PRAYING WITH OUR EYES OPEN¹

(“An Appeal to Pray”)

Ephesians 6:18-20, Colossians 4:2-6

“Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.” (Ephesians 6:19)

“(Pray) … for us … that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ.” (Colossians 4:3)

“It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’ …” (Luke 11:1)

(A) THE SECOND “PRONG”

(1) This morning I introduced the first half of a two-pronged emphasis for our church in 2005 – namely, the often terrifying subject of “evangelism”. You will be hearing more about “evangelism” in the coming weeks – from the pulpit, in Sunday School, and at a combination meal and unofficial meeting of the congregational next Sunday following worship. You will be encouraged throughout the coming year to avail yourself of several opportunities to be trained in one or more styles of evangelism – to become an active participant in any evangelistic efforts of this church – and to become personally involved in sharing your faith with those the Lord providentially brings into your own “sphere of influence”.

(2) This evening I want to introduce the second half of this two-pronged focus for 2005 – namely, the often neglected and/or frequently frustrating subject of prayer. Pastor Jim Bailey will be preaching next Sunday night on a theme of his choice. Starting two weeks from tonight, however, and continuing for the next three months, we’re going to do something different on Sunday evenings – i.e. we’re going to study a book by a man named Richard Pratt, Jr. entitled, “Pray With Your Eyes Open” – the “eyes”, in this case, being “the eyes of our hearts.”² The teaching I plan to do over the next several months will be based almost entirely on consecutive chapters from this book – we will also spend some time together each Sunday evening doing the “Review Questions” and “Exercises” found at the end of each chapter – and you will be given some “Extended Exercises” from the book to put into practice each week.

If you are interested in buying a copy of “Pray With Your Eyes Open” for yourself, I encourage you to do so – in fact, I’ve put information on the bulletin board for your convenience (although I can’t guarantee the “sale price” is till valid). Regardless of whether you buy the book or not, I’m still going to “teach” from it – and we’re still going to discuss the material in it – and I’m still going to strongly encourage you to put the suggested exercises found in it into practice each week.

(3) I realize I may be running a risk by breaking with our Sunday night tradition. Some, for example, may think we’re taking a step backward by not keeping our “traditional” evening service. But, I can assure you this is not a subtle attempt to do away with evening worship – indeed, I fully anticipate returning to it once we have completed this series on prayer.

I also realize some people may think I’m being lazy by not writing an “original” message each week. But actually, this is going be harder for me in several respects – first, because I will have to try and make someone else’s material my own (which is never easy to do) – second, because I will have to prepare for and lead discussions (which I’m not particularly good at) – and third, because I will be doing all the same prayer “exercises” you are being asked to do (in fact, I will be doing them whether you do them or not).

(B) SOME PROBLEMS WITH PRAYER (1) With those things in mind, I want to briefly address some problems we invariably encounter when it comes to the matter of prayer. Most Christians agree on two things – first, prayer is very important – and second, few of us do it well. As Pratt says in the preface to his book, “we know instinctively that prayer is essential to the Christian life … but we are constantly faced with the inadequacies of our own prayer lives.”²

One of the broad questions we will wrestle with in this series, then, is, “How can we improve our praying?” – “What can we do (by God’s enabling grace) to make our communication with Him more vital and/or more fulfilling?”²

(2) We’ve all heard the little cliché that says, “Prayer Changes Things” – yet, if we’re honest, we’ve often wondered why our prayers don’t seem to be making much difference.

We’ve all heard stories of dramatic answers to prayer, and long to see similar answers to our own³ – but again, if we’re honest, many times the praying we do doesn’t feel like its getting past the proverbial “ceiling”.

We know the verse from the Book of James that says, “the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (c.f. James 5:16b) – but it only serves to make us wonder why our prayers seem to accomplish so little.

In that same passage Elijah is said to have been a man “like us”, who “prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then (i.e. at the end of three and half years) he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit” (c.f. James 5:17-18). Few of us can point to such obvious and/or dramatic answers to our prayers – indeed, most of the answers we have gotten seem pathetic in comparison.

(3) One writer said, “Prayer is a tremendous force in the world … like the power of earth’s mightiest dynamite.”⁴ If that’s true, why don’t we see more “dynamic” answers to our individual, corporate, and/or family prayers?⁵ Why are our children still living in sin? Why does our church continue to grow smaller? Why do people from the “other” political party keep getting elected? Why are so few of those we pray for healed of their infirmities? Why don’t we see more people coming to Christ?

Wayne Mack suggests two possible answers.⁵ One may be because we don’t pray enough – perhaps we don’t “pray without ceasing” (c.f. I Thessalonians 5:17) – perhaps we don’t “labor earnestly” in our prayers like Paul’s friend Epaphras (c.f. Colossians 4:12) – or maybe “we don’t have because we never get around to asking” (c.f. James 4:2c) (i.e. we think about it, but we never actually do it). Maybe we don’t pray enough.

The other possibility is that we are not praying the way we should – i.e. perhaps we don’t “ask in faith without doubting” (c.f. James 1:6) – perhaps we aren’t “asking according to the Lord’s will” (c.f. I John 5:14) – or, maybe our motives for asking are selfishly wrong (c.f. James 4:3).

We may try and ease our frustration and/or salve our sense of guilt by reminding ourselves God is sovereign, and that He’s going to do “whatever he pleases” (c.f. Psalm 115:3) – i.e. that His will is going to be done regardless of how we pray (c.f. Luke 22:42) – but that doesn’t solve the problems we often struggle with almost every time we pray.

(4) Jesus’ disciples must have suffered from some of these same problems, because the Gospel of Luke says: “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’” (c.f. Luke 11:1) – which, of course, led Him to give them an abbreviated version of the Lord’s Prayer (c.f. Luke 11:2-4; Matthew 6:9-13). But even the Lord’s Prayer can become tiresome and meaningless when all we do is repeat it from memory without really thinking about the words. Hence, even a study of the Lord’s Prayer (while extremely helpful, because it’s part of God’s inspired word) is not necessarily (in and of itself) the answer to all our prayer problems.

(C) THE PRACTICE OF PRAYER

(1) Jim wanted to play football. Indeed, his little Junior High heart was set on becoming a professional player. “I’m smart enough to do it,” he told himself. Actually, Jim was smart – he was quite a bookworm. He read all the time, and thought he knew exactly what to do to become a professional football player – i.e. he would check out some books from the library and find out everything there was to know about the game.⁶

Several weeks later the first day of tryouts came. After warm-up exercises, the coach shouted, “Tackle practice!” When Jim reached the front of the line, he scrambled for the boy with the ball – but to no avail. Again and again runners easily avoided his frantic efforts to bring them down. Finally, the coach called Jim to the sidelines and said, “Jim, I don’t think you’re cut out for football.” “Yes I am!” Jim replied. “Ask me anything about the game. I know the answer to any question you can ask.” The coach knelt down, put his hand on Jim’s oversized shoulder pad, and said, “Jim, in football it’s not just what you know that counts – it’s also about what you can do.”⁶

Pratt makes this point at the end of his book – but I want to make it at the start – namely, that when it comes to prayer, it’s not just what we know that counts, it’s also about what we DO!⁷ In his inspired “treatise” on the relationship between faith and works, James said: “prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (c.f. James 1:22) – and again: “just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26).

How do those biblical principles apply to prayer? Just since I’ve been here, we’ve studied the Lord’s Prayer on Sunday nights – we’ve looked at what the Larger Catechism has to say about prayer on Wednesday nights – and earlier this year we did a brief video series by R. C. Sproul on prayer, also on Sunday night. I’m sure we’ve done other things related to the subject of prayer – I’m also sure you’ve done other studies on prayer long before I became your pastor. The point is, if we only gather information without actually putting what we’ve learned into practice, we’re only “deluding ourselves” if we think that will make us fruitful “prayers” – if we don’t commit ourselves to and/or persist in the hard work of striving to actually put what we know into practice, our praying will be nothing more than a “dead” exercise.

(2) Pratt puts it like this: “Good communication with God is not something we can develop simply by reading. We can read a thousand books on the subject without improving our prayers in the least. Prayer is like learning to play the piano. It takes practice – lots and lots of practice! The only way our prayer life will improve is if we take the time to put our good intentions into action.”⁷

That’s why the exercises at the end of each chapter of Pratt’s book are so important. They aren’t infallible – they aren’t the only exercises we could do – they aren’t even necessarily the best exercises we could do – nor will everyone find them equally helpful. The reason they are there (and the reason why I’m strongly encouraging you to commit yourself to doing them), is to move us from being hearers to doers – from being listeners and learners, to achievers and performers – from knowing everything there is to know about prayer (so to speak), to actually putting what we know into practice in a way that (in some cases) may radically change the way we pray, and/or make our prayers more fruitful and/or more effective!

I also want us to get rid of the notion, before we even get started, that there’s some “secret formula” that will make praying simple and easy. Beloved, effective prayer is hard work – often times its excruciatingly hard work. That’s why its so easy to neglect – that’s why its so easy to fall into the trap of coming up with our own “meaningless repetition(s)” (c.f. Matthew 6:7) – that’s why so many so-called “prayer meetings” are boring and lightly attended – that’s why we become bored and/or frustrated with our own prayers.

(3) It would not be fair to ask you to commit yourself to something blindly, so I’ve given you an example of the kind of questions and exercises we will be doing as we work our way through Pratt’s book. The example in front of you comes at the end of chapter one – and as you can see, it’s divided into three parts. First, there are some Review Questions, which highlight the main points of the chapter – my plan is to briefly go over these questions together each week at the end of that night’s teaching session. Next, there are some prayer Exercises, which we will also try and do together each week, as time allows. And finally, there’s an Extended Exercise, which will be our “homework” assignment for that week.

Take this example home and look it over – study it (you aren’t being asked to answer the questions or do the exercises yet, because we haven’t gone over the material in chapter one) – you have two weeks to prayerful decide whether or not to commit yourself to doing these things for the next three months. Order Pratt’s book if you like – but know this – if you decide to commit yourself to doing the prayer exercises, expect it to require time and effort – expect it to be hard work – expect to be tempted to skip some of the exercises because they’re too hard, because they are so foreign to the way you are used to praying, and/or because you “don’t have the time” – expect to be tempted to quit altogether – expect to have to adjust and/or rearrange your personal schedule to make it happen.

If you decide not to commit yourself to doing these prayer exercises, does that mean you can’t come on Sunday nights? Does that mean you’re free to stay home? Absolutely not! I want you here, whether you commit yourself to doing the exercises or not! I want you here so you can at least take advantage of the opportunity to learn, and even participate in some of the group discussions and exercises. Who knows – maybe before it’s over you will be challenged to do more than you originally planned.

Obviously, the best way to get the most out of what we are going to be doing is to commit yourself to the “whole package” – including the Extended Exercises. However, if after prayerful consideration you aren’t ready to do that, I still want you to come so you can at least benefit from what we do here together.

(D) PRAYER AND EVANGELSIM

(1) Finally, I think a brief word about the Scriptural connection between evangelism and prayer is in order. For example, in Ephesians chapter six, Paul said: “pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (c.f. Ephesians 6:19-20).

Here Paul asked his brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for boldness – boldness for himself, so he would have the courage to proclaim the Gospel as he “ought”. This always amazes me, because I never think of the Apostle Paul as someone who was shy or scared about such things – I never think of him as someone who lacked boldness when it came to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with other people. Obviously he had learned that the boldness he needed was a gift of God’s enabling grace, rather than something inherent in his own personality – and so he asked for the prayers of his brothers and sisters in Christ, that he might “make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” as he ought (c.f. Ephesians 6:19).

(2) In Colossians chapter four, the Apostle said: “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak” (c.f. Colossians 4:2-4).

Here Paul asked his fellow Christians to pray that the Lord would give him an opportunity to share the Gospel with others. Now I’ve known people (through my camp meeting experience) who have looked at every person they meet as an opportunity to evangelize – and often ended up trying to force the Gospel on people who obviously weren’t interested and/or ready to hear it. Apparently that wasn’t Paul’s approach – he apparently realized that not everyone he met was ready to hear the Gospel – that every encounter he had with others was not necessarily an opportunity to evangelize – hence, he asked his fellow Christians to pray that the Lord would open up the right doors of opportunity – and that he would have the discernment to recognize them when they came.

(3) Taken together, these passages tell us that when it comes to the matter of evangelism, Christians should be praying regularly for “boldness” and “opportunity” – both for ourselves, and for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Furthermore, we learn that prayer is one of the divinely appointed means for spreading the Gospel – and, that it’s also one of the basic ways EVERY Christian can become involved in the evangelistic efforts of their church.

Now Pratt’s book doesn’t deal directly with the relationship between evangelism and prayer – but it does teach us several important truths about prayer in general, which we will not only be useful for our every day prayer lives, but also for our individual and corporate prayers regarding evangelism.

(4) I appeal to you, then, to prayerfully consider committing yourself to this upcoming “prayer project” which will begin two weeks from tonight – to commit yourself to whole “prayer package” – i.e. to being here on Sunday nights, doing all the assigned prayer exercises, and encouraging others to join us as well.

May the Lord see fit to use this effort to teach us about prayer – but more importantly, to change the way we pray, both individually and corporately – and to make us effective “prayers”, particularly as it relates to seeing others come to faith in Christ.

and Reformed Publishing Company; 1987.