I know that it may sound a little odd coming from someone who fills the position of Prayer Coordinator in a church, but I don’t think that I have ever been a natural at praying. In fact looking back on my Christian walk I see that I spent most of my time in prayerlessness interspersed with prayerful moments. It could be the entrepreneurial spirit that I was taught growing up to value. My grandfather, father, and step-father were all successful at running their own businesses and they taught me that with hard work you can accomplish anything. Self reliance and independence were the keys to success. Or it could have been that I transferred my relationship with my earthly father to my heavenly father. Viewing God as always there to provide advice, or to help you out when you got in over your head. Yet for me, being truly intimate with God seemed to be simply the purview of the mystics and a few other special souls.
Several years ago I felt the Father calling me to a prayerful life. Then, through a series of events, many of the things that I depended on to keep control of my life were stripped away showing me that I couldn’t even depend on my own physical strength. The events drove me to prayer because of my need, yet what I discovered was that my true need was to know God. I have known the importance of prayer all my Christian life, yet at that moment I found my heart desiring to know the Father. I realized then that one of the reasons Jesus came and died was so I could have a relationship with God. Praying became more about knowing God than about my problems, no mater how big they were.
In Luke chapter 11 the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. So Jesus proceeds to give them the Lord’s Prayer. Then in verses five through nine Jesus starts talking about bread. I think that it is a little parable that gives us the reason why we should pray, and for me explains why I spent so much of my Christian life prayerless. The story goes that a man gets a late night guest who is hungry, but he has no bread. So the man goes to his neighbors and pounds on the door and won’t leave until he gets bread. At first glance the impact of this little story didn’t hit me, yet as I looked at it and asked some question it cut me to the quick. Why did the man go to his neighbor’s house? Because of two reasons, he needed bread and he knew that his neighbor had bread. So what should motivate us to pray? Seeing our need, and seeing that the need can only be met by God. According to verse thirteen the bread in question is the Holy Spirit.
My prayerlessness was rooted in my failure to understand my true need. I saw the circumstance and trials that I faced as my need, and therefore they became the occasion of my prayer. Don’t misunderstand me, the Lord’s Prayer as well as many other passages of scripture teach us to pray for these things. Yet, here in Luke, Jesus is telling us that the occasion of prayer should be our need for God. My prayerless life was the result of my failure to see my daily need for the Holy Spirit in my life. I was hungry for the bread of a comfortable life, or the rolls of security, when I should have been seeking for the bread of life. Are you hungry for the bread? If you are hungry and you know that your neighbor has bread, you won’t leave until you get what you need. So how sweet is the promise of verse ten; “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11:11, ESV).
January 1st, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Thank you Derek you are such a blessing to me.
January 1st, 2006 at 8:35 pm
Hey Derek,
I enjoyed reading your post. It was good insight into what I feel the faithful who pray experience.
However, if I could, present you with this scenario…
What have you received truly that you have not provided for yourself? The strength to go on? The will to find what you’re looking for? It has and always will be you… it comes from you. You would decide to keep going, to stop and to choose the right path. So therefore why give god the credit? One more thing, it would seem your prayers might have been answered at some point, if that’s true what bout the others who pray fervently for help for their loved ones, for the care they need? For another chance? For help, for a cure etc… are they supposed to keep praying? Is god not willing to listen or help them? In this world, Derek, the one who will provide, shelter and care for you, is you. Again, this was just a notion for you to ponder, not meant to change your outlook on certain things.
January 1st, 2006 at 8:42 pm
the occasion of prayer should be our need for God. My prayerless life was the result of my failure to see my daily need for the Holy Spirit in my life. I was hungry for the bread of a comfortable life, or the rolls of security, when I should have been seeking for the bread of life.
Amen and thanks.
January 2nd, 2006 at 5:13 am
Good thoughts. Keep it up.
July 31st, 2006 at 10:16 am
That was a great article. I too have always struggled with prayer and am only now realizing how much I need God too help me in everything.
Reflecting on the passage and your comments and my own situation, I would add one further element. We can’t forget that the one who is going to the neighbor to ask for bread is driven by his own lack, but also by his knowledge that he has an even hungrier guy waiting under his own roof as his guest. What is really showing me my need to pray more is this pressure from knowing that my neighbors have so little knowledge of the gospel or none at all. When they share their lives with us, I am appalled at how little I am able to show them of who He is. I want Him to be glorified here, but that will most likely be through me. Without Him in me, I am left a bad host with hungry guests.