will continue to experience that peace which passes all understanding, which only God can give.

Until we are really depending on God  in the little things of life – the daily bread – we cannot realistically expect God to be at our beck and call for the big things in life. The accidents. The major illnesses.  By His grace, because He loves us, God IS there for us when big things go wrong. But too many Christians treat God a little bit like the AA or the RAC – we keep the number in our wallets in case we ever need it but most of the time we forget we even belong! Jesus did indeed promise to do ANYTHING we ask in His name! But most of us have a lot of learning to do about praying through our ordinary everyday lives before we will have the faith to pray for miracles.

Prayer deepens our relationship with God

Prayer isn’t just something which helps us in our Christian life. Prayer IS our Christian life. What is eternal life? Jesus teaches us that eternal life is not some kind of spiritual quality to life that only Christians have. It is much more wonderful than that! Eternal life is a relationship with Almighty God our Heavenly Father.

John 17:3  Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

So prayer isn’t about making the kind of requests God will answer. Prayer is about deepening our relationship with God so we know Him and trust him more and more. If we want to grow as Christians, prayer is the Key! Prayer is the most exciting adventure any of us can imagine.

Prayer is not a means to an end. Not a means to the end of getting God to give us blessings. Not a means to the end of serving God better. Not even a means to the end of getting to know God better. Prayer is an end in itself. It is a worthwhile activity in itself. Prayer isn’t just a useful tool to help us in our Christian service. In Richard Foster’s words, “Prayer is … an ongoing and growing love relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Prayer is the heart of our relationship with God. Prayer is our route to intimacy with God.

A.W.Tozer:-  “Probably the most widespread and persistent problem to be found among Christians is the problem of retarded spiritual progress. The main cause is most likely to be this: failure to give time to the cultivation of the knowledge of God.

The Christian is strong or weak depending upon how closely he has cultivated the knowledge of God. Progress in the Christian life is exactly equal to the growing knowledge we gain of God in personal experience. And such experience requires a whole life devoted to it and plenty of time spent at the holy task of cultivating God. God can be known satisfactorily only as we devote time to Him.

There is no short cut to sanctity. A thousand distractions would woo us away from thoughts of God, but if we are wise we will sternly put them from us and make room for the King and take time to entertain Him.  To neglect communion with God is to hurt ourselves where we cannot afford it. God will respond to our efforts to know Him. It is altogether a matter of how much determination we bring to the holy task.”   

A.W.Tozer in The Root of the Righteous

Our times of prayer are a vital expression of our relationship with God. So often so many Christians approach times of prayer with the same level of enthusiasm as we would being summoned to the boss’s office or a visit to the dentist. What a contrast with happy children who are usually delighted to be ably to spend time and have a long chat with loving parents. Richard Foster writes about trysting prayer. A tryst is an old word meaning a prearranged meeting of lovers – a special date with God. Our times of prayer can be like that! “We are glad to waste time with God for we are pleased with the company.”

So often in our times of prayer we talk too much! We don’t listen. We don’t give time for God to speak to us so that we can learn from him. We are too busy for meditation and contemplation! So we miss out on the blessings of prayer! Prayer is not a means to an end but an end in itself!

John Stott once admitted the truth that many of us have felt but failed to confess:  "The thing I know will give me the deepest joy -- namely, to be alone and unhurried in the presence of God, aware of His presence, my heart open to worship Him -- is often the thing I least want to do."

“The truth is that we only learn to pray all the time everywhere after we have resolutely set about praying some of the time somewhere.”

As well as weekly worship that means regular times of  personal prayer, a pattern of devotional life.

If God knows everything – why pray?

A seventeenth- century Roman Catholic Frenchman named Francois Fenelon wrote these words about prayer.

  “Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend.  Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them, talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability.  Tell Him how self- love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and to others.

   If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say.  You will never exhaust the subject…  People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back, neither do they seek for something to say.  They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration they say just what they think.  Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved conversation with God.”

That;s what we all need! Familiar unreserved conversation with God!

As Jesus said He would do anything we ask in His name – why doesn’t he?

John 14:12 ¶ I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  13  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  14  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Glorious promises about prayer! Promises which every Christian can claim. The only problem is, we don’t know what to pray for. Often we don’t know what God’s will is!

We need to know what God’s will is. The Prince has all the resources of the kingdom of His father the King to speak and act in the name of the King – to wage war, to pronounce justice, to feed the poor – but ONLY to do what the King would want, otherwise it’s not in the name of the King!

Many of you will be familiar with the phrase POWER OF ATTORNEY. It gives a person the authority to speak and act on behalf of somebody else, particularly in legal and financial matters. My sister and I have power of attorney for our Mum. So we have her cheque book and bank books. We can write cheques and use that money as we see fit. But we can only do so for Mum’s benefit, to do the things we know she would want us to do (usually because she has specifically told us what she wants us to do with her resources).  We can’t spend that money just as we fancy – but only as Mum would want.

We Christians have all the resources of heaven. Our prayers will be answered and indeed God will do whatever we ask in Jesus’s name – just as long as it is in accordance with His will.! And that’s where we fall short. To ask bold prayers we need to know God very well! And we don’t know God’s will well enough – so we need to deepen our relationship with God! But we think we can manage by ourselves so we don’t pray enough in the first place!

Why bother to pray? To show our dependence on God. And to deepen our relationship with God. Then prayer is its own reward! But it will bring the bonus Jesus has promised: You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!

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