Prayer Is... Persistent

If you’d like to check out the live video version of this sermon, then click here.

Hello and welcome back to another week here on Making Waves! I’m so glad that you have chosen to worship in this way with us here virtually. If this is your first time joining us, I would encourage you to take a trip back to last week’s blog post, as we are currently on our 2nd week of this new series on prayer called, “Prayer is …”

Here’s a quick summary for any who don’t have enough time to take a journey back to two weeks ago (I totally get that, by the way.) Last week, we looked at how prayer is something deeper than we normally make it. It’s not just a surface-level thing, it’s a connection (a direct connection, in fact) with our creator and sustainer, God. We explored what is essential to prayer. Is it important that we have our eyes closed? Or our hands clasped? Or is it actually more important that we are first understanding of how the relationship and discussion with God works and is present?

Last Sunday, I opened up about my own personal insecurities in regards to prayer. I shared that when I was a child, I was scared of the dark and refused to pray, because I didn’t want to close my eyes out of fear. I doubted in my self and in my own faith as a Christian because of something so silly as not wanting to close my eyes. I’m sure that as we journey through the word together, we can open up to one another and acknowledge that all of us may have some doubts and insecurities about prayer. I am hopeful that we can work through those roadblocks and strive for deeper, more meaningful prayer.

But I’ve done enough of the “Nathan” show so far, let’s turn to what really matters and dive in the Word. We are reading from the gospel of Luke this morning. The gospel of Faith. Always a good one to turn to if you are looking for understanding of prayer and faith. Although I guess you could say that about most of the Bible. Anyway, Luke chapter 11, verses 5 through 13, in the NRSV. I invite to follow along below or bust out your own Biblical resource and join in this reading.

“5 And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7 And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give 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!” “

-Luke 11:5-13 (NRSV)

Will you pray with me? Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that the words of my mouth and meditations of our hearts together be ever acceptable in Your sight, O God, for You are our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

I want to start out by doing this hypothetical exercise. If you have complete and total understanding of prayer and it’s intricacies, then I want you to respond to this post with some kind of statement declaring it. If you could see no possible way of improving your prayer life, you know exactly how and why God created prayer, you know wholly what it is that happens, you know the one and only true means for prayer, etc.

I am sure that you could very well be the first (for I know God’s humor, and He could very well send me someone with humble understanding of prayer), but, odds are, you couldn’t resonate with this statement, because none of us (that is, very very few of us) truly understand or can wrap our heads around prayer. More likely than not, everyone reading this blog can sign on with the sentiment that they have had doubts in their prayers. Is this prayer reaching God? Can God really hear everyone’s prayers? Why won’t God answer MY prayer?

Before you get embarrassed and sign me off as a heretic for suggesting these accusations of God, let me take it a step further and explain that the reason I am doing is to help us understand that it is okay to have doubts about God. Not only is it okay, I would argue that it is perfectly normal.

Maybe you’re still not totally comfortable acknowledging the doubt inside you. Maybe you are a hardcore Star Wars fan and you are thinking along the lines of Yoda warning Anakin that doubt leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, and suffering leads to the dark side. (Okay, maybe I added in doubt, but you get the idea.) We get scared that if we acknowledge doubt, then surely we are heretics and are the worst kind of sinner. So, let’s turn to the place we always turn to find proof that we are not unique or “bad” for having our doubts. Here is some scripture you rarely hear on Sunday mornings, not the usual feel-good stuff.

“24 Why do you hide your face?
   Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25 For we sink down to the dust;
   our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Rise up, come to our help.
   Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.”

-Psalm 44:24-26

“2 How long must I bear pain in my soul,
   and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!
   Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death”

-Psalm 13:2-3

“16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
   for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 Relieve the troubles of my heart,
   and bring me out of my distress.
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,
   and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider how many are my foes,
   and with what violent hatred they hate me.
20 O guard my life, and deliver me;
   do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.”
-Psalm 25:16-20

“15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
   And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

12 From the city the dying groan,
   and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
   yet God pays no attention to their prayer.”

-Job 21:15, 24:12

“8 though I call and cry for help,
   he shuts out my prayer;”

-Lamentations 3:8

Now, here’s one you may have heard before…

“34 At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” “

-Mark 15:34

Clearly, if you are doubting in God and in His presence in your life, you are far from the first. People have doubted in God since the beginning of time. Some of them were some of the most noble amongst his children, some sought after God’s own heart. Even our very own Savior, Jesus Christ, calls out to God in lament, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I hope that now we can be honest about our doubts.

Now, I think most of us struggle in the same way as many of the people in the Bible struggle. Many have tried to pin this on the millennial generation or the American experience, but we all struggle with this idea of prayer and it’s immediate response. We want to seek understanding and discern it and receive all in the matter of a television commercial before our soap comes back on.

I’m certain I don’t have to go into too much detail here. Maybe it’s just me, but I imagine most of us have prayed something and wanted an immediate fix. Dear God, the Falcons are down and Lady Gaga is about to perform, give us a better second half, please, Amen. Dear God, please just let the other person be totally cool with the teeny tiny little fender bender and just let me go home, ‘kay? Amen. Dear God, we got in a fight again tonight, I don’t want to be alone, just help her to love me again. Amen. Dear God, he keeps coming home later and later each night until finally he just didn’t come home tonight. God, just bring him back and I know everything will be better. Amen. God, it’s cancer. Please take this thorn from my side, I’ll do anything, just please do it and do it fast. Amen.

We want understanding. We desperately just want to understand. And so, we cry out. Like in the passages above, we cry out to God. Sometimes in anger, sometimes in thanksgiving, sometimes in pain, sometimes in our crippling depression, we cry out to God. What if I told you that understanding may be what you want, but it isn’t what you need? What if I told you that prayer is not about wrapping your head around God’s plan, but instead is experiencing God’s presence in your life?

Whenever I was in elementary school, my parents would send me off for a week in the summer to get some alone time- I mean, to give me some time in nature at a sleepaway camp called Camp Merriwood. I would get together with my best buddies Davis, Barry and Brady, and we would love exploring the campground. We, of course, loved the organized events, but our real favorite time was the free time that was allotted for us to really explore nature on our own. I can remember there was one spot that always attracted us to hang out near.

There was this beautiful hand-crafted bridge that arched up over a small, but steady flowing river vein that headed into the natural pond on the ground. As with any young boys, water fascinated us. One particular thing that fascinated us was the water and it’s seeming desire to keep flowing. No matter what we would do, it kept on flowing. We would spend hours (warning, this is pretty cute) building what we called “dangs” to try and stop the flow of the water in the river. We would pile rocks and mud and sand and sticks and try so hard to stop the water. Sometimes, we would manage to get the water to stop for a minute or two. But then, like clockwork, the water would rise above our “dang” and inevitably flow into the pond.

Often we treat God like that river and our prayers are the sticks and stone we use to create a “dang” that will shift the flowing water of God’s presence. We want to control the flow of the water of life. We want to tell God how WE think the river should run and where it should turn and where it should not. Ultimately, what we are asking God for in our prayer is control. In reality, prayer is not even our opportunity to ask God “for” anything. Prayer isn’t a wishlist or Santa’s naughty or nice list. Prayer is our relationship, our connection with the water of life. We aren’t asking God for material goods or even intangible items in our lives as if He is some form of genie. God is our friend and He waits for us. Like the scripture says, God is our friend who waits for us to ask, so that He can give, to seek, so that we can find, to knock, so that He can open the door to us.

In his letter to the people of Thessalonica, Paul encourages the early Christians to “pray without ceasing.” Here Paul is piggy-backing off of this idea of Christ where we are to be persistent in our knocking on God’s door in prayer. Prayer is not meant to be a one-and-done kind of thing. It’s not simply something that you pray for once, then go grab some Starbucks. Prayer should be our constant connection with God. Not to get the answers that we want, but to be holding the hand of God as we are guided through the river of life.

Now, next week, we'll talk more about actual means of prayer and not just what it is, but I wanted to share one last thing with you in regards to this topic. As I was practicing one of my own means of prayer this weekend, I created the figure depicted in the video linked above.

It’s called: ‘Exalt.’ And it serves a very particular purpose. After I had created this, I stepped back and looked at the mold I had forged. Every time I looked at it, I couldn’t decide whether or not it was happy or sad. Since it is a clay creation and has no expression on it’s smooth face, I had no idea whether it was exalting God in its joy or in its suffering. That being said, let our knees be like James, the brother of Jesus, who had knees as tough as camels because of how he prayed without ceasing. Whether it be our actual knees or our mental knees, may we pray as the clay figure does here: without end.