Setting the Biblical Record Straight about Prayer

Someone suggested that for some things, we only need to pray just one time. One  example given was praying for salvation for specific unbelievers. Here is the rational given.

 

1.  The Bible says that if we pray for anything in faith, it will be granted.
2.  If the unbeliever does not get saved after we pray, he probably is not one of “the  elect.”
3.  Therefore, we might as well stop praying for him.

 

Note: This is my perception about what was said. If my perception about what was said is not accurate, then I look forward to being corrected.

 

 Closer evaluation of this rational will show that it is an unbiblical deduction that  contradicts the overwhelming testimony of the Bible on the subject of prayer. So, let us  consider biblical testimony to set the biblical record straight.

 

 It is true that the Bible teaches that if we ask anything in faith, it will be granted to us.  But it is false to assume that we should only pray once for things. The Bible is full of  examples of believers praying for things repeatedly.

 

 One can’t help but get the impression from reading his epistles that Paul was a man of  prayer. He instructed that we should “pray without ceasing.” Below is an record of Paul  doing just that.

 

 “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn  in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above  measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart  from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made  perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the  power of Christ may rest upon me” ( II Corinthians 12:7-9).

 

 What can we glean from this concerning prayer?  We should remember that many  miracles were performed by Paul including the raising of the dead. You would think that  with so many miraculous answers to prayer in his past, Paul would have prayed only one time  about this ailment. Certainly, he was a man of strong faith. So, why didn’t he simply pray  one time and anticipate that the ailment would be removed? Or, after it remained, why  didn’t he just assume that it must not have been God’s will to remove it? No. Instead, he  kept praying about it until God answered him about it. In this case, God had overriding  purposes to leave it in Paul’s life. If he had not kept asking, Paul would never had learned  why God would not remove it. And the communication between Paul and God resulted in  Paul’s learning and his further sanctification, not to mention a deeper love between the two (Paul and God).

 

Concerning unbelievers, Paul also repeatedly asked God to save Israel.

 

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1).

 

By the time Paul wrote these words, he had been beaten and stoned many times, and most often at the hands of his countrymen. He knew that they had rejected Jesus as their Messiah and wrote chapters nine through eleven of Romans hoping to explain their rejection. In spite of having the knowledge that Israel’s rejection of the Messiah was foretold by the Scriptures, he persisted in praying that God would save them. He evidently prayed this way many, many years without ceasing.

 

It was the pattern of the early New Testament Church to pray repeatedly rather than just one time for things. In the beginning of Acts 12, we read that Herod killed James and then arrested Peter intending to do the same thing to him. Here is the response of the Church:

 

Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church”. (Acts 12:5).

 

The believers were obviously troubled about the state of Peter because from all appearances, Peter was about to die. So, they met together and began praying. They did not pray just once. They remained in constant prayer. From the rest of the story, it appeared that they did not have much faith at all because after God delivered Peter, they did not believe it was him standing outside.

 

It is a good thing that they did not let fatalism influence their praying. They could have recalled to mind Jesus’ warning that the disciples would be persecuted and even put to death. Notice that they did not say, “Okay, now let’s wait and see what happens. If Peter is delivered as a result of our prayer, great. But if not, we can safely conclude that it was not God’s will that Peter be delivered.” Apparently, they did not base their praying on what might or might not be God’s will. Instead, they just kept praying and praying knowing that God is merciful and that He cares for them.

 

Besides other New Testament examples that we will consider later, we can also safely look to the Old Testament record to show that God’s people have always had the same pattern of praying. As evidence to show that we should not disregard things we read in the Old Testament, let me quote what Paul wrote about its importance.

 

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16 & 17).

 

At the time Paul wrote this, the recognized scriptures were those we refer to today as the Old Testament scriptures. Not only did Paul teach here that the Old Testament Scriptures represent God’s Word for the Church, these scriptures are profitable so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every work. Along with Paul, Jesus and Peter stated that these scriptures were authoritative from God and that we must pay close attention to what they teach. So, if anyone tries to tell you that we should take the Old Testament teachings lightly, they are in contradiction with Jesus, Paul and Peter. Don’t listen to anyone suggesting that we should disregard the Old Testament scriptures as if they are not relevant now that we have the New Testament.

 

Having said this, let me turn to the example of Nehemiah. Evidently, he too prayed for things more than one time.

 

And they said to me, “The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:3-4).

 

After hearing the report concerning the Jews in Jerusalem, he was greatly troubled. Because he believed God hears prayer, he began mourning, weeping, fasting and praying FOR MANY DAYS. It never crossed his mind to simply pray one time and then wait to see the outcome. Because he was heavily burdened, he desperately wanted God to act so he kept praying and praying and praying. He did not cloud his mind with useless speculations about what God’s will might be. He just prayed.

 

 

In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, God told Abraham of His plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. But because Abraham knew his nephew Lot was there, he began praying to God, appealing to God’s justice and mercy. He asked if God would destroy Sodom if there were fifty righteous people living in it and God promised that He would not do so. Then, Abraham kept asking (praying) to secure assurance/promise from God if there were less than fifty righteous people. He did so over and over again until God promised not to destroy Sodom if there were but ten righteous people. The point is that God was listening to Abraham’s prayer and responding with promise after promise. Abraham did not stop praying until he received the assurance from God he sought.

 

Many other scriptures could be sighted in addition to the examples already given. But let me point you to the teaching of Jesus.

 

 

¹Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, ²saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. ³Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ ⁴And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, ⁵yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’”

⁶Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. ⁷And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? ⁸I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8).

 

Another parable Jesus spoke about praying:

 

“And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; ⁶for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? ⁸I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs”

(Luke 11:5-8).

 

Clearly, Jesus taught that our praying should be characterized by the word “persistence.”

 

The overwhelming testimony of scripture is that prayer should be persistent in nature and God encourages us to keep asking until He answers. The idea of praying just once has never been taught as viable by the Church from the beginning. The idea is preposterous and it is unfortunate that it even has to be addressed.

 

So, let us now turn our attention to another error that seems to playing a role here. It appears that fatalism has seeped into the thinking of some Christians. There is a tendency to base their praying and sometimes their actions on the premise that since everything has already been predetermined by God, there is nothing we can do to change the outcome. Back in the days of the missionary William Carey, some told him that he need not go to India to preach the gospel to the heathen because if God plans to save them, they will be saved. God does not need William Carey to go there. Likewise in the example set forth at the beginning of this article, the question is raised, “Why pray more than once? After all, if the unsaved person is one of the elect, they will be saved.” Such thinking is not commended by the Bible. On the contrary, we are given examples of God’s people believing that their prayers would definitely determine the final outcome even in situations that seemed contrary to God’s testimony.

 

⁷And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. ⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’” ⁹And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! ¹⁰Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

¹¹Then Moses pleaded with the Lord his God, and said: “Lord, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”^{£ 14}So the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people. (Exodus 32:7-14).

 

God expressly told Moses that He would wipe out the people of Israel because of there flagrant sin of idolatry. Instead of standing back and watching, Moses pleaded with God. (He prayed.) As a result, God relented of His stated plan to destroy Israel. If it were not for Moses’ prayer, God would have destroyed the nation of Israel that day. (Psalm 106:23 blatantly spells this out.)The only reason He didn’t destroy Israel is because Moses prayed. Moses did not even waste time wondering it if was God’s will for him to ask God not to destroy Israel. He simply asked Him.

 

How does all this fit with the idea that God has a sovereign decree that was determined before time began? Apparently, God has so planned things that our prayers play a role in the outcome. So, after Moses prayed and God relented, we can say that God must have also predetermined that Moses would pray. As a result of Moses praying, the decreed outcome was brought about. So, our praying is a means of bringing about the outcome that God decreed before time began.

 

Are we therefore supposed to base our praying on what may or may not be decreed before time began? Of course not. Rather, we must with reverence keep our hands off God’s decree because that belongs to God. Deuteronomy 29:29 says….

 

²⁹“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

 

We are not supposed to ponder what may or may not be decreed before deciding to pray! To do so would presume that God has made it know to us when He clearly has not revealed it.

 

At least a year after David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed in order to keep his sin from becoming known, God sent the prophet Nathan to David to deliver a message.

 

¹Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. ²The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. ³But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. ⁴And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

⁵So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! ⁶And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

⁷Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ⁸I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! ⁹Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. ¹⁰Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹²For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’”

¹³So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” ¹⁵Then Nathan departed to his house.

And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. ¹⁶David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. ¹⁷So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them. ¹⁸Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!”

¹⁹When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?”

And they said, “He is dead.”

²⁰So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. ²¹Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”

²²And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether ^£the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ ²³But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”  (II Samuel 12:1-23)

 

In the underlined words above, God, through Nathan the prophet,  told David His plan to kill the child born through Bathsheba as judgment for David’s sin. It was like a typical “Thus says the Lord” judgment spoken by the prophet Nathan. Yet, when the child was sick and near death, David prayed and fasted all night clearly hoping that God would heed his prayers and keep the child from dying. If anyone would have a reason to think that it was God’s will that this child would die, it would be David because the prophet of God already told him that God would kill the child. Notice that David did not say, “Oh well, it is God’s will that the child die. There is nothing I can do about it. It is useless to pray.” Instead, David prayed and fasted all night because he believed God is merciful.

 

 

 

 

II Chron 16: 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.

 

From this passage, we learn that God expects us to pray to Him first rather than first go to a doctor or wonder if it might be God’s will to heal us. Asa did not know God’s decree on the matter. We can even look back after the fact and conclude that it was God’s will that Asa would die with this disease. Yet, God clearly considered his actions and heart sinful because he chose to seek help from the doctors rather than pray/ask God to heal him.

 

 

What should we conclude if a prayer seems to be going unanswered?

 

Rather than assume that a prayer was not answered because it “must not have been according to His will,” we should first assume that our prayers were not answered because of our own unbelief or it is simply not yet God’s time to answer it. Thinking that a prayer was not answered because it “must not have been according to His will” is actually a demonstration of unbelief. Most of the biblical record would suggest that the problem is with our own lack of faith. If we had been praying with faith having God’s motives dominating our heart, God would have been moved to answer.

 

If we stop praying because we assume “it must be God’s will,” we are actually making ourselves out to be God. We cannot know what God’s will is because God purposely has not revealed it. So, such an assumption is a display of arrogance and unbelief…NOT FAITH!

 

We should come to him as little children realizing that we are ignorant and do not know the mind of God. Ours is to walk in the Spirit. As we do, God will cause His desires to become our desires. Then we are most likely apt to pray for the very things He desires to bring to pass. Then we will most likely be praying with faith that moves God to answer. Attempting to figure out what God wants ahead of time about things not clearly specified in the Bible is an arrogant posture to take. Let’s come to him as children and call to Him to help us pray. Then let us pray.

 

 

The role burdens play in biblical praying

 

Show me a man who prays very little about something and I will show you a man who is not heavily burdened about it. If a man reads his Bible regularly, he knows that it is overflowing with examples of God’s people praying because they are heavily burdened in their hearts. A mere casual reading of the opening verses of most of Paul’s epistles makes this clear. (See Romans 1:9-10, Ephesians 1:16, Colossians 1:9, II Thessalonians 1:11, 3:1 and other examples could be given.)

 

God is burdened and those who know Him best share His burdens. The more he gets to know God, the more he shares God’s burdens. If a man does not have heavy burdens that drive him to pray, that man is either blind altogether or spiritually immature and concerned mainly with himself.

 

But as a man grows in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, he becomes a greater and greater reservoir of God’s burdens. He finds himself praying more and more because his burdens (in harmony with God’s burdens) drive him to pray.

 

 The things stated in this article use to be common knowledge. I suspect that the reason why these things seem foreign to some these days is because the church has become lukewarm and ignorant of the scriptures. These days, many assume that only special people like Paul pray thirty minutes or more each day. But the Bible seems to suggest that it would be spiritually dysfunctional if a person prays only thirty minutes. During the days of the early church, it was expected that God’s people pray all the time. (And by this, I do not mean that they merely had fleeting thoughts about God all day. I mean, they fervently and purposely prayed prayers.

 

“Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day” (I Timothy 5:5).

 

In the above passage, Paul instructs that only widows who pray all the time should be considered for monetary help by the church. Her praying all the time was merely evidence that she was normal by Paul’s standards. If Paul was exposed to the amount of praying people do these days, I think he would be blown away.

 

But as God conforms us to the image of Jesus, He also entrusts us with a stewardship of praying. But this is not something done by one’s mere will power to pray about things written down on a prayer list. Rather, God causes our hearts to become burdened with His burdens, including the building up of the church and the salvation of souls.

 

To sum up, the degree a man fervently prays is a direct reflection of how spiritual he is. Little praying indicates the man is spiritually weak or dysfunctional or spiritually immature.