POWER Prayers | Day 1

This week, we’ll be looking at power prayers. What do I mean by this? Are we going to plug into Eskom, hold batteries while we pray, or generate hydroelectric power by flooding the church?

No. What I mean is: Simple. Powerful. Prayer.

I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer and the various types of prayer that you see around us.

We have the prayers in church, which almost always follow the same tone—Holy Spirit, please move in this place, meet your people, help them feel your presence (a prayer even I am guilty of).

Then, you get prayers for healing, which, again, can be very generic—'Lord, please touch Sharon, or Jeff. Please work within their bodies and bring healing to every atom, cell, and choccie currently within them.'

We even have prayers for special occasions: like travelling. Lord, we pray journey mercies over so-and-so. We pray your angels go with them and form a hedge of protection around them—even as they knowingly break the speed limit and drive 150 in a 120 zone.

The more I’ve been thinking, praying, and listening about these prayers, the more I’ve realised something—boy, are we full of it. We may have the best intentions and the greatest meaning behind our prayers. We may truly want Sharon and Jeff to get better. We may truly want our reckless brothers and sisters to arrive safely, even though we should be praying more for the safety of those around them on the road. But, are we praying biblical prayers, or have our prayers become something that sounds nice but doesn’t follow how we’re called to pray? Have our prayers gotten longer, more eloquent, more articulate, and yet lost the power that God allows us to wield when praying?

Matthew 6:5-8 says:

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

There were three things that really stood out for me in this passage, which I want to share with you tonight, if you'll indulge me. And I'd like to say immediately that I may take up more time with the devotion tonight than expected, which will leave less time for prayer, but once you understand where I'm going, you'll understand why.

Praying with a Bible open

1. Know Your Prayer

The first thing that I want to share is that we have to know our prayer.

It sounds strange, right? Know our prayer, what is that? What I mean is, know your prayer life. If you’re not someone who prays, know it. If you’re someone who prays for any and everything, know it. If you’re someone who knows that you should pray but doesn’t, know it.

More importantly than knowing it, own it. Don’t lie about it. Don’t come to church and offer to pray knowing that it is the first time in 3 days that you’ve prayed. And, in the same breath, don’t pray about every single thing, like, 'Lord, should I have cornflakes or All-Bran?' yet, when life actually happens, prayer is your last resort.

Now in saying that, I’m not saying, if you don’t pray, own it, flaunt it, and continue in it. No. If you don’t pray, you’ve got a problem. If you don’t pray, you better, very quickly, find the solution, whether you own it or not. Because let me tell you, as much as we must own our prayer lives, if we know we don’t pray and acknowledge it by owning it, and yet still do nothing to change it, things aren’t going to be good. But, the reason I say, know your prayer and own your prayer is because of what Jesus taught.

Jesus says, don’t be like the hypocrites, standing on street corners and in the synagogues (or churches), praying to be seen by others. Jesus says that they’ve received their reward. Jesus is saying that, the admiration or attention that they are getting from standing and praying to be seen, that is the reward they’re going to get. Further than that, they’re not going to get anything, especially not from God, because their prayers are hollow and meaningless.

The reason I mention these hypocrites that Jesus mentions in relation to knowing our prayer is that they clearly didn’t. They didn’t realise that their prayers were meaningless. They didn’t realise that the only reward that they were going to get from their long, drawn out, eloquent prayers, was the attention that those prayers were bringing them. They didn’t know their own prayer. That’s why Jesus called it out, because He saw it for what it was and then taught, don’t be like that. Know your prayer. Own your prayer. (and if you do that and it’s not great, work on it until you have something worth owning).

2. Pray to God, Not Yourself

The next part of Matthew goes on to say: But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. There are maaaaany people that use this verse to justify not engaging in corporate prayer, like what we’re doing tonight. They say, ‘Oh, but the Bible tells me to go into my room privately and pray with the door closed.’ Well… yes.

BUT, there is also James 5:16, which says:

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

Granted, that one doesn’t say pray together, just pray for each other. Fair enough. Then how about Acts 1:14, which says:

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

Different story there…. There they got together and, for the reformed out there, they even invited the women! Don’t like that? How about Acts 2:42:

They devoted themselves [PLURAL] to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

[added]

They didn’t only get together to eat together… although that is where most people lose focus in that verse. They got together to PRAY together. So, yes, there are times where we are called to pray alone, in quiet, with God. However, that is NOT what this verse is talking about.

What this verse is talking about is retreating from what others will think about you if you’re praying to God. Forgetting what the person next to you is praying about (unless you’re agreeing with them). It is talking about praying to God, without worrying about anything else. It is talking about having your focus on God, secluding yourself and praying to the Father, rather than anything else. Jesus is teaching us that when we pray, there should be an intimacy between us and God, not us and whoever happens to be in the same room with us. And what does He say after teaching us that? That then, the Father who sees what is done between Himself and us, will reward us.

3. Pray Simply

The last thing we’re going to look at tonight is to pray simple prayers. Matthew 6:7-8 says: And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Even as Christians rather than Pagans, we sometimes make the mistake of starting to ramble. We’ll get caught up in prayer and we’ll go on and on and on about how 'Lord, this,' and 'Jesus, that,' and 'Oh, Holy Spirit, this.' We end up continuing prayer long past the point of where we need to simply because we think of more adjectives.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that prayers should be a 30 second thing where you can say two to three sentences and then you need to keep quiet. When we’re praising God for who He is, for what He’s done, and giving Him glory, those prayers can never go on long enough, because He deserves all the praise and glory and honor.

However, why do we do it to ourselves sometimes where we will just drone on and on about the same things but using different adjectives? 'Lord, you know I need healing. So, Lord, please bring me health. Touch my head, lift up my face, and send your spirit into the core of my brain where the pain is located.'

We do all this, forgetting that God’s word says in Isaiah 53:5 that:

(But) he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Not 'will be,' or 'may be,' or 'should be,' or 'could be.' We ARE. Yet we write an actual novel on who, what, when, where, how, and why God must please send healing. Especially when, continuing with this example, we can simply pray: God, thank you for the healing you say is mine in your Word.

I receive it and I give you praise for it, amen. Done.

Believe it or not, there are more things that we can learn from this small collection of four verses. BUT, we’ll leave that for tomorrow, because now it is time to pray.

Tonight’s prayer points are suggestions based on how I felt led to pray while reading these verses and what I felt the Lord was calling us as a church to pray in this regard. However, I want to say right now, prayer should be led by the Holy Spirit working inside of us—not by points on a projector. So, please feel free to follow along with the suggested prayer points, which I will lead. But, if you feel led to pray for something else in relation to your own prayer life and your own prayer with God, do so.

Tonight, as you pray:

1.    Know Your Prayer

2.    Pray to God, not yourself or those around you

3.    Pray simply

PRAYER POINTS:

• For forgiveness for lack of prayer

• For forgiveness for making prayer something it isn’t

• For forgiveness for being blinded by what we’ve made prayer rather than what it actually is—conversation between us and God.

• That prayer may be led in us by the Spirit, not external factors.

• To go back to a heart that yearns for the connection of prayer.