LEARNING TO PRAY JESUS’ WAY

LEARNING TO= PRAY JESUS’ WAY—Part I

Luke 18:1-8=

1Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show= them that they should always pray and not give up. 2He said: "In a certain = town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. 3And there wa= s a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.'

4"For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't = fear God or care about men, 5yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will s= ee that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' "

6And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? = Will he keep putting them off? 8I tell you, he will see that they get justice, a= nd quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

Well…“When all else fails, read the direct= ions.” My hunch is that most of us can re= late to those words. We’ve p= roved them over and over again. You= know how it is – a simple task is transformed into a frustrating encounter with our own incompetence because we don’t first simply take the time= to read the directions.

This is the way it is with life in general; but it may= also be true when it comes to our faith. Lessons which are so basic to Chris= tian living, principles which are so plainly presented in God’s word, are often ignored by us –ignored, at least, until “all else fails.&= #8221;

This is certainly true when it comes to prayer. The Bi= ble tells us to pray. Jesus teach= es us to pray. Paul encourages us to “pray without ceasing.” (I Thessalonians 5:17) But so often we fail to follow God&= #8217;s guidelines in that we don’t pray--at least, not as we should.

Beginning today and continuing for the next couple of Sundays, we’re considering three stories unique to Luke’s Gospe= l--stories that shed light on how to pray. These are all stories from the life and ministry of Jesus, so I’m calling t= his series “Learning to Pray Jesus’ Way.” I hope that you will be with us for= each of these studies, and that you’re also participating in the “pr= ayers for our church” emphasis during the month of August.

Now, do we have to know all the things we’ll be talking about this month in order to pray? No, of course not. But I believe we will be more likel= y to pray as we should, and that our prayers will be more effective, if we at le= ast attempt to pray Jesus’ way. We need to have something of the mind of Christ when we pray.

1. So, le= t’s get started. To pray Jesus’ way, first of all, we must PRAY BELIEVING. Maybe this is simply stating the obvious, but you and I are not likely to pray unless we believe in God.

One of the biggest roadblocks we face when it comes to prayer is this: does anybody hear my prayers? We’re not going to pray unles= s we have some sense of the reality—of the very real presence--of the One = to whom we pray.

In the parable before us, Jesus tells of a widow who h= as a problem. We do not know what = the problem is--it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that this woman= knows the only person who can help her with her problem. It’s the judge.

The laws of her society instructed her to take her particular problem to the judge which Rome had provided. He was the one whose job it was to hear her. He was the only one who could respo= nd to her need. So she follows dire= ctions, pleads her case before the judge, and in the end, her need is met.

Prayer assumes that there is One who hears us when we = call upon Him. Prayer is not speak= ing to ourselves, or mulling something over in our minds. Prayer is, instead, a conversation= with One who is listening to what we have to say. Prayer is pointless, and we wonR= 17;t do it, without an awareness of the reality of God.

Think about this: prayer is either one of life’s greatest opportunities or one of its saddest delusions. It all depends,

first and foremost, on the reality of God.

What would you say if someone asked you, “Do you believe in God?” You wo= uld probably say “yes.” You might even get very animated in your response, as if to say “how dare= you suggest otherwise?” Most people in our neck of the wood= s say that they believe in God, right?

Perhaps a more accurate indicator of our belief in God, though, would be our answer to this question: “Do you pray?” It’s so easy to say that we b= elieve that God exists--and isn’t this really to some degree still expected = of us?

The practice of prayer, however, adds substance to our= words. It proves them genuine. To pray while not believing in God = would be foolish--a waste of time. = How much more unthinkable, though, to truly believe in God and not attempt at l= east to pray?

The exception, I suppose, would be if what we believe = about God is all bad. If we believe God= to be a tyrant who does not want to be disturbed, I don’t suppose we would pray. If our notion of God is= that He is too other-worldly to be reached by our prayers, again, we would see no s= ense in praying.

2. So, to= pray Jesus’ way, means we must know something about God. Learning to pray Jesus’ way,= then, means that we need to PRAY KNOWING= —knowing who God is--knowing God’s nature.

In Jesus’ story about the persistent widow, He t= ells of a judge who lives in the same town as the widow. He is not a good judge. Jesus says he neither respects God = nor cares about people, two factors which would seem to make it impossible for = this widow to receive the justice she is seeking. The judge really isn’t conce= rned about this woman or her needs.

Regardless of his shortcomings, though, the judge is t= he only hope this poor widow has. So she goes to him and says, “Grant me justice against my adversary.” But the jud= ge refuses. She doesn’t ta= ke no for an answer, though, and goes back. The result is the same, so she goes b= ack again. And again. And again.

Finally, she wears the judge down. He cannot tolerate her any longer, = so he does the only thing he knows to do to get rid of this nagging woman. (Now, please don’t read anyth= ing into that—I’m just talking about this one woman, in this one st= ory, that Jesus told!) In this cas= e, to get this woman off his back, the judge grants her request. Justice is served.

So what does THIS tell us about God? At first, we may think it means tha= t if we nag God long enough, He will do what we want Him to do. But that’s not it. In no way does that agree with what= we learn about God elsewhere in Scripture, does it?

So, Jesus is not saying that God is LIKE this judge. He’s, in fact, pointing out = how different God is. If even this unjust judge, who neither fears God nor cares about people, can be badgered into doing what is right, how much more so a loving, gracious, and holy God will do what is right toward those who call upon Him. “I tell you,” Jesus say= s in verse eight, “HE will see that they get justice, and quickly.”<= /p>

When we pray, we need to know what God is like. He inv= ites us to call upon Him, even to ‘come boldly before his throne of grace = for there we will find mercy and grace to help in our time of need.’ (Heb= rews 4:16) He gladly listens to his children and meets our need. = This is what the Heavenly Father is like. Pray knowing this.

3. You se= e, when we pray knowing who God is, truly understanding His nature, then we can PRAY TRUSTING. Praying Jesus’ way means we = pray believing in God. We also know who God is when we pray—because Jesus = has done such a wonderful job of letting us know. This means we can now trust God com= pletely as we pray.

Now, the particular aspect of trust that we see demons= trated in Jesus’ story could be called perseverance or patience. Jesus is saying to us here that our prayers WILL be answered, that God will bless us--perhaps by changing our circumstances, or maybe at times by changing us--but He WILL answer our pra= yers sometime, and in some way—in precisely the way He knows to be best fo= r us.

A rare thing happened in our family last Sunday—= all five of us got to attend church together—and yours truly wasn’t preaching. We went to the chu= rch our son, David, attends down in Charleston, and the pastor chose as his text for the day a passage from II Peter.

Listen to what it says in II Peter 1:5-6a: “For = this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodne= ss, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseveranc= e…” Do you see how this moves from fai= th to perseverance?

Now listen again to the way Luke introduces this parab= le of Jesus. He says in verse one: “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” You hear the call for perseverance--for patience.

Then we come to the end of this parable and Jesus asks= a disturbing question: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

Why would Jesus ask that? Could it be that Jesus was already= seeing signs among His disciples of giving up rather than keeping the faith? Is this what motivated these words encouraging patience and perseverance in prayer?

Now let’s apply this to us. I don’t know if this was a p= roblem for the disciples or not—but what about us? What if Jesus returned today: woul= d He find faith in our lives? Would He = find us to be a people of patient and persistent prayer?

“Zits” is probably my favorite comic strip= in the paper these days. On Tues= day, the father, Walt, is talking to his son: “Jeremy, let me tell you a little story about patience…”

Jeremy looks up from his cell phone to ask, “Is = it long? Can you just give me the bullet points? Or maybe the highlights? A short synopsis = would probably be more effective. B= etter yet, if you texted it to me, I could skim it faster.”

Dad walks away muttering, “I think I’ll ju= st go tell it to myself.”

Maybe that’s the way Jesus would tell the story = today. I don’t think the problem of impatience has gotten any better today.&nb= sp; With all our time-saving devices, it’s probably much worse!

Let’s relate this to our church. During its 187 year history—= we just celebrated another birthday, by the way—this congregation has se= en times characterized by great productivity and other times marked by great p= atience and perseverance.

With all the changes we’ve experienced in recent= years, some have felt like giving up—some, in fact, have—but WE have persevered. We are patient pe= ople. We believe God has plans for this church, and that His plans for us are good.

We’re praying for his blessing. We’re praying with renewed p= atience and perseverance until the answers come.&n= bsp; I believe we’re getting close, so I’m encouraging us tod= ay to be persistent in our praying. God hears our prayers and His answers will come. Maybe we’re beginning to see= them already!

In Jesus’ story today, He talks about the connec= tion between prayer and faith, between prayer and trusting God. He says the two are bound up together. Prayer and faith are inseparable.

We must trust God in order to pray, but praying builds= up our faith—a patient, trusting faith.= Jesus taught us that prayer and the life of faith are that bound up together.

This means that if we are struggling in our faith--if = our lives are a constant battle between belief and unbelief, between hope and despair, between living for God and living for self, between instant gratification and patience, between giving up and perseverance--the problem= may very well be with our prayer life. <= /span>Maybe we’ve failed to listen to Jesus and follow the directions He’s given us concerning prayer.

If you’re feeling discouraged in your Christian = walk, if you’re about ready to admit defeat and give up, if you’re questioning whether your service to the Lord is really being effective or bearing any fruit—before you succumb to discouragement, check your pr= ayer life.

First make it your aim, your spiritual growth goal, to= learn to pray Jesus’ way and then to do so faithfully, obediently, and pati= ently. Listen to these words again, but t= his time, take them personally: “…Jesus told his disciples a parabl= e to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”

That’s Jesus’ way—and He wants us to= make it ours: ‘…pray, Christian friends; pray, First Baptist Church,= and never, never give up!’