November 17, 2019

All Scripture from NIV unless otherwise indicated.

“ 5Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ 7“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.” Luke 11: 5 – 8

Last week we began looking at the topic I called the Mechanics of Prayer from chapters 4 through 8 of Torrey’s book, “How to Pray”. We talked about what it meant to pray in the name of Jesus, and we talked about praying in the will of God and praying in the Spirit. We also looked at
how to pray with faith. Today we will consider four more elements of prayer that Torrey referred to that are important if we are to approach God confidently in prayer.

The first I’m calling praying with determination. I wonder how many of us are really determined or persistent in our prayers? How many of us “keep on asking, keep on seeking and keep on knocking” until our prayers are answered? And how many of us are once and done kind of prayers? I read a book once that gave me the impression that since God knows what we need before we ask, all we need to do is ask once and then wait for God to answer. And I bought into that philosophy for a long time. But the truth is that Jesus taught that we should be persistent in our praying to the point of shamelessness.

That’s what Luke 11 teaches. A friend showed up at a man’s house at midnight to ask for three loaves of bread. He and his family were already in bed and although he didn’t want to get up and fulfill his friend’s request, because of his “boldness”, he got up and gave him the bread. Torrey said that the word translated boldness literally means shamelessness. Because he shamelessly kept knocking on the door, he received what he needed for his own guests. And then Jesus told another parable in Luke 18 about a strict judge and a widow who came to him for justice. Although the emphasis here is on justice, it is couched in the framework of persistent prayer. In this case, the judge originally dismissed the woman’s case, but she kept coming back again and again and again until the judge gave in and avenged her and gave her the verdict she was looking for. And then Jesus said, “will God not bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?”

The lesson concerning prayer in these two parables is that you must keep on praying and not give up. When we lived in El Cajon California, one of the women in the church we attended shared with us how she had prayed for her husband’s salvation for seven years before he gave His life to Christ. Seven years is a long time to wait on God for an answer to prayer, and many people would have given up thinking that God either wasn’t listening, or had said no. So, the next time you have something that you are praying for, don’t give up after asking once or twice or even 100 times. If all the other things we are talking about concerning prayer are in line with God’s will, keep on asking, shamelessly, until you get a “definite” answer from God, either yes or no.

The next two points Torrey makes has more to do with your relationship to Christ than specific means of prayer. The first one is that you must abide in Christ. What does it mean to abide in Christ? From Jesus parable about the vine and the branches, the simplest explanation is to remain connected to the vine. In that parable, Jesus is the vine and his disciples are the branches. In order to stay connected, the branches must bear fruit. Any branch that doesn’t bear fruit is cut off from the vine and discarded and burned in the fire. When a branch quits bearing fruit, it has either been broken or died and it no longer gets nourishment from the vine. It becomes useless and is discarded.

Torrey said to abide in Christ is to “renounce any independent life of our own . . . and constantly look to Christ to think His thoughts in us, to form His purposes in us, to feel His emotions and affections in us.” He goes on to say that “our desires will not be our own desires but Christ’s; and our prayers will not in reality be our own prayers but Christ praying in us.” When we come to a point in our spiritual lives that we are being nourished constantly by Jesus, we will be in harmony with God’s will. What you are doing in your spiritual life is a pretty good indicator concerning how you are abiding in Christ. Ask yourself, am I bearing fruit in my life, or is my connection to Jesus drying up like a dead branch? Trust me, your connectedness has a big impact on your prayers.

Not only do you need to abide in Christ, Jesus said that His words must abide in you if you are to expect Jesus to answer your prayers positively. Verse 7 reads, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Once again, we go back to the importance of knowing God’s word. Not only knowing God’s word, but being, I would say, consumed by it. Just as we are to remain connected to the vine, the Word of God is to remain connected to the us. We must commit it to our memory. We must let it “shape and mold our daily life.” We must study to show ourselves approved unto God, one who “accurately handles the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2: 15

Torrey said that “Prevailing prayer is almost an impossibility where there is neglect of the study of the Word of God.” “George Mueller, one of the mightiest men of prayer of Torrey’s generation, when the hour for prayer came, would begin by reading and meditating upon God’s Word until out of the study of the Word a prayer began to form itself in his heart.” Therefore, according to Torrey, “God Himself was the real author of prayer, and God answered the prayer that He Himself had inspired.” (Through His Word)

And finally, the last element of prayer that Torrey writes about in these chapters is the importance of “Praying with Thanksgiving.” I differ a little with Torrey’s interpretation on this important element of prayer, but I don’t discount what he said about it. According to Torrey, one reason that our prayers are not answered is because of our lack of thanksgiving. He quotes from Philippians 4: 6 “6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” His take on this passage is that our prayers lack power because we neglect to give thanks to God for blessings already received. In other words, before we ask God for something new, we should make sure that we have thanked Him for the prayers that He has already answered. He said “God is deeply grieved by the thanklessness and ingratitude of which so many of us are guilty.”

I think that all of what He says here is true, and one example we have of this is the ten lepers that were cleansed in Luke 17. Only one of them came back and said thank you and Jesus asked, where are the other nine? But I see Philippians 4: 6 from a different perspective. I think that when we offer prayers and petitions to God for others, that we should thank God right then for the answer that He is going to provide. If we truly believe that God hears our prayers and if we truly believe that God answers our prayers in accordance with His will, then ought we not trust that He will answer in His time and with the answer that is best for us? And one way that we can show that belief is to say thank you to God even when we ask. Thank you for hearing my prayer and thank you for the answer that you will provide. Prayer with thanksgiving is one way that we can ask God for something and at the same time, let Him know that we trust His decision to answer yes or no to our request.

So, thanksgiving, after we have received an answer to one of our prayers and before we lift up a new request to God is great and, giving thanks to God when we submit our requests to God is also great. Both are an acknowledgment to God that we are thankful for the fact that He hears and answers our prayers. Eight mechanics of prayer. Pray in the name of Jesus, pray in the will of God, pray in the Spirit, pray with faith, pray with determination, abide in Christ and let His words abide in you, and pray with thanksgiving. If you want to have power in your prayer life, then consider these eight things.