Luke 18:1-8
‘And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”‘
At my home church’s recent Missionary Conference, we had a missionary from Wycliffe Bible Translators who said he and his family serve in a closed Muslim country. Culturally, the Muslims are resistant to the name ‘Christian,’ but they are not offended to call Christians the ‘people of the book.’ So, to Muslims, Christians are people of the book and that sounds great because we are. And the ‘Book’ is God’s Holy Word, the Scriptures. But not only are we people of the Book [Bible], we are also people of prayer. Children from all Christian families are taught to pray even at a young age. We have heard it said, as an illustration, many times over and over again, that communion with God is like breathing in fresh air when we read the Word of God, and then we exhale when we lift up our prayers to him.
Reading the Bible and praying should be second nature to professing Christians. Sadly, Christian author, Donald S. Whitney in his book, The Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, said, “Despite the penultimate importance of prayer, however, statistical surveys and experience seem to agree that a large percentage of professing Christians spend little time in sustained prayer. While they may offer a sentence of prayer here and there throughout their day, they rarely spend more than a very few minutes — if that — alone in conversation with God.” John Calvin emphatically condemns the neglect of prayer in the Christain life, saying, “Those who do not invoke God under urgent necessity are no better than idolaters.”
Athletes practice the sport or skill that they are determined to compete in against others. Exceptional children wanting to win a Spelling Bee must practice hours upon hours to even qualify. And so it goes for all those who press on to win the prize. In the same way, prayer is a spiritual discipline that Christians must practice to get better. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and founder of the Preacher’s College in 1856, said, “I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” No doubt, prayer is a skill that can be taught and learned. The disciples of Christ asked Him to teach them how to pray in Luke 11:1. Matthew records this same message of our Lord to his disciples in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:5-15, which says,
‘”And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’
In this passage, our Lord said repeatedly, “When you pray” as in verses 5, 6, and 7. The emphasis is on the expectation to pray, which is precisely why the Apostle Paul tells the church in Colosse to “continue steadfastly in prayer” in Colossians 4:2, and to the church in Thessalonica to “pray without ceasing” in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Yet, because of the neglect of praying in the Christians’s lives, let alone being steadfast in prayer, Whitney quotes Andrew Murray, who wrote With Christ in the School of Prayer, saying, “Reading a book about prayer, listening to lectures and talking about it is very good, but it won’t teach you to pray. You get nothing without exercise, without practice.”
Developing our skill, faithfulness, and our consistency in prayer requires us to practice. For me now that I am retired, I like to practice praying through the daily Scripture reading, memorization, and meditation. In this way, all spiritual disciplines seem to connect. One discipline grows out of another.
Another means of praying is to keep us from temptation, as our Lord taught us to pray in Matthew 6:13, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.” Rightfully, the Apostle Paul shows in Ephesian 6 how to engage in our spiritual warfare. In Christ, we are given the complete armor for us to wear: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. All of this we possess in Christ. However, our responsibility, as stated by the Apostle in Ephesians 6:18a is “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication…” The word praying in this context shifts the emphasis from the components of the suit of armor to the action of the saint who is now fully equipped. They must pray! And pray at all times! And for the prayers to be efficacious, they must pray in the Spirit! The efficacy of our prayers increases because we are on our knees practicing. It takes commitment, perseverance, and steadfast faithfulness, all of which we lack. It takes our dependence on God.
Psalm 20:7 says,
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.