Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Nine)

Part Nine - Why are you asking?

I didn't expect this series to last this long. I have to be honest and say that we are only about half way through! I'm hoping it's not boring, but encouraging. I'm simply sharing what I learned after I started to ask the question, "does the Bible teach that we will receive everything and anything we ask for in prayer?" I found around 15-20 verses in the New Testament that appeared to lead to that conclusion. And that was a problem for me, because I could think of examples in my own experience and in the Bible itself where prayer requests were not granted. I don't like to live with contradictions, so I studied for a couple of months, looking into whether these verses really did teach that, and what I should be learning about prayer to my thinking straight.

I also have to admit that I am not good when it comes to prayer. I seem to talk, write and read more about prayer than I actually do it! And that is wrong. If there are two things that I can sum up out of the passages we have gone through so far, it would be that the Bible encourages us, if not nags us, to pray; and that God wants to give us good things in response to our prayers, because He is our loving and gracious heavenly Father. Those things should, and often do, spur me on to pray in my imperfect way. So as I write this, I am praying that I would pray more and learn how to pray in a way that is honouring to God.

The verses I want to look at today are James 4:1-3:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

The suggestion that we will receive everything we ask for in prayer is not explicit in this passage. I initially took it as implicit. But I think you only have to read it once or twice to see that it's not even implicit.

As we saw in Part Five of this series, James is talking about how we should respond to suffering and hardship. He is challenging us. And one of the things that can happen when hardships come upon us is that we can become bitter and jealous. We want to live comfortably and we see that other people either prevent us from living comfortably or simply live the lifestyle we want. And it can cause quarrels and fights.

The ticking off from James is really, "why are you complaining and fighting about things you don't have? You haven't even asked the One who can give you anything! Nothing is impossible for Him. So ask Him!!"

Hence, we see again the emphasis on the asking, not on the receiving.

But there is a second point in this passage, which is something that we have touched on before. "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives…" (v3) What are the wrong motives? "… so that may spend what you get on your pleasures."

This is why the "name it and claim it" philosophy that was popular for a time, especially in America, is so wrong. Popular preachers were saying, "if you want a mansion, ask for a mansion, claim it, have faith, and it will be yours. If you want a pink Rolls Royce, visualise it, ask for it, claim it… and it will be yours."

James would have said, "Why? Why do you want a pink Rolls Royce or a huge mansion?" If we have selfish motives then we are never entitled to expect God will grant our requests.

So we see again the challenge to ask ourselves whether we are praying in the name of Jesus. Are we sharing His priorities? Or are we asking selfishly, for only our own benefit? 

And here we have to understand the bluntness of what James is saying. This is not a call for all Christians to agonise over every phrase in their prayers to see whether they have the right motives, to wonder whether they are being spiritual enough. Ultimately that kind of agonising drives us away from prayer (at least it does for me), because we get to the point where we don't feel like we can trust our own motives. We are in danger of spending so long in self-examination that we don't leave enough time to actually talk to God! And that conflicts with James' point - don't neglect to pray! When James speaks of those who people who ask with the wrong motives, hoping to spend what they get on their own pleasures, he is talking about people who are, deep down, still worldly and unconverted. They ask for riches, freedom from persecution, so that they can be comfortable and enjoy worldly pleasures. They have no interest in glorifying and serving God, no interest in following their suffering Saviour. As we saw when we looked at James chapter 1 (see Part Five of this series), these are not people who are weak in faith, but people who have no faith at all. 

From the moment we become Christians - when we are brought to the realisation that we need to repent of our old selfish ways, to live God's way rather than our own, to change and believe things we didn't believe before - our lives are a struggle to bring our motives into line with God's will. We struggle to make our priorities and motivation consistent with God's. We will struggle with this for the rest of our earthly lives. And part of that struggle will manifest itself in our prayers. But that should not stop us praying! On the contrary we should pray all the more, that the Lord would continue His work within us to change us and enable us to have His priorities at the centre of our lives.

So in conclusion, if we are struggling it ought not to be because we are neglecting to ask the Lord for help. We ought to pray - pray with God-glorifying motives, and pray for God-glorifying motives.

Reflections on What it Will Be Like Meeting God on Judgment Day

When we think about dying and meeting God we should be afraid, afraid enough to think how we can prepare for that day. We will all die one day, and when we do we will meet our Maker! An atheist may say they don't believe they will have any conscious experience after death, and therefore they have nothing to be afraid of. But God has told us that we will all face Him after the end of our life in this world. We can choose whether we believe that or not, but that will not affect the truth of the situation. And the prospect of meeting the Creator, the Lawmaker, the Judge, the All-Powerful, the Ruler of Everything, should make us nervous.

I had an experience recently that made me think about this. It's not an experience I really wanted to talk about. I would rather forget about it, to be honest. But for the sake of a helpful illustration I will share! If someone finds this helpful then perhaps it will make a bad experience a bit more bearable!!

I had a claim for "Jobseekers Allowance" (a UK state benefit for the unemployed) turned down in 2009 when I had been out of work for eight months. I thought that was jolly unfair and so I appealed against the decision. I thought nothing more of it, since I finally found an interim management contract, and then fell ill. It was not worth chasing. But then a few of months ago I got a letter acknowledging my appeal and inviting me to a tribunal to hear the case. The hearing was several weeks ago, at the end of 2010.

I went along to the hearing having done a little preparation, but not armed with enough evidence to back up my case. I completely underestimated the formality and seriousness of the occasion. And I was utterly humiliated!

The case was heard by a "judge". Ok, not a real judge, but an independent lawyer with authority to judge in the tribunal. I walked into the room alone and sat at a desk facing the judge's bench, which was raised up on a platform. He spoke with a confident, posh accent - like the judges in the TV courtroom dramas.

He chided me for not bringing enough evidence, made me feel very small and reduced all my arguments to mumbling. I had set up my affairs in a particular way, and had not ordered them correctly in a way that would allow me to claim benefits. The fact that I had reached the point of selling a car, cashing in mortgage endowment policies and maxing out credit cards was of no interest. The fact that I had not asked advice from someone who could have given me good advice was of no consequence (even though I had asked advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau!). I had tripped over the letter of the law, I should have known better and my appeal was a waste of everyone's time. And since I had earned a fair amount of money before my lengthy spell out of work I was made to feel bad for even applying for benefits in the first place.

I wished I had taken the whole thing more seriously, but it was too late. I wished I had been better prepared, but it was too late. I wished I had brought an advisor or a representative with me, but it was too late. (Actually, to be perfectly honest, I wished that I had just given up on the claim in 2009 and not bothered with the appeal!)

My point is not the rights or wrongs of my case. My point is that the experience of sitting in front of an unsympathetic judge, on my own, with no advocate, no advisor, in a quiet room on a grey Tuesday afternoon, and receiving what I felt was a "telling off", was extremely unpleasant. I would rather forget about it.

Without Christ, when we face God, the Judge of all People, we too would go before Him alone. We would feel exposed. We would realise how unprepared we are. We would kick ourselves because it would be too late to do anything about it. We would kick ourselves for not taking this court more seriously. All our arguments and complaints against Him would be reduced to mumbling. We would not be able to exonerate ourselves. God's courtroom would be infinitely more forbidding and scary than the mini-courtroom I sat in. God would not have to say very much before our arguments would crumble, and we would realise that we should have known. And instead of being free to walk out of the hearing into the bleak streets of Reading, with only an ear-bashing and a failed appeal, we would go straight to face eternal punishment.

Many of us know this deep within ourselves, and we fear it. How will God, who sees everything, look upon our impurities, our selfishness, our greed, our sins? Can we really comfort ourselves with not being as bad as the worst? We're not Myra Hindley, Saddam Hussain or Adolf Hitler, but is that good enough? Everyone does things that are wrong, but is that a good enough excuse? Who will help us after we die to make our case before God, the Creator, the Judge? 

If we dwell long enough on the subject of our death, we realise that it will be a lonely journey. Can we really believe it will be a journey into darkness and nothing? Or will it be a lonely journey into the presence of the One whom we have spent our lives trying to avoid? And if we have spent our lives trying to avoid Him, how angry will He be? Who will help us then?

There is only one person who can help us. And only one way we can avoid this humiliation. That is Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 1:8-2:2) (NB. "Propitiation" is where God's judgment upon us because of our sin is turned aside by Jesus standing in our place, taking our punishment upon himself.)

Jesus is our advocate with God the Father. Jesus stands for us in the courtroom of God if we have faith in Him and repent of our sins. He speaks in our defence. God could justly punish every human being with eternal damnation for our rejection of His rule in our lives. And yet because Jesus, the perfect Son of God, came as a human being on earth, and took the punishment that should have been handed to His people, by dying on the cross and suffering separation from His Father, God can look at us in that courtroom and acquit us. And we will be acquitted, not because God simply sweeps our sins and wrongdoing under the carpet, but because His justice has already been satisfied by Jesus' death. All the wrath of God that we deserve was brought down on the head of the Son of God.

And God, through Christ, offers that forgiveness, to everyone if they will only turn, acknowledging their sin against Him, trusting in Jesus.

The bad news of life without Christ is death without Christ - a lonely journey to a courtroom where wrath with be full, wrath will be forever and wrath will be just.

The good news of life with Christ is eternal life after death with Christ - a life accompanied by the best friend and advocate anyone ever had, freedom to enjoy the new perfect creation that God will bring in to replace this passing universe at the end of time, a life never having to come in to the courtroom of God because Jesus has been there on our behalf.

Some more verses:

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:6-8)

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)

If you are not a Christian, understand that this is serious and true, and this is the reason why your Christian friends want to convert you so much!! Your urgent attention will not be wasted for all eternity.

For Christians these thoughts should fill us again with gratitude and worship, that we should be forgiven and redeemed even though we deserve wrath. And we should be filled with compassion and concern for our friends and family members who don't yet believe the good news, leading us to urgent prayer and taking every opportunity, with humility and grace, to share this salvation with them.

May none of us have to face the courtroom of God, but instead, through Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world, may we look forward to eternal life and friendship with God.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Eight)

Part Eight - Yup, ask for Anything!

I shared in the last two articles some thoughts on some verses in John's gospel relating to prayer. I'll reiterate the verses here:

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." (John 14:13-14)

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." (John 15:7)

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (John 15:16)

"I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:23-24)

We saw that these statements do not assure us that all our requests will be granted without exception. Rather, they challenge us to pray with the same priorities as Jesus, because that is the basic condition for the granting of our requests. And Jesus' ultimate priority was His Father's glory, seen through His love and the eternal salvation of His people. And so we should learn to pray, "your will be done," whatever our desires may be.

However, I feel that simply saying that does not entirely do justice to the discourse from which these verses are taken (John chapters 13 to 17). You see, whilst it is right that we note that the promises are conditional, the main point Jesus is making is not that.

When Jesus starts speaking at the beginning of John 13 He knows that this will be the last time He has chance to speak to the disciples before He goes to His death. This is where He wants to tell them things and show them things that will comfort them when all appears to be lost. John introduces the section by saying, "It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love." (John 13:1) He shows them how they should love one another and predicts the betrayal and denials that will shortly follow. He can feel their fear, and says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." (John 14:1,27) He assures them of their eternal salvation, and their relationship with the Father. He promises to send the Holy Spirit to be with them and give them peace (John 14:26-27). He tells them about the priority to bear fruit, and the expectation that they will be persecuted (John 15). He predicts their grief, but also assures them that they will see Him again (John 16:22). And then He prays for them (John 17).

They are going to need help. They are going to face trials, hardships and persecutions. How are they going to get what they need to get through all this? Answer: "You may ask me for anything in my name…" (14:14) "Ask whatever you wish…" (15:7) "… the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name…" (15:16; 16:23) "Ask and you will receive…" (16:24)

What a comfort it is to know that we can ask God for anything, whatever we want. He is our heavenly Father and He wants us to know that we can ask Him for anything, because He loves us.

Jesus is sending us on a really tough mission - to glorify the one true God, and His only Son, among nations and people that hate to submit to Him. We have a message of salvation, good news for those who will repent and believe, and submit their lives to Him. It's a message worth dying for, because it speaks of a life beyond this life. But we will meet obstacles, hardships, troubles, anxieties, turmoil, objections, illness, pain, along the way. But we must still press on. And as He stands there giving us our mission, knowing what we must face along the way, He says, "I will be there for you. My Father will be there for you. My Spirit will be within you. If you need anything, anything at all, just give us a shout, and we'll help you out!"

Wow! No matter how tough life is, we can ask God for anything! God, our Father, the one who loved us so much He sent His Son to die to save us. "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32) God, the all-powerful Creator, for whom nothing is impossible. "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) This God is the only God, and the one of whom we can ask anything, anything as we seek to fulfil our mission.

So, let's live out this mission, knowing it will be hard. And when it's hard, let's not forget that Jesus told us we can ask God for anything, because not only can we not do it without Him, but He wants to help us! "What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!"

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Seven)

Part Seven - Whatever you want... from the menu, sir...
 

I've been sharing recently some thoughts arising out of study I did in some passages relating to prayer and faith in the New Testament. Last time I covered some verses from John's gospel, where we looked at what it means to pray "in Jesus' name". I noted that this acts as a kind of precondition for proper prayer. The basic thrust is that we must pray with the same objectives and priorities as Jesus if we are to pray in His name. That involves living for Him, living by His words, bearing fruit, and ultimately aiming in everything for the glory of God.

I did say at one point last time that I would come back and talk about the specific context of the promises. Without noting the context it would be easy to get the impression that Jesus is promising to give us everything and anything we ask for in prayer, immediately and without exception - and so every Christian bloke (at least the English ones) would expect to be married to Cheryl Cole, and own three Ferraris, a private jet, a mansion in Barbados, a gold iPhone and a box at Stamford Bridge! Jesus says in John 14:13, "And I will do whatever you ask…". One limitation on this is the next three words, as we have already seen, "…in my name". The other limitation is in the context.

The immediately preceding verse leads us in the direction we need to look. "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (14:12) What Jesus has been doing is the work of God the Father by speaking the words of the Father (v10), and performing miracles (v11). 

But what are "greater things than these"? The passage does not say. However, back in John 5 Jesus talks in a similar way. "For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no-one, but has entrusted judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father." (John 5:20-23) Here it is clear that "greater things" refers to the granting of new life to souls that are "dead in transgressions and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).

Greater than healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, raising the physically dead, will be the work of saving souls. And Jesus' followers are to be engaged in saving souls especially after He is resurrected and ascended into heaven, since we have now been given the Holy Spirit to help us. Of course, it is Jesus and not we who save souls. We pray for it and work for it, but Jesus says (14:14), "… I will do it."

Hence when Jesus tells us that He will do "whatever you ask in my name, so that you may bring glory to the Father" (14:13), He means we are to ask for whatever we need in order to perform those great works of soul-saving. We are to ask for Him to do His soul-saving work in the lives of the people around us, using our words and our actions.

When we come to John 15:7 and 15:16 we find that the context is all about bearing fruit. 

"… Ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (15:7-8)

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (15:16)

More broadly Jesus is talking about the necessity of remaining in him in order to bear fruit. He uses the illustration of the vine and branches. The branches cannot bear fruit unless they remain part of the vine. And in the same way we cannot bear fruit unless we remain part of Christ. And if we do not remain in Christ, why should He grant our prayer requests? That's why verses 7 and 16 are almost stating the same condition. Bearing fruit is only possible by remaining in Christ, and He will only grant our prayer requests if we remain in Him.

But that doesn't quite answer the question. If we remain in Him, connected to Him, trusting in Him, bearing fruit (which I take to mean especially the holiness of our lives - Galatians 5:22), then Jesus said that he would give us whatever we wish. And yet there are Spirit-filled, fruit-bearing, Christians who fall sick in spite of praying for health, who are persecuted in spite of praying for peace.

And this is where we have to understand that the word "whatever" is one of those words that is almost always contextually limited. It sounds unlimited, but it rarely is. For example, if I went into a restaurant the waiter might say to me, "order whatever you want". And I'd say, "I'll have an Aston Martin DB7, please!" And the waiter would then make explicit what I should have understood before, "Actually, sir, I meant order whatever you want from the menu!" (Actually I wouldn't have asked for the DB7, because I could not have paid for it… but you hopefully get my drift!)

So yet again, rather than carte blanche to get whatever riches and comforts we want, these verses are the encouragement we need to take up the challenge to be God-centred. Jesus tells us we are to be fruitful, we are to remain fully devoted to Him, God-centred, focussed on doing the work on God, glorifying Him. How can we do that? We are only human! We are full of sinful desires, temptations. We cannot change ourselves. We cannot enter the hearts of other people and change them. And yet we are asked to be soul-savers, to do greater works than Jesus Himself! The encouragement is that in that mission we can ask God for whatever we want - whatever we want to be more fruitful - and if we are in Christ He will always give us what we ask for.

The challenge, yet again, is to align ourselves with Christ's priorities so that we can ask in His name.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Six)

Part Six - In Jesus' Name

I've been sharing recently what I learned when I did a study in passages relating to prayer and faith. In particular, you'll remember if you've been keeping up with me from the beginning of this series, I wanted to investigate thoroughly passages in the New Testament that appear to give some warrant for believing that we should expect to receive everything that we ask for in prayer.

I've been wondering all along whether I've bitten off more than I can chew when I presume to write about these things. I've read and dipped into some great books and articles in doing this study, written by theologians with greater insight and knowledge than I am likely to attain to this side of glory. That's why I'm careful to say that I'm sharing my thoughts, rather than teaching with any kind of authority. This is especially so when dealing with passages in John's gospel, which I have found to be one of the most difficult books of the Bible to get to grips with.

And it's to John's gospel that I wanted, with the Lord's help, to turn to here. The relevant verses are all within Jesus' last conversation with His disciples on the evening before His crucifixion. This is given to us in chapters 13 to 17 of John's gospel. It is well worthwhile reading the entire passage on your own, before you read any further, to get a feel for the themes Jesus covers.

The verses I will home in on are the following:

"And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." (John 14:13-14)

"If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you." (John 15:7)

"You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name." (John 15:16)

"I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:23-24)

Conditions for answered prayer

I think, if I'm honest, my initial problem with these verses was that I focussed too heavily on the words "whatever you ask" or "whatever you wish". I got a bit carried away! "Whatever I want! Great!" 

However, when you read carefully you pick up not only that the context is quite specific (which I will touch on later), but that each of these promises is conditional. So we ought to pay attention to the conditions in order to pray in a way that the Lord will response positively to.

The one that crops up most often is "in my name" (14:13; 14:14; 15:16; 16:23). (The other conditions we see in these passages are saying similar things. "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask…" (John 15:7) "… go and bear fruit… Then the Father will give you whatever you ask." (John 15:16)) So what does it mean to pray "in Jesus' name"?

Well, it hopefully goes without saying that simply ending a prayer with, "in Jesus' name, Amen," does not necessarily qualify. It's not a magic formula. Through history, we have come to use those words in our prayers really as a self-checking device: Can I really ask for what I have just said and then say it is in Jesus' name?

As a starting point I think we simply have to compare what it means to act or make requests in the name of someone in general. In formal situations we may think of someone like an ambassador. An ambassador goes in the name of their King or government to communicate with the government of another country. They may communicate and make requests freely, but only within the bounds set by the policies of their own government or King. Whatever they say within those bounds is treated as if it were direct communication or requests from the ambassador's King or government. Or think of having legal representation in court. Your lawyer speaks in your name, and speaks freely, but may only speak in line with your instructions beforehand. Whatever they say in your name (i.e. in accordance with your instructions) is treated as being from you.

So when Jesus says that we can approach God the Father in His name, He means that we are free to communicate with God directly and ask for things that are in keeping with His own words and actions, based on our faith and union with Him. In fact, the whole point is that because of our relationship with Jesus, we can go directly to the Father and make requests. See John 16:26-27, "In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." We don't pray to Jesus, so that He can mediate our requests and pass them on to God on our behalf. Jesus has mended that broken relationship, so that we can approach God directly. And we do that in Jesus' name, according to our love for Him, our faith in Him and in obedience to Him; more than that: according to His love, obedience and sacrifice for us.

Praying in Jesus' name is at heart praying on the basis of what Jesus has done. When we appear before God the Father with our requests and claim that we come "in Jesus' name", we are saying fundamentally that our permission to come before God and present requests rests in Jesus' name. And Jesus' name cannot be separated from what He did on the cross, and in the resurrection. The writer to the Hebrews says exactly this when he says, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16) Jesus' sacrifice is the reason we can come to God. "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God." (1 Peter 3:18) He took our sin onto Himself and dealt with it, suffering its penalty, so that we could be counted righteous and be accepted as God's children. And only God's children, those who are in Christ, can approach God confidently in prayer. 

So when we pray "in Jesus' name" we should not be presumptuous, but humble, knowing that it is only by the death and sacrifice, and victory, of Jesus, when He laid down His life for us, and rose from the dead, that we are able to pray. Does it make sense to come before God and ask for things with selfish motives on the basis of Jesus suffering the wrath of God for our sins? For example, should we say, "Lord, in Jesus' name - because Jesus suffered and died - please give us an easy life?" Doesn't the fact that we are only given the privilege of prayer through Jesus' death and resurrection force us to align the purpose of our praying with the purpose of His death and resurrection - namely so that His people might be "to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:12).

But further, if we are to pray in the name of Jesus we should only pray for things that Jesus would approve of, and in a way that He would ask. 

And what kind of things are those things that Jesus would approve of? What are His priorities? That we "bear fruit" (15:8,16), that we testify about Christ (15:26), that we love each other (15:12), that we remain obedient (15:10). Ultimately, Jesus' priority was to glorify His Father, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you." (17:1) And He wants us to join Him, sharing in that glory. "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." (17:24)

So we should challenge ourselves when we pray. Are we praying in Jesus' name? Do we want what Jesus wants? If we pray for whatever we want, is it displaying Jesus' priorities? The real question is not whether God will give us whatever we want, but whether we want the things that our Saviour wants. If we want to be like Jesus, we should pray for that, and God will grant our request. If we want to love others, to have wisdom, to be humble, to have the right priorities, to seek first the kingdom of God, to be righteous, to be holy, to glorify the God who alone is worthy of glory, honour and praise; if we want those things, then we should ask for them, and God will grant our requests.

If we are primarily concerned to bear fruit to the glory of God, if we live our lives in line with Jesus' teaching, His words remaining in us, then we will ask for things that show those priorities.

In that context, prayers for success in business, freedom from problems, even healing of sickness, are all less important than we think. If we want to pray in Jesus' name we should say, "if healing me will glorify you most, then I pray for healing. If success in business will glorify you most, then I pray for success…"

And that's where we learn to pray as Jesus did in the garden before He died. "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it possible, may this cup [the plan that involved his death and suffering on the cross] be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)

I'm not saying that we shouldn't pray about every little thing that concerns us, from the job interview, the argument with the girlfriend or safety for the 100-mile trip, to the agony of losing a close relative or suffering persecution. But I think if we want to pray "in Jesus' name" we should always ask ourselves why we are praying as we do. How will getting what we ask for bring glory to God? And is His glory what we ultimately want?

And within these limitations, Jesus says that He "will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." (John 14:13)

There are other things to say from these passages in John, but they will have to wait until next time.

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Five)

Part Five - If you need, ask!
 

This is the fifth article in a series thinking through Bible passages that appear to promise that God will give us anything and everything that we ask for in prayer. It started, while I was having treatment for cancer, with tripping over a bold statement in my daily reading: "The prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up." (James 5:15) As I studied more broadly in the Bible, I discovered almost twenty similarly bold statements in the New Testament relating to what can be achieved through faith and prayer. So this series of articles is really just sharing what I found when I studied each of these passages. Fittingly, I think, James 5:15 will be the last passage I will talk about in the series! I learnt a lot on the route back to that passage, and I hope I manage to get that over to you in a way that will spur us all on to greater faith and bolder prayer.

Today I will try to share what I found when I had a look at James 1:5-8. It reads:

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

I think one of the most helpful things to get straight first with the book of James is the purpose of the letter. There are some very bold statements in the letter, somewhat startling in many cases, and they make a lot more sense when you understand what James was trying to achieve overall.

And you don't have to look very far. Whereas some writers will work gently and diplomatically up to a point, James comes straight in with it at the beginning with characteristically blunt style: "To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:1b-4) He was writing to Christians who were suffering for their faith, they had been scattered throughout the nations. How should they face their suffering, their "trials of many kinds"? With "pure joy"! PURE JOY!!!! Yeah right! Why? Because there was a good purpose in their suffering - so that through the testing of their faith they may persevere, and through perseverance become "mature and complete, not lacking anything". 

So the letter is really about how we should respond to suffering if we are to become "mature and complete, not lacking anything." How are we to respond? To sum up in a sentence: We are to respond to suffering with faith, working itself out in obedience, love, humility and prayer. When we look at what read in James with that context in mind, it makes a lot more sense.

So, what's the first thing we might lack if we are aiming to become "mature and complete, not lacking anything"? We probably wouldn't know what to do. So James says straight away, "If any of you lacks wisdom…" (1:5) If any of us lacks wisdom and we don't know how to respond in the face of suffering, so that we might move to greater maturity in Christ, what have we to do?

Ask God! The call to prayer begins and ends James' letter (see 5:13) and crops up in the middle as well (4:2). There are many bad responses to suffering, dealt with later on by James: bitterness (1:13), anger (1:19), sucking up to rich people (2:1ff), cursing people (3:9), envy (3:16), fighting and quarrelling (4:1), slander (4:11), pride (4:13-16), greed (5:5). What should the first response to suffering be? Talk to the Lord about it! Pray!

This is so simple, but how often do we forget? I neglect prayer much too often. I often feel like I don't know what to do in difficult situations. Why don't I just pray? In the words of Joseph Scriven's hymn (1855):

What a friend we have in Jesus,

all our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

all because we do not carry

everything to God in prayer.

Here I learnt again what I mentioned in Part Three of this series, that the emphasis is on the asking, not on the receiving. 

But why should we ask God for wisdom, or for anything else for that matter?

Ask God, because He gives generously and graciously to all who ask. And because He is gracious (He does not hold back good things because of our sinfulness, if we have faith in Christ) and generous (he "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Eph 3:20)), if we ask for wisdom it will be given to us. This is akin to the encouragement we found in Matthew 7 (see Part Three of this series), where we saw that God is our loving heavenly Father, and therefore will give good things to His children (us) when we ask.

So again I found that this passage does not promise to give us everything we ask God for simply because we ask. But it does encourage us to pray, and assure us that God is both generous and gracious. It also tells us that if we ask for wisdom, and whatever we need to deal with suffering to persevere and become "mature and complete" in our relationship with Him, and in His service, then He will surely give us what we need.

But there is one last thing to draw out of this passage.

Those without faith will not receive anything. "When he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord." (James 1:8)

As we saw last time, even a mustard seed faith, a faltering faith that says, "help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24), is a faith that God can bless with miracles. So the doubt that James speaks of is not the "faithful doubt" that I have spoken about in other articles (the lack of understanding or the confusion that is more than counterbalanced, if not underpinned, by clinging to absolutely certain promises). This is what James calls being "double-minded", kind of hypocritical, claiming to be a Christian and yet never letting go of self-reliance. Since this double-minded, doubting person is not approaching prayer from the standpoint of faithful reliance on God, he cannot expect to receive anything from God.

So the challenge to us is do we really believe? Have we ditched our self-reliance and acknowledged that we are dependent on God for everything? Have we asked Jesus to be our Saviour, so that our relationship with God may be redeemed? Do we come to God as our heavenly Father, the one who is able and willing to give us wonderful things in Christ?

Regarding this faith, I like what George Stulac says in his commentary on James (IVP New Testament Commentary on James, IVP, 1993):

There are certain distortions of this teaching common today which should be recognised. The first distortion occurs within what is popularly known as the "name it and claim it" philosophy, when Christians are taught that they should name whatever they need in faith and so claim it as given to them. The dangers are the misplacing of faith and the raising of unbiblical expectations. Christians are sometimes led, in effect, to place their faith in the force of their own believing, and then to expect freedom from hardship or deprivation. What James is prescribing is something different: faith in the grace of God, which enables faith to be exercised even within hardship and deprivation.

A further distortion of the biblical teaching occurs when Christians treat James's warning against doubt (and the similar teaching by Jesus in Mt 21:21) superficially, taking it to require a wilful suppression of mental doubts. This can become an unrecognised attempt to manipulate God by one's own power of positive thinking. The error has left many in bondage to fear, afraid of their own thoughts and afraid of the God who might hold their doubts against them and therefore not grant the wisdom needed. The result is a crippling of people's faith and a perversion of the very truth James is teaching: that God gives freely, without finding fault.

So pray, pray with faith in our generous, loving, gracious, Father. Ask for wisdom. Ask for whatever you need to become mature and complete in Christ, as you seek His kingdom and His righteousness. And He will give us "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."

Prayer - Ask for Anything? (Part Four)

Part Four - You Gotta Have Faith
 

We're continuing here our study in Bible passages related to prayer, specifically those that appear to suggest that we automatically get what we ask for.

I thought the next passage we should look into should be Mark 9:14-32, which is paralleled in Matthew 17:14-23. I am not going to reproduce the whole of these passages, so I recommend that you get your Bible out and read through them, so that you can relate to what I say.

Jesus has just been amazingly transfigured in the presence of Peter, James and John. They had heard the voice of God coming from out of a bright cloud surrounding them, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him." (Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7).

The remaining nine disciples had been left in the town, continuing the mission they had been given (Matthew 10:1; Mark 6:12-13). When Jesus, Peter, James and John met up with them, they found them in dispute with a crowd. The dispute had arisen because a man had brought his demon-possessed son to them for healing, but they had been unable to do so. Jesus heals the boy, but the disciples want to know why they had not been able to heal him.

Jesus' reply, in Matthew 17:20 is, "Because you have so little faith." Mark, on the other hand, records Jesus saying, "This kind can come out only by prayer." (Mark 9:29). These accounts do not conflict, however, when you consider that faith and prayer are so intimately linked. As William Hendriksen says, "Of course, these two go together. Where there is little faith, there is little prayer." (New Testament Commentary on Mark, p352)

Some demons evidently are more powerful and malignant than others, and therefore some are easier to drive out than others. Jesus had given the disciples authority to drive out demons, but He never said that it would be easy in every case. As human beings, they (and we) cannot tell how powerfully someone is enslaved by demonic power, spiritual darkness or sin. We cannot look into a person's heart. All we can do is read the external signs. Therefore, Jesus chides the disciples for giving up so easily. If they had had faith, believing the promise implicit in the mission Jesus had given them, then they would have persevered in prayer.

Hence the real lesson of the passage is about persevering in prayer. But there are two other points relevant to our study. Why should we persevere in prayer? Why should we have faith?

Jesus' statements about faith are puzzling in the context of my question as to whether we can expect God to grant us every request. He says in Mark 9:23, "Everything is possible for him who believes." In Matthew's account he adds, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)

Do these statements amount to a promise that if we have even a small amount of faith we should be able to do amazing miracles whenever we want, things like moving mountains? Is Jesus promising to grant our requests for anything every time if we have enough faith? Well, no!

For a start, the mention of mustard seeds and mountains should be enough to make us realise that Jesus is talking about extremes to make a point. Mustard seeds are the smallest of all the seeds, and moving mountains is something so cataclysmic that no human being in the history of the world has ever been able to do it. Moving mountains is something that God alone does, with earthquakes and volcanoes and floods. The smallest imaginable faith is shown performing the greatest imaginable miracle.

Secondly, Jesus does not say that everything is promised for him who believes. He says everything is possible. Nothing should be thought of as impossible if we ask the one who created the universe and keeps it in existence.

Thirdly, the scene is set with a crowd, including "teachers of the law", arguing with the nine disciples (Mark 9:14,16). The argument evidently arose from the faithless lawyers and the crowd, bringing the disciples their trickiest case of demonic-possession, and then gleefully rounding on them when they could not drive it out. There was no faith involved in bringing the poor boy to the disciples. It was a test designed to trip them up and disprove Jesus' claims about Himself. Jesus was not unfamiliar with these sneaky tactics, and His first response is significant. He says, "O unbelieving generation." (Mark 9:19; Matt 17:17)

Jesus sets up a contrast between the lack of faith of the crowd and the lawyers, and the faltering faith eventually shown by the father. He draws attention to this in verses 22 to 24 of Mark 9. The boy's father says to Jesus, "if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

"'If you can'?" replies Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."

The man is convicted and realises that he is standing in front of someone who can really do something for his son. He exclaims, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" He sees that he is full of doubts and fears and uncertainties, but underneath he does believe that Jesus is special and is able to heal his son. This is mustard seed faith, and Jesus performs the miracle.

Jesus is very bluntly saying that the problem is never that He lacks power, but normally that we do not believe.

There are three lessons we should learn:

1. Prayer requests are not granted to those who have no faith. Everything is possible for him who believes. We only need a mustard seed of faith. There is no suggestion that we need to try to muster within ourselves a strong, unwavering faith. We simply need to cling to Christ as the one who is able to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20) But nevertheless we need to understand that without faith we are not in touch with the one for whom nothing is impossible. We're told in Matthew 13:58 that there were occasions when Jesus did not do many miracles "because of their lack of faith". And the same principle applies today. Where people reject Jesus and do not put their trust in Him, and do not pray to Him, God is less likely to do amazing things and grant requests.

2. Conversely, if we have faith in God then we must have boldness to pray for big things as well as small. If we do believe, and we pray, then big things, miracles, are possible. Not promised, but possible. The boy who was brought to Jesus was relieved of his demon-possession. All because his father expressed his faith in Jesus and asked for healing.

3. Faithful prayer involves perseverance. There may not be easy or quick answers. But having faith involves carrying on believing and praying until we receive the answer, yes or no.

I should leave it there for now, but next time, God-willing, I'll talk about a similar lesson from James' letter.