Circle Maker: Pray Hard

1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’ ”

Like the child who asks… dad, dad, dad, dad...

Praying Hard is Praying Through

“Wearing him out”

Praying like things depend on God… and working like it depends on you.

Praying until God answers, no matter what it takes… and living as though God is at work.

We began this series looking at the power of desperation.. .and there is no more desperate act than praying hard. Getting to the point where you NEED to throw caution out the window and draw a circle in the sand.

There comes a moment when you need to defy protocol, drop to your knees, and pray for the impossible. There comes a moment when you need to muster every ounce of faith you have and call down rain from heaven. For the persistent widow, this was that moment.

Desperate Measures

While we don’t know what injustice took place, we do know that the persistent widow wouldn’t take no for an answer. That’s what made her a circle maker. Maybe her son was falsely imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Maybe the man who molested her daughter was still on the streets.

Whatever it was, the judge knew she would never give up. The judge knew she would circle his house until the day she died if she didn’t get justice. The judge knew there was no quit in the persistent widow.

Does God know this about you?

Does God know you as one desperate to pray through the night? How many times are you willing to circle the promise? How long are you willing you knock on the door of opportunity?

God wants to honor your persistence… because it reveals your faithfulness.

What do I mean?

The widow could have waited for court, but she went to his house. She didn’t care about protocol, she wanted justice. Let me tell you, God doesn’t care about protocol either. If he did, Jesus would have picked “the Right” disciples instead of a bunch of fishermen. He would ruffle feathers because he ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, because he touched the sick-even on the sabbath.... and here Jesus lifts up the woman who was like a dog with a new bone… she wouldn’t stop.

She had what many call holy desperation… doing what ever it takes to get close to God and get God involved in your life.

A Small Cloud in the Distance

Several centuries before Honi TCM, there was another drought in Israel.

For three years... Then the Lord promised Elijah He would send rain, but like every promise, Elijah still had to circle it via persistent prayer. The Lord wanted to make sure the people knew He had heard their cry so He had Elijah create a challenge for King Ahab’s prophets of Baal.... It’s a great story in 2 Kings 18.

Then after God had Elijah climb to the top of Carmel, where he fell on his face, and prayed for rain. We don’t know how long he was up there praying… but six times he told his servant to look toward the sea, and there was no sign of rain. And that is when most of us give up. We stop praying because we can’t see any tangible difference with our natural eyes. We allow our circumstances to get between God and us instead of living as though God is already between us and our circumstances.

We don’t know if it had been 6 hours, 6 days, or 6 months… it had already been 3 years but Now something was different. Elijah held the ground. He stood on the promise God had given him. I think Elijah would have prayed ten thousand times if that is what it took, but between the sixth and seventh day, there was a subtle shift in atmospheric pressure. After the seventh circle, Elijah’s servant strained his eyes and saw a small cloud the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.

Elijah prayed through and God came through. The sky turned black; heavy winds blew across the barren landscape; and raindrops fell for the first time in three years. And it wasn’t a light drizzle. It was a terrific rainstorm.

It’s so easy to give up on dreams, give up on miracles, give up on promises. We lose heart, lose patience, lose faith. And like a slow leak, it often happens without us even knowing it until our prayer life gets a flat.

I recently realized that I had stopped circling one of the promises that God had given us. Michelle’s mom and dad had bought a small farm in Centreville a few years before he died. He wanted his daughter to share with Michelle their love for horses.

But after he died, we began to get excited about how God might use the farm - to repurpose it to build his kingdom… but over time the farm became more of a burden than a blessing. We loved going out there and spending time, but it became something we had to do.

I stopped praying that God would use it for something.

Prayer stops working when we stop praying.

It happened even to Elijah. The very next chapter tells a story of him hiding in a cave for fear of his life… instead of praying through and stepping out in faith, he hid until God grew tired and called woke him up and called him out.

Is there some dream that God is resurrecting in your life? Is there some promise you put down months or years ago that you now need to reclaim? Is there some miracle you had given up on that you need to start believing for again?

This might be the most important thing you hear me say all day today… The reason that many of us give up too soon is because we feel like we have failed if God doesn’t answer our prayer. That isn’t failure. The only way you can fail is if you stop praying.

Prayer stops working when God’s people stop praying.

Praying through requires that we have holy desperation.... AND knowing what to pray for.

When we first got married, we had our son, things were rough for us. I was failing as a husband and a father… and one night God broke through. I remember praying God teach me to be a husband… I don’t know how to do this… I believed Matthew 19:6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.””

I believed that God had made us one and we can’t separate what God had joined together.... What right did I have to undo what God had done? I was humbled… I repented, asked my wife’s forgiveness. Holding to the promise of...

Malachi 2:15 NLT

15 Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth.

My marriage belongs to God and I defend enemies… even from within me.

When we are desperate, what is God’s promise for you in the moment? Is it that God would provide or that you have the strength to persevere? Which promise will you circle? Which will shape your next steps?

Holy Confidence

It’s important that we get clarity on what God has promised.

Even after three years of drought, even after a severe bout with depression, Elijah believed that God could send rain even now.

I can’t help but wonder if Honi the Circle Maker was inspired by the story of Elijah praying for rain seven times. I wonder if Israel’s original rainmaker was Honi’s childhood hero. And I wonder if Honi’s persistence in prayer was hyperlinked to this miracle? If God did it for Elijah, He can do it for me. By the same token, I can’t help

but wonder if Elijah’s persistence in prayer was hyperlinked to the miracle of raining quail? If God can send a quailstorm, He can certainly send a thunderstorm.

One thing is certain: our most powerful prayers are linked to the promises of God. When you know you are praying the promises of God, you can pray with holy confidence.

It’s the difference between praying on thin ice and praying on solid ground. It’s the difference between praying tentatively and praying tenaciously. You don’t have to second-guess yourself because you know that God wants you to trust His promises.

There’s an old saying:

God said it, I believe it, and that settles it.

That’s sort of what Praying Circles is all about.

It was settled on the cross when Jesus said, “It is finished.” It wasn’t just the final installment on our sin debt. It was the down payment on all of His promises.

2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV

20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.

Remember the promise in Joshua 1:3 “3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.” God promised Joshua that He would give him everyplace he set his foot, but there is a little addendum at the end of the promise: just as I promised Moses. The promise was originally given to Moses. Then it was transferred to Joshua.

In much the same way, all of God’s promises have been transferred to us via Jesus Christ. While those promises must be interpreted intelligently and applied accurately, there are moments when the Spirit of God will quicken your spirit to claim a promise that was originally intended for someone else. So while we have to be careful not to blindly claim promises that don’t belong to us, our greatest challenge is that we don’t circle the promises we could or should circle.

By the most conservative estimates, there are more than 3,000 promises in Scripture. By virtue of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross, every one of them belongs to you. Every one of them has your name on it. The question is: how many of them have you circled?

This might revolutionize the way you pray and the way you read the Bible. We often view prayer and Scripture reading as two distinct spiritual disciplines without much overlap, but what if they were meant to be hyperlinked? What if reading became a form of praying and praying became a form of reading?

In my life, and I bet in yours as well, one of the primary reasons we don’t pray through is because we run out of things to say. Our lack of persistence is really more a lack of conversation. Like an awkward conversation, we don’t know what to say. Or like a conversation on its last leg, we run out of things to talk about. Our prayers turn into a bunch of overused and misapplied clichés. So instead of praying hard about a big dream, we’re left with small talk. Our prayers become just as significant as a conversation about the weather.

So what’s the solution? To pray through the Bible.

What promise do you need to circle?

It starts with changing the way you read the Bible. In fact, the Bible wasn’t meant to be read through. The Bible was meant to be prayed through. And if you pray through it, you’ll never run out of promises to circle.

The Bible is a promise book and a prayer book. And while reading is reactive, prayer is proactive. Reading is the way you get through the Bible. Prayer is the way you get the Bible through you. As you pray, the Holy Spirit will quicken certain promises to your spirit. It’s very difficult to predict what and when and where and how, but over time, the promises of God will become your promises. Then you need to circle those promises, both figuratively and literally.

One of my treasured possessions is my dad’s Bible. I keep it in my office and sometimes read my devotions or sermon prep using his Bible because I want to see the verses he underlined. I love reading his notes in the margins. And I love seeing what promises he circled. It wasn’t just well read. It was well prayed.

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Matthew 16:18 ESV

18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Isaiah 58:12 NIV

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

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THE GREAT THANKSGIVING

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts.

We lift them up to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.

When we turned away, and our love failed, your love remained steadfast.You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through the prophets.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ.

Your Spirit anointed him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to announce that the time had come when you would save your people. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, and ate with sinners.

By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said:

"Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine.

Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.The pastor may raise hands.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world,until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ,with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church,all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father,now and forever.

Amen.

THE LORD'S PRAYER

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Save us from the time of trial, and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and for ever.