Thanks strengthens prayer

For Charles Spurgeon, prayer should always be mixed with thanksgiving.

Spurgeon, called "the Prince of Preachers" in his day, declares that requests to God gather strength and power as they mingle with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.

"Let us perpetually thank our benefactor for what we have while we make request for something more," he says in Twelve Sermons on Thanksgiving, one of many books flowing from the pen of the great Baptist preacher in London in the late 1800s.

We should even thank God in the midst of trouble just as we pray to have the trouble removed, he writes.

As we struggle with a problem, we should remember God's great goodness to us in the past.  Indeed, we should believe in faith that God is allowing the trouble out of love and for his purposes.

Sounds tough, doesn't it?  But many believers have testified to the power of an attitude of gratitude in their lives.

As we pray, we can recall what God has already done for us and gain confidence in praying for more.

Spurgeon goes even further on thanksgiving, saying that we should offer thanks ahead of time for God's response to our prayers.

He points to George Muller, another great 19th century British believer, who depended on God to supply the needs of his great orphanages through prayer.

Muller put into practice what Jesus said in Mark 11:24: "I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Of course, Muller spent a lot of time in meditating on scripture and praying and seeking the Holy Spirit to discover the will of God in particularly difficult circumstances.  Once he was convinced what God wanted in the situation, he would pray with thanksgiving, certain that the Lord would give a positive answer.

We should also thank God even when he does not give us what we want.  It may be that a "yes" answer would hurt us more than help us.

Spurgeon adds: "Healthy praise and thanksgiving must be cultivated, because they prevent prayer from becoming overgrown with the mildew of selfishness."

"Praise in a prayer is indicative of a humble, submissive, obedient spirit," he goes on, "and when it is absent we may suspect wilfulness and self-seeking."

When prayer and thanksgiving work together, we become aware of God's peace in our hearts.

Spurgeon quotes the apostle Paul's great words in Philippians 4:6-7:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Both Paul and Spurgeon lived what they preached.

They are examples to live by.

A man like us

The apostle James claims that we can pray just as effectively as the prophet Elijah.

Elijah? The man who helped bring a dead child back to life?  The man who called down God's fire on a water-soaked sacrifice to defeat the prophets of Baal?  The man who brought three years of drought to Israel - and then prayed until a drenching rain came down?

Yes, that Elijah.  We can pray like that.

But there are conditions.  We'll get to them in a moment.

The apostle James was known by the nickname "camel-knees" during his lifetime because he spent so much time in prayer.  So, his views on prayer carry weight - he was an experienced prayer warrior.

I think he chose Elijah to show what can be done if we pray as God wishes us to pray.

As some say, Elijah "prayed big".  He gave himself completely to carrying the message of God to the people of Israel and its rulers, even if it put his own life in danger.

I'm sure he prayed about little things as we all do.  After all, the apostle Paul urges us to pray about everything (Philippians 4:6).

But, the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 17-19 describes a series of great events where the prophet fought to turn Israel back to worshiping God.  He battled powerful forces led by King Ahab and his wife Jezebel, a worshiper of the pagan god Baal.  Jezebel tried to kill Elijah.

Like many western nations today, Israel had largely rejected God.  Rather than abandoning his people, God sent Elijah to deliver messages to the authorities.

First, Elijah told Ahab that God would send a three-year drought.  It happened as he foretold.

God provided for Elijah during this long drought through a series of miracles, including a regular supply of food and restoring to life the dead child of the widow who was caring for him.

Then, the Lord sent Elijah to Ahab with a message: Arrange a contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  The winner would be the one who successfully set a sacrifice of bulls on fire without man-made aid.  The purpose?  To show which god - the Lord or Baal - was God.

As we know, Elijah triumphed.  His sacrifice - drenched in water several times - was set alight by fire from God while the prophets of Baal failed.

"When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord - he is God! The Lord - he is God!'" (1 Kings 18:39)

Elijah followed that up by praying to the Lord for rain - he did so repeatedly until heavy rains poured down.  The three-year drought was over.

These seem like superhuman deeds - something an ordinary man could not do.

But James says Elijah was a man just like us.  And, indeed, Elijah showed he was human when Jezebel sought to kill him.  He fled into the wilderness and God met him there to give him his final marching orders.

In James 5, the apostle mentions Elijah in the context of prayer.  He makes several points which apply to us as much as to the great prophet.

He suggests there are several keys to powerful prayer:

• We must pray with faith; 
• We must be righteous; 
• We should confess our sins; and
• We should pray earnestly.

As Christians, we know we have no righteousness of our own - we depend on the righteousness of Jesus.  But we need to confess our sins as the apostle John says in 1 John 1:8-9 to be restored to right standing before God.

We were given a measure of faith by God when we became followers of Christ.  But we need to exercise that faith by praying for the things that God wants, no matter how big.  If we do, we can be sure that God will move in response (1 John 5:14-15).

And finally, we must not give up when we know we are praying God's will.  Elijah prayed earnestly and persisted when he knew what God wanted.

I have to decide whether I am willing to commit myself as Elijah did.

"Where are the Elijahs in the Church of the present day?" asked E.M Bounds in his book Prayer and Praying Men in the 1800s.  "Where are the men of like passions as he, who can pray as he prayed?"

It's a question for me - and for all of us.

Persevering prayer

Sometimes prayer is like training for a marathon race.

We know that we will have to train hard and often if we are to win through to victory.  It will take time and dedication.

Why?  Shouldn't prayer be easy?  Just us talking to God and him giving us what we want?

Occasionally, it is easy.  But prayer is more than asking for gifts and expecting to receive them.  Prayer is about us and our relationship with the Lord.  It's about getting to know him and what he wants.

We can only know what he wants in a particular situation if we keep praying until we receive an answer.  As we pray, God may change our thinking as well as shed light on the issues we are wrestling with.

Andrew Murray, a great South African pastor and writer in the 1800s, talks about the importance of persevering prayer in his book The Ministry of Intercession: A Plea for More Prayer.

He touches on a couple of Jesus' parables about prayer in Luke 11 and Luke 18, each talking about people pleading long and successfully with unsympathetic listeners for justice or food.

The point Jesus makes is that persistence is effective - even more effective with God because he loves us.

In both cases, Jesus is saying that prayer isn't always smooth - in fact, we must expect difficulties.  Yet the parables make clear that God wants to give us good things.

"The need of urgent prayer cannot be because God must be willing or disposed to bless," writes Murray. "The need lies altogether in ourselves."

Murray adds: "The difficulty is not in God's love or power, but in ourselves and our own incapacity to receive the blessing."

He suggests that, in his love, God "dare not give us what would do us harm if we received it too soon or too easily".

Indeed, people through the ages who have prayed hard and long for something have realized that there are spiritual obstacles to overcome.  As they prayed, they gradually surrendered themselves to God and his will.  And God moved in their situations.

"As God prevails over us, we prevail with God," says Murray.

In fact, he says, the difficulties we face in prayer are a blessing.  Anyone who faces challenges in everyday life learns that these are necessary for personal growth.  The same is true in prayer.

"What is education but a daily developing and disciplining of the mind by new difficulties presented to the pupil to overcome?"

In the same way, our problems in prayer reveal to us our weakness and our need for God's strength and the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We have Jesus as our example in his wrestling in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He yielded himself entirely to the Father's will - and won the greatest victory of history on the cross.

Asking questions of God

I'm convinced God loves it when we ask him questions.

Why?  Because it shows we want his guidance and help.  He is a loving father who wants to be invited into his little child's concerns.

I have been asking God what he wants to tell me regularly for several years - ever since reading How to Hear God's Voice by Mark and Patti Virkler.  Long before that, I was throwing questions at God like many believers when I faced problems.

Jan Johnson, author of Enjoying the Presence of God, is always popping questions in her daily life.

One day, she asked God what she needed to know and that night she dreamed about a family member whom she had been trying to help release her anger.  But surprisingly the family member was waving happily to her while skating by.  In her dream, she asked God whether she should stop worrying about her relative.

The next day, she talked about it with her husband and they agreed she should stop trying to "fix" her relative and place her in the hands of God.  That same day she ran into a friend who was letting go and letting God work in a serious family matter.

Johnson admits she cannot prove that the dream and the subsequent conversation with a friend were messages from God.  But equally, she can't say they were not.  One result of her experience was to be available for her relative but to leave the results in God's hands.

"Within our loving conversation with God," she writes, "we lay questions on the table, waiting as long as it takes for impressions, convictions, clarity of thought, peaceful understanding, or helpful words from others.  All that asking, seeking, and knocking has a way of shaping our desires."

It draws us closer to God, too.  And we understand better what he wants us to do.

I have found that as I question God, he opens my mind to things I have not considered.  And that may lead to decisions that are better in God's eyes.

David, a "man after God's own heart", asked questions of God in his years as a hunted man fleeing King Saul and later when he succeeded to the throne of Israel.

Just after David became king, the Philistines sent out an army to capture him.

In 2 Samuel 5, David responds by asking God whether he should attack.  God tells him not to attack the Philistines straight on but to circle behind them near the poplar trees.  Then, when David hears something like the sound of marching feet in the poplar trees, the Lord says he is to attack because God is already preparing the way for victory.

Sometimes, the best questions are those where we come before God asking if there are things in our lives he wants to change.

Asking questions of God takes us out of ourselves.

In effect, we are asking him to lend us his eyes as we consider our concerns.

That has to be good.