Prayers…

Do they even work? Does God even care? Does God hear? Does God answer?

Followers of Jesus know that prayer is supposed to be one of our daily practices of our faith.

But do we really believe prayer works? Do we really believe that God answers our prayers?

God absolutely answers all prayer.

God may not answer all prayer in the way we want them answered, or in the time that we want them answered.

But God always answers prayers.

Here are the four ways that God answers prayer.

1. If the request is wrong, God will say, “No”. No is a legitimate answer. We say no all the time. When our request is wrong, God will say, “No.”
   • God, can I have a million dollars? I would like to buy a bunch a new toys.
   • God, I would like ______ to fall in love with me.
   • God, I would like for you to smite all my enemies!
2. If the timing is not right, God will say, “Wait.” There may be times when the request is right, but the timing may not be right. In those cases, God’s answer is “Wait”.
   • I have a ten year old boy. If he were to ask me if he can drive, the answer is wait. It’s not a forever “No” because I fully expect him to drive when he turns 16. But it would be totally irresponsible for me to allow him to drive when he’s 10.
   • When the timing is not right, God’s answer is “Wait.”
3. If I am not right, God’s answer to my prayer is “Grow.”
   • God, I want to be a leader of a mega-enterprise for your kingdom.
   • The prayer and the request may be God-honoring and good. However, if I am not ready, if I am not mature enough to handle the pressures of leading such an enterprise, God cannot answer the prayer in the way I want them answered.
   • When I am not right, God will answer my prayer with, “James, grow.”
4. If the request is right, the timing is right, and I am right, God will say, “GO!!!”
   • God absolutely loves to answer prayers.
   • God delights in seeing his children live fully into his kingdom vision.

Here’s the thing about prayer. For the most part, the way we practice prayer is as if God were a genie. Most of our prayer times consist of us saying a bunch of stuff to God…mostly, telling God what we want done. And then when we’re done telling God what we want done in our world, we end it with an Amen and go about our day.

But don’t you think, if we’re genuinely asking God about things, and we pray because we believe God hears and answers our prayers, that we ought to spend as much time listening for God’s voice and guidance?

Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighborhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.

C S Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.

“I’m just not being fed.”

“I’m looking for a church that’s a good ‘fit’ for my family.”

“I want a church with a meaningful program for my children.”

These are not necessarily bad questions to ask. But the reason why these may be the wrong questions to be asking is that they place my needs, my wants, and my perspective as the only criteria by which we determine the answer to these questions. I am the ultimate authority and judge.

My guess is that a person asking such questions probably will never find what they are looking for, for our needs and our wants change as we change.

What would it look like, if, instead of putting me at the center of the universe, put God there. And instead of asking how can the church meet my needs, we began asking a different set of questions.

“What kind of a Christ-follower is God asking me to be?”

“What kind of a Christ-follower best pleases God in their gatherings?”

“What kind of a Christ’s church member should I be to further the kingdom of Jesus Christ?”

What would our church world look like if we were asking these questions? What would our world look like if Christ-followers asked these questions instead?

Much has changed.

You could not get on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of the social networks without reading and seeing comments about the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Much has, indeed, changed.

For a few moments, I would like to focus on things that haven’t changed.

Who needs Jesus?

• straight sinners, gay sinners
• young sinners, old sinners
• white sinners, black sinners, brown sinners, red sinners, yellow sinners
• republican sinners, democratic sinners, independent sinners, communist sinners
• rich sinners, middle-class sinners, poor sinners

Who needs Jesus? Every single person who’s ever lived on planet earth needs what God offers in his Son, Jesus Christ.

This was true last week. This is true today. This will be true till Christ returns.

God’s love hasn’t changed. God’s truth hasn’t changed. God’s word hasn’t changed. God’s welcome hasn’t changed.

Given this reality, I and The Little Church on the Prairie will continue to pursue Christ’s mission for the church to love and proclaim to all sinners that we are welcome and that there is salvation in no one else but Jesus Christ.