On Praying for Results

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Matthew 6:5–8

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Reviewing:

1. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 

2. Prayer is the lifelong process of becoming a peculiar kind of person who learns to exercise a particular kind of power for the good of the world and the glory of God.

In today’s text we have the straight teaching of the Son of God on the matter we most need to understand. There is more wisdom in this single paragraph and the one to follow than in all of the books written on prayer over all the centuries combined. And yet, if I am honest, over all these years I have scarcely paid attention to his guidance or his prayer.  

Notice how he begins by talking about becoming a peculiar kind of person. He does so with one of his favorite teaching tools: contrast. Notice as you read Jesus how often he, in effect, says, “Be like this person, not that person.” 

In today’s text, Jesus tells us two kinds of people we don’t want to be like. Did you spot them? They are Pharisees (of the hypocrite variety) and Pagans. One group makes prayer a demonstration for other people. The other makes prayer a demonstration for God. 

In the process, he points out how both of these groups are using prayer as a kind of tool to produce a certain result. Keeping it real here—over the years, my framework for thinking about prayer has largely been constructed around results. Remember from last week—prayer is about asking God to do things and then hoping he will do them. That is about results. My impulse has been to call for and participate in more prayer meetings with more intensity and earnestness. And it has been for good ends, like a great awakening for crying out loud (no pun intended)!

I will so readily take a text like 2 Chronicles 7:14 to make the case. 

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Over the years my broken tendency has been to start with the results (i.e., forgive their sin and heal their land) and then work backward in a highly functional and even strategic fashion until we have football stadiums across the land filled with people crying out in enormous public demonstration with an infinity of words, in the presence of God and in clear view of the watching world. 

Contrast this with Jesus’s guidance:

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

I am becoming less sure Jesus is on board with my results orientation and football stadium approach. 

Now, notice in today’s text how Jesus frames prayer not around results but something else. 

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

He repeats it three times within the span of eighteen verses. 

Prayer is not a functional activity exercised in order to get something done. Prayer is a transcendent reality. It is not transactional in nature. It is relational.  Prayer is not for the sake of something else. It is the means and the end. 

I think I spent too long trying to figure out how to develop a results-oriented prayer life when all the while it wasn’t about results but a reward. So what do you think the reward is? 

I think I have been trying to figure out the secrets of prayer when all the while prayer is the secret. 

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 

Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

THE QUESTION

Asking again . . . what do you think the reward is? 

THE HYMN

Today we will sing the hymn, “Sweet Hour of Prayer.” It is hymn 440 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

P. S.  Poll: Last Time—Would you be interested if I taught a short online course on prayer and fasting?

I’m praying about leading a short course (3 sessions) called Praying with Jesus or How to Pray with Jesus. Part of my discernment comes in assessing interest. We will charge a small fee for tuition (scholarships available). This would likely happen in the February-March window. Let me know here of your interest. Will take you a minute to respond to the two questions. And thank you! 

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