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Every Christian struggles with the
cultural pressure to turn away from being like Christ. Being like Christ brings personal
peace and satisfaction. Even strong believers often feel they do not pray enough. But none
of the prayer books tell us how much is enough prayer! Our faithfulness in prayer and
witness grows by studying the life and teachings of Jesus. The gospel of Luke is an
excellent guide to the priority of prayer and witness in the life and ministry of Jesus.
Becoming like Jesus in prayer helps us see how much prayer is enough. Jesus led His
followers in prayer just as faithful leaders will lead their people in prayer. It is not
easy to be a shepherd in a culture that loves cowboys. Shepherds lead, cowboys drive.
A. Praying and Fasting.
In Luke
2:37, Anna is blessed to see the Christ Child because of her faithfulness in fasting
and prayer. In Luke 4:2, Jesus fasted for 40 days. Fasting should be part of the
spiritual discipline for believers. Fasting means to give up food or any other activity to
dedicate that time to prayer. It is not an external ritual but an internal commitment.
One senior citizen shared that
"fasting has become a weekly time to catch up on some of my hardest praying. The
prayer list gets so long I have to find some more time to intercede. It is such a sweet
time for me it is better than chocolate!"
B. Praying evangelistically. Luke
records that Jesus began his public ministry in a synagogue in Nazareth. In
Luke 4:18
Jesus reads from Isaiah 61:1, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He
anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release for the
captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden"
(NASB). The Greek word for "preach the gospel" is the same word that gives the
English language the word "Evangelism." Jesus was careful in this passage to
show the need for meeting physical and spiritual needs. He began His public ministry by
introducing Himself as a caring and compassionate evangelist. The followers of Christ then
also need to be caring and compassionate evangelists. This is a hard lesson. Believers
have let Satan convince us that evangelism is only for the chosen few. If we are going to
be like Christ, every believer is going to be a caring and compassionate evangelist.
In Luke 19:10 Jesus said, "The
Son of Man came to look for and to save people who are lost" (CEV). To be
Christ-like, believers need to actively pray for and share Jesus with unbelievers. The
British preacher C. H. Spurgeon said, "If any minister can be satisfied without
conversions, he shall have no conversions." There are several helpful resources to
use in training listed in the bibliography.
C. Praying passionately.
In Luke
6:12 Jesus spent the entire night in prayer before choosing the twelve. Is it
unrealistic for Christ to expect His followers to pray all night? If believers are going
to be like Jesus we should do what He did. Jesus was very busy and very tired but he had a
passion for the most important things. Jesus did not use "trick or treat"
prayers that run to the door and stay only long enough to see if they’ll get a treat.
Jesus knew that prayer is faith passing into action. He could see that the needs were so
great and temptation so pressing that he needed all night prayer. When believers begin to
pray passionately we will see that periodic all night prayer is needed just to keep up
with all of the prayer requests that we gather.
John Knox of Scotland was so passionate in
prayer that Queen Mary of England used to say that she feared his prayers more than all
the armies of Europe. He would be in such spiritual agony over his country that he could
not sleep. He was passionate for revival to change Scotland. He often stayed up all night
praying and weeping for the lost. The Lord rewarded this passionate praying with revival.
Creating prayer lists quickly shows that
all night prayer is not unreasonable. The needs are so great worldwide. Pastors, staff,
International and North American missionaries need a prayer hedge of protection. Praying
for every local school teacher, politician and sports figure takes time.
D. Praying intentionally.
Luke 10:1-2
provides what could be an early Prayer Journey. Jesus sent out 72 people to pray for and
share Jesus with people in "every town and village where he was about to go." It
was in this context that the Lord instructed believers to "Ask the Lord in charge of
the harvest to send out workers to bring it in" (CEV). In verses 17-19 the field
teams reported back the divine encounters they had with the lost, the possessed and the
irreligious. Intentional prayer seeks what God wants and then listens for His response.
If the request is wrong, God says,
"No."
If the timing is wrong, God says,
"Slow."
If you are wrong, God says,
"Grow."
But if the request is right, the timing is
right and you are right,
God says, "Go!"
E. Praying intimately.
Ritual
prayer is exchanged for intimate prayer when believers learn to pray like Jesus prayed. In
Luke 11:1 the disciples responded to Jesus’ praying by asking Him to "teach
us to pray." As Christians seek to become more Christlike, we become more faithful to
pray unceasingly. Jesus answered their request with the model prayer and a lesson on
persistent intercession.
How much time each day do you think that
evangelicals pray? Christians seem to struggle with our self-sufficiency since we only
pray four to six minutes a day. Is that enough prayer? Do we not need prayer the other 23
hours and 54 minutes? We are taught from childhood that we can take care of ourselves.
When we grow and begin to deal with spiritual things we think we can take care of it
ourselves too. This is not true with spiritual needs or even with all of our physical
needs. We need a humble brokenness with absolute dependence upon God through His Son Jesus
Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Latisha was hot and tired. She came inside
for a cool drink. She stuck a straw into a soft drink and took a big sip. She did not even
once think about pulling out the straw and saying "that is a GREAT straw." The
straw is not as important as what comes through the straw. The straw is a tool. Believers
should be like the straw. We are a tool in God’s hands allowing the Holy Spirit to
flow unimpeded. The Holy Spirit then becomes the refreshment and the blessing. All praise
and honor placed on the tool must be forwarded back to the Lord. Any time we try to keep
any of the praise and honor it burns us. Every believer then can minister through the
Spirit working through us.
"The minister who does not earnestly
pray over his work must surely be a vain and conceited man. He acts as if he thought
himself sufficient of himself, and therefore needed not to appeal to God." --Spurgeon
F. Praying persistently. In
Luke
11:9 Jesus said, "So I tell you, ask and you will receive, search and you will
find, knock and the door will be opened to you" (CEV). This persistence in asking,
searching and knocking brings believers to pray for what God wants. We always get a yes
answer when we agree with God.
In Luke 18:1-8 (NASB) Jesus
presented "a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose
heart." Satan works hard to make all believers fail. He wants defeated, powerless
believers. He will make us fail by bringing in opposition. He will make us fail by doing
the right things in our power instead of God’s power. If he cannot get that to work,
he will let us succeed by relying on our education, expertise and experience. Many
believers become prideful when they become successful. One Prayer Journeyer said, "I
realized I was interested in the credit for what God was doing."
Jesus knew that much of the failure in
prayer comes from a lack of persistence. The widow’s persistent requests were just
and realistic. The judge had to respond in verse 5 "I will help this widow because
she keeps bothering me. If I don’t help her, she will wear me out"
(CEV).
Persistent prayer is not so much about changing God’s mind as showing Him we are
prepared for the answer.
G. Praying God-centered prayer.
In
a second parable beginning in 18:9, Jesus describes the difference in God-centered
prayer and self-centered prayer. The Pharisee spoke to God out of his pride and
self-sufficiency. In verse 12 the Pharisee showed his belief that his good works
would save him. In contrast, the tax gatherer in verse 13 was repentant and
dependent upon God. Salvation comes from being holy, not from being good. The only way to
become holy is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and ask the Holy Spirit to come in and fill
us.
Henry Blackaby writes, "We must let
[God] reveal His thoughts to us. Only then can we get a proper perspective on life. If you
keep your life God-centered, you will immediately put your life alongside His
activity."
"Prayer and a holy life are one. They
mutually act and react. Neither can survive alone. The absence of one is the absence of
the other."
H. Praying thankfully.
In Luke
22:14-23, the example of the Last Supper shows Christ giving thanks for His food. The
simple testimony of praying before meals is a surprisingly effective testimony in a
secular culture. One effective bridge to witness is to tell the server that you are about
to pray for your food and ask him or her if there is any thing you could pray for them.
This almost always leads to an opportunity to share Christ.
Immediately thereafter in verses 39-46,
Jesus instructed His followers to "pray that you may not enter into temptation"
(NASB). Jesus then turned to prayer in preparation for the traumatic events that were
about to occur.
Many believers have become trapped in
dissatisfaction that results in griping and whining. Focusing on giving thanks reduces the
attitude of complaining about everything from the carpet color to the room temperature.
Those who find themselves complaining a lot need to discipline themselves to focus on the
wonderful blessings of God.
The pastor held up a piece of white paper
and drew a black mark on it. "What do you see," he asked the crowd. "A
black mark" they responded. He asked again, "What else do you see?" but no
one answered. Finally a child said, "A piece of white paper." Humans often focus
on the problems instead of the blessings!
II. Response Time:
Pause for a time of prayer. Ask two or
three people to voice the prayers of the group. Maybe break up into groups of two to three
to pray. Petition God to make us more like Christ in prayer. Direct them in each of the
areas Christ prayed. Encourage each person to write down a prayer request that represents
each of the ways Christ prayed.
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