The Power of Prayer
That healing experience did draw me
closer to God, and made me curious about God, and about my grandfather’s faith.
Even at that young age, I knew he was the real deal. And I knew prayer was at the heart of his life. He prayed before starting his day. He prayed before preparing the message. He prayed before making decisions. He prayed before meeting difficult people.
I don’t remember what he preached on
Sundays, but I do still remember how
he lived between Sundays – how he treated his family and others. Indeed, he lived a transformed life through prayer.
Several weeks ago, as we studied
Revelation 8, I shared that the primary purpose of prayer is not to change the
circumstances or to get the response we want. The primary purpose of prayer is to change us. Prayer changes us, so that we may become more like Christ. That’s the ultimate purpose
of prayer. (cf. Sunday Message, Feb 19, 2019). Today’s message is the sequel. The
second purpose of prayer is to change us,
so that we may become agents of change. For transformed people transform
people – particularly our family, our children.
Why Transformation?
When we think about what kind of
world we are living in today, we come to realize that transformation of the
heart is necessary. We (and our children) live in a busy, noisy, distracting
world. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born again (converted, transformed) to see the kingdom of God in this world” (cf. John 3:3). In today’s
passage Paul says to Roman Christians and us, “You must be transformed to know
God’s will in this world.”
Eugene Peterson says that Christians
are like a “harpooner.”
In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, there is a turbulent scene. All the sailors in a
whaleboat are laboring fiercely, every muscle taut, all attention and energy
concentrated on the task, in pursuit of the great, white whale, Moby Dick. In
this boat, however, there is one man who does nothing. He doesn't hold an oar;
he doesn't perspire; he doesn't shout. This man is the harpooner, quiet and poised, waiting. And then
this sentence:
"To insure the greatest efficiency in
the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of
idleness, and not out of toil."[1]
We, Christians, are called to live
a life as a harpooner, who fights and overcomes the white whale, symbol of
evil, in this world. But too often we are distracted and exhausted in the midst
of our busy, noisy life. And we are not ready and accurate when it is time to
throw our javelin. Then, how can we be quiet and poised harpooners in the midst
of turmoil? How can we not be conformed to this world, but be transformed? The
answer is prayer.
Transforming Prayer
In Psalm 46 we meet the psalmist,
who is a harpooner – quiet and poised, waiting – in his turbulent times. He
says:
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth shake in the heart of the
sea;
though its water roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its
tumult.
He has “though” faith. He sees God
deeply through his pain and suffering. Then, at the end of the psalm he hears
God saying: “Be still, and know that
I am God!” We see and hear God in stillness, not out of toil. Prayer shapes us. Prayer shapes us to be
quiet and poised harpooners in this busy, noisy world.
Many of us already know we need
prayer. We have desire to pray. But still, we need to learn how to pray. To be more precise, we need to discipline ourselves in prayer, in order
to have a meaningful, transforming prayer time. In this respect, Paul says, “So
I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my
body like an athlete, training it to
do what it should” (1 Corinthians 9:26-27, NLT). Prayer is a discipline. Any of
us can try to run a marathon. But
soon enough, we come to realize that we cannot run a marathon, even if we tray really, really hard. When
it comes to running a marathon, we must train,
not merely try. In the same way, when it comes to transforming prayer, we must train, not merely try here and there.
John Ortberg right said, “Spiritual transformation is not a matter of trying
harder, but of training wisely.”
The first step for transforming
prayer is planning. We ought to plan.
We ought to cultivate the habit of prayer by
keeping to a fixed time every day. Some people say that we don’t need a
specific time and place to pray or that we can find God all the time and
everywhere. But in this matter, E. Stanley Jones rightly said, “If you are to
find God all the time, you must find God some time. And if you are to find God
everywhere, you will have to find God somewhere.” I love my wife, Joyce, and I
know she loves me. We are always together. And we can talk anytime whenever we
want. But still, we must find some special quality time to cultivate and deepen
our relationship on a regular basis. In the same way, we need to find a special
time and place to pray daily to nurture our relationship with God. For me
personally, I spend the first two hours of the day in prayer, from 4:30 to 6:30
am. During these two hours I enjoy a quality time with God without
interruption. E. M. Bounds says, “If God is not first in our thoughts and
efforts in the morning, He will be last during the remainder of the day… No one
receives God who does not follow hard after Him, and no soul follows hard after
God who is not after Him in the early morning.”[2]
Here the point is not simply early rising and early praying. The point is the
intense desire to seek after God. The point is the intense desire to give God
the best of our time, the heart of our time and strength. As we discipline
ourselves in prayer in this way, we will begin to see prayer shape us,
transform us.
How Author John Dickson Came to the Faith[3]
The Australian Christian author
John Dickson came to Christ through the faithful witness of an ordinary mother
named Glenda. In Australia, the public schools used to offer a Scripture class
taught by a volunteer from the local church, and Glenda became his teacher.
Eventually, Glenda invited the whole class to her house on Friday afternoons
for lunch and honest conversation about Jesus. She treated them like they were
family. Dickson was one of the students. One night they hung out, and Dickson’s
friend, Daniel, was rather intoxicated. They couldn’t take him to his house
because of his angry dad. So they decided to take him to Glenda’s house around
midnight. She didn’t bat an eye. She welcomed them in. Dickson writes:
We took Daniel
to Glenda's house because she had left a real impression on us that Christians
actually like sinners. We had no doubt that she hated our drinking habits. She
was a teetotaler, and talked openly about avoiding alcohol. But even in that
situation, her first instinct was not to condemn us but to love us more, and it
was extraordinary… After about six months of Scripture classes, Friday
afternoon events, and the incident with Daniel, we found ourselves thinking
that Jesus was real, that he is inescapable, that he is powerful. So about six
or eight months into it, about five of us became Christians—we really
surrendered to Christ's lordship and accepted his mercy.
Years later, John Dickson started
his own ministry. And he visited Glenda to ask her what her secret was – how to
reach out new people so effectively. Without batting an eye, Glenda said,
"Prayer." He was really disappointed, but she continued, "That
year a bunch of us who taught Scripture decided to make it a year of
prayer—just to plead the Lord of the harvest to do something special. And we
did. By the end of the year, there you all were, confessing Jesus."
Generation to Generation
We
all have our Glendas – our spiritual mothers, who prayed for us, loved us
unconditionally, nurtured us so faithfully. For me personally, along with my
grandparents and my parents, I always remember my 3rd and 8th
grade Sunday school teachers. How they treated me, how they showed me Jesus
through their lives, how they taught me the Bible, I am eternally grateful to
them. On this Mother’s Day let us remember our spiritual mothers and express
our deep gratitude to them: “Thank you!”
And now it’s our turn to leave a
legacy. The best legacy we can give to our next generation is to live a transformed life through prayer.
It is to show Jesus through our lives, through how we treat other people as
ourselves, how we use our possessions, time, resources in a godly way. And our children
will remember us and turn to God, glorifying His holy name. Amen.
[1] Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the
Art of Spiritual Direction (Eerdmans Publshing, 1989), Kindle Locations
221-225.
[2] E. M. Bounds, Power through
Prayer (Whitakerhouse, 1082),
[3] “The Power of Prayer: How Author
John Dickson Came to the Faith,” Preaching Today, https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2012/january/2012312.html
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