A little boy named Josh went over to his grandmother’s house for a Sunday dinner, along with the rest of his family. Everyone took their seats around the table, and the meal was served. Then little Josh dug in and started eating. Suddenly his mom stopped him and said, “Joshua, what are you doing? We always pray before we eat a meal in our home. We need to do that now.”
Josh said, “Yeah, that’s our house. This is Grandma’s house, and she knows how to cook.”
We can pray anywhere, at any time – even at grandma’s house. I think sometimes we believe God is more likely to hear our prayers if we offer them in a church sanctuary, but the Bible shows us that isn’t true. Paul prayed in a dungeon. Daniel prayed in a cave filled with lions. Peter prayed on the surface of the water. And Jonah prayed under the water.
We attach a lot of significance to the length of a prayer, the structure of a prayer, or the language and eloquence of a prayer. But when God hears a person pray, he looks at the heart. The most important thing to Him is where our heart is.
Clearly, the Scriptures tell us that we ought to be men and women of prayer. Jesus himself encouraged his disciples to always pray and never give up (see Luke 18:1 NLT).
By the way, when you pray, you are not telling God something he is unaware of. What’s more, not only does he know what you’re facing and have all the details you’re praying about, but he has his plan and his will – and he will do what he wants to do no matter what.
Then why pray? If we can’t get God to do what we want him to do, and if he is going to do what he already wants to do, then what is the value of prayer? The value of prayer is that it keeps us in touch with God. The object of prayer is not to bend God’s will our way; it is to bend our will God’s way. Jesus said, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7 NIV).
We get excited at the phrase “whatever you wish.” All of a sudden we start to think of God as a genie coming out of a bottle. But God is not a genie, and he is not Santa. The Message version puts the same statement this way: “But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.”
God will give us what our hearts desire when we make ourselves at home with him and his words are at home in us.
There is a right and a wrong way to pray. And there are right and wrong things to pray for. We find an example of this in two New Testament stories from Matthew 20. The first story teaches us how not to pray. A mother who had great ambition for her sons went to Jesus and asked him for something completely inappropriate: “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom” (verse 21).
Jesus, of course, wasn’t going to answer this prayer. It was an audacious prayer, and it was a selfish prayer. He had just revealed that he was going to be whipped and scourged – that he would have the skin torn off his back. He had just revealed that he would die the worst death imaginable.
It’s almost as though this mother said, “Yeah? Interesting. So … I want something from you now.” She missed the point. So Jesus turned to her sons, James and John, and said, “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” (verse 22). Jesus wasn’t referring to a literal cup, but to the cup of the wrath of God, the cup of the judgment of God. He was using the cup as a metaphor for what he was about to face.
Later, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Scourging and crucifixion were horrific, but for Jesus, the worst thing on the cross was having to take the sins of all people for all time upon himself. He had never sinned.
When Jesus was crucified, who was on his right and his left? Two criminals. And if Jesus had answered that mother’s prayer, that is where her two sons would have ended up.
It is a good thing God doesn’t answer all of our prayers. As Garth Brooks sings, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” God has his way, and God has his will. That is why we should always remember to ask for God’s will above our own.
The second story from Matthew 20 introduces us to two blind men who show us the right way to pray. As Jesus passed by them, they cried out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (verse 30). Jesus stopped and said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” (verse 32). They told Jesus they wanted to receive their sight, and Jesus had compassion on them and gave them what they asked for.
We can learn a lot about how to pray from the actions of these two men. They prayed in a time of crisis, and so should we. There is no shame in that. Jesus was there, so they called out to him. That is what prayer is all about – putting us in touch with God.
They also prayed with passion and persistence. So often there is little power in our prayers because there is little heart in our prayers. When we need God’s help, we should pray with passion and persistence.
What is your need right now? Do you have a physical need like the blind men did? Call out to Jesus. Do you have a child or a marriage that needs help? Call out to Jesus. Are you reaping consequences of foolish things that you’ve done? Call out to Jesus. Don’t give up.