Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This is the second installment in our Q&A series. You have chosen the direction of this series. We’ve polled our church family, asking for questions that you’ve been wondering about. And you responded. Man, did you ever respond. Some of the questions I received…wow. We’ve got some deep thinkers here in our church family. It’s been a challenge for me to sift through the questions you’ve submitted. It’s forced me to blow some dust off a few books that I haven’t opened in a while. It’s made me search the Bible looking for answers. And that is all good stuff. Preaching is always a challenge, but this series is ratcheting up the intensity of that challenge even more.

We’ve got two great questions we’re going to tackle this week, both of which are centered around prayer. Prayer can be a mysterious thing, which explains why I received several prayer questions. Let’s dive into our first question.

Question #1 – Should we pray the same prayer over and over again?

Let me flesh this out by reading the entire question this person submitted. “Why is it necessary (or is it?) to keep praying the same prayer for someone’s healing, job, or marital situation, etc? If you pray for it once, doesn’t God know that it continues to be on your heart? If you keep praying the same prayer daily, isn’t that nagging? (Especially if your prayer is that God’s will be done.)”

What an awesome question. First of all, God does direct us toward constant prayer.

The Bible tells us to, “pray continually,” or “pray without ceasing,” or “never stop praying.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, NIV, KJV, NLT) The wording changes based on which translation of the Bible you have, but you get the idea. Prayer is a constant, integral part of our lives. So we know we’re supposed to pray consistently, but are we supposed to pray repetitively? Is there any reason why God would want us to persistently pray for the same thing?

Jesus tells a difficult story in Luke 18. Let’s pick it up in verse one.

“Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!’” (Luke 18:1-5, NIV)

So you’ve got this poor widow as a central character in Jesus’ story. It’s never easy to be a widow. However, widows in our culture are not in the desperate straits that they were in the Middle East a couple of thousand years ago. In our culture, widows can make money, go to school, own property, etc.

Bill Hybels points out that, in 1st century Middle Eastern culture, “A widow generally had no education, no job, no money, no property, no power, no status. If she had a son who would care for her, she could survive. If not, she might become a beggar—the first-century equivalent of a street person or a bag lady. She would be a social outcast.” (Hybels, Bill and Lavonne Neff. Too Busy Not to Pray. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988, pg. 16)

The widow in Jesus’ story not only had all this going against her, but she had an enemy to boot. Someone was harassing her, maybe physically. Maybe he was stealing her meager resources. Whatever it was, this widow was defenseless against this attacker. She didn’t have any family to defend her. No governmental agency to fall back on. She just had this one particular judge. A crooked, unfair, mean-spirited, greedy judge. And it’s only by her persistent nagging that she gets the judge to arrange for her protection against her enemy.

This story is difficult because it seems to be a comparison. Jesus seems to compare us to the poor widow and he seems to compare God to the unjust judge. Anybody else have a problem with that comparison?

But, what we’ve got to realize is that, instead of an apple-to-apple comparison, Jesus uses this story to teach us through and apple-to-orange contrast. He tells us as much when he interprets his own story.

After he told this story, Jesus said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.” (Luke 18:1-8a, NIV)

The widow in the story represents us, but think of the contrast between us and her. She was poor, abandoned, forgotten. She had no relationship or connection with the judge.

Jesus told us that we are God’s “chosen ones.” We are the children of God, known by him, special to him. Unlike the widow, we are not abandoned and we are never forgotten.

The judge in the story represents God, but again, see the contrast between God and this judge. The judge was greedy, crooked, uncaring, and mean.

Jesus said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones…” In other words, Jesus is saying, “If a selfish, uncaring judge will help this widow, how much more do you think God will help his chosen ones that he loves so much?” God is selfless, righteous, loving, and kind. He is everything that the judge in Jesus’ story is not.

So what are we supposed to learn through these contrasts?

According to the Bible, Jesus told his disciples this story “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1, NIV) He told this story to illustrate that persistent prayer, even the same prayer over and over again, is honored by God. If an unfair, nasty judge will help a poor, but persistent widow, how much more will our loving Father help us when we are persistent in prayer?

And there is good reason that God wants us to be persistent in prayer. It’s not just because of the results we get from persistent prayer. It’s the work persistent prayer does in our lives.

Persistent prayer displays our priorities. My son, Ryan, is already prepping for his birthday. It’s not until June, but he’s making preparations now by telling us what he wants for his birthday. Every time we go into a store, he starts pointing to things, saying, “I want that for my birthday. I want that for my birthday.” But the things he wants for his birthday change every time we go to the store. He never asks for the same thing twice.

This past Christmas was different, though. He asked for two things consistently. He wanted a Diego tree house and a teddy bear. Anytime someone asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he said, “I want a Diego tree house and a teddy bear.” He asked for those two things persistently. And what that revealed is that these two toys were his priorities.

I realize that’s a rather simple explanation, but it really rings true. If we approach prayer as a wish list, just asking for this and that and this and that, it really shows that we’re not prioritizing our lives. But if there is something that we need, something that we deeply desire, it shows up through consistent prayer.

You can often judge how important something is to a person based upon how much they pray about it. Let that truth sink in for a minute. You can often judge how important something is to a person based upon how much they pray about it. Lack of prayer communicates lack of importance. If we don’t consistently pray about something, it communicates that that particular something isn’t all that important to us. Persistent prayer displays our priorities.

Persistent prayer develops perseverance.

The Bible says in the book of James that “the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:3b-4, NIV)

There are times when God doesn’t respond to a prayer the first time. And the reason is that he wants us to develop perseverance, because perseverance is a key component of growing in our faith journey.

The last year of my ministry at our previous church, I knew that God was calling me somewhere else. So I prayed about it. Nothing. I prayed some more. Some possible ministries at other churches came up, but I was rejected by them all. I prayed some more. More opportunities, more rejections. I prayed some more. Actually made my way through an interview process with a church. I didn’t like some of the things I heard, so I declined the position. Prayed some more. Had more possibilities. More interviews. A couple of second interviews, all of which turned into rejections. The whole process took more than a year. It was a year of praying the same thing. God finally answered through our church here at Amelia, but it was only after I had a serious lesson in perseverant prayer. And looking back, I see the work that God was doing in my life through that time. He wanted me to keep praying because he had some work in my life that he wanted to keep doing. A work of developing perseverance in my life. I am more the person that he wants me to be now because he didn’t answer my prayer the first time around then.

Finally, persistent prayer reminds us of our dependence on God. The more you pray about something, the less self-reliant and the more God-reliant you become. The more persistently you pray about a big issue, the more you understand how big your God really is. The more persistently you pray about a small issue, the more you see how you can’t control even the little details of our world, but God can.

Prayer is a declaration of dependence. Persistent prayer teaches us about our dependence on God for any and every issue in our lives.

Now, let’s move on to our second prayer question.

Question #2 – Why pray when God already has a plan? Again, that’s a summary of the question that was submitted. Let me read the entire question this person asked.

Why do we pray for someone who is sick to be healed when God already knows if the person is going to get well or if he is going to die? If God already knows that the person is going to be healed, then what good does it do for us to pray for their healing? They say prayer heals the sick, but God already knows if that person is going to be healed. God already has a plan whether we pray or not.

Another great question. If God already has his plans laid out, in regard to healing a sickness or any other issue we face in life, if he already knows what he’s going to do, then why do we pray? Why spend time praying when God’s mind is already made up about what’s going to happen?

Let’s look at a story from the Old Testament book of Exodus as we try to wrap our minds around the issues at play here.

In Exodus 32, Moses is on top of Mt. Sinai having a powwow with God. He’s been on the mountain for a long time, and all the people of Israel, who were supposed to be God’s people, decide that they’re tired of waiting on Moses to come down from the mountain and they’re tired of worshipping a God that they can’t see. So, they decide to make a gold statue of a calf and they would worship this statue.

This understandably ticked God off. He is God and he doesn’t share his throne with anybody or anything. Not only that, he had done so much for these Israelites, bringing them out of slavery in Egypt. Now they were proclaiming that this golden calf was responsible for saving them from their life of slavery.

Let’s pick it up in Exodus 32:9. The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” (Exodus 32:9-10, NASB)

Moses heard this threat loud and clear. So he responded, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’?

Then Moses asked, “Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people.”

And then, verse 14 incredibly says, “So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.” (Exodus 32:11-12, 14, NASB)

God had a plan. His plan was to destroy the Israelites because of their sin. No doubt he could do it. All he had to do was say the word and they’re toast. This was God’s plan.

Moses heard the plan. And then Moses hits his knees, pleading with God to change his mind. Begging him to spare the lives of Israel.

God heard the prayer, and the Bible says that “the LORD changed his mind.” Other translations say, “the LORD relented” (NIV), or “the LORD reconsidered” (GWT), or “the Lord let himself be turned” (BBE), some even say, “the LORD repented” (KJV).

No matter how you say it, this is a tough concept to wrap your mind around. It’s problematic because we believe that God is omniscient. In other words, he’s all-knowing. He knows everything that is knowable. He’s not limited by time. He sees past, present, and future, all at the same time. So if that’s true, then how can he change his mind? How can our prayer alter his plans?

This is a divine paradox. God is sovereign, yet he allows our prayers to influence his decisions.

God’s sovereignty means that he is in charge, period. He is the infinite creator God. He is the undisputed ruling king of the universe. He is sovereign.

And yet, he hears our prayers. And not only does he hear them, but he listens to them. And not only does he listen to them, he allows himself to be influenced by them. At times altering his plans because of them.

But didn’t he know you were going to pray? Didn’t he know what you were going to pray? Didn’t he already know how he would act on your prayer? So how can you say that prayer influences God’s actions when God already knows how he’s going to act?

Maybe this explanation will help a little bit. God sees all time, past, present, future. He knows how things are going to turn out. However, there is a corollary that we need to consider. God also knows how things would have turned out differently if a different decision was made. Kind of like buying a movie on DVD that comes with alternate endings. A different decision was made, and the whole movie turns out differently. God can see the alternate endings. He sees what will happen if we don’t pray. He sees what will happen if we do pray. Our prayer is the crux of the outcome.

Some of you still aren’t satisfied with that answer. I’m not, either. You can’t entirely explain this mystery. This is a concept of God that is beyond our understanding. It is a mystery, a paradox. Sometimes we pursue our systematic theology so much, we work at having a concept of God that we can fully understand, we want to be able to explain God in a three-point sermon outline…but God is beyond our understanding. He has revealed a portion of himself to us, but there is so much more that we can’t comprehend. You won’t fully grasp the mysteries of God, and that’s ok. It’s ok to say, “You know what? I just don’t get that.” Because if we had a God that we could fully and finally understand, we wouldn’t have a God. God is big and complex and mysterious and wonderful. And this is a wonderful God paradox. A sovereign God somehow, in some way, is influenced by your prayers. Wow.

R.W. Thomas said, “Believing that God can and sometimes does alter the course of history in response to prayer is a cause for tremendous hope. God has granted event-changing power to His people! That is why we pray in the face of disaster, political upheaval, financial setback, or untold other kinds of situations. Because when people pray, events are altered. A new factor has been added into the equation of human history that would not have been there had not someone, somewhere prayed. It is that simple.” (What Happens When People Pray?, Christian Standard, June 18, 1989, pg. 14)

Your prayer could be the change agent needed in an illness. Or a broken marriage. Or a financial crisis. Or a person who needs to come to Christ. It is an unexplainable, but incredible fact that the sovereign God of the universe can be influenced by your prayer.

There is another answer to the question. The question a lot of us ask in regard to prayer is a results-oriented question. Why ask God to do something when he already knows what he’s going to do? The focus of the question is, “What’s going to happen as a result of my prayer?” Basically we’re asking about what we get out of prayer. We’re looking at results.

But we need to see a different purpose. We look at prayer and see results. God looks at prayer and sees a relationship.

This dichotomy is demonstrated in a verse from Psalms. Think of this verse from the perspective of prayer.

Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (NIV) Our natural tendency is to see the second half of the verse. God will give us the desires of our heart. Sweet! We see the results.

But we can’t ignore the first half of this verse. This verse from Psalms is about a relationship. We are first called to delight ourselves in the LORD. That’s the point. That’s what we’re all about. Cultivating, deepening, strengthening our connection to God.

How does that change your prayer perspective? Do you treat prayer as your wish list? God is Santa Claus and you’re the good little boy or girl sitting on his lap telling him what you want. Are the bulk of your prayers simply laundry lists of requests?

Or do you approach prayer as a time to connect with God? A time to get to know him better? A time for your relationship to grow?

Prayer is simply communication. What if the only time I talked to my wife was when I wanted something? What if that was the extent of our conversations? Just me asking something of her? Trying to get her to do something for me? How healthy would our marriage be?

You’re thinking, “Are you kidding me? You wouldn’t even have a marriage.” Right. So if we wouldn’t communicate with our spouses that way, why would we communicate with God that way?

God simply wants your attention. He wants your focus. He wants your love. This week, I want to encourage you to do something. Try to offer up prayers of thanksgiving and love throughout your day. Even if they’re just little one-sentence prayers. When you’re on your morning commute, just pray, “God, thanks for my job.” When you’re playing with your kids, “God, I love my family. Thanks for this special gift.” When you see your grandkids, “God, thanks for giving me a long life. Thanks for the gift of my grandchildren.”

It could get even simpler than that. In the shower, “God, thanks for my running water. There are millions around the world who don’t have that luxury.” Sending an email, “God, thanks for the gift of this technology.”

Or how about the simplest prayer of all. “God, nothing special seems to be happening, but I just want you to know how thankful I am that you love me and that you’re in my life. I love you.”

Do you see how this idea of a relationship instead of just results could totally revamp your prayer life?

Do you realize that a relationship with you is God’s all-consuming goal? You are always in his thoughts. He is consumed with his love for you and his hunger for a relationship with you. It’s why he died on a cross. He died to take sin’s divisive power out of the equation. When you accept the forgiveness he offers, there’s nothing standing between you and God. That’s not only a revolutionary thought in how we pray. It’s a revolutionary thought in how we live. And it’s the promise that gives us the hope that we will live forever in God’s presence.

If you’ve never made a faith commitment to Jesus, we’d love to pray with you about that.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Exodus 32, Luke 18, perseverance, prayer, priorities,