FIRST READING Genesis 32:22–31
22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” 27 So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
PSALM Psalm 121
1I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come? 2My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth. 3The LORD will not let your foot be moved nor will the one who watches over you fall asleep. 4Behold, the keeper of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep; 5the LORD watches over you; the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 6the sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7The LORD will preserve you from all evil and will keep your life. 8The LORD will watch over your going out and your coming in, from this time forth forevermore.
SECOND READING 2 Timothy 3:14—4:5
Chapter 3 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
Chapter 4 1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: 2 proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. 5 As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.
GOSPEL Luke 18:1–8
1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
PRAYING THROUGH
No doubt you’ve heard about the postal service’s “Dead Letter Department.” That’s the place where mail goes when it’s not clearly addressed or has insufficient postage and the sender’s identity can’t be determined. When a letter is sent to the Dead Letter office, its opened and the contents are examined for clues to the sender’s identity. If the return address cannot be determined, the letter is destroyed. It never reaches its destination, and any requests made by the writer remain unanswered. I bring this to your attention as a way of asking, how often do we feel like our prayers end up in some kind of dead letter department? Are there times when we feel like we’re praying to God, but somehow He isn’t getting our communications? If you’ve ever felt this way, then our gospel text for this morning is for you! Here, in Jesus’ own words, we’re told how to address our prayers to God so that they’ll be received and answered. The parable in our gospel reading of a cold-hearted judge and a pesky widow tells how.
However, to fully understand what Jesus is telling us here, we first need to hear again the promise Jesus made to us in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given you”. It’s important that we preface today’s parable with this promise since God’s timing is not our timing. We trust that God knows best how and when to answer our prayers. But the promise remains true; ask and God will answer. To best see this promise in action, all we need to do is look at the example Jesus set for us while He was with us here on earth.
As we study the New Testament accounts of Christ’s life, it becomes obvious that our Master wasn’t afraid to ask things of the Father. He asked for wine at a wedding party. He asked for more bread and fish to feed a crowd. He asked God to heal the blind, the lame, the mute, and the possessed. Jesus asked a lot of God. He didn’t feel like He was imposing. And here in the text, Jesus is telling us to do the same. He’s assuring us that, we too, can ask a great deal from God. I know that in my own life I’ve often been reluctant to ask God for help with my needs. I used to think, “Perhaps God is too busy to be troubled over my affairs”. I didn’t want to bother Him. After all, my pesky little problems couldn’t possibly be important. There’s so much evil, sickness and hurt in this world, how could my needs stack up to all that? However, I realized that I’m a child of God. I’m not some orphan. I’m not a disinherited son. I am the child of the King of the universe. And my Lord and Savior has told me, “Ask, and it will be given you.”
Some years ago, when I was stationed at Seymour Johnson the first time, I was headed to my grandparents’ house in Kentucky for Christmas. I was up on I-40, it was 1:00 in the morning and it was raining. As I headed west I noticed my lights getting dimmer and the car started to stall. I pulled over and found my alternator belt loose. Not a problem, I simply tightened the belt and closed the hood of the car. However, the problem came when I went to restart the engine. I’d been running on the battery, so it was drained and now the car wouldn’t start. No one at that time had a cell phone, the rain was beginning to freeze on the car and road and there wasn’t the light of a building in sight. I wasn’t sure how far the last exit was or how far to the next. Not knowing what to do, I simply prayed that God would provide.
Thinking the answer was that the car would somehow miraculously start, I attempted to start the car several times to no avail. Getting frustrated I prayed again, Lord please let the car start. I can’t call anyone, it’s dangerous to walk the road at that time of night, the temperature was falling and no one was going to stop at that time of night. Again I tried to start the car, only clicks. Once again I prayed in frustration, Lord what am I to do? I forgot my coat in the barracks, the temperature is dropping and without a running vehicle I have no heat. Please help. As I lifted my head, I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed a car slowing. It was too close for me to get out safely so I waited and it pulled up in front of my car.
It turned out to be four guys and they asked if they could help. I explained the situation and they agreed to give me a jump. The problem was their car was in such bad shape it didn’t have the capacity to keep itself running and provide the needed power to get my car started. So, they offered to give me a ride to the nearest open business for me to call for help. That turned out to be a hotel a few miles up the road. By this time it was 2:30 in the morning so the lobby was locked. I buzzed the night clerk. He came to the window and had a strange look on his face. He told me to come in quickly so I thanked the guys in the car and they drove off. Once inside, I explained my problem and the clerk agreed to call a road service truck.
After calling, the night clerk asked if I knew the guys in the car; I replied no. He said, “You’re lucky you weren’t hurt tonight”. Thinking he was talking about being stranded on the roadside, I explained I was able to pull off in a way that it was relatively safe. “No”, he said, “you’re lucky the guys in the car didn’t try and rob you or hurt you. I recognized that car and the guys in it. They’re known criminals in this area and are suspected of being drug dealers and to have committed several robberies around here. Your guardian angel is watching over you tonight!” He then offered me a cup of coffee while I waited. The road service truck picked me up a few minutes later and in less than 10 minutes my car was running again and I was on my way. Did God answer my prayer? Yes. Did He do it in the way I expected? No.
I can assure you that I was thanking God for not only answering my prayer, but for protecting me as well. I’ve often wondered, why were those guys out on the interstate that night? That isn’t where you’d normally find thieves and drug dealers. Later, I read the passage from Isaiah 65:24. There the Lord says, “Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear.” What the Lord had done was to go ahead and prepare the answer to my prayers, even as I was asking!
That’s the way asking prayer works. We need something or the good Lord has something He wants done. He prepares all the resources that will be needed. Then He begins to prompt us mentally so we will ask Him to allow us to do the job. Thus our prayers become a simple asking for what God already is eager to do.
As we live out our Christian lives, we will undoubtedly find God prompting us to ask Him for things. It may be talent, wisdom, health, money, help, or a hundred other things. But whatever it is, don’t be afraid to ask God for that which we feel prompted. We aren’t bothering Him. He cares about us. We won’t impoverish Him. Our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. “Ask,” Jesus said. “Ask, and it shall be given you.” This brings us to the next promise found in the same Matthew verse. Jesus said, “Seek, and you will find” (Matthew 7:7). Jesus tells us not only to pray, but to look for the answer as well. The widow does this in the parable. She “kept coming to him” with her plea.
It’s true that Christ did a lot of asking in prayer. He asked for bread, wine, healing, and a host of other things. But Christ also prayed prayers of seeking. In the Garden of Gethsemane the Lord searched for God’s will. He said, “Father, I ask in prayer that this cup pass from Me. Let Me not go to the cross, suffer, and die. I ask for some other way!” But then Jesus began to seek in prayer. He said, “But Lord, if this is not your will, if I must die, then your will be done.” Here we find an example of Christ searching in prayer. He’s looking for God’s will. He’s trying to find out what God’s will and intensions are so He can obey it.
Jesus told us to pray like this when He said, “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13). Now the key to this verse is the phrase, “in my name.” Jesus didn’t say, “Whatever you ask, I will do it.” He said, “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it.” The Greek word used here for “in my name” means more than just a label. If you called on someone’s name in the Greek world, you were calling on their actual presence. So Jesus was saying, “Whatever you ask in my presence, I will do it.”
As Christians we believe in the real presence of Christ. We believe Jesus is with us by the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, we believe that Jesus is so present with us that we can actually take on the mind of Christ. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:5 that we should think and act as Christ does, respond the same way Jesus would to any situation. Our mindset should be such that if Jesus were experiencing the same situation, our thoughts and actions would be the same as His. This is the secret to getting answers to our asking and seeking in prayer.
When we pray, we should ask as Jesus would ask. Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name or in my presence or rather, in the same way I would, I will do it.” If it’s something Jesus would ask for, so should we. Thus prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It’s taking hold of His willingness. It’s not presenting our arguments in order to make God change his mind. Prayer is searching for the mind of Christ and then praying in it.
When confronted with a need, it isn’t good to go right out and pray about it by telling God what we want. I say this is a humorous way, but it’s also said with all seriousness. If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans. To have the mind of Christ is to seek God’s will, not ours. Our prayers should always be as Jesus taught, ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We must always remember to first ask the Lord to reveal to us His mind. We need to learn to say, “Lord, here’s the need. Teach me your mind. Teach me how to pray about this.”
Do you see how prayer isn’t getting God to see it our way, but getting us to see it God’s way? Let’s suppose that we’re in a Carolina Skiff fifteen feet from the shore. You throw a rope ashore and pull ourselves to the dock. What have we actually accomplished by doing this? Did we pull the land to us, or did we pull ourselves to the land? The answer is obvious, we moved toward the dock. Seeking prayer works like this as well. We throw out a rope to God. We seek in prayer, in scripture, in fellowship, in obedience, and pull ourselves to God’s will and desire and ask in it.
Saint Paul knew how to seek in prayer. He said, “God, I am sick. I have this thorn in my flesh.” Three times Paul went to God and asked to be healed. And there, in God’s presence, Paul began to know the mind of Christ. He quit asking to be healed. He started asking for strength to bear the affliction for the glory of God (2 Corinthians 12). In our own prayer life, we too will want to learn seeking prayer. We need to learn to pray in Christ’s name, in His presence and mind, and not in our name and in our mind. When we’re facing a need, take that problem directly to God. And don’t limit God by telling Him what to do about it. Just envision the problem in both our hands. Then envision God. Think of His presence. Meditate on His marvelous light, His love, and His power. Then lift the problem right up into God’s presence and leave it there.
A little boy knelt down to say his bedtime prayers. His parents heard him reciting the alphabet in very reverent tones. When they asked what he was doing, he replied, “I’m saying my prayers, but I cannot think of the exact words tonight. So, I’m just saying all the letters. God knows what I need, and he’ll put all the words together for me.” I’m not so sure that’s a bad idea! In seeking prayer we’re looking for Christ’s mind. We’re not sure quite how to word our prayer. So we ask God to take our words and fit them into the correct prayer.
We ask Him to edit our prayers by cutting out the unnecessary, making corrections, and adding the necessities. We ask God to take our minds and make them His. We ask the Holy Spirit to pray through us. And when we seek in prayer like that, Jesus assures us in the text, we shall find. The third part in the promise Jesus made in Matthew 7 is, Knock, And It Shall Be Opened!
Jesus said, “Knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Matthew 7:7). The widow in Jesus’ parable did this with the judge. She “kept coming.” The judge said she was “bothering me.” Here, we need to know that there’s more involved in answering prayer than our will and God’s will.
There are other forces that hinder prayers such as hard hearts and God’s decision to give people a free will. For example, we might be praying that God will save our child. But the child’s heart may be stony toward God. You want them in a right relationship with God. And there’s nothing God would like better than to save them, but there’s a barrier. God has given our child a free will and He will not violate it by forcing Himself on anyone. Yet our child’s cold, hardened heart has chosen to leave God out. Then there’s also the barrier of the satanic.
The Bible says, “For our struggle is not against enemies of flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). An example of how satanic forces can hinder answers to prayer is found in Daniel 10. There the prophet prayed for more than twenty days without an answer. Finally an angel visited him and explained the reason for the delay. He said, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved … from the first day that you set your mind to understand … your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince … withstood me twenty-one days; but Michael … came to help me … so I … came.”
Here we’re taught that satanic powers hindered an answer to prayer. And here we must come to scripture with a sense of wonder. There’s much about this world that we simply don’t know. Our finite minds are limited. Things like satan, evil, and spiritual warfare boggle our minds. We cannot understand them completely. But God has revealed some of this in scripture and we can accept it by faith. And by faith, scripture teaches that satanic barriers can hinder prayer.
The book of Job is perhaps the best place in scripture to study a knocking prayer. There, righteous Job is devastated. He loses his children, his friends, his property, and his health. Satan has horrible afflicted him. His wife urges him to curse God and die. But instead, Job begins a knocking prayer: “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling! I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would learn what he would answer me” (Job 23:3-5). Thus Job begins to knock in prayer. He blindly gropes for God.
He patiently and sometimes impatiently yearns for deliverance. Again and again Job reaches for God in prayer. Though his body is wasting away, though all seems lost, though he cannot understand, Job has faith in God. His heart is filled with hope and he says: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God …” (Job 19:25-26). Therefore, it was with hope, faith, and persistence that Job continued to knock in prayer. Finally, God came to him.
Although the Lord didn’t explain the affliction, He did heal Job. He restored his fortune and gave him more children than ever before. As Jesus promised, it will be opened to those that knock. And Job triumphantly said to God, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted … I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:2, 5). Perhaps Jesus was thinking of Job when he told the parable of the friend at midnight.
“Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him whatever he needs” (Luke 11:5-8). Here Jesus teaches us the value of persistent prayer.
When confronted with closed doors, hard hearts, and satanic barriers it becomes necessary to knock in prayer. Now a knock doesn’t mean one rap on the door. A knock is a loud and repeated rapping sound. And so must our knocking prayers be repetitious.
The question might arise in your mind as to why we must occasionally pray repetitiously. Do we do so to beg God into helping us? Do we do so in order to force Him into changing His mind? No! Repetitious prayer is better seen as unleashing spiritual power. Let me give you another example.
Have you ever tried to open a rusty water valve? It’s frozen stiff with corrosion. You strain and strain, but little progress is made. So you rest awhile then try again. With all your might you grip the handle and twist. Finally, it budges a bit. You rest again then return for another try.
Slight progress is made and a trickle of water begins to flow. After yet another rest and you try again. More progress. And so you persist until the valve is wide open and the water is full on. Repetitious prayer works like this as well. To persist in prayer is to open more and more the spiritual channels through which the power of God can flow. Closed doors, hard hearts, and satanic obstacles give way to the relentless pressure applied by both God and the kneeling Christian.
The Bible gives us numerous accounts of knocking prayer. Moses, during a battle, lifted up his hands and prayed continuously until the sun went down and victory was won (Exodus 17:8-16). Daniel engaged in earnest supplication for 21 days (Daniel 10). And in Acts we read that that the church prayed all evening for Peter’s release from prison (Acts 12). Even now countless people are praying and knocking on God’s door for many things.
Some of them have been praying for months, years, even lifetimes! Missionary societies have been praying for years that China will reopen for the church. Saints are praying persistently for a real revival to wake up the western church. Parents are praying for erring children, and women are knocking for their husbands. In each case, things all but appear hopeless. Hearts seem too cold. Barriers seem too large. But the power will begin to trickle! Who knows if even one more twist will not open things up all the way!
Are we a fire and forget kind of person? We pray once and simply shrug our shoulders when nothing seems to be happening. Jesus is telling us to ask, seek and knock and when we do it in Christ’s name, it will be given. Sometimes we need to pray with the persistence of the widow. Not because God isn’t willing to answer our prayers, but sometimes there are things of this world, and not of this world, that may be causing a delay. But that’s God’s problem isn’t it? Our task is to ask, seek and knock with the promise that in Jesus’ name, we will be answered.
Amen