The longer I live, the more thankful I am that God has not answered all my prayers in the affirmative. When I was a kid, I would say, “Lord, this is what I want. This is what you must do in my life.”
Maybe you can recall a time when you asked God to do something, and he said no. And maybe you thought God had let you down. But with the perspective of time, you were able to look back and say, “Thank you, Lord, that you didn’t answer that prayer.”
God knows what he’s doing. And when he says no, it’s for a good reason. When he says yes, it’s also for a good reason.
When the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus about prayer, he told them, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere” (6:18 NLT).
Notice his use of the word all: at all times, for all believers everywhere.
I think we sometimes get sidetracked with the peripheral issues of prayer. We get hung up on the proper language to use or the correct posture to take. But when we look in the Bible at how people prayed, we see great diversity.
People prayed standing, lifting their hands, sitting, lying down, kneeling, lifting their eyes, bowing and pounding their chests. They prayed during battles, on a mountain, by a river and in the wilderness, a prison, a bed, a cave, a closet, a garden, the street, the sea and the belly of a whale.
We read of people praying early in the morning, in the mid-morning, in the evening, before meals, after meals, at bedtime and at midnight.
Thus, we see that any posture, place and time will do for prayer. What’s important is that we pray.
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Jesus gave us the model prayer, which we call the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:9–13 NKJV).
When Jesus taught this prayer to the disciples, he introduced it by saying, “In this manner, therefore, pray …” (verse 9 NKJV).
He didn’t say, “When you’re really in trouble, this is the big one to pull out. This is your big gun during a major crisis.”
Understand, I’m not making fun of this prayer or someone who prays it. But Jesus didn’t say, “Pray this prayer verbatim.” Rather, he said, “In this manner, therefore, pray.” Really what he gave us was a structure for prayer.
Now if we were to design our own structure for prayer, here’s how it generally would go: “Our Father in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread.” We want to get right to the point, which is that we want something from God.
But in the prayer Jesus taught, let’s notice that before we utter a word of personal need, we first acknowledge that we are speaking to the Creator of the universe. We need to let that sink in for a moment. We are to think about his glory, his power and his splendor before we start bringing our petitions to him.
And then we acknowledge that our Heavenly Father knows best. When we pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” essentially we’re saying, “Lord, I have limited understanding. I don’t always know what I need. So, I am saying that I want your will more than my own. And if this prayer that I am about to pray is outside of your will, then override it.”
Why pray, then? We pray because it’s God’s appointed way for us to obtain things. The Bible tells us, “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2 NKJV). There is, however, an extreme teaching in this area that essentially says that if we name something and claim it in the name of Jesus, God will give it to us. Some have taken this idea to extremes and have misunderstood a wonderful promise of prayer.
On the other hand, we can go too far the other way and fail to receive what God has for us because we don’t ask. You might be sick or in need of financial help. Or, you may wonder why certain things aren’t happening in your life. Have you prayed about it? Have you taken it before the throne of God and said, “Lord, here’s a need in my life. I need your help”?
God is interested in you, and he wants to answer your prayers. But he also wants us to participate in the process. Prayer is an essential building block of spiritual growth. We must never lose sight of it if we want to grow and indeed flourish spiritually.
Prayer is also the way God helps us overcome our anxiety and worry. Have you ever been gripped by worry? I have. But worry doesn’t help. In fact, it hurts. Medical science has proven that worry affects our health and can even curtail our lifespan. So, the irony is that we can actually shorten our lives by worrying about them too much.
The next time you’re gripped by worry, pray about it instead. Bring your requests to God. The Bible says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7 NLT).
Prayer can turn things around. We do not have because we do not ask. So, let’s remember to pray.
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