THE METHOD OF PRAYER
Jesus cautioned His disciples about just giving the appearance of praying to God:
“When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.”
Matthew 6:5, NKJV
I am reminded of some lines in Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
My words fly up
My thoughts remain below
Words without thoughts
Never to heaven go.¹
I am ashamed to say it, but as I look back, I can recall instances when, as a part of an audience, I was asked to come to the platform to pray without any warning or preparation. On the way to the platform, I would pull together some random thoughts. I’d ask the audience to bow their heads to pray with me. Most of them would dutifully do so, and I’d speak some words. When finished, I could hardly remember what I had said. I doubt whether the audience did either. I’m not sure my words got beyond the ceiling.
It’s a simple matter to say, “Let us pray.” It is equally simple to close our eyes and bow our heads. We can join a group for “a day of prayer.” All this can be done without praying. Jesus once chided the scribes and Pharisees:
“These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.”
Matthew 15:8, NKJV
Praying is making our requests known to God. The decision regarding our requests is His. The evidence that you have really gotten through to God is that: “the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Then, you “watch God work.”
When Eva was struggling with cancer, we both requested that she be healed. We both recognized that the decision was out of our hands. Close friends urged us to exercise faith. They said that the evidence of adequate faith was her healing.
Neither Eva nor I could accept that idea. To us, the evidence of faith was peace that passes understanding, guarding our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. To us, it seemed presumptuous to tell God what to do. We make the request; God makes the decision. We needed to line up our requests with the will of the Creator.
A week before Eva died, one of our friends, a very sincere Christian, came by and said that as she was praying for Eva, the Lord clearly revealed to her that Eva could choose to live or die. If she chose life, she would need to endure some pain, but she could live.
A letter arrived at the same time from a precious friend, telling us that in prayer the Lord gave this person assurance that God would honor her prayer of faith and heal Eva.
What were we to do with these developments? Eva was getting weaker and weaker. Our response was to turn to the Bible:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7, NKJV)
“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:14-15, NKJV)
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (James 5:16, NKJV)
Building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit . . . Jude 20, NKJV)
The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers. (1 Peter 3:12, NKJV)
The Bible tells us that effective praying implies familiarity with the commandments, obedience, and fervent, righteous walking in the Spirit by faith. That is difficult to measure up to. Eva and I decided that as best we could tell, we qualified to approach the Lord once more. We could not honestly say any more than what we had already said. Our prayer was that we agreed with our friends that Eva could live, but we wanted God’s will.
Eva died.
During the time Eva struggled with cancer, another crisis was developing. I was involved in a real estate investment with a group of Christians. We united in prayer for the success of this venture. Without getting into the details, suffice it to say that the project was not doing well. The project went belly up and with it a great deal of my money.