Persistent In Prayer

Confidence In Approaching God

8.28.22 [1 John 5:13-15] River of Life (12th Sunday after Pentecost)

Mercy and peace are yours in abundance through the Son of God.

For anyone who has prayed the same prayer over and over again, over the course of many months and even years, Jesus’ parable about prayer in Luke 18 can feel like salt in a wound. It stings to hear of a widow who has been deprived of justice, forced to plea over and over again (Lk. 18:3) Grant me justice against my adversary! For too many of us, we know the pain, the frustration, and the desperation embedded in that poignant cry. It distresses us even more to hear that the one person who could do something—the town judge—refused to do what was so obviously right for so long. Of course, eventually she wears him down. Eventually she gets justice. Eventually the judge does what he should have done in the first place. Why should it take so much effort and pleading for the right thing to happen?

Perhaps this parable about prayer does little to inspire you to pray more. If anything, it almost snuffs out your desire to be persistent in prayer. Might I encourage you to hear what Jesus is saying and not what it might sound like he is insinuating? It'll make all the difference.

That earthly story with a heavenly meaning does not have two figures reflected in it. There’s only one. Jesus’ point is not that our God is anything like this judge. Frankly, that should be obvious to us when Jesus describes him as someone who (Lk. 18:4) doesn’t fear God or care what people think. God invites us to pray. In fact, he commands it. God never answers our prayers because we (Lk. 18:5) keep bothering him or because he is afraid that we are going to (Lk. 18:5) attack him. This judge and God have nothing in common. We should know better, by now. But what we know to be true and what we feel to be real are often at odds with each other. Jesus wants us to see that if a wicked, selfish, easily influenced judge will eventually do the right thing, do you really thing the Righteous Judge will not? The point Jesus is driving home is that people are persistent in pleading for justice even when their cries fall upon disinterested ears. So believers shouldn’t give up so quickly.

Yet sometimes, we do wonder. We know in our heads that (James 5:16) prayer is powerful and effective. But in our hearts, at times, we wonder if that is really true for us. We are quick to give up on prayer.

That’s why these words from John’s first letter are so pivotal to our understanding and practice of prayer. God hears us when we pray.

Twice John says (1 Jn. 5:14-15) God hears us when we pray. In rapid succession. Why? Because the Holy Spirit, who is God and inspired John’s words and (Rom. 8:26) helps us when we don’t know what to pray, wants God’s people to have confidence in their standing before God and in their approaching God in prayer. God hears us when we pray. Every single time. Even when we don’t know what to pray for. Even when our prayers don’t see the big picture. Even when we are frustrated as we approach him. (1 Jn. 5:14-15) God hears us when we pray. When you pray are you confident that God is hearing you?

Are you confident that God hears you when you pray for healing or relief and it doesn’t come? Are you confident that God hears you when you cast your financial or family or church cares upon him and things just stay the same? Or go from bad to worse?

Are you confident that God hears you when you look around and see others enjoy the very blessings that you’ve been praying for and don’t seem to recognize where they come from or what God would want them to do with those blessings? Are you confident God hears you?

At times, we are not too certain. At times, we pray with all the confidence of a quarterback tossing up a Hail Mary. The clock is running down. We’re feeling desperate. We pray with a “what do I have to lose” attitude, rather than confidence. No quarterback throws a Hail Mary with the confidence you should have in prayer. They throw it out of desperation. If they were confident, they would throw it on the first play of the game, not just when time has almost run out. God wants you to pray with certainty. With total confidence. God hears you when you pray. Do you pray confidently?

I suspect our uncertainty, our doubt, and even our skepticism when it comes to prayer isn’t so much about whether or not God hears our prayers. I have a hunch that there is a part of us that wonders if God hears our words like we hear his words. Do you know what I mean?

(James 1:22) There are plenty of times that we hear God’s Word and fail to do what is says with any urgency. God tells us to (Pr. 3:5) trust in him and lean not on our own understanding. But many times, we just go with our gut or what we think is going to get us what we want, rather than allowing his Word (Ps. 119:105) to be a light for our path.

God commands us to (Ex. 20:8) keep the Sabbath day holy and (Heb. 13:4) the marriage bed pure, and we hear him, but our desire for instant gratification leads us to disregard him when it gets in the way of what we want right now.

God tells us to respect all those in authority, but we prefer to point out all their flaws & ridicule & scorn those (Rom. 13:1) God has established. God tells husbands to love their wives sacrificially, wives to submit to their husbands as they would to Christ, children to honor their parents, but we tell ourselves God must be talking to somebody else. We will love them, submit to them, honor them, when they get their stuff together. We hear God but we don’t do what he says.

In so many areas of life, we hear what God says in his Word, but we tend to procrastinate and put it on the back burner. It’s not that we don’t think it will ever be valuable. It’s just not our priority. Not right now.

So when God doesn’t respond to our prayers when and how we think he ought to, there is a part of us that suspects he’s treating our words the way we treat his Word. Because that’s what we would do. Because that is what we deserve. God shouldn’t listen to any of our prayers when we consider how many of his commands we’ve set aside.

But our relationship with God has never been tit for tat. God commands sinners to pray without ceasing. When Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked him to teach them how to pray, he didn’t say they’d have to live spotlessly first. God commands sinners who believe in Jesus to pray. Jesus is why we have eternal life. Jesus' life, death, & resurrection give you confidence in your eternal life and your ability to approach God in prayer. You can be confident in approaching God because you know that God has come to you, first. (Jn. 3:17) God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Jesus. You know the love the Father has lavished on you in sending his Son to be your Substitute and Savior.

We can be confident in approaching God because we know what the Son of God did when he came into this world. Think about all the pleas Jesus heard, all the requests people brought to him day after day. Jesus heard every single one. There was never a sick person he turned away. There was never a blind person he put on the back burner. Jesus heard them all and healed them all. He didn’t just put them back on the road to recovery the way our modern medicine does. He restored them completely. This is the power the God who hears our prayers has.

And Jesus didn’t just heal the people who really deserved to be healed (whatever that might mean). Remember last week's Gospel reading? Ten lepers came to Jesus crying (Lk. 17:13) out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” Jesus healed all ten. Being the Son of God (Jn. 2:25) he knew what was in each person. He knew that nine of them were not going to return praising God as loudly as they had cried for his help. But he didn’t give the other nine some temporary cure from leprosy. They were healed just as completely as the one who returned thanking & worshiping Jesus.

Jesus healed a paralyzed man at the pool called Bethesda, even though the man (Jn. 5:13) had no idea who Jesus was. God has never heard our prayers because we have earned his ear. God hears our prayers because he loves us and has made us his children.

Jesus earned that designation for us through his suffering & death. There on Calvary, our Christ cried out to his Father: (Mt. 27:46) My God, my God why have you forsaken me? as he was being stricken, smitten, and afflicted for our wickedness. In that moment, God the Father did not hear his dearly beloved Son. In that moment, the Son of God suffered the agonies of hell, experienced the wrath of God against all of humanity’s sinfulness. Jesus endured death in the fullest sense so that we could be confident we have eternal life.

And you are. You are confident that Christ came for you. You are certain that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. You are sure that he is risen and sits at the right hand of the Father as your Advocate. Do you really think the Christ that sacrificed all that has forgotten about you? Do you really think the God that has answered all the demands of the law in your place has put you on the back-burner? Do you really think the Prince of Peace has put your petitions on a pile on his desk in heaven and will just get around to it some day? This is the God who made heaven and earth with just his words. He is the Lord of infinite knowledge, power, & presence.

God hears you each and every single time you pray. Your good and gracious and faithfully-loving Lord hears your prayers about your health, about your finances, about your family, and about your church. Your good and gracious and faithful Father knows your struggles, your fears and your tears, before you even utter a word. And God will answer all of your prayers in the perfect way, at the perfect time, according to his perfect plan of salvation. Let God’s (1 Jn. 4:18) perfect love drive out any fear or doubts or skepticism you have. Look at Christ crucified. Be certain God does indeed love you.

Someone who loves you that much, who has sacrificed that much, who has kept every single one of his promises every single time, no matter what was going on, is someone you can believe in. Someone you can trust. He hears your prayers. Every single time.

It may be that the answer to your prayer for restored physical, relational, or financial health is no or just not right now. But it is not because he doesn’t love you. God is love. God is using this time of weakness to draw you closer to him, to rely more on his power, mercy, and grace. (2 Tim. 4:5) The Lord is blessing you with the ability to bear what previously seemed unbearable.

Your wise and loving heavenly Father may be positioning & preparing you through what you see now as setbacks to be able to share with someone else the confidence you have in Christ’s power and love.

It may be that your fervent prayers are for your family to know Christ or your church to grow. His response to these prayers is repeated again and again in the Scriptures. God wants all people to be saved. God wants his church to grow, numerically and spiritually. This is the only reason that he has not returned to judge the living and the dead. God’s patient has the singular purpose of gathering together all those he has loved since before the creation of the world. As much as you may think you care about your unbelieving family members or your struggling church, God loves each of them infinitely more.

This is why we are persistent and confident in our prayers, because we are not begging for justice from a judge who doesn’t care about us, but we are begging for God to do what is right, which is his will, exactly what he promised he would do. We our praying to our Father who art in heaven, whose name is hallowed, whose will is perfect, whose love is steadfast. This is the God who is listening to all your prayers. And here is God’s promise: Isaiah 65:24 Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. Amen.