Thursday, March 14, 2024

Peter's Prayer

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Matthew 14:29b-30


Many sermons have been preached on this passage of Scripture focusing on Peter’s faith, or Peter’s doubt or Jesus’ ability to walk on water. But I want to focus on Peter’s prayer.‌‌ 

It’s so short, and so unlike how we normally think of prayer that it's easy to miss. But verse 30 tells us that beginning to sink, Peter cried out “Lord, save me!” A three word prayer. Yet, an effective prayer. A prayer that God heard and answered. It says that “immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.”

There isn’t much to parse out or dissect in a three word prayer. We don’t need to look at the original language or see how any of the words function in the sentence. Yet there is a powerful principle of prayer here for you if you will receive it.

‌‌Consider Peter’s situation. He is sinking. Now, it doesn't take a grown man long to sink in water, so Peter had very little time to formulate a perfect prayer. Peter didn’t have time for impressive words or arguments. He had to get a prayer out quick! And he did. And it worked.

‌‌What I want you to see is that prayer doesn’t always have to polished. It doesn’t have to be eloquent. It is perfectly acceptable for you to simply cry out to God for help. In fact, that is exactly what some circumstances call for. There are certain situations in life that call for immediate prayer... a prayer of the moment. Sometimes you can’t afford to wait until you get back home to your prayer closet to pray about something. Sometimes you have to pray right now!

There will be times in your life when you will only have a few seconds to pray, or times that you will only be able to pray in your mind as someone is talking to you. Times when all you have time to pray is “Lord, save me” or “Help me, Lord!” And I want you to know that God hears those prayers!

As a parent I know that whenever one of my children has yelled “Help!” my wife and I both came running. That “help!” was an incredibly effective way of getting our attention and getting a quick response out of us. An entire paragraph of well-reasoned requests for assistance could not have gotten us there as fast as “Help!”

So, don’t discount the power of that type of prayer in a moment of crisis. Don’t discount the power of crying out to God for help.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Purify Yourself

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
1 John 3:2–3

This passage tells us two important things about the coming of Jesus. The first is that when He comes we shall be made like Him. What a glorious thought! That we Christians, those who have strived all our lives to be Christ-like (for that is what the word 'Christian' means) will one day achieve our goal and finally be like Him.
The second thing we glean from this passage is found in verse three when it says that “all who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.”
The great Christian thinker A.W. Tozer, likened this purification process to the preparation a bride undergoes for her wedding day. ‌Before her wedding a bride usually takes great care to prepare herself and her appearance for her husband. She has hair and makeup appointments scheduled from early in the morning until the time of the wedding. She has people there to help her with her hair and to help her get her dress on and to style her. She wants to look just right. ‌And Tozer asks, “should not the church of Jesus Christ be dressed worthy of her bridegroom, even as He is dressed? Pure—even as He is pure?” [A. W. Tozer, The Apostles’ Creed (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2023), 98–99.]
This is why “all who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.” Because we want to be found pleasing to our husband, pleasing to the Lord Jesus when He comes.
So, let me ask. What are you currently purifying about your life? It’s a constant struggle to be holy. All of us are works in progress, and we should always be working on something. Otherwise we may not be making any progress. So, find something in your life right now to purify yourself from.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Some Prayers Need to be Repeated

Once more he went away and prayed the same thing.
Mark 14:39


What is going on here? Why is Jesus praying the same thing again in the Garden of Gethsemane? Does He think God doesn’t hear Him? Does He think God needs to be asked again?

I don’t think so. Although Jesus was clearly wrestling in prayer in the garden, I don't think He was wrestling with God. He wasn’t trying to convince God to do His will. No, Jesus was wrestling in prayer against His own human will. He was praying Himself into a more willing submission to the Father’s will.

Have you ever prayed something you really didn’t want to pray or said something you really didn’t want to say? If you have, then you know it’s hard to really mean it from the depths of your heart at first. But, eventually, over time, you get more used to the idea and surrender yourself to it more and more as you pray it again and again. With each prayer you mean it a little more until, eventually, you can pray it and really mean it.

That’s how I understand the time Jesus spent praying in the garden. As He prayed “not my will but yours be done” over and over again, He became more and more settled in His surrender to the Father’s will .

This is a helpful reminder to us that some prayers need to be repeated. They need to be prayed over and over again. Not for the Lord’s benefit but for our own. Sometimes it takes a lot of praying to bring your will into alignment with God’s will. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and effort, a lot of wrestling in prayer, to be able to pray something and really mean it.

So, pray earnestly. Pray seriously. Lift your prayers up to the Lord over and over again until you really mean what you are praying, until you are fully surrendered to His will in your circumstances.

Wednesday, February 21, 2024

The Pharisee's Prayer

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
Luke 18:10-12‌


The Pharisee’s prayer is 33 words long in English, and it contains 4 favorable comparisons for himself. It’s long and arrogant and all about himself. When you look closely at his prayer, you realize that all the Pharisee did was thank God for making him so superior to other men. 

His prayer is full of pride for himself and contempt for those he believes are beneath him. The Pharisee doesn’t ask God for anything. He makes no requests. And the reason why is obvious enough. In his own estimation, he doesn’t lack anything. So, he prays about his own greatness. He uses prayer as an opportunity to sing his own praises to God.
Jesus is teaching us in this passage that not all prayers are pleasing to God. In fact, some prayers can be downright sinful. God hates pride! He hates arrogance! Don’t use your prayers to exalt yourself. Prayer should be a time to sing God’s praises, not your own. 

And don’t use prayer as an excuse to look down on other people. Don’t allow your prayers for other people to turn into an opportunity to slander them or pour contempt on them before the Lord. Make sure your prayers for other people are seasoned with grace. "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).