Tag Archives: prayer

Repeated Requests

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For reasons that I don’t fully understand, the Lord sometimes allows us to experience great need and then He doesn’t answer until we have prayed “enough”.  It’s probably not so important that we know why this is true, but it’s very important that we know that it is true.  If we didn’t catch on, we might quit praying too early, falsely believing that God was simply unresponsive to our need.  One example of this kind of repeated request that received a remarkable answer is found in John 4. 

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.  Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.'”

Christ’s response might have discouraged a less determined person from asking – but this man was desperate.

The nobleman said to Him, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies!’

Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your son lives.’ So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, ‘Your son lives!’

Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, ‘Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.’ So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, ‘Your son lives.’ And he himself believed, and his whole household.”   – John 4:46-53 (NKJV)

So the lesson we learn is: Keep asking!

Long and Short Prayers

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Prayers do not have to be long to be effective.  Perhaps the best example of a super effective short prayer is found in Nehemiah.  In this case Nehemiah offered up a prayer in the midst of a conversation.  The answer he received sent him on the mission that would forever define his life.

“Then the king said to me, ‘What do you request?'”

“So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, ‘If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.'”

“Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), ‘How long will your journey be? And when will you return?’ So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.”  – Nehemiah 2:4-6 (NKJV)

How long was that prayer?  A couple of seconds at most?  Yet under the circumstances, in the presence of the king with Jerusalem lying in ruins, we can be sure this prayer was offered from the depths of Nehemiah’s heart.

We must take care, however, to see this prayer in its larger context.  One chapter earlier, when Nehemiah first heard of the needs in Jerusalem, this was his response:

“So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”  – Nehemiah 1:4 (NKJV)

How long is “many days”?  The text gives us a clue.  Four months elapsed (Chislev to Nisan) from the beginning of Nehemiah’s fasting and prayer until his moment of truth before the king.  No doubt that four months of private mourning, fasting and praying gave that later prayer much of its strength and direction in those few crucial seconds.

The Value of Preparation

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The Lord often teaches us when things go wrong.  So it was for His first disciples and so it is for us.  A valuable lesson on preparation is found right after the Transfiguration.  Jesus, Peter, James and John get down from the mountain to find a crowd gathered and Christ’s other disciples in the midst of a dispute.

And He asked the scribes, ‘What are you disputing about with them?’ Then one of the crowd answered and said, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to You, because he has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and gnashes his teeth, and he becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they might cast it out, but they were not able.'” – Mark 9:16-18 (M-Text)

So Jesus, as usual, solved the problem, but the disciples were left wondering as to just why they fell so short. 

And after He entered into a house, His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why were we not able to cast it out?’ So He said to them, ‘This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.'” – Mark 9:28-29 (M-Text)

Opportunities for ministry often come at unexpected times.  When they do, it’s important to be ready.  Fasting and prayer should not only be something we engage in at a time of great need – though there is nothing wrong with that.  It should be a form of preparation for the needs that are yet to come.

Encouragement from the Lowest Pit

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Bad experiences make us twitchy.  The more of them we have, the more we tend to expect them.  The more often we fall, the harder it is to look up.  The lower we get, the more we need some form of encouragement – someone to give us a reason to be brave.  If people cause our bad experiences, people begin making us twitchy.  As bad experiences multiply, so do our fears.  If we have a wide assortment of difficulties, it’s easy to believe that God Himself is behind them.  With relief we can say that He’s not.

When things were at their worst – and then got even worse than that, our hero Jeremiah prayed and heard God’s voice in response to his desperate cry.  As he shares his story, if we identify with his trouble, may we also take courage as we share his encouragement.

My enemies without cause
     Hunted me down like a bird.
They silenced my life in the pit
     And threw stones at me.
The waters flowed over my head;
     I said, ‘I am cut off!’
I called on Your name, O Lord,
     From the lowest pit.
You have heard my voice:
     ‘Do not hide Your ear
     From my sighing, from my cry for help.’
You drew near on the day I called on You,
     And said, ‘Do not fear!'”
                    – Lamentations 3:52-57 (NKJV)