At Bridgeton Life Church in Glasgow, where we worship, a group of us meet every Thursday night for prayer. We pray for each other, we pray for our families, we pray for the community (both local and beyond), and we pray for the sick, the depressed, the downtrodden and downhearted.
And it's effective. We see lives changed, families restored and the sick healed. Most recently one of our group, Desmond (name changed for confidentiality) shared how a work colleague, Ian (another assumed name) was troubled. Although not a believer himself, Ian saw something in Desmond's life that he wanted. In fact, the guy didn't even like Desmond and had a long history of animosity towards him. Nevertheless, Ian recognised in Desmond a man of integrity who lived what he professed, and Ian now found himself in a time of need. His wife was ill with multiple tumours on her face for which the doctors seemed unable to do anything and he approached Desmond to ask that our church would pray for her.
As we often do, some prayers were allocated that night and it fell on me to pray for Ian and his wife. So I did, and when we met again the following Thursday Desmond reported that she was well. The tumours had disappeared.
As you might suppose, Ian and his wife were not only amazed but overjoyed but, while we certainly shared in their joy, to us this was no more than we expected. Because prayer works, we know that it works, we've seen it work and, moreover, we expect it to work. Over the years I've seen some pretty dramatic answers to prayer, from the speedy recovery of the gravely ill or even dead, to the more gradual recovery of chronic conditions.
So, why do more Christians not pray? And why do those that do not see such dramatic results more often?
I suspect it's because most people, including most Christians, have a deeply skewed concept of what prayer actually is. Most seem to see it as hard work': something difficult that only super-Christians do: something not really for them.
Of course, at Bridgeton Life Church we know that that's not true. We believe that not only is prayer not hard work but is actually easy; as easy as breathing and just as essential. For us prayer is no mere ritual or some onerous religious obligation but a pleasure; an opportunity for intimate communion with our heavenly Father.
Such has long been the experience of my wife Deborah and me. That far from being just an opportunity to tell God a list of things he already knows, real prayer is yet another chance for us to hear what God has to say to us a dialogue with God rather than a diatribe directed at him.
That might surprise many who think that prayer is all about us speaking to God but prayer, as God always envisaged it, was always intended to be a two-way communication. So, why do more people not hear God speak when they pray?
There are many reasons, and I don't have time to cover them all here, but the following is among the most important hindrances to effective prayer which, if overcome will enrich and encourage further exploration and greater success in the future.
Let me begin with an illustration.
Imagine you're a child and it's Christmas or your birthday. You asked your dad for a new bicycle and lo and behold, when you come down in the morning there it is all wrapped up and tied with a ribbon.
How do you react?
"Please dad, can I have new bike?"
Or do you just say "Thank you!"?
Even an utter ignoramus knows the right answer to that question.
To again request what you've already received is both foolish and ungrateful. How can your dad give you what you already have? Your request is not only ridiculous but impossible.
It's hardly rocket science and may seem obvious, but something very like it happens whenever many Christians pray.
They may not ask God for a bicycle, but they often ask him for something else that even God can't givethey ask for what they already have. Whether that thing is forgiveness, or healing, or some other blessing, even God can't give it to you; not because he's unwilling to do so, but because he already has done so.
So, how should we pray? The answer is simple. Jesus gave it in Mark 11:24.
"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
When we ask God for something he's already given to us, that's not a prayer of faith but of unbelief. We ask for something more than once when we don't believe we already have it; when we doubt that God has said yes the first time. Hardly a compliment to Jesus or an indication of gratitude for all that he has given us.
Somehow, we have gained the impression that God is stingy or unforthcoming when we ask for things. And of course there are some prayers whose answer may be No': Like asking for next week's Lottery numbers, because gambling is not God's way. Or asking for a million pounds, because sudden wealth is often harmful and not something God promises as his certain will.
But what if God does promise something or reveal it as his will? In that case he expects us to expect him to do whatever he said. That's why I pray for healing expecting healing, because I have God's word on it that he is our Healer.
It's not just that God gives any old thing we might imagine; rather he plants in us a specific desire for that thing he has promised we then ask him for. This is what Psalm 37:4 means which says:
"Delight yourself also in Yahweh; and he shall give you the desires of your heart."
It doesn't take a genius to work out that delighting ourselves in God' does not embrace drug dealing, massage parlours, or some squalid pornographic business.
But what about Luke 11:9?
"Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."
As is often pointed out, the verbs here are in the Greek present continuous tense: meaning we are to continually ask, continually seek, and continually knock. Indeed, isn't this exactly what Jesus also said in Luke 18:2-8, the parable of the unjust judge?
The answer is no.
In the latter case, Jesus tells of a poor widow who petitions a judge for favour, but is ignored. However, when he she persists he relents and grants her petition.
Both scriptures have been widely use to illustrate how believers are to persist in asking God for what we desire, when in fact Jesus was illustrating the exact opposite.
In both instances Jesus was not making a comparison but a contrast of God's generosity with an
unjust judge, who Jesus said, feared not God, neither regarded man', and we who are evil'.
Read on, and see how Jesus contrasts his Father's heart with the unjust judge's stinginess.
"And shall not God avenge his own elect, who cry day and night unto him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?"
Again, in the case of asking, seeking and knocking', Jesus culminates thus, in Luke 11:13.
"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"
How much more' says it all.
But what about, Crying day and night'?
Good question. It means just that. Continually go to God in prayer for every need but, as we have seen, not merely asking again and again for the same thing.
Instead of Asking, asking and asking', we are to Ask, thank and thank'.
When you start to practice this you discover how much more productive prayer can be. In the time it once took to ask fifty times for the same thing, you can now ask for fifty things, just once.
That doesn't mean that you never mention it again to God. No, but from now on, every time you bring that concern before God it will not be to ask again, but to thank him for it.
"But suppose I don't see it?" is a hugely common objection in such cases.
Well, what if you don't?
Hebrews 11:1, famously defines faith thus:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Thanking God for what you've asked for but don't yet see is called faith. It not only pleases God, it really gets up the devil's nose he hates it.
So, remember: Keep on askingBut not for the same thing. Once you've asked God for anything, keep on thanking Him until you see it manifest.
Satan wants you to believe you're a beggar. Daddy wants you to know you are his beloved child.