The Keys to Effective Prayer

Introduction

The new year always brings a certain amount of uncertainty. Despite the fact that one day flows into the next and our lives, for the most part remain relatively static, the dawn of a new year brings about the promise of an entirely fresh start. Along with that clean slate, comes a certain amount of angst because at the dawn of a new year, we often tend to think about the future in earnest. It seems like once we hit about April or May we kind of have our nose back to the grindstone, but January has people wondering about what the year holds.

I am not going to give any prophetic utterances about what 2024 holds, but today I want to focus instead on who holds 2024, and I want to focus on our life prayer life because I believe that this is the single most important thing in the life of the Christian that helps us face the uncertainty of what the future holds for us.

Perspective

As Christians, we are often very ignorant of how important perspective is in our lives. Jesus said that if you have faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain be cast into the ocean, and it would be so. Was Jesus telling the disciples this so that if they ever got in a situation where they could not get around the mountain they should just get rid of it?

I can see it now. Disciples walking through the desert- oh no a mountain! “We’ll never make it to Josiah’s bar-mitzvah at this pace!” No, His point in telling them that was to say that their faith could be small as long as their perspective was big.

When we understand the bigness of the God that inhabits His people we understand the immense power and authority that He has place in our hands. It becomes very plausible then, to believe that the mountain is, in fact, going to scat.

The primary purpose of prayer then, is not to get answers but to gain God’s perspective. Let’s look at the Lord’s prayer.

Luke 11:2 TLV

Then Yeshua said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Father, sanctified be Your Name, Your kingdom come.

Do you see what is happening there? What is it that Jesus tells His disciples is the first order of business? Is it to tell God who He is? I think He knows it. What about telling Him that His name is holy? Mmm.. Nope. He knows that already as well. Oh then it must be about giving Him permission to do what He wants to do on earth right?

No, the whole purpose of the first part of the Lord’s prayer is to set our perspective. Those three sentences are there to remind us of who God is. The first, about where He is. He is over everything. From heaven, there is nothing that is unseen. God is in control, He sits on the throne. The second sentence is there to remind us that God is holy. We cannot even dare to approach Him, but for the blood of Jesus. The only thing that allows us to even come in to His presence is the sacrifice Jesus made for us, and His love for us. Finally we are reminded to be praying for His will; even at—no—especially at the expense of our own agenda.

So the goal of a genuine Christian is to pray until he is transformed and his mind is made into the mind of Christ. When we see things in the light of eternity, the things that surround us become trivial shadows cast away by the blinding, brilliant glory of God!

Soren Kierkegaard, my favorite philosopher best said it this way.

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

THAT is the true miracle of prayer. It is self-perpetuating in that it changes your heart so that you then can have the faith to believe and it gives you the right heart to ask according to God’s will.

But why is perspective so important? Well, perspective is everything! Perspective is at the center of all our interaction with God and each other. We need to understand that our perspective does not always reflect reality. Along with that comes the dreadful realization that most people are 100% convinced that their perspective in fact, represents the true reality. The only one who knows true reality 100% is God. By asking God for HIS perspective, we then have access to His understanding of our circumstances.

Perseverance

Perseverance means to have a steady and continued action or belief over a long period and especially despite difficulties or setbacks.

You have probably heard the parable of the persistent widow who stayed after the judge until she wore him down and got a ruling in her favor. Right now, I want to read a passage of scripture that I think illustrates the kind of persistence that God expects from His children.

Mark 10:46–52 TLV

Then they came to Jericho. Now as Yeshua was leaving Jericho with His disciples and a large crowd, Bartimaeus the son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Yeshua of Natzeret, he began to cry out, “Ben-David, Yeshua! Have mercy on me!” Many were warning him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, “Ben-David, have mercy on me!” Yeshua stopped and said, “Call him over.” So they call the blind man, saying, “Take heart! Get up, He’s calling you!” Throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and came to Yeshua. And answering him, Yeshua said, “What do you want Me to do for you?” The blind man said, “Rabboni, I want to see again!” Yeshua said to him, “Go! Your faith has made you well.” Instantly he regained his sight and began following Yeshua down the road.

This man had a single focus. He is what we would call Myopic- straight forward, not turning to the left or the right He was obsessed with one thing- Jesus. This man with tunnel vision would not be deterred by his handicap—He was blind after all! In fact his desperation is what drove Him to Jesus.

Blind Bartimaeus was not going to be turned away by their ridicule either. No, he had a purpose and an all-consuming one at that. He was going to get to Jesus no matter what. In fact, any opposition he encountered caused him to become even more bold in his desperation to get Jesus’ attention.

He was desperate for Jesus and neither his own physical limitations nor the hindrances placed before him by others would deter him from his goal.

If we expect to do mighty works for the kingdom of God, we must have that same kind of singleness of purpose and be willing to pursue it no matter what the crowd says.

Purity

Finally, we must be so entrenched in our convictions that we will not permit any corruption of our principles. We must be people of purity.

Wait but doesn’t this run contrary to what we learned last week? Where we learned that God accepts us as we are and that He doesn’t look at our past?

Let’s look at what happened to the Israelites when they became impure. This story picks up after the division of the kingdom of Israel causing it to be split into two parts. The first Judaea the other Samaria:

1 Kings 12:26–31 TLV

But Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David. If this people keep going up to offer sacrifices in the House of Adonai at Jerusalem, then the heart of these people will turn back to their lord—to King Rehoboam of Judah. Then they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.” So the king sought counsel and made two golden calves. He said to them, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough! Here are your gods O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Then he set up one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even up in Dan. He also made shrines on the high places and appointed priests from among the people, who were not sons of Levi.

Again, the Israelites turn to calves of gold! Because that turned out so well for them last time huh? But they did it! Why? I’ll as you the same question then. Having trusted God and receiving from Him what He promised, why do we always turn back to our old ways of doing things at the very next challenge in life? THAT is the impurity of which I speak. “God’s way is okay for me now in THIS circumstance, but no others.” Do you see how insidious that is?

We need to guard our hearts. Compromising our purity yields our authority and surrenders to the enemy any standing we have before God. But I want you to notice something very striking. What was the excuse given for the compromise? It’s not convenient! What was the truth behind the compromise? Correct, Jeroboam did not want to yield the throne. It is the same for us as well. We don’t want to give up the thrones in our lives, so rather than pray, rather than worship, rather than be consistent about our attendance at church we say it’s “inconvenient.” The result is the same, a downward spiral. One that if we’re not careful of, could very well put us in a position that we won’t trust God.

Bringing it all together

The end result here was years of civil war and the decline of Samaria on the world stage. By corrupting their trust in God - their worship, they threw away their influence. This lack of influence lasted all the way until Jesus’ time when Jews and Samarians would not associate with one another. Which brings us full-circle to our story last week. Why did the Samaritan woman think herself unworthy? Because her people had corrupted their worship – their principles – their trust in God. Centuries of national compromise coupled with years of personal sin and a warped perspective had caused her to have no faith because she saw no value in herself.

John 4:7–26 TLV

A Samaritan woman comes to draw water. “Give me a drink,” Yeshua tells her, for His disciples had gone away to the town to buy food. Then the Samaritan woman tells Him, “How is it that You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (For Jewish people don’t deal with Samaritans.) Yeshua replied to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman tells Him, “You don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep. Then from where do You get this living water? You’re not greater than our father Jacob, are You? He gave us this well. He drank out of it himself, with his sons and his cattle.” Yeshua replied to her, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty. The water that I give him will become a fountain of water within him, springing up to eternal life!” “Sir,” the woman tells Him, “give me this water, so I won’t get thirsty or have to come all the way here to draw water!” He tells her, “Go call your husband, and then come back here.” “I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied. Yeshua tells her, “You’ve said it right, ‘I have no husband.’ For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you have now isn’t your husband. This you’ve spoken truthfully!” “Sir,” the woman tells Him, “I see that You are a prophet! Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you all say that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Yeshua tells her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming—it is here now—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people as His worshipers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman tells Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called the Anointed One.) When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” Yeshua tells her, “I—the One speaking to you—I am.”

She was a Samaritan, who as a nation had corrupted their relationship with God and sacrificed it in the name of convenience. So this woman comes into this transaction with Jesus, already bearing the national shame of being a Samaritan. Jesus fist confronts this national shame and demonstrates to her that her perspective may be robbing her of a blessing.

So let’s recap from last week:

Still unable to shake her perspective she questions Jesus by pointing out the natural limitations of his request. Isn’t it just like us to say, “But God! How are you going to do this? Don’t you see all the obstacles?” So this woman was in the same situation here.

Jesus responds by offering her supernatural provision- still her perspective is warped. She’s thinking in only partially supernatural terms. She’s seeing material provision- great I don’t have to come up to this well anymore but what He’s trying to show her is that her need isn’t a physical one, it’s spiritual.

Having broken down some of her objections, Jesus now confronts her personal sin issue by asking her about her husband. It is apparent that this woman has some sort of trouble keeping a husband, and if truth be known, she probably gets around. I would venture to say that her problem is fidelity since she has no qualms with shacking up with a man. But at Jesus word, her heart is transformed instantly. Finally she’s beginning to see and she asks Him a question—I see you’re a prophet, so you can answer this for me.

Jesus now cuts to the chase and speaks directly to the national shame, but adds that true worship is in Spirit and in truth. Now she’s starting to get curious. The wheels are in motion and she indirectly asks the question that gets her heart beating strongly.

Could this be Messiah?

Imagine what it must have been like for her to hear Jesus words to her: “I who speak to you am He.”

Conclusion

The good news for us today is that the same Jesus who came to the woman at the well is here for us today. Jesus is here in power and in might. He is here to confront our perspective to make it conform to His reality. This same Jesus is here not merely to demand a purity of heart, but to give it And this is one of

“The most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity; that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith.”

― Søren Kierkegaard

It is getting His perspective! and then our part is to pursue Him with a singleness of Purpose. We need to be persistent. We need to have that tunnel vision like Bartimaeus and go after God with everything we have. Every fiber of our being must say. “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”