Pastor Ed Jones
“After Jesus said this, He looked toward heaven and prayed…” John 17:1
We had just heard a stirring, passionate speech about the evils that had befallen American society since prayer was banned from schools. At the end of that morning’s Christian men’s breakfast, men from different churches huddled in groups talking about how we need to bring prayer back into our schools. I was curious, so I floated a question: “How many of us in this group pray for and with our families every day?” Silence was the clear answer.
I thought about Daniel when he learned about the law that he could be put to death if he prayed to anyone except King Darius. “Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.” (Daniel 6:10, NASB). It was not about Daniel’s courage and faithfulness. It was about him knowing that he could not function apart from his God.
Prayer is a heart activity more than a physical activity.
Several years back, a woman stormed into a church office mad because somebody was lingering in the Prayer Room, and it was now her turn to be in there. Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax-collector: “11 The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’” (Luke 18:11-12). God rails against such self-centered religion: “These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me” (Isaiah 29:13).
Jesus, the perfect man, never practiced “Seven Irrefutable Laws of Effective Prayer,” or whatever new formula we have come up with to twist the arm of God into doing our bidding. He was simply communing with His Father. “Jesus explained himself at length…’I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does’” (John 5:19, MSG).
Prayer was integral to everything Jesus was and did. Prayer should be no less integral to everything we are and do. Prayer is the believer’s recognition that everything that we are, everything we need is totally dependent on God’s grace. So, we pray. Just as a man who is suffocating needs air so do we as believers living in this fallen world need to pray.
“One day Jesus told his disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must keep praying until the answer comes.” (Luke 18:1, TLB)
Ed Jones pastors Fellowship at the Ranch Church at Robson Ranch. This nondenominational church meets at the Robson Clubhouse on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. Visit Fellowship’s website: www.fellowshipattheranchchurch.com for information.