Imperial Valley Christian Center

Jesus isn’t telling us everything there is to know about prayer. He isn’t telling us, how to pray, how to receive answers to prayer, what to pray for, when to pray. Jesus is focusing on the God side of prayer, how God feels about our prayers, how God responds to our prayers. Jesus is telling us what God’s attitude is towards our prayers.

You can tell that’s what Jesus means because he establishes that, “Ask and it will be given you…,” is so, by referencing the attitude of parents to their children’s requests:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him (Matthew 7:9-11 NIV)

We can be sure that God’s answer will be yes, because when our kids ask us for something the answer is usually yes. Even bad people want to give good things to their children. Even the Godfather, or some drug dealer, or mafia hitman, wants to give good things to his children. If normal human fathers desire to give good things to their children, if even the biggest jerk in town wants to answer his kids prayers, how much more confidence can we have in our Father in Heaven’s, “Yes.”

Jesus’s point is that God’s is predisposed, inclined, bent, to giving us what we ask for when we pray. Jesus is saying that God wants to answer our prayers.

A different way of thinking about prayer.

I missed what Jesus was saying because I had a wrong picture of how prayer works. I thought prayer was like asking your boss for a raise or a promotion. You make your request and then it’s completely in his hands. That’s how most of us picture prayer. We make our request and then it’s completely in God’s hands, He decides whether to give it or not to give it.

But that’s not how prayer works.

You can see how Jesus’s statement messes with that picture of prayer. He tells us that when we ask it will be given to us. There’s no thinking it over on God’s part. There’s no deciding to be done. God has already decided what His answer to our prayers will be…, “For everyone who asks receives.”

But it turns out that God can say yes to your prayer and you still not receive the thing, because prayer isn’t just up to God.

It’s not just up to God.

You can see the point a little more clearly in James 1:

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5 NIV)

James describes God’s attitude towards prayer pretty much the same way Jesus does. You can have confidence in asking God for wisdom because of what God is like. What’s he like?

• He gives generously. God loves to give. God loves answering prayers. He isn’t doling out answers to prayer with an eye dropper. He isn’t the great heavenly bookkeeper making sure everyone gets exactly what they deserve. God doesn’t give just enough, He’s a God of more than enough. He’s the God who makes your cup overflow, who multiplies the loaves and fishes till there are baskets of leftovers, who turns barrels of water into the finest wine, who almost sinks your boat with an overflow of fishes.
• He gives to all. Jesus said, everyone that asks receives. James says, He gives to all. Paul says He’s not a respecter of persons.That means you, that means me, that means Manasseh, we can all get our prayers answered.
• Without finding fault. The King James says, ubraideth not. Eerdman's Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament suggests, He doesn’t grumble. I like that one. God doesn’t grumble that you’re back again asking for something. God likes it when you ask, cause He likes answering prayers.
• It will be given you. James, just like Jesus, talks like the answer to your prayer is a certainty, a sure thing.

But…

And then James inserts a “but.” Right after telling us that it will be given to us, because God gives generously, and gives to all, and doesn’t grumble about it, James inserts a but.

6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord (James 1:6-7 NIV)

We have a part to play. The answer to our prayer isn’t just dependent on God’s attitude toward prayer. The thing we asked for won’t come even though, God gives generously, and gives to all, and doesn’t grumble when we ask, unless we do our part. God can say yes to your prayer, God can grant our request, and we will still fail to get the thing if we don't do our part.

That’s what Jesus is trying to get us to see. As long as we think that God is the only obstacle to our prayers being answered we won’t do our part.

So what's our part?

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Ms. Martha's Job.

I think it was May or June of 2010. Ms. Martha—who never fails to come to church, was one of our children's ministry leaders for years, is a faithful tither, and never complains about the pastor no matter how horrible a job I do,— stood up at the end of the Sunday service to ask for prayer. 

" They said they're laying people off at work…"

Ms. Martha works for the county education department and because of the economic downturn the State of California had started furloughing people, i.e. reducing their work hours by 10% and thus reducing their pay by 10%. Besides the furloughs, entire programs and departments were being cut.

How we've learned to pray.

If Martha had stopped there we could have prayed a nice spiritual sounding prayer, expecting that as with most prayer nothing much would happen, but wishing for the best, taken up the offering, and all gone home.

But that's not how we've learned to pray.

Jesus said:

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:19 NIV)

The original word translated in English as  "ask for" is the Greek word "aiteo." Now "aiteo" can mean ask, but it can also be translated "demand." (You can read more about this here.) I think the English word that best convey's what Jesus is saying here is "decree." You can tell Jesus isn't talking about asking God for something because he doesn't say it will be given them, he says, it will be done for them.  So, I'd say that verse should read like this:

19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for decree, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:19 NIV) 

Jesus says basically the same thing here, again I've substituted "decree" for "ask:"

13 And I will do whatever you ask decree in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13 NIV)

…and here:

22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for decree in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:22-24 NIV)

You can see how the "whatever you decree" of vs. 24 fits better in the context of vs 23's "what they say," than "ask." 

 Ms. Martha's prayer.

Anyway… so Ms. Martha doesn't stand up and ask for prayer in that traditional and traditionally ineffective way. Instead, she does exactly as we've learned, she decrees.

" They said they're laying people off at work and I want you to agree with me that, that job is mine as long as I want it to be." 

'Yikes,' I'm thinking, while trying to maintain a calm demeanor, 'now what am I going to do? This is serious business." I search my heart to see if my heart can agree. Down way deep inside I get a barely recognizable ok. But my mind is screaming pretty loud, 'You're going to look like an idiot if this doesn't work." Finally, I sucked it up and decided, well if I end up looking like an idiot, I'm going to end up looking like an idiot trying my best to believe God. So, as is our custom, I ask everyone to agree with Martha:

"Everybody… lets say this, 'That job is Ms. Martha's job as long as she wants it to be."

If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything they shall decree, it will be done for them of my father which is in heaven.  Whoooo hoooooo! 

After the service I asked Becky about Ms. Martha's job. Becky's a school teacher so she's somewhat familiar with the goings on at the county education department. Becky's pretty sure they're completely cutting Ms. Martha's department!

And then what happened?

It's our practice, at the end of the service, after everyone's faith has been built up by the teaching of God's word, to agree together about those things we've prayed about in the previous weeks, months, years, depending.

So the following Sunday, before the service, I'm thinking about Ms. Martha's prayer request. I'm kind of scared to bring it up again. I'm sort of hoping everyone will have forgotten what we prayed. I decide to put any decision off 'till the end of the service. Unless Martha's job comes up in my heart I won't mention it. 

Well at the end of the service I was pretty full of faith, so when Ms. Martha's job came to mind I again asked that we all decree together,

"That job is Ms Martha's job as long as she wants it to be."

We went on like this for a few weeks. Then, one Sunday as I'm asking everyone to agree together about Ms. Martha's job, Ms. Martha starts to say something then stops herself. 'Oh,oh!' I'm thinking. 'She must have been laid off.'  

So now Martha's apparently been laid off, from a program that has probably been completely eliminated by the state, and every Sunday, all of us at Church are decreeing,

'That job is Ms. Martha's job as long as she wants it to be."

Well… one thing we've learned is that when you pray things don't necessarily change instantly, or even quickly, or even slowly but showing steady progress. Often it looks like things have gotten worse. But experience has taught us that if you'll continue, if you can hold fast to the faith you started out with, God's promise will, in the end, prove to be reliable. 

So…?

July…  August… September… October… we're doing our best to fight the good fight of faith. At the end of every service I ask everyone to agree and say:

"That job is Ms. Martha's job as long as she wants it to be."

As far as we can tell nothing has changed.

Then sometime in October Ms. Martha stands up at the end of the service and tells us they've asked her to come back to work, to get her same job back. Whooo… hooooo… Praise God! I wanted to say like Jesus,

Ms. Martha your faith has saved you, go in shalom!

God is a good God!

Ms. Martha is still working there and that job is Ms. Martha's job as long as she wants it to be!