Learning to Pray Effectively

Introduction

For certain areas of our Christian life with varying success, we feel like we got those. We can exercise those with a fair amount of confidence. But there’s some arenas of the Christian experience with which we seem to universally lack confidence. Or maybe a better way of saying lacking confidence, we wish we could be better at. We wish we could do so with greater frequency, with greater eloquence, and just generally be better. One of those areas I want to talk about this morning, and that is the subject of prayer. It’s the rare Christian that I meet that says, I pray as often as I should. And I’m really good at it. I think most of us, at least privately, to ourselves would say, I need to do better.

I need to pray more often. And I feel like my prayers aren’t as good or maybe as effective as they ought to be. And in our teaching and preaching, we address the former of those, I think more often than the latter, is we talk about the frequency of prayer, urging Christians as we ought to be prayerful people. But this morning I want to talk about the other aspect in which we may feel a lack of confidence, and that is praying more effectively. We saw in our Bible reading this morning that not all prayer is heard.

Have you ever wondered in your prayer life why your prayers were not answered? There may be a variety of reasons why that prayer was not answered. It may be that the answer was no. It may be that God just chose not to answer it. I’ve heard all my life that God always answers prayer. But sometimes he says no. I think it’s possible that God just doesn’t answer. I guess you could argue that not answering is a no, but it’s also possible that our prayer is not answered because we did not pray properly. The Bible has a lot to say about prayer. And in talking about prayer, it talks about both the frequency, but also it gives us instructions of how to pray properly. And I want to talk about that this morning with you, and hoping to improve our communication to God in learning to pray effectively.

1. Effective Prayer Is Offered by the Righteous

Let’s start here, which was the premise again in Psalm 66 of our Bible reading this morning, is that the scriptures teach us that effective prayer is to be offered by the righteous. Look with me, if you will, in the New Testament in John chapter 9. In John chapter 9, the blind man who had been healed by Jesus is defending Jesus. And the fact that Jesus is performing these miracles because God is hearing him, and in his argument, he makes this point in John 9, verse 31. Now we know, John 9, 31, now we know that God does not hear sinners. But if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he hears him. Now it’s possible that this blind man had that wrong, but when we look at other passages of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, they seem to back up his understanding, and by the way, an understanding that was not disputed by the leaders of the Jewish law.

They surely knew Psalm 66 that said, here’s a prayer that’s answered, here’s a prayer that’s not answered. The difference is that person standing before God. We remember the call to prayer in James chapter 5, don’t we? That the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, availeth much. Now there may be exceptions to this. God may hear the prayer of an alien sinner who is calling out to God for help, for guidance, to open the door to his heart. But the general rule seems to pervade both Old and New Testament scriptures, that in order for our prayers to be heard, or at least to be effective before the throne of God, that we need to be in a right relationship with God. And so let’s start there.

2. Offer These Prayers in Faith

To make sure that you are a child of God. To make sure that you’re in that right relationship with God, to make sure, as Peter would caution husbands, to make sure that you’re living your life in accordance with his will in every relationship, so that Peter would tell husbands, so that your prayers will not be hindered. And so you see, our spiritual life can hinder our prayer life. And so, in order for our prayers to be effective, they must first be offered by someone who is a child of God, someone who is in a right relationship to God and seeks to glorify God in that prayer. Now, along that line, the scriptures also tell us that in order to be truly effective, our prayers are offered by the righteous, and if we are righteous, it should follow that we offer these prayers in faith.

Look with me, if you will, again in James chapter 5. In fact, we’ll look at two passages of scripture in the book of James. In James chapter 5, in telling us that we should seek the prayers of one another, he says in James 5, verse 15, that if the sick person who has gone and called for the elders and those elders are praying for him, it says, and the prayer of faith will save the sick. And the Lord will raise him up, and if he’s committed sins, he’ll be forgiven. This prayer of faith, what does that mean? What is a prayer of faith? I guess you could argue that any prayer is a prayer of faith, because if you’re praying, you’re expecting someone to be on the other end listening to that.

But James seems to have a deeper concept of this idea of a prayer of faith. And maybe if we back up to chapter one, we’ll get an explanation of what the Holy Spirit means through James when he talks about this prayer of faith. I believe he is saying, James chapter 1, beginning in verse 5, that a prayer of faith is a prayer offered in faith. James 1, verse 5 says this, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But, look at verse 6, but let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, for let not that man suppose that he’ll receive anything from the Lord.

James says that a condition of effective prayer is that it be offered in faith. And again, in this context, that doesn’t just mean faith that God exists, because again, that seems to be a requisite of prayer in the first place. But prayer in faith seems to be saying of true faith that what we’re praying for can both be accomplished by that all-powerful, all-loving God and will be answered by that all-powerful, all-loving God. Because he says if you ask in doubt, that prayer is negated. So ask in faith. I must admit this is an area, if it is to be taken in its most literal form, it’s an area in which I struggle.

I may bow my knees and pray for that person who is sick in the hospital and I’m asking God to heal them, and somebody, I get up out of that prayer, and somebody says, How they’re doing, and I go, Oh, they were not going to make it. Is that a prayer in faith? James says, let him ask in faith, nothing doubting. We must commit ourselves, and this is not surprising, is it not? Because everything we do as a Christian must be surrounded by, founded upon faith. Without faith, the Hebrew writer says, it’s impossible to be well pleasing unto God. And so it should not surprise the Christian that prayer, an essential part of the Christian life, must be offered in faith. Everything we do has to be founded upon faith.

But if we struggle with this, if we lack faith when we’re praying, I wonder why that is. Maybe identifying why we lack faith in prayer will help us to eliminate that doubt and pray in faith. And so here’s some possible reasons of maybe why we lack faith in prayer. It could be, not always, but it could be that we just have weak faith in general. And this might be a check upon our spirituality. If I’m lacking faith in prayer, is it an indication that I just have weak faith? And I need to strengthen my faith in general, and then my faith in prayer would be increased. That’s a possibility. It could be that we have weak faith in prayer because of prior, and I put in quotation marks there, prior unanswered prayers.

Well, I prayed for this last week, and God didn’t send a miracle, so he’s not going to do it this week. This requires not just faith, but a measure of wisdom, doesn’t he? That wisdom that James says we should pray for in faith. The wisdom in recognizing that God is not just more powerful than we, he certainly is. But that equally matched with his power is his wisdom. It takes wisdom, doesn’t it? We recognize, whether you’re a parent or you were formerly a child, if you have any age upon you, you recognize that your parents blessed you by not giving you everything you wanted. Maybe that’s why God put us in the care of older, wiser people when we’re young and not so wise, huh?

And being so mad when they were denied. But I look back and say, you know, maybe my parents were on to something. I didn’t need that. It taught me a lesson not to have that. We need the wisdom and again the faith to understand that that’s maybe what God is doing. Third, we may lack faith in offering our prayers because we may be praying for tough things. And again, that’s in quotation marks. Turn with me, if you will, over to the book of Acts. I think we have a biblical example of that in Acts chapter 12. By the time we get to Acts chapter 12, persecution against Christians has heightened greatly. This is after the stoning of Stephen, after the imprisonment, after the rampage of Saul of Tarsus, who were throwing Christians into jail, putting them to death after stonings and beatings.

And in Acts chapter 12, Peter is now arrested. And it doesn’t look good for Peter. And so what do the Christians who know and love Peter do? They do what Christians do. They get together and they prayed. And they prayed that Peter might be rescued. But notice their response. They had been praying, they got together. Acts chapter 12. Start with me in verse 5. It says, Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And as we read through this text, we see that that’s exactly what they were doing. They were assembled together, praying. Someone knocks on the gate, and remember, the young girl goes out there, and after a little bit of confusion, she finally comes back in and she tells that assembled group of Christians who had been praying for Peter’s rescue.

She said, Peter is here. Notice what their response was. Verse 15, but they said to her, You are beside yourself. But she kept insisting that it was so, so they said, It is his angel. They lacked a little bit of faith in that prayer, didn’t they? They had been praying for Peter to be rescued. She comes in and says, Guess what? Your prayers have been answered. Peter is rescued. And they said, Oh no, you’re crazy. Or it is his angel. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I think that probably means they thought he was dead. I don’t know which one of those three or maybe other problems they had, but it may have been that they recognize that they were praying for something that was tough.

3. Calling Upon the Character of God

And they lacked a little bit of faith in that prayer. Pray in faith. Nothing doubting. Another thing that will make our prayer effective, and I think this may be an arena of our prayer in which we fail, I know personally fail, is if we go through the Bible and we find righteous people, that’s our first checklist. We find righteous people who are praying in faith. What do we often see them doing in their prayers? I think we could follow the example of these godly men and women, can’t we? Men like David. Men like Abraham, who we knew had the ear of God and had some influence upon God that God would answer their prayers. Notice how they prayed. Look with me in Psalm 86. David is praying for God to help him.

That’s how the Psalm, and really Psalm 86, is just a prayer. Because it begins in verse 1 bow down your ear, O Lord. Hear me. For I am poor and needy. And so David is praying to God for help. And notice what he does throughout this prayer. Skip down to verse 5. For you, O Lord, are good and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you. Verse 10, for you are great, and do wondrous things. You alone are God. Verse 13. For great is your mercy toward me, for you’ve delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. And then finally, verse 15, but you, O Lord, are a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in mercy and truth.

Do you see what David is doing throughout this prayer? He is calling upon the character of God in his prayer. I challenge you this week to go throughout the Bible and look at prayers that are recorded by godly men and women who are praying, and you’ll see that pattern repeated. They don’t just say, God do this for me. They often say, I know you to be a God of mercy and grace. Therefore, do that. They call upon the character of God. Look at another example quickly back in the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 18. Abraham is praying and interceding for the city of Sodom, or at least the residents, or at least some of the residents of the city of Sodom. And notice what he does in Genesis chapter 18, verse 25.

Genesis 18, 25 is speaking to God. He says, far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? See what Abraham is doing the same thing David did. Abraham is calling upon the character of God to answer this prayer. Now let’s pause here. You may say, now, wait a minute. That’s not a good example. God didn’t answer that prayer. God didn’t save Sodom. God did answer this prayer. Abraham’s prayer was don’t destroy the righteous with the wicked. What Abraham totally overestimated was the number of righteous people in Sodom, remember. And so God answered that prayer.

He didn’t destroy the righteous with the wicked. And Abraham said, God, you’re a God of justice. Surely you’ll answer my prayer. And so here’s another list for you. When you’re praying, if you’re praying for someone who is sick or for yourself who might be sick, call upon God’s compassion. I know you, God, to be a God of compassion. And maybe remember sometimes in both biblical examples and maybe in your own life and the life of others where the compassion of God has been demonstrated, and say, God, I call upon your compassion. If you’re praying for oppression, call upon God’s justice. No, you’re a God of justice. You’re a God of honor and righteousness and holiness. If you’re praying for a physical blessing, would it not do us well to call upon God’s generosity?

4. Prayer Is to Be Persistent

I know you’re the Father of lights, that you’ve blessed us, and so you are a God who has demonstrated your generosity, your blessings upon us, and it’s that generosity and that graciousness upon which we call. And then finally, if you’re praying for spiritual help, evoke the mercy of God and God’s grace. Again, it’s worth noting that if we see a pattern repeated in the sacred text over and over again in the prayers of righteous men and women, that it might do us well to duplicate. And I see the righteous people of God praying to God and saying, Because you’re this kind of God, I’m asking for this. Incorporate that into your prayers. Another thing that would make prayer effective, and the Bible, certainly the New Testament, repeats this, sorry, for the pun, repeats this over and over again, is that prayer is to be persistent.

You remember the story of the persistent widow in Luke chapter 18? In Luke chapter 18, in telling this parable, this is one of those parables in which Jesus plainly states, here’s why I’m telling this parable. And here is the point of this parable. In Luke 18, verse 1, then he spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. In other words, don’t give up praying. Saying there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, Get justice for me for my adversary. And he would not for a while. But afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God or regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

Then the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? Jesus says, if you want to be effective in your prayer, then pray. And then pray some more. And pray some more. I fear maybe we have misunderstood the prohibition that Jesus gave about vain repetition. That’s not at all what he’s talking about here. In fact, Jesus calls upon repetition in our prayers. To pray over and over again. In fact, he says here, day and night, what is it the Apostle Paul says when he puts his own spin on it?

Pray without ceasing. We talk a lot about what that doesn’t mean. That doesn’t mean you have to pray every minute that you’re awake. But what does it mean? Surely it means what Jesus taught in this parable. Keep praying. And don’t lose heart. Now we might pause here and say that we cannot understand the ways of God completely and fully, can we? Why? Why does God want me to call upon his character? Why does God want me to pray over and over again for the same thing? Maybe a hint is found in that last statement of Jesus. When the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith? All of this may be just tied up into faith. But for whatever reason, God wants to hear from us.

We’ve made the point before. A God that already knows our every need. A God who already knows the thoughts and intents of our heart. A God who in fact knows what we need when we don’t even know what we need. Still says, I want to hear your prayers. He wants us to verbalize and to vocalize. And he says, do that often. Be persistent in your prayers. To my shame, I must say again, this is an area in which I think maybe I’ve failed.

5. Prayer Needs to Be Earnest and Genuine

And if you do a list right, there’ll be a little box out to the left of it, won’t there? What’s that box for? To check it off. I’m done. And I fear maybe I’ve done that with things I’ve prayed about. Well, I prayed about that. So I’ll check that one off. I don’t have to say that next time I pray. That’s not what the scriptures say. Pray without ceasing. Let’s make another point when we talk about challenges in prayer and being persistent in that prayer. And that is if a prayer to be effective, it needs to be earnest. And it needs to be genuine. Look over in Matthew chapter 9. Again, here’s a word that we see repeated, and so maybe we should take notice. Matthew chapter 9 and in verse 38.

Jesus in telling his followers and us to pray doesn’t just say to pray, he tells us how to pray again. Matthew 9, verse 38, therefore pray for the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. The New King James says some translations add the emphasis to pray earnestly. He told us how to pray.

Well, the first question arise what’s earnestly mean? We only have to think of one other passage of scripture to understand what earnestly means, and certainly what it means in connection to prayer. Do you know when that word is used again in connection with prayer? Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane with sweat and tears as blood. The text says he prayed earnestly. Maybe that’s something we need to incorporate into our prayer life. To pray earnestly. And to pray genuinely. Now, what I mean by genuine may be the same as the idea of faith that we talked about earlier, but our prayers need to be genuine. They need to be real. They don’t need to be hypocritical. They need to be honestly offered before God. And be careful here.

Don’t let your prayer life make you a liar. And what I mean by that, and again, I plead guilty at times at least. Someone may express some need, some concern in their life. And as a Christian, what’s my response? I’ll be praying for you. Or some need or want goes out on Facebook or social media, and as a good Christian, I’m going to type in there, praying, exclamation point. The question is, did I really do that? Not did I really say I was going to pray, but did I mean that? Did I really pray? And so maybe here’s the better exercise. When you see that on social media, especially, because that gives you a time, they don’t know when you’re looking at it. You got a little window there.

Conclusion

Instead of just typing out, I’ll say a prayer for you, or I’m praying, stop and pray. And then go back to the keyboard and say, I just said a prayer. Or if you’re like me and use the fewest words possible, just type out done. Pray. Pray earnestly. Pray genuinely. Pray in faith. Pray persistently. And model your prayers after those that have prayed and had the ear of God. Call upon God’s character. Let’s do that right now. Dear God and Father in heaven, we’re so thankful that you’re so great a God, so loving and compassionate. We don’t know why you would hear our prayers. We don’t know why you would answer and care about our needs so much, but we’re so thankful that your love is beyond fathom.

Father, we call upon your mercy and grace today, upon our lives, that you’ll continue to wash away our sins by the blood of your Son. You’ll continue to love us and bless us. Father, we pray for those of our number who are suffering, suffering physically, suffering emotionally, mentally, spiritually. We know that you’re a God that answers prayer. We know that you’re a God that loves, and we call upon that love and that compassion. We know that you know what it’s like to suffer loss, to be slighted, to be hurt. And Father, we pray that you’ll love us and love those that we pray for and shower your blessings upon us all. Love us, keep us, care for us, protect us, and most of all, Father, own us on that day of judgment.

This is our prayer in Christ’s name. Amen.