" THE CHRISTIAN FREELY ASKS HIS HEAVENLY FATHER FOR ALL HIS NEEDS ."

116. Q. Why is prayer necessary for Christians?
A. Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness which God requires of us.[1] Moreover, God will give His grace and the Holy Spirit only to those who constantly and with heartfelt longing ask Him for these gifts and thank Him for them.[2]
[1] Ps. 50:14, 15; 116:12-19; I Thess. 5:16-18. [2] Matt. 7:7, 8; Luke 11:9-13.

117. Q. What belongs to a prayer which pleases God and is heard by Him?
A. First, we must from the heart call upon the one true God only, who has revealed Himself in His Word, for all that He has commanded us to pray.[1] Second, we must thoroughly know our need and misery, so that we may humble ourselves before God.[2] Third, we must rest on this firm foundation that, although we do not deserve it, God will certainly hear our prayer for the sake of Christ our Lord, as He has promised us in His Word.[3]
[1] Ps. 145:18-20; John 4:22-24; Rom. 8:26, 27; James 1:5; I John 5:14, 15; Rev. 19:10. [2] II Chron. 7:14; 20:12; Ps. 2:11; 34:18; 62:8; Is. 66:2; Rev. 4. [3] Dan. 9:17-19; Matt. 7:8; John 14:13, 14; 16:23; Rom. 10:13; James 1:6.

118. Q. What has God commanded us to ask of Him?
A. All the things we need for body and soul,[1] as included in the prayer which Christ our Lord Himself taught us.
[1] Matt. 6:33; James 1:17.

119. Q. What is the Lord's prayer?
A. Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.[1]
[1] Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4.

Scripture Reading:
Luke 11:1-13
Romans 8:18-27
2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 70:1,2
Psalm 86:1,2
Psalm 143:1,4,5,6
Psalm 66:7,8
Psalm 50:7 & Hymn 38:3

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Prayer is talking with God. We all talk to people day after day, and generally do not have a great deal of trouble communicating – even if the person we’re talking to is far away and connected to us only with a mobile phone. We say what’s on our minds, and the other responds, and maybe we have a reply in turn. Talking to people is not so difficult.

But we experience that talking with God is something else. We don’t see Him face to face. Talking with God isn’t even like to talking with another on the phone, for there’s no reply. That makes it difficult for us to be open with God, to find words to say to Him. Result: we experience prayer to be a chore. More often than not, prayer is not something we want to do, but something we have to do.

Then we read in our Lord’s Day that prayer is "necessary for Christians" because "prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness which God requires of us." We look at the way we pray, and conclude that we must not be all that thankful…; else we wouldn’t experience prayer as a chore…. And that in turn makes us feel inadequate….

The Lord, brothers and sisters, knows our weaknesses with respect to prayer. In His Word He encourages us in the face of those weaknesses. It’s to that encouragement that we may listen this afternoon.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

The God to whom we speak in prayer is none less than the Creator of heaven and earth. This is the God, brothers and sisters, before whom the angels cover their faces as they cry out their Holy, Holy, Holy (cf Is 6). This is the God who came to Israel at Mt Sinai, and there were thunderings and lightings and a thick cloud of smoke, and the sound of a trumpet so loud that the people in the camp trembled with fear (Ex 19:16; 20:18ff). This is the God before whom the angels and elders of John’s Revelation fall on their faces and worship (cf Rev 7:11; 11:16). And we would speak to such a God?! We, who are created from the dust of the earth and shall one day return to dust? We, under whose lips is the poison of asps and whose hearts by nature speak deceit? Shall we talk to God?!

A keen awareness, congregation, of God’s holiness and of our sinfulness makes us very aware that we cannot and we may not expect to speak to God. An awareness of Who God is and what we are leaves room only for humility and shame; as Adam and Eve after the fall in Paradise fled from the presence of such a God when He came to them (Gen 3:8), so we can only flee from such a God (Rev 6:15ff).

Precisely here, beloved in the Lord, is the glorious and profound gospel of God’s grace. For the Lord in mercy has come to us when we trembling fled from Him (Art 17, Belgic Confession). He sent His only Son to earth to pay for sin and reconcile sinners to God. On the basis of this work of the Savior, the Lord God has come to each of us and established with us His covenant of grace. Most of us were yet so little, and could understand nothing of what God was doing and saying to us when we were baptized, but He came to us in Christ and established with us His covenant of grace. That is: He spoke to us first. And His speaking to us was not restricted to the words of baptism, but He has given us His Word – His personal letter-of-love to all His children-in-Christ. He gives us a copy of the Bible, and speaks to us as often as we open that Bible to read it. More, in His love for us He brings us to church Sunday by Sunday because –again- He wishes to speak to us, address us in our specific circumstances, instruct, comfort and encourage us in the nitty-gritty of daily living. My point: this holy, awesome God spoke to us first! It is not we who first sought His ear; it is He who first sought our ear!

What shall we do now: respond to His Words to us, or be silent? Speak to Him in return, or not? You see: we say that we don’t know what to say to God. But it’s not we who open the conversation! God has already spoken to us, told us that for Jesus’ sake we are His children and He our Father, told us that for Jesus’ sake there is forgiveness of sins and grace unlimited, told us that for Jesus’ sake the Holy Spirit will impart to us all the treasures Christ obtained for us on the cross. That’s what God has first said to us, and this is what He keeps saying to us through His Word and the preaching in all the changing circumstances of our daily lives. Shall we reply to God with silence? Shall we say that we don’t know what to say to God? Shall we say that we haven’t time to speak with Him? Shall we say that we find it too awkward to speak to a God we can’t see? Shall we say that He’s too awesome to bother with puny me? All those objections, brothers and sisters, are valid only if we see prayer as beginning with us. If we have to open the conversation with God, then yes, how dare we! And what could we sinners then say to a God of such glory?! But given that God has spoken first to us, and even laid His claim upon us to be His children (and He our Father!), it is obviously necessary that we reply to God! Silence is crass unthankfulness!

This is the point of the Catechism in Lord’s Day 45. "Why is prayer necessary for Christians?" Prayer is necessary, says the Catechism, "because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness which God requires of us." Thankfulness for what? Obviously first of all for His saving work in Jesus Christ – as confessed so extensively in the earlier Lord’s Days of the Catechism. He gave His Son for our sins, and in Christ adopted us to be His children, and now as a faithful Father supplies all our needs. Of course we shall talk to Him in reply; talking to Him is the most essential expression of our thankfulness for His mercies!

There’s the reason, brothers and sisters, why a person who does not prayer cannot rightly be called a Christian. Think it through: if God has spoken to us in Christ, and we say nothing to God in return, do we show evidence that we love the Lord? Is silence-to-God proof that the Holy Spirit has renewed us? Is it not rather evidence that we are still dead in sin? Let it be fixed in our minds: a churchgoer who does not pray is not a Christian. Prayer is necessary for Christians, because our talking to God demonstrates our thankfulness for His saving grace in Jesus Christ. Those who do not bother to pray, or speak to God so very infrequently, need to repent of their sins, and learn to be thankful to God for seeking us out in the first place.

There is a second reason why prayer is so very necessary for Christians. The fall into sin resulted in our being exiled from Paradise, driven out of a garden of plenty into a wilderness of want. The Lord sent His Son to reconcile sinners to God again. His triumph on Calvary means in essence that sinners are reconciled with God; the abundance of Paradise is ours again! So Israel in the desert lacked nothing; God supplied their daily bread and drink, gave protection from enemies, made sure their clothes did not wear out, etc. The point is true today too. Through His work on the cross, Jesus Christ has obtained for us more than strictly forgiveness of sins; we may again be children of God to whom God gives abundantly. Recall the promises in the Form for Baptism: when we are baptized into the Name of the Father, God the Father adopts us for His children and heirs, "and promises to provide us with all good." That "good" includes the bits and pieces we need day by day, things like food and clothing, work and housing, wisdom to raise children and interact with the people of our community, etc. These are gifts Christ obtained for us, and which, as it were, are now laid aside for us in heaven, stored in heaven for the day we need them. The Son promises forgiveness of our sins, and that too is a gift prepared for us in heaven for the day we need it. So too, the Holy Spirit promises to impart to us "what we have in Christ, namely, the cleansing from our sins and the daily renewal of our lives." That daily renewal includes those fruits of the Spirit known as love and joy and peace and patience, etc. And we all know: in the rough and tumble of this broken life, we need those heavenly gifts so very much!

Now: how do these gifts become ours? Does the Lord simply shower them upon us, and that’s it? No, congregation, no! It is the emphatic instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ that we ask. Luke 11: "Ask, and it will be given to you" (vs 9). And again in vs 10: "for everyone who asks receives." It’s the point of the parable of the Friend at Midnight: "because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many [loaves] as he needs" (vss 5ff). So: ask! Our Savior has obtained gifts for us, and these gifts are available for the asking. And asking is prayer! It is the will of God that we tell the Lord of our circumstance and need, and then ask Him to give us the heavenly gifts Christ has obtained for us – as we need them in our circumstance. Prayer, then, is like a key that opens for us the storehouse of God’s gifts. Prayer is like a hook that we cast into heaven to reel God’s gifts to earth. That’s prayer: by asking we bring God’s promised gifts from heaven to earth. In the words of Lord’s Day 45: "God will give His grace and the Holy Spirit only to those who constantly and with heartfelt longing ask Him for these gifts." "His grace and the Holy Spirit": those two terms capture all the gifts Christ obtained for us on the cross. Forgiveness of sins, wisdom to speak sensitively, food and work, strength to persevere in loneliness: whatever we may need is captured in those two terms "grace" and "the Holy Spirit". And the Lord wants us to ask for those gifts Christ obtained for us on the cross.

So I say it again: the person who doesn’t pray is not a Christian. He who believes in Christ acknowledges not only that Christ died for his sins on Calvary, but acknowledges also that Christ has reconciled us to the Father, and as a result so many good gifts are laid aside for us. We do not have to obtain food and drink, work and house, wisdom and patience, strength and health on own steam; we may ask and shall receive. That’s faith in practice. And in as much as we need food and drink, work and house, wisdom and patience, strength and health in circumstances that change moment by moment, it is not sufficient to pray once a day or at meal times only; it is instead necessary –as Paul says to the Thessalonians- to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thes 5:17). He who "walks with God" along the road of life also talks with God, regularly. After all, you can’t walk with somebody without talking with him; walking together means talking together.

I come to our second point:

The fact that prayer is so necessary puts into sharp focus the inadequacies we feel in relation to prayer. We accept that we ought to pray. But: it’s hard! How do I know that God actually hears me? I have such difficulty getting my words together! And I feel so unworthy to knock on heaven’s door….

On the point of the struggles we have with prayer, brothers and sisters, we need to realize first that God sets high standards for our prayers. Though our Father in Jesus Christ, He remains holy God – and so will not listen to arrogant demands on our part. The Catechism catches that reality in Q 117: "What belongs to a prayer which pleases God and is heard by Him?"

Yet the fact, congregation, that the Lord sets high standards for prayer does not mean that prayer is now beyond our reach. I refer here to the words of Paul in Romans 8. The passage addresses the suffering of this life, and says that this suffering is nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed. Then the apostle mentions that creation itself longs for the day of Christ (vss 19-22), and so do we ourselves who have been renewed by the Holy Spirit (vss 23-25).

In the context of the groaning of creation and of the saints of God, the apostle mentions also the groaning of the Spirit. Says Paul: we long for Paradise Restored, but we can’t even express that longing adequately. That’s our weakness, says the apostle in vs 26; "we do not know what we should pray for as we ought." Through His death on the cross Christ in principle has restored Paradise, already there are rich gifts stored up in heaven for us. But to ask properly for that Glorious Day, or even to ask properly for those heavenly gifts to come our way today – we don’t know how to do that. And in truth, congregation, it’s a sad reality we experience day by day! Prayer is hard, hard because we are weak.

In that context the apostle works with the word of the prophet Zechariah, where the prophet said that the Holy Spirit was "the Spirit of grace and supplication" (12:10). The Spirit of supplication: just what does that mean? Says Paul in Romans 8: that means that "the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us." That is: the Spirit appears before God to intercede for us, appears before God with our broken prayers and recasts them in a form acceptable to God. What we can’t get into words, what we can’t get into adequate words, the frustrations we can’t even understand ourselves, the Spirit who dwells in our hearts lays before God in words pleasing to God – groanings unutterable for us. And God, of course, both understands the Spirit as well as answers the Spirit – for the Spirit is Himself true God!

We realize: what enormous encouragement this is to pray! We find prayer difficult, we struggle to put our needs into adequate words. We have to talk to God, and His standards are so high! How comforting that the Lord Himself has supplied the means to overcome this difficulty; He has given us His Holy Spirit to perfect our prayers! With His help we can –as our Lord’s Day has it- "call upon the one true God only," and so be sure we’ll be both heard and understood!

There’s a second problem we have with prayer. It’s this: what do I really need? Is my bottom need a new car? A spouse? A better boss? It will be beneficial to look at one of David’s prayers. Take Ps 143, for example. David’s situation? From vs 3 it’s clear that enemies have cornered David, possibly in a cave where it’s dark and the bones of dead animals are scattered. He turns to God in prayer, vs 7: "Answer me speedily, O Lord." But what does he ask? Simply deliverance from his enemies? Sure, he asks for that (vs 9), but that’s not the root of his prayer. David knows: he deserves every affliction that ever comes on his path, for he’s a sinner. Vs 2: "Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous." That is why he asks God in vs 8 to let him hear of God’s lovingkindness; that, at bottom, is what David needs! Not deliverance from a human enemy, but the grace of God as it comes through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. He repeats it in vs 12: "in Your mercy cut off my enemies…." That’s the bottom need: God’s mercy, God’s grace in Christ.

It’s instructive for us. In moments of crisis we cry out to God to help us, and that’s good. But once the crisis is past, the pressure is off and so often we suddenly pray less…. As if our deepest need was help in that crisis. But the Lord would have us know that our deepest need lies much deeper than a crisis; our deepest need is our sinfulness, how we provoke God time and again through our wrongs. And we keep doing those wrongs hour after hour, moment after moment, and so we need to keep coming to God in our changing circumstances in humility, deeply aware that we have earned the newest problem, and deeply aware that we need God’s grace in Christ.

What belongs to a prayer and pleases God? A 117: "Second, we must thoroughly know our need and misery, so that we may humble ourselves before God." If we are to speak to God we need to be well aware of that deepest need, and so come to Him with an attitude of humility – recognizing that we deserve the troubles we have. And we can receive deliverance from those troubles only because Christ has taken the curse we deserve upon Himself. Then Yes, He obtained rich gifts for us, and we may ask for those gifts in our troubles, but we need to approach God in humility, fully aware of our deepest need.

A third problem arises with our prayers. Does God indeed hear and answer? Jesus assures us in Luke 11 that he who asks receives. Over the years we have asked so many things, but our experience is that we do not necessarily receive all we request. And that’s true, we’re sure, also of very reasonable requests….

An instructive passage here, brothers and sisters, is the portion we read from 2 Corinthians 12. The apostle had "a thorn in the flesh." It bothered Paul so much that he pleaded with the Lord three times to remove it from him. The Lord didn’t. He said instead: "My grace is sufficient for you." We read that, and understand that the problem stayed with Paul but God gave sufficient grace to counter-balance the handicap of the thorn. So we see the handicap as a continuing negative, be it that God gave Paul strength to carry the negative.

But that’s not, congregation, how the apostle pictures his situation. It’s true: the apostle asked that the Lord would remove the thorn because Paul experienced it as a negative. God’s reply was that the reason for the request (the thorn is a negative) was wrong to begin with; He assured Paul that the thorn was a positive. For the Lord adds: "My strength is made perfect in weakness." Once Paul understood that point, he could –as he says in vs 9- "boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." He realized: his infirmities were not negatives after all; God’s grace for him was such that those negatives, that thorn, were in fact positives! That Paul was persecuted, was imprisoned, was whipped, was beaten, was shipwrecked: all were devilish efforts to silence the preacher of Christ’s gospel to the Gentiles. When he was persecuted, when he was imprisoned, when he was whipped, Paul certainly did not look strong, and his message certainly wasn’t attractive either. But precisely that weakness in the apostle gave opening for the power of Christ to manifest itself; that Paul could persevere in preaching despite Satan’s attacks was itself glorious display of the power and triumph of Jesus Christ!

Was Paul’s prayer about the thorn answered then? No, not if you understand from Paul’s request that his highest goal in his prayer was that his own will was done, that Paul pursued only his own comfort. But the apostle had learned from the Lord’s Prayer that all prayer is to be God-centered; was it not for God’s glory that we were created? So he prayed for his daily needs –the removal of the thorn, the removal of Satan’s attacks through persecution and shipwrecks and sleeplessness and whippings- so that He might be able the better to do God’s will, preach the gospel, hallow God’s name. Lord’s Day 45: Paul asked for the things he needed for body and soul "as included in the prayer which Christ our Lord Himself taught us." And that prayer is God-centered.

And see: that prayer God answered – be it differently than Paul himself thought was best. God determined that Paul would carry out His task in God’s kingdom better precisely with the handicap of the thorn! His preaching was more effective exactly because all Satan’s punches could not get the apostle down – because He who was for Paul was greater than he was against Paul!

That, then, was our third point: the content of prayer. The point of our prayers is not that we move God to do things our way; the point of our prayers is that we ask God to grant us strength and grace to do His will, make His kingdom come, hallow His name. Then we may ask this so imperfectly, and it may all come so crooked out of our mouths, but we may be assured that "although we do not deserve it, God will certainly hear our prayers for the sake of Christ our Lord."

Praying is hard work. What makes it so hard is that our thoughts need to travel along the same lines as God’s thoughts. And that means we need to listen well to what God has first said to us. One cannot pray in a manner pleasing to God when one’s Bible is closed! Prayer is speaking with God; first we listen to Him, then we reply from out of our circumstances. As long as we see prayer as a means to achieve our goals, we shall find prayer frustrating, disappointing. But when our thoughts travel along the same path as God’s thoughts, when we use prayer as a means to draw to ourselves the gifts Christ has obtained for us on the cross so that in turn we use them to glorify God, we may be confident that we do not pray in vain. For the Spirit of God helps us in our prayers, and intercedes before the Father together with the Son. Amen.