“The Real Power of Prayer”
Psalm 33:13-22
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Two men were talking together. The first man looked at the other and said, "If you are so religious, let's hear you quote the Lord's Prayer. I bet you $10.00 you can't." The second man responded, "Now I lay my down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." The first man pulled out his wallet, fished out a ten-dollar bill, shook his head and said, "I didn't think you could do it!"
Prayer is one of the most
important acts we can do as a believer, but it can also be one of the most
challenging acts we do. Like the two
men, we think we have a good handle on prayer, but we
struggle with the right words. We wonder
whether or not we are doing it right. We
wonder whether or not our prayer will be answered. We wonder whether or not we are praying for
the right things. But there is no secret
formula for prayer. Jesus gives us a
model of prayer in the Lord’s Prayer, but there is no hard and fast rule to how
we are to pray. We are just supposed to
do it, and do it often.
Martin Luther once wrote, “Prayer
is the work of faith alone…Prayer is our comfort, strength, and salvation. It’s our first line of defense against all of
our enemies.” Prayer is one of the most
important acts of faith that we can do as Christ’s disciples. Prayer not only directs our hearts and minds
to God, but it also opens us up to the work of grace in our lives. The more we pray, the more we become
connected to God, the more our relationship with God is nurtured, and the more
we are made secure in our confidence of God’s abiding presence in our lives.
If our whole
life is to be one of worship, it is to also to be one of constant prayer. All times and all places are the right times
and right places to give thanksgiving to God for God’s blessings of grace and
providential care. Even when it seems
that our prayers are unanswered, or when the answer is not what we want or
expect, we must continue to always pray, because prayer is pleasing to God and
it is one of the most important ways in which we are called to respond to God’s
divine initiative and action in our lives.
We all know
the importance of having a faithful prayer life, and the value of prayer in the
growth of our spirituality. Prayer is
one of those good habits of faith that we should do over and over again until
it becomes like second nature to us.
Just as we need food everyday for the well-being of our body and mind,
we also need prayer everyday for the well-being of our soul. Prayer is the spiritual food we need everyday
to sustain us, preserve us, and encourage us in our lives of faith.
Paul, himself, knew the importance
of prayer in the lives of the faithful.
In his first letter to Timothy, Paul is giving Timothy instructions for
his life as a pastor, and Paul’s very first instruction to Timothy is to
pray. There is nothing else that takes
precedence over prayer. Prayer is to be
first and foremost priority of our lives.
Without prayer, life is an endless cycle of random events with no frame
of reference in which to understand them.
Without prayer, decisions have no grounding on which to be made. Without prayer, relationships lose the
interconnectedness by which they are bound together.
There is no substitute for prayer
for the health and well-being of both the believer and the believing
community. For Paul, prayer is one of
the most important acts of the church for the other. Even more than service, more than mission,
more than evangelism, prayer is the single greatest gift we can give to
another, because for Paul, prayer is not just about the “what”; it’s about the
“who.” For Paul, the Christian community
is to pray for everyone.
This command to pray for everyone
sounds simple enough, but we all know that this is easier said than done. There is a tendency for us believers to think
of prayer as only a private request for our own individual wants and needs. Of course, there is nothing wrong with prayer
for ourselves.
In fact, we are to pray for ourselves.
But the danger is to think that our prayers are to be only for
ourselves. We may pray for other people,
but how many times are our prayers for people like ourselves, for those we
already know, even for those who we love, like, or prefer? How many times are our prayers for someone
who is closest to us, who we value more, our friends, acquaintances, and loved
ones? Paul challenges us to break out of
this exclusive understanding of prayer and to include in our prayers to God
those outside our circles, even those outside the community of faith, even
those who are kings and rulers of countries, even those who sit on the seat of
high office in government.
In this Presidential election
year, the challenge of this command is even more apparent. With the emotional tension brought about by
an ongoing war, the threat of terrorism, and two diametrically opposed
candidates with very different values, opinions, and beliefs, the political
rhetoric this year is at fever pitch.
With two political parties vying for power, with political pundits and
spokespeople pushing their candidates agenda, with the onslaught of negative
news from a biased media, we do not have wait long to hear the voices of hatred
and loathing over the airways toward those who are on the other side. Do we even need to mention the religious
tensions between Jews and Muslims and Christians?
Do Republicans dare to pray for
Democrats? Do Democrats dare to pray for
Republicans? Do John Kerry supporters
dare to pray for President Bush? Do
President Bush supporters dare tp pray for John Kerry? Do we Christians dare to pray for Muslims and
Jews? Do we as God’s people and
visionaries of the kingdom dare to pray for those dictators and rulers and
governments who oppress and enslave and sometimes destroy their own
people? Do we Americans dare to pray for
terrorists seeking our destruction? Do
we dare to pray for our own government and leaders when they sometimes do
things we do not approve of?
There is no doubt that when it
comes to religion, politics, government, and national and international policy,
we Christians will find ourselves in disagreements,
but there is one thing in which there should be no disagreement between
believers. All Christians can and should
pray for everyone, from our best friend to our worst enemy. No one should be beyond the words of our
prayers for one simple reason, because no one is beyond the power of God’s
saving grace.
This command to pray for everyone
is the supreme affirmation of the Christian faith in a God who desires all
people to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. By praying for everyone, even those who are
not like us, opposed to us, or hate us, we make a claim about the God in whom
we believe. We make a claim that the
pursing love of God knows no exceptions.
We make a claim that the God we believe in is a God whose basic
character is to be savior and wants all people to be reconciled and restored. We make a claim that our God is a God for all
people, for the whole world, not just for a select few, not just for us.
The Psalmist words from Psalm 33
remind us of God’s sphere of influence in the world and in the lives of
humankind. It is God who sees all
humankind, who fashioned the hearts of all people, who observes all their
deeds. It is God who alone is the hope
and savior of all humanity. This is why
we are to pray for everyone, because the power of prayer is not found in the
words we say or in the frequency of our prayers or even in ourselves; the power
of prayer is found only in the God who is our help and shield and
deliverer.
As Paul reminds us, it is our
Christian conviction that there is only one God over all, and there is only one
mediator between God and humanity for the whole of humanity, who gave himself
as a ransom for all. By praying for
everyone, we testify to the work of Jesus Christ for the whole world. The cross is not just for us, it is for the
whole world, it is the very work of God for the salvation of the whole
cosmos. This is why prayer is so
important, because it makes witness to the fact that God’s amazing grace and
steadfast love is even now absorbing up all of creation to bring all into the
reign of God’s kingdom. Just as God is
not neutral toward those who belong to God, neither is God neutral toward those
who have not yet been brought into relationship. God not only wants all people to be saved,
God is even now working to save them.
Brothers and sisters, there is
better time than now to start praying for everyone, even for those who are
different than us, who believe differently than we do, and even for those who
are against us. In doing so, we not only
give praise and glory to the God who knows the hearts and minds of all people,
but we also correctly put the work of salvation in the hands of the only one
who can and does save. The real power in
this world is not found in John Kerry or in President Bush, its
not found in the sizes of armies or in the sizes of countries, its not found in
ideologies or philosophies of Democrats or Republicans, the real power in this
world is found only in the God we know in Jesus Christ.
Maybe the words of Robert E. Lee
say it best, “Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the
supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere
to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can
make in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray--to really
pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at sundown, at