According to the Westminster Confession, the chief aim of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Glory means weighty… it describes something of significance that has “gravitas.” Glory means consequential. A glorious man has substance. He is substantial, and he matters. Because we have been created in Christ Jesus, we are weighty in God’s eyes. However, in the eyes of the world we are inconsequential because the world cannot perceive the things of the spirit. When our prayers take the form of petition, we acknowledge that God is the source of our significance and glory. Prayer also tells us about the origin of our own heart. Prayer is the involuntary reflex of the human soul. Communion and communication with God is hard wired into our earthen vessel. Even those who are unbelievers pray when confronted by death. There are no atheists in foxholes. When his death was near, even Mark Twain, an avowed non-Christian said, “I prayed like never before.” When we stand at the threshold of death and glimpse our own mortality, these are “come to Jesus moments.”
In Luke 11:5, after Jesus had taught his disciples the “Lord’s prayer,” he gave them an illustration about the benefits of persistent prayer. Jesus said, “when a friend who comes to you at midnight, knocks on your door, and says “I have a guest and have no bread to serve him,” will you say to him, “Go away, don’t bother me. It’s too late and my wife and children are already in bed.” However, because of your neighbor’s persistent knocking, won’t you simply get up and give him what he needs?
Luke’s story about a cranky neighbor is an illustration of asking and receiving. In Jesus’ culture, neighborliness and hospitality were in vogue. The culture placed a high value on hospitality and considered it an honor to host a sojourner who needed a place to stay for the night. They believed that taking care of strangers was “entertaining angels unawares.” The host was obligated to fix a hot meal for the stranger. A stranger arriving at a house was considered the guest of the entire community. However, this host wasn’t prepared to feed his honored guest resulting in a shameful situation and a bad reflection on the neighborhood. A similar situation is when my wife says “I have nothing to wear.” She literally means “I have nothing to wear that will uphold the honor of my family.” When the host knocked on his neighbor’s door a literal translation of his request was, “I have nothing to uphold the honor of the community.” The neighbor’s first reaction was, “get lost, my kids are already asleep and in bed. I can’t get up and help you.” In Jesus’ day, this was not the appropriate response and was unthinkable. Jesus said, the solution to the problem is to keep on asking. The parable is a contrast between a cranky neighbor and a loving God who is eager to meet his children’s needs. The key is persistence. If you have the persistence to keep on asking a cranky neighbor, he will accommodate your request. Likewise, keep on asking a benevolent and loving God. Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.
The story in Mark continues, “Which of you fathers, if one of your children asks for a fish, will instead give him a snake that looks like a fish?” Children trust their fathers to make decisions that are good for them. A child has the persistent audacity to keep on asking his father for what he wants. If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your own children, how much more will a loving heavenly father give good gifts to his children who ask him? We who are fathers know the joy of giving good gifts to our own children. Take that feeling and multiply it ten times infinity and you’ll approach the joy that God feels to give good gifts to his children.
Abraham had the audacity to ask God to save the city of Sodom and Gomorrah and to spare the city for the sake of only five righteous souls. He kept on asking because he knew the heart of his God. Like Abraham approaching a loving God, I once was a stranger, but now I am a son. This is the essence of God’s “adoption.” Adoption is a legal term that means that we have access to intimacy and freedom from guilt before our holy father. An adopted son has legal standing before his father to ask for his needs to be supplied.
According to James Packer, when God’s children pray, he always give them what’s best for them in the long term, even though it may not be what the son asks for at the moment. Children don’t know what they really need. Like the stone mason who was asked what he was doing, we need to understand our upward calling. The stone mason pointed to the cathedral’s spire and said, “I’m chiseling this stone down here so that I can set it up there in the spire to glorify God.”
Our job when we pray is to sort through the chaff of our life. God will open our eyes so that we can see to appreciate the harvest that God has set in our lives not only in the here and now but also in the hereafter. Prayer is persistence… we need to keep on repeating the word of God in our lives to understand what really matters and to walk humbly with our Father one day at a time.
On the night before Jesus was crucified, the disciples were arguing who would be the greatest. In the upper room, they walked past the foot washing basin and took their places at the table. Jesus Christ with a heart of love and humility gladly took the role of the lowliest household servant and washed the disciples’ feet. This was an example to the disciples that he who is greatest shall be servant of all.
How can we be sure that God will answer our prayer? After supper, Jesus took Peter, James and John to the garden of Gethsemane to watch and pray. Jesus prayed to his father, “if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” The cup signified the wrath of God… the righteous sentence of death for the sin and iniquity of fallen man. Prayer is not aligning God’s will with my will. Rather it is aligning my will with God’s will. How did Jesus align his heart with his Father’s will? The scripture does not reveal the answer in Matthew 22. However, the Word of God is its own best commentary. The answer is in Hebrews 12:2: Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. On the cross, Jesus Christ satisfied and balanced the scale of God’s righteous judgment for all of our transgressions. God revealed to Jesus those of us who would be made righteous by the shedding of his innocent blood. Therefore he endured the pain and suffering of a shameful death because of his joyous expectation of your salvation and mine. As a result of his answered prayer, Jesus Christ voluntarily drank the cup of death as full payment for our sin and iniquity… for he who knew no sin was made sin for us that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael