Let Us Pray

Years ago, I served three small membership United Methodist congregations in Belmont County, Ohio. I was proud to serve the Morristown, Lloydsville and Bannock churches. Combined, they averaged eighty people on an average Sunday morning. You could drive the loop in 12 miles. My three churches were teamed with two other United Methodist congregations in the area, Belmont and Bethesda. Together, we formed the West Belmont Cooperative Parish.

Every Monday morning the pastors of those churches would meet. The pastor of the Belmont church was a guy by the name of Lew. He was sort of an odd fellow, but I liked him. He wore a rumbled shirt and sported an un-groomed beard with uncombed hair. His glasses were always dirty and sliding down his nose. He left the ministry years ago. He was more passionate about computers, then he was anything else.

At one of our Monday morning gatherings, he showed up with his computer. Within the first few minutes, he turned it on and asked the group, “Can I show you something?” He hit a few buttons and showed us a list of prayer requests. He flashed his yellow smile and said, “My church is compiling a list of prayer requests. We are going to prove to the world that prayer works.” I thought that was an odd thing to do, so I said nothing. I thought, how many answered prayers do you need to prove pray works? Lost in his computer world, Lew showed us his list. There was all kind of things on it.

1. Vern was facing knee surgery
2. Doris’ children were traveling up from Charlotte
3. Jennifer was taking a big exam in school
4. Dorothy was trying a new hair color and prayed she would like it
5. Kelly wanted a date with someone named Steve
6. Rain for the crops
7. Lois was worried about a new recipe

Wanting to impress us with his computer, he printed the list out and gave each one of us a copy. When I got home, I looked the list again. The more I studied the list the more critical I grew. Everything on that list was about them, their wants, their needs, and their desires. I hate to say it. Their prayer requests were extremely narrow and selfish. Listen to what I am about to say. There is more to prayer than our wants, needs and desires. Prayer is not about us. Prayer is really about God. That takes us to the scripture lesson for today.

We find ourselves in the fourth chapter of Acts, verses twenty-three through thirty-one. Much has happened already. It is really a continuation of a single story. It began in the third chapter, where Peter healed a lame beggar. The miracle created a crowd and Peter took that opportunity to talk about Jesus. In the end, Peter and his companion, John, were arrested. Once released, they were sent back to their own people. The Apostles reported on what had happened, and the people responded by praising God in prayer. It is that prayer that grabs our attention. Those early believers knew what we often forget. Prayer is not about us. Prayer is about God. Their prayer models for us three things we should never forget in our prayers. It is those things I want to look at in this blog.

First, when you pray never forget the sovereignty of God! One of the most beloved stories in the Bible is the story of Jonah. We think of it as a children’s story. However, it is really a story for adults. You know the story as well as I. Jonah was the reluctant prophet. God tells him to go to Nineveh because they need to repent. The problem is Jonah does not want to go. This is the question you must answer to understand the book. Why doesn’t Jonah want to go to Nineveh? The reason is the people of Nineveh were Gentiles and Jonah was a Jew. He only wants God to love people who are just like him. This is the point. Every day we play the part of Jonah. We only want to love people who are just like us. When was the last time you prayed for someone who wasn’t just like you?

When you pray remember the sovereignty of God. When God looks at the world, he doesn’t see political boundaries or different philosophies of living. God is not a racial profiler. God does not have a foreign policy. God does not see Americans and non-Americans. God does not see one’s sexual orientation. God has never uttered the phrase, “Charity begins at home.” (That is such an unchristian phrase. It was shut down any church.) God only sees human needs and suffering. Look at verses 24b-26. It says, “When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one.’”  The early believers knew of the sovereignty of God. I hope we never forget about the sovereignty of God. I challenge you to remember sovereignty of God the next time you pray.

Second, when you pray never forget the supremacy of Jesus! Max Lucado (born 1955) is a Christian author and clergyman. He once said:

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.

If your greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.

If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.

If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.

But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

When you pray remember the supremacy of Christ. Jesus was the greatest life that ever lived. I am sure the founders of the other world regions were fine people, but they can not hold a candle next to Jesus. He is the bridge between God and humankind. He is our only hope of salvation. The early church understood the supremacy of Christ. In the second chapter of Philippians Paul wrote:

He (Jesus) humbled himself in obedience to God
    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

In verse 27 of our scripture lesson, Jesus is called the anointed one. To the early church, Jesus was everything. Some things should not change. Jesus should be everything to us. I challenge you to remember sovereignty of God and the supremacy of Jesus the next time you pray.

Third, when you pray never forget the sanctity of the church! In 1949, the Chinese communist government expelled all foreign missionaries. That action signaled the beginning of a new round of Christian persecution. For decades, there was next to no news about the church in China. The only thing the church could do was pray. Everyone expected the worst. Then, the world found out what was happening, revival! In 1949, there were 1.8 million Christians in China. By the year 2000, there were 26 million Christians. In 2018, the Chinese government declared there were 44 million Christians in China. Yes, there is terrible persecution, but there is also revival!

When you pray never forget the sanctity of the church. I am not talking about the human organization we call the church, the one that is filled with boards and committees. I am talking about that organism God calls the church, the body of Christ, those individuals who are glorifying the name of Jesus, and those individuals who are still proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. Verses 29-31 says, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”  I challenge you to remember sovereignty of God, the supremacy of Jesus, and the sanctity of the church the next time you pray.

Saint Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) was an Italian friar, deacon, and mystic. He died at the age of 44. Don’t let his age fool you. We know his name because of his spiritual maturity. He once uttered this prayer:

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive it; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

Saint Francis knew the truth. Prayer is not about us. Prayer is about God.

One of the saints in my life is a woman named Carol. She truly is an amazing Christian woman. I have known her for years. My wife Kathryn has known her longer. As a matter of fact, Carol was Kathryn’s Sunday School teacher during her High School years. Years later, she babysat our daughter, Anna, in her home. Life is funny. Carol and Anna are now Facebook friends. Every visit with Carol is a treat. On one such visit, Kathryn looked at Carol and said, “I must tell you something. Without you I never would have gone into the ministry.” Carol responded with moist eyes and said, “Every time I hear about you and your ministry in the former Soviet Union, I am so proud I know you. I must tell you something. I’m not in a situation to financially support your ministry. I’m sorry.” Kathryn said, “I don’t send you those reports because I want your money. I spend you those reports because I want something more valuable. I want your prayers.” If Carol knows anything, she knows how to pray.

Do you know how to pray? Are your prayers filled with your wants, needs and desires? Are your prayers filled with the things of God? Prayer is not about us. Prayer is about God. The founder of the great Methodist movement once said, “Prayer is where the action is.”