When Prayer doesnt work

When my wife and I got together she had a little Honda Civic. Its a 4 cylinder car, great on gas and reliable. I had just started my job at Citi bank when the car broke down on my way in to work. I was able to coast into the parking lot and called work and asked to come in a few minutes late so I could look at what was wrong with the car. My boss at the time said that was fine we were slow anyway. I lifted the hood and began to work on the car thinking that I was going to fix the car and have everything figured out. I ended up under the hood of the car for 10 hours and at the end of the night the thing would not start. I had to call my mother from Macclenny to come to old St. Augustine rd to pick me up and also had to ask to borrow her vehicle. For the next three weeks I tried and tried all I could do to fix the car. I replaced everything I could. At the end of the three weeks I was at a loss. I had begged and pleaded with God to help me get this thing fixed and It just was not happening. At the end of the third week I was so sick of the car that I paid a guy to take the thing and swore I would never own or even get in a Honda Civic again. I know that when I started this story you were all expecting me to give you some great ending like, I repaired that car and it is still running to this day. Or even though I could not get it to work I was able to go out that next week and buy a brand new car. Well that is not the case. I worked on the car and begged God for help and at the end of the day I paid to get rid of the car and could not buy a car for another 3 months.

What happens when prayer does not work? When we ask God for our desires and we receive the opposite? Why is it that we take the time to pray we reach out to God and sometimes what we ask for does not happen? I have stood in emergency room lobbies and begged God with 20 other people hand in hand to heal a loved one who passed away any way. I have prayed for the leadership of our country to see things go the opposite way of my prayers. I have prayed with those asking for their jobs to be saved just to see them in the unemployment line and reaching out to their church for help. What does this mean? These are faith shaking moments. Times when we expect to see God come through miraculously and we are let down. Why does this happen? Where then is the power in prayer if God is not going to come through for us when we ask for what we need? To answer these questions we need to start from the foundation and build up. We must first understand what the purpose of prayer is. Why do we have prayer, is it important? We then need to ask how is it that we should pray? Are we doing it right? Lastly, we need to understand the performance of prayer. What are the statistics on prayer working? Today we will begin with Jesus’ prayer in the Garden. Jesus spent his time begging the Father not to send him to the cross. We all know how that worked out for Him. Lets look at the Scripture.

Matthew 26:36–39 ESV

36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

The Purpose of prayer

We often use prayer as our Christmas list for God. We spend some time telling God how good he is to us and then we immediately jump into our Christmas list. You all know what I am talking about we have all done it. It is like when we really need next weekend off and we need our boss to approve it. Sir or Ma’am you are such an excellent boss. I have not worked for anyone that has been such a great boss. Is that a new tie? You should get a raise for all you have to go through. No you are welcome I cant say enough about how good you are, oh by the way can I have next weekend off? For many Christians this is all prayer has turned to. We have made prayer a quick time to ask God for our desires. We take enough time to ask for what we need before our attention is moved on to the next thing and we are swept off our knees and moving on. So if it is not only about asking for what we want what then is the purpose of prayer?

1 John 5:14–15 (ESV)

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV

14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Luke 11:1–13 ESV

1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” 5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

So yes prayer is about bringing our requests to God. It is about making known our desires. It however should not stop there. The purpose of prayer is for us to learn the desires of God for our lives. You see we see prayer as failing when we do not get what we want from it and that is because we approach prayer as a who wants to be a millionaire life line. Phone a friend. We want what we need to benefit us. Take a look back at Jesus Prayer

Matthew 26:39 ESV

39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

Notice that Jesus did make his request known. But did He stop there? No Jesus said “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” You see Jesus took his prayer and used it to say God I want your will in my life, whatever you are going to do I ask for strength to follow through, I don't know that I can handle what you have for me. This was not a prayer of If you love me please don't let me die on a cross. How many of us have prayed like that? God if you love me please give me what I want. Prayer is not the final answer to our desires but the beginning of the journey. Jesus got up from His prayer and was not sure what Gods plans were at that time but he was ready to follow the plan. Jesus stood up knowing that he was ready to walk whatever God chose to do. How many of us use prayer that way? Biblically speaking prayer is not a time to simply request things from God. The purpose of prayer if for us to give God a glimpse into our hearts, a time for us to express what we would like, and to prepare ourselves for what it is that God knows is best. Now knowing the proper purpose of prayer we can really address how we pray. When we believe that prayer is simply a request station we tend not to pray until we really need something. We don't pray until our plans don't work out. Prayer does not become a daily part of our lives because we are busy living what plans we have for our lives and expecting that the answers to those prayers will be God giving us what we need in our plans. When we change our perspective on prayer and we desire Gods perspective of prayer, how should we pray?

The Practice of prayer

It is said behind every angry woman there is a man who has no idea what he did wrong. Behind every Christian in a faith crisis from unanswered prayers is a person who has the wrong practice in their prayer life. How is it that we should pray? Lets look again at what Jesus told his disciples when they asked Him to teach them to pray.

Luke 11:1–4 ESV

1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

Jesus started the prayer with Praise, lifting the Father up and making Him the center of our conversation. This does 2 things. First it puts our hearts in an understanding of who we are talking too. Do you really understand who you are talking too? It is not like driving up to a drive through window and you are not sure who is on the other side. No you are speaking to the God of the universe, the creator of all. It makes us focus on who we are talking too. Secondly, it makes us consider how we are going to talk to God. When we put God in perspective the way we talk to Him changes.

Its like when my kids go from talking to each other to talking to their mother. I have seen my sons life flash before his eyes when his mother called him and he said what? He immediately realized his mistake and began begging for grace and mercy. How many times have we approached God in the same manner? It is vitally important that we remember who we are talking too. Jesus took the time to first start understanding who He was talking too. What does the Bible say about who we are talking too?

Isaiah 6:1–5 ESV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

We speak to a God who the Angels cannot look at, a God who when Isaiah saw him immediately knew he deserved death because of his sins. I believe this will change the way we talk to God. When I take into consideration who I am talking too all of a sudden I am less willing to tell God my plans for my life and how He can assist in helping me reach those goals. We must first start prayer with the proper praise. Jesus did not stop there he continued on

Luke 11:3–4 ESV

3 Give us each day our daily bread, 4 and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”

Jesus briefly asked God to provide the daily provisions and forgive us for our sins. Notice that Jesus did not list a Christmas list? Remember Jesus understood that the prayers purpose was to prepare him for the journey God was preparing. Jesus was making clear that we need God’s daily provisions. Jesus asked for the forgiveness of sins in the understanding that we all sin and struggle. He also pointed towards the heart every christian should share of forgiving others as we would want to be forgiven. Again we are pointing towards how we can honor God and His plans for our lives. Jesus ends the prayers with, “lead us not into temptation.” This is the final step in us understanding the practice of prayer. This is a request that God go with us in the areas that His will puts us. This is a request that God not abandon us in our time of need and that we are fortified.

In the words of Charles Spurgeon, here is what God is doing: “For God to tempt in the sense of enticing to sin is (were) inconsistent with his nature, and altogether contrary to his known character; but for God to lead us into those conflicts with evil which we call temptations, is not only possible, but usual.”

To understand and to ask God to stay with us is also a request of us to stay faithful to the plans of God. Just as Jesus did when he followed through on the cross. The practice of Jesus prayer life led him to the cross even though it was not what he desired to do. Jesus prayer prepared Him for Gods will. In understanding the purpose of prayer we can better practice a proper prayer life.In practicing a proper prayer life we will see the performance of prayer.

The Performance of Prayer

In a data driven world we look at trends to understand how well a business is performing, how well a stock has performed over a period of time. We base many of our financial decisions off of trends and performance data. With this in mind what is the performance of prayer? To answer this we must understand that there is a difference in Biblical prayer and worldly prayer. It is difficult for us to consider that we have made worldly prayers and not Biblical prayers but in light of understanding the purpose of prayer and the practice of prayer we must be able to adjust our prayer life to meet the Biblical expectation of prayer. The worldly prayer is very erratic in nature. There are times that what we request lines up with God’s plans and we see that what we request comes through. Because of this the data is unclear and leads to an inconclusive percentage of successful worldly prayers. However we see a 100% rate of prayers being answered when we approach prayer Biblically.

1 John 5:14 ESV

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

Notice in 1 John we understand that if we ask anything according to God’s will He hears us.

In conclusion what happens when prayer does not work? If prayer is not working it is not because God’s will in your life is not taking place it is because your heart is not prepared or looking to be a part of the will of God for your life. We must at that point take time to consider God and who He is and What He has planned. When we turn our Hearts towards the will of God and our prayers are more centered around Him giving us the provisions to follow His plans we will find our prayer lives to be 100% effective.