Prayer -Part 1 – The Power of Prayer – Aug 5, 2018
Readings: Daniel 9:15-19, Romans 8:26-27, John 15:1-11
This morning we begin a series on Prayer. Over the next 4 weeks, we’ll think about prayer by focusing on words like power, promise, persistence, and practice as we are invited into a deeper practice of prayer. Our final week in the series, we’ll consider the practical aspects of prayer and the pain of unanswered prayer.
Let’s begin with prayer: May the words in my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Prayers come in all shapes and sizes – from the quick, one-word prayer to prayers that ask for things, from prayers that offer praise to prayers that name laments, and some combination in between. From written prayers and prayers offered spontaneously, to prayers where there are no words at all – prayers come in all shapes and sizes.
There are no right or wrong ways to pray. No right or wrong way to hold our hands or place our eyes. No right or wrong words to use in prayer.
My friends, prayer is all about relationship, we are created to be in a relationship with God and when this relationship got all messed up, God gave us prayer as another way to be in God’s presence.
When asked about prayer, Mother Teresa said: Prayer is simply talking to God. He speaks to us, we listen. We speak to him, he listens. Prayer is a two-way process: speaking and listening.
Today we explore the power of prayer from 2 perspectives:
First, the power that undergirds our prayer – power that connects what we say or think in our prayers to God’s heart.
And secondly – the power that prayer has in our lives, and in God’s heart –
Our readings for today stress that the power that bolsters prayer comes from the power of God.
After confessing the sins of the people and pleading with the Lord, Daniel, in prayer to God, stresses that our supplications before the Lord are not offered on the ground of our righteousness but on the ground of the Lord’s great mercies.
It is God’s great mercies, God’s love, and grace, that make our prayers powerful – not anything that we do, not any words that we use.
And when we don’t know what to pray or can’t or won’t speak the words ourselves, Paul tells us that the Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words – The Spirit intercedes for us – the spirit touches the heart of God, is the heart of God, on our behalf.
Jesus tells us that 7If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
When we abide in Jesus and his words, his love, his presence abides in us, then the things we pray about, the things we hope for and long for, are aligned to God’s will, to God’s gracious love for everyone and everything.
When we stop abiding in Jesus, when we decide to go our own way, to do life by ourselves, then the things we pray about and the things we hope for are centered on our own wants, our own desires, without regard to what God desires or wants for us.
So, the power that undergirds our prayers is the power that flows from God’s mercy, from God’s gracious love, it’s the power that flows through the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us, who touches the heart of God on our behalf; and it’s the power that comes from the vine, comes from Jesus in whom we abide.
Prayer is powerful because it impacts God’s heart and our lives.
Prayer is powerful because it is an act of faith– a deep trust in the promises made to us by a loving and merciful God who promised to hear us when we pray.
In faith, we pray in the same conviction of Daniel: 18Incline your ear, O my God, and hear. Open your eyes and look at our desolation. 19O LORD, hear; O LORD, forgive; O LORD, listen and act and do not delay!
And we trust that the One to whom we pray, is the same One who promises in Psalm 50: 15Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
And who promises in Psalm 91: 15When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them.
And who promises in Psalm 86:6Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my cry of supplication. 7In the day of my trouble I call on you, for you will answer me.
Prayer is an act of faith because when we pray we trust that God, who promises to hear us when we pray, will indeed keep those promises.
Prayer is powerful because it is an act of hope– Now, by “hope” I don’t mean that everything that happens in our lives will be good, that there will be no suffering. We all know that sometimes the glass will indeed be half or maybe even ¾ empty. Life is hard sometimes.
No, when I say that prayer is an act of hope. When we pray, we claim our hope in God who is with us in every moment of our lives. Hope that claims God’s presence when there is no cure when finances are tight when job prospects are thin when worry consumes us. Hope in God who gives comfort, peace, and healing in ways that we might not expect.
Prayer is powerful because it is an act of love– prayer is God’s gift to us and for us. When we pray, we show our love for God and when we pray God shows love for us.
God doesn’t need our prayers before God takes action, instead, God gives us the gift of prayer so that we have a way of sharing our burdens, our concerns, with God.
Without prayer, we hold on to these things but with prayer, we can let go and give them to God.
The love that God has for us is revealed in Jesus, who is the beloved heart of God, and who is in such perfect relationship with humanity that he weeps with our tears, aches with our pain, groans with our longing.
Prayer is powerful because it touches the heart of God.
You remember how Abraham prayed on behalf of the people of Sodom. God planned to destroy the city because of the evil things the people were doing. Abraham pleads with the Lord to spare the city if there are 50 good people there, then 45, then 40, the 30, then 20, then 10. And the Lord agreed that if 10 people are found to be good the city of Sodom would be spared.
You remember how Jesus prayed for his followers and us: 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.
And how Jesus prayed from the cross: “Father, forgive them for they no not what they do.”
The prayers of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, David, Jonah, and the prophets, and the prayers of Elizabeth, Mary, Jesus, and Paul all touched the heart of God, they caused God to show compassion, to remember mercy, to relent from punishing, and to act on behalf of God’s people.
Prayer is also powerful because of its impact on the one who prays:
There was a time when I was working with someone, actually my boss, who made the working environment very unpleasant. She wanted to control everything that we did, including when we took breaks. When she walked by our office and we weren’t at our desk, she’d leave a nasty note. I started praying for her, started praying that she would change, would treat us with respect. The more I prayed for her, the more I began to see her and our relationship differently. As I started interacting with her in a different way, I gained clarity about why she behaved the way she did. You see, praying for her didn’t change her. Instead, God worked through my prayers to change me and my relationship with her.
I spent a lot of time in prayer when we acknowledged our daughter’s sexuality – that she was a lesbian. I was filled with mixed emotions: frightened for her because people who are gay weren’t and sometimes still aren’t, treated with love and respect, confused about what the future would hold for her, and for us; perplexed about this whole notion of sexuality and so I prayed – I prayed for her wellbeing, I prayed for our family as we seek to understand all that this meant, and I prayed for myself, for understanding and patience, as we journeyed down a road we had not traveled before.
In many ways, this was a time of grief for me, I lamented the loss of hopes that I had for her – would she, could she, get married, would she be treated fairly by her employers, would she have children, would people accept and honor her for who she is as a smart, caring, and talented individual.
God heard my prayers and responded by placing people in my life who could help me understanding sexuality more completely. God brought people in our lives who showed us that living as a gay person can be full of joy and happiness despite the hardships that were faced.
God took care of our daughter and surrounded her with loving friends and God provided for her as she excelled in high school, college, and in her career. And still God teaches me, by showing that those hopes that I thought were lost, lost hopes that I lamented about, weren’t actually lost at all – instead, they were fulfilled in ways that I could never have expected.
My friends, the power that undergirds our prayer is the power that flows from God’s mercy, from God’s gracious love, it’s the power that flows through the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us, who touches the heart of God on our behalf; and it’s the power that comes from the vine, comes from Jesus in whom we abide.
Prayer is powerful – because it touches the heart of God and through prayer, God touches our hearts.
One of my favorite prayers from the ELW – prayed it this way every day in seminary:
O God, you have called your servant(s) to ventures of which I/we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give me/us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where I/we go, but only that your hand is leading me/us and your love supporting me/us through Jesus Christ my/our Lord. Amen.
And now I offer it on our behalf.