February 08, 2007
Dueling Prayers
I was once in a weekly prayer group that averaged six to ten people. We took turns in a clockwise rotation praying for the church and other needs that were brought to our attention. It wasn’t unusual for the person praying to affirm or Amen the prayer of the person who had just preceded him. However, during a time of turmoil in the church, our group wasn’t always in one accord. One person would pray for what he perceived the church needed and then the next guy would counteract or trump ‘that’ prayer with one of his own. Somehow I don’t think these particular prayers of the saints will make it to the golden altar (Rev 8:3).
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Gail;
-----I am no expert on prayer, but I have learned enough Scripture about it that I won’t take part in a prayer war. James 4:3 always gave me the most basic clue, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” In a prayer war someone is paying attention to their own pleasures, maybe more are, maybe all are. The principle does not apply just to stuff and things from Wal-Mart and Cabela’s. Especially among the leaders of the church and those who are active in the church, the things of the church can be stuff for spending on one‘s own pleasure as well. For example the church’s cultural elements, doctrinal issues, its alignment with social norms, financial issues, etc., are all issues that can be pleasing to the preacher if they are the way he likes them, or displeasing to the head elder if they are the way he does not like. And prayer for grandma’s kidney dialysis machine might also be for consumption by one’s own pleasure. Maybe grandma is ready for the eternal body which does not need to be tethered to a blood filter.
-----I John 5:14 gave me another clue, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” James 4:3 shows us that we must not attend our own pleasures with our prayers, and I John shows us that our confidence is in attending His will with them. That then throws the door open to the ever standing question of what His will is in any particular situation. We expect to be able to know it by some intellectual formula, or some training from a distant Bible College, or the continual hearing of a perky little preacher. But I do not believe that is how we know His will for a particular situation. I believe first that the ability to know His will comes from a spiritual condition generated by humility, faithfulness to Scripture, and experience from acting with integrity and self-sacrifice. I believe second that we do not reach a point of being able to just know His will for a particular situation. We reach an ability to be able to discover His will, with more or less certainty (now we see dimly as through a mirror) as our ever renewing mentality moves us deeper into the sort of things that interest God.
-----We must not only approach Him boldly, we must also approach Him rightly. And that is not just in asking aright, but in being right of heart and mind. I think it is through this concept that the many references in the New Testament of asking in belief and receiving have their truth. For belief is worthless without truth. So if there is abiding in truth and a sincere search for what is right, then belief will sort away from prayer what is askew.
-----Jesus said that whatever we agreed on in prayer would be granted (Matt 18:19). I do not think that He trumped the process of approaching God rightly by giving this simple formula to get what you want by coming to agreement upon it with another brother. In fact, in line with the way the Bible presents so many concepts, this statement is the apparent tip of an iceberg. In the depths of the Scripture we have been given other formulas that are operative in reaching agreement, for a tiny example: consideration of the interest of others, tendency to consider one’s self as least, understanding that one does not know far more than one does know, agreement with one another rather than with one or with the other, etc. Agreement reached by application of the fullness of Scriptural principle comes much closer to alignment with God’s will than agreement by mere consent. When two or more come together and reach agreement through Scriptural behavior, Jesus is there in the humility and selflessness brought to life.
-----Maybe prayer can not become perfect. But when sincere effort is made to reach honest agreement with one another before offering up prayer, it will have been scrubbed up better. And where our ability to discern His will in the moment falls short, His Holy Spirit will pick it up and take it on home.
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