We are in the theme of priorities in the Christian life. And these are means of grace in our Wesleyan tradition or what others may call spiritual disciplines. These are ways in which we practice the presence of God in our lives where God meets us in these experiences. And they are truly priorities, through the scripture, through the church history, and Christian experience of those who have gone before us. So, we are talking today about this important subject of prayer. Note here Jesus said “when you pray” or “whenever you pray”.
So, the first question: When do you pray?
If you look at the scriptures, you’ll note from Genesis all the way to Revelation that there is no precise time or length to our prayer or when we pray. Here’s some references I want to use examples for us to consider:
Psalm 88:13 teaches “Prayer is offered early in the morning.” Well how early is early?
Psalm 55:17 indicates “Prayer was given at morning, noon, and evening.”
Psalm 119:164 relates that “seven times a day, prayers of thanks are given to God.” Whether those are short praises to God or longer prayers to God it does not indicate. But it says seven times a day the person was giving thanks to God.
The prophets also modeled prayer. We know that Daniel prayed at least three times a day.
Then you move into the New Testament and look over the gospels you see the model of Jesus himself. Jesus prayed before sunrise. He also prayed in the evening. And on occasions he prayed all night long. Before he commissioned and sent out the disciples he prayed all night long. Luke 6:12.
You look at the model and the example of the early church, the early Christians in the book of Acts records that they prayed on the 3rd, 6th, and the 9th hours or at least 3 times a day.
Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation, suggested prayer is the first business of the day and the last at night. With the rhythm of the day when we get up in the morning and face the day, we offer prayers to God and then before we would lay our head on our pillow at night that we pray and give thanks to God. I mentioned this before which I recommend to you as a model. Luther also suggested the habit of falling asleep with The Lord’s Prayer on our lips at night and having the same prayer on our lips when we wake up in the morning. It should be noted that Luther prayed 4 hours a day. He said he did this because he was so busy and had so many things he had to do that he prayed 4 hours a day. Note there that this may not have been consecutive hours but cumulative hours of prayer in the whole day.
If I were to ask you if you believed you prayed often enough, I think most of us would say we need to pray more, if we are being honest with ourselves! I would include myself in that category! Of course, we might indicate that Luther lived in a different time and culture as well. But it’s incredible how he was greatly used of God. Church history reveals that people who are greatly used of God are going to be people who spend a lot of time in prayer. From the apostles to modern day, great people of God spent lots of time in prayer.
I was reading an interesting article about Wayne Myers, missionary to Mexico. He was 102 years old when he died on February 1, 2025. During World War II, Myers enlisted in the US Navy, where he served aboard the USS Enterprise. During his 19 months on what would become the country’s most decorated ship, he was struck by the faith of some of his fellow sailors. “I saw a small group of believers full of the Holy Spirit. They prayed hard!” Myers later shared. While at first intimidated by the group that prayed so loudly that “their prayers could be heard from the stern all the way to the bow,” he eventually joined them.
One night, in the middle of a prayer session with the group, Myers said he encountered the Holy Spirit for the first time. “During five hours, that glory that resurrected Jesus from the grave washed all over me, revealing Jesus to me in a whole new dimension,” he later recalled. “He called me to serve him.”
After his military service, Myers attended a Bible college in Pasadena, California. There, in addition to attending 22 hours of classes a week, Meyers began to pray anywhere between 4 and 15 hours a day. During one of these times, “[God] told me in an audible voice, ‘Son, I’m calling you to Mexico to serve my whole body, not to raise a body for yourself,’” he said.
Over time, the church construction ministry that Myers had started years earlier added 6,000 roofs to congregations in Mexico, as well as Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, Philippines, Kenya, and South Africa. Myers kept a handwritten log of projects he believed God had asked him to support. (Some said the number had surpassed 10,000 by the end of his life.)
As he grew older, Myers struggled to slow down. When he was 90, his doctors told him that his heart was only working at 50 percent and advised him to radically reduce his ministry commitments. Nevertheless, Myers continued to preach up to four times a week, and at the age of 101 he was still preaching one-hour sermons, inviting those present to give their hearts to Christ if they had not done it before. Again, we see how people who do great things for God, are people of great prayer.
I was re-reading the text on prayer and devotional life by Steve Harper. He was former professor at Asbury Theological Seminary. He says our prayer and devotional life yields two very important things. First, prayer give us greater communion with God, to heighten and deepen our relationship with God in the vertical angle.
Secondly, prayer gives us greater compassion in the horizontal relationship with other people. So, prayer both reinforces our communion with God. And prayer enhances our compassion for others.
From this perspective, prayer is not escaping from the world. It may be for those moments that we are in communication with God. But out of that time will come what God wants us to do in the world.
Coinciding with this teaching is another great insight from former professor, Bob Mullholland. He said most people are saying I am in the world working for God when it really needs to be I am in God working for the world. Do you understand the difference between those two things? Because if you’re in the world working for God, guess what? The world will weigh you down. The world will stress you out and the work that you are doing in the world will create a lot of high anxiety, stress and frustration. But if you’re in God which means communion with God first, then the mercies of God are new every day and you’re being renewed every day. You’re being reenergized every day in this communion with God so that you can do the work that He’s called you to do. I’m not saying you will not feel tension and stress and other negative emotions. But those negative emotions will not be overwhelming because you are in daily communion with God. I think this parallels what Jesus taught in John 15 that apart from Him we can do nothing. And we are to abide in Christ. Our prayers are key in our communion and abiding with Christ.
Frank Laubach wrote little book on prayer called, “Prayer, the Mightiest Force in the Universe”. It started quite a prayer movement in the early part of the past century. He woke up every morning and this was his prayer. It’s a great model. “God what are you doing in the world today that I can help you with?” All these points really converge here. Especially to the 2nd point, why do we pray? I’m borrowing heavily from Harper’s book on this.
First, our communion with God is preceded by the reality that God is already at work in the world around us. Think about it: God never sleeps nor slumbers. So, even before we get up in the morning, God is already at work. He’s already been at work. So, through our prayers we are getting in sync with God and what God is already doing and where God is going to direct us. I love one of the great church hymns that talks about “Tune my heart to sing thy praise.” Prayer is really tuning our hearts so that we are in sync with the work that God is doing in the world around us and in our community and in our family. And more personally in our own lives. I like this because I think it’s in sync with what Jesus is saying here. In our prayers we do not need to say a lot of words. Your heart is more important than your lips. Your heart being in tune with God is more important than the words that you speak when you’re praying. I’m sure most of you have probably been in a phone conversation with someone who was maybe upset about something or had some problem that they were calling you about. Here is how the call might go…Hello Chet! Yeah, it’s good to hear from you. Yeah. Yeah. You What? Yeah. Well, I’m really sorry to hear that, Chet. Yeah. Yeah. Well, have you tried….? Yes Chet. Well, let me say… Yeah. Let me just… Ok. Alright. Well, it’s been really good talking to you too Chet.
Notice anything about the conversation in that phone call? There is NO real conversation happening. It’s a monologue, right? Isn’t that a lot of what our prayers sound like? It’s like we are in this monologue with God telling God about everything but never giving God a chance to respond. Or never really listening to God.
I love what John Calvin says, “Believers do not pray with the view of informing God about things unknown to him or of exciting him to do his duty.” In other words, not prompting God to say, Ok God you need to catch up here! God, let me catch you up on what’s going on as if he didn’t already know. Or of urging him as if he were reluctant. Remember Matthew 6:8 here says that God already knows what we need before we even think about praying. Calvin goes on to say that we may relieve ourselves from the anxieties by pouring them into his bosom into God’s care. As Peter says, “casting our care upon the Lord for he cares for us.”
My wife was sharing that she had been praying for a building or more functional space here. As she was praying…Ok God, we need a building or more functional space. And it was if God spoke to her saying, “I know this…I know what you need!” `
The next chapter over in Matthew 7 we read: “Is there anyone among you if your child asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if your child asks for a fish, will you give him a snake?” And the answer to that is…No way! You wouldn’t think about doing that. So, he says, “If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?” Remember he already knows. We are not informing him about something he doesn’t already know. But yes, God always has the best intentions in mind and will give good gifts to us. We may not always get the desires that we want or the things we might be expecting. I recall a statement that was attributed as: The Prayer of An Unknown Confederate Soldier:
I asked God for strength, that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health, that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy.
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life.
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for—but got everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all people, most richly blessed.
That gives us much needed perspective. But the reality is God is a good Father who always has good gifts for us. So, our prayer is to reinforce our communion with God and knowing that God is already working, and He wants us to be in sync with Him.
Secondly, our communion with God gives us the part of God’s work that God wants us to engage. Now this is very important. I recall back in 2019 we were working doing disaster response and clearing off a piece of land for a family whose house had been destroyed by Hurricane Michael. We were clearing it off so they could start a new home. We knew we were only working for half a day that day. We knew the job would not be completed that day as well. And we also knew that what we were doing was such a small amount of all the work that needed to be done in that area. And we knew we were probably going back again to try to bring further help. But for that day we were engaging in what we needed to do. I was reminded of Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer where it says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” This is a very helpful perspective because it keeps us from trying to do everything. And then it gets overwhelming! Again, we’re in sync with God and he’s giving us his grace and mercy to accomplish what he has for us now this day. So our work is more limited and focused and we’re not trying to do everything in the world. And along these lines as well as God as a shepherd who leads us. He leads his sheep. The devil is a rancher who drives us or tries to drive us like cattle. God gives us direction and leads us. Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He leads me beside the still water.”
E. Stanley Jones called prayer “The Listening Post”. I love that analogy. It’s the Listening Post where we are tuning our hearts. We’re listening to what God has to say to us, for direction we might receive from him more specifically. So, again, prayer is not just an idle contemplation where we’re going apart somewhere and we’re separating ourselves away from the world. In that moment we may be. But in those moments of prayer we are reengaging the world. We’re in God for the world as Mulholland would say. It’s a very significant point as to why we pray.
Third and last here. Our prayer/communion is our desire to do God will. This is not simply to ask for requests. Many of our prayers are intercessions. A lot of the Pastoral Prayers here are intercessions. We’re praying for other people. And we need to do that but that’s only one type of prayer. And that type of prayer does not necessarily put us in communion with God. It is more asking God or telling God what we want God to do rather than really being in communion with God and asking, Ok God, what is it you want me to do this day?
Many of you perhaps remember a couple of years ago the film, “The War Room”. That movie is a powerful movie about prayer. And it gives us another great reason why we pray. One of the points I took away from that movie was that every problem that we have is a spiritual problem. It may on the surface seem like it’s a physical problem but underneath it’s a spiritual problem. Every problem we face is a spiritual problem. We can trace it back to a spiritual root. I think that’s why Jesus was saying it’s important for us to get away, to get in a closet, to be undivided, to get in sync with God, to know what the root of the problem really is.
Paul writes about this in Ephesians 6.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
The battle is not physical but spiritual and that is why we have to be in communion with God, if we’re going to be victorious in this life.
So, what about your prayer and devotional life? I hope it’s more than just fulfilling a church vow that says you will be faithful to pray. But it’s really your spiritual lifeline to God. True communion with God. Is that a priority in your life now? Maybe for some of you this may be the first time you have even contemplated making this a priority. And for others perhaps it may need to be reestablished. Consistent prayer is something that has slipped out of your life. But wherever you are, I hope this will be a true priority for you. I’ve often thought, Lord, make my life a prayer. For me, for all of you, Lord, make my life a prayer. My thoughts, my actions, my attitude, my words, that I am in communion, I’m in sync with you. And then the compassion, loving God and loving others flows out of that communion with God.
Will you pray with me? Lord, I ask today that through your Holy Spirit that you would draw us close to you. Enable us to cherish your presence. Lord that we may have true communion with you and that we would receive the counsel and direction that you alone have for us. And Lord I pray today that we might commit or recommit our lives anew with this priority, that we would seek your face and invite you to dwell in us totally, fully, continually, we pray in and through Jesus our Lord, our Savior. Amen