Tough Words about Prayer

This excerpt from John Piper is full of fighting words about prayer. Dan VanRyn read it (below) at the last House of Prayer. Main Idea: Prayer isn't just a 'nice' thing to do, it's a battlefield necessity. The list of the prayers of the early church really help point to what was important. Tough Words. What are your thoughts?

Don't miss this Sunday's Worship Services about prayer, or the upcoming House of Prayer: Eat Together (Wed. September 8th 6pm).

We're all growing and learning to pray, together.

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So the truth is reaffirmed: God has given us prayer because Jesus has given us a mission. We are on this earth to press back the forces of darkness, and we are given access to headquarters by prayer to advance this cause. When we try to turn it into a civilian intercom to increase our conveniences, it stops working, and our faith begins to falter: We have so domesticated prayer that for many of us it is no longer what it was designed to be -- a wartime walkee-talkee for the accomplishment of Christ's mission.

We simply must seek for ourselves and for our people a wartime mentality. Otherwise the biblical teaching about the urgency of prayer,
and the vigilance of prayer,
and the watching in prayer,
and the perseverance of prayer,
and the danger of abandoning prayer will make no sense and find no resonance in our hearts. Until we feel the desperation of a bombing raid or the thrill of a new strategic offensive for the gospel, we will not pray in the spirit of Jesus.

The crying need of the hour is to put the church in a wartime footing. Mission leaders are crying out, "What is the church's concept of militancy, of a mighty army willing to suffer, moving ahead with exultant determination...? Where is the risk-taking, the launching out on God alone?" The answer is that it has been swallowed up in a peacetime mentality.

We are a "third soil century." In the parable of the soils, Jesus says that the seed is His Word. He sows his urgent Word of kingdom power: But instead of taking it up as our sword for bearing fruit, we "are those who hear the word, but the care of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the work, and it proves unfruitful." (Mark 4:18-19)

This is why Paul says that all of life is a war -- every moment. Before we can engage in the mission of the church, we have to fight against the "deceitfulness of riches" and the "desires for other things" -- this is our first and most constant battle. This is the fight of faith. Then, when we have some experience in that basic battle, we join the fight to commend the kingdom to all nations.

Prayer puts God in the place of all-sufficient Benefactor and puts us in the place of needy beneficiaries. So when the mission of the church moves forward by prayer, the supremacy of God is manifest and the needs of Christ-Following troops are met. ... Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy, and exhalts God as all-sufficient.

Consider the Prayer of the Early Church

They called on God for signs and wonders: "And now Lord ... grand to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Jesus." (Acts 4:29-30)
They called on God for the healing of wounded comrades: "Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up." (James 5:14-15)
They called on the God for the casting out of demons: "And he said, to them, 'This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." (Mark 9:29)
They called on God to supply his troops with necessities: "Give us this day our daily bread." (Mt 6:11)
They called on God to direct the use of the Sword: "Take ... the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication." (Eph. 6:17-18)
They called on God for strategic wisdom: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." (James 1:5)
They called on God for unity and harmony in the ranks: "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you Father are in me and I in you that they may also be in us ... " (John 17:20-21)
They called on God for a mind of discernment: "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless ..." (Phil1:9-10)
They called on God to comprehend the love of Christ: "I bow my knees before the Father ... [that you] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and lenght and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." (Eph. 3:14, 18-19)
They called on God for a deeper sense of assured hope: "I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers ... that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you..." (Eph 1:16-18)
They called on God for greater faith: "Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, 'I believe; help my unbelief!'" (Mark 9:24)
They called on God for forgiveness: "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." (Mt. 6:12)
They called on God that they might not fall into temptation: "Lead us not into temptation." (Mt. 6:13,) "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak." (Mt. 26:41)
They called on God that they would do good work: "[We have not ceased to pray for you that you] walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work." (Col. 1:10)
They called on God that the gospel would speed ahead and be honored. "Finally brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you." (2 thes3:1)
They called on God for boldness in proclamation: "Praying at all times in the Spirit ... and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel" (Eph 6:18-19) "And now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your words with boldness..." (Acts 4:29)
They called on God to save unbelievers: "My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." (Rom 10:1)
They called on God to exhalt his name around the world: "Pray then like this, Our Father in heaven, hallowed is your name." (mt6:9)
They called on God to extend his kingdom into the world. "Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." (mt6:10)

Since the Giver gets the glory, what all this prayer shows is that the early church meant to make God supreme in the mission of the church. She would not live on her own strength or her own wisdom or even her own faith. She would live on God. God would be the one who would give the power and the wisdom and the faith. And therefore, God would get the glory.



~John Piper