The Power of Prayer
10 November 1970
The Power of Prayer
At Pioneers, we believe that prayer, directed to our powerful God, is powerful. It’s the starting place and the engine of all we do. Prayer was Jesus’ starting place, too. In Matthew 9:38, seeing the great need in the world, Jesus instructs his disciples to, ‘Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’ He then sends them out on mission, and, ironically but very much on purpose, they become the answer to this prayer.
The disciples were sent out, they were given authority, they proclaimed the Kingdom, they healed the sick, they cast out demons, they saw Jesus perform great miracles. They experienced it all! But, notice that they didn’t ask him to teach them how to perform miracles or to heal. Rather, they asked him how to pray.
'... they didn’t ask him to teach them how to perform
miracles or to heal. Rather, they asked him how to pray.'
‘Jesus was praying in a certain place; when he finished, one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray …’’’ (Luke 11:1) Jesus responds by giving them ‘The Lord’s Prayer,’ as we know it today - a helpful model for all our prayers.
The disciples had already heard Jesus teach on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, but as they walked with him day-by-day, they observed that prayer was deeply central to his life. Often, Jesus withdrew from the crowds to spend time alone with his Father. The posture of prayer was where he
began and where he returned again and again. The disciples saw this intimate relationship and they wanted it.
Like the disciples and Jesus himself, to sustain a lifestyle of harvest work, we, too, need to master prayer. James reminds us that ‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective,’ (5:16), and prayer is powerful. But God doesn’t answer our prayers because of our words, regardless of how eloquent. He answers prayer because he listens, and because no matter how polished or unpolished our prayers are, he can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. The Lord invites us into a life of prayer so that we can be effective in his Kingdom.
1 John 5:14 says, ‘If we ask anything according to his will he hears us.’ What is the Lord’s will? Matthew 9:38 gives us a clue: he wants more workers to be sent into the mission field. So let’s ASK him, like a child before our loving Father, and watch him do it.
'When we pray and ask the Lord of the harvest for more workers, we are coming before the One who upholds the stars...'
When we pray and ask the Lord of the harvest for more workers, we are coming before the One who upholds the stars and knows the names of every unreached person on earth today. And, he cares for them. Even more than we do. God is moving all over the world, and today, many will hear the name of Jesus for the first time and surrender their lives to Christ, partly because of the prayers of God’s people.
So, during this week, may God give us compassion for unreached people as we spend time praying for them. He wants each of us to ask for more workers to be sent out, for him to move, for the unreached to be reached, for churches to be planted, and for individuals to know him personally - and guess what? – he loves it when you pray! So keep praying (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and may the Lord of the harvest hear our prayers and do wonderful miracles.
Amen.
Stories
When we pray, our gaze is shifted to God, his will on earth and his sacrifice to accomplish it. We begin to be uncomfortable with the way things are and eventually find ourselves in a passionate plea, 'thy kingdom come', rebelling against the status quo.
What though if your inner life is in turmoil? Is prayer possible when we experience crisis, whether personal tragedy or some larger catastrophe which shatters our hope and shakes the very foundations of our faith? This, of course, is the point at which the biblical tradition of the prayer of lament is so crucial.
Lent isn’t a time for asceticism for asceticism’s sake... Rather, it’s an opportunity to use self-denial to reflect on all that Jesus has done for us - to sharpen our senses to his movements around us. And, as we tune in to him, it’s only natural that we will also tune in to a clearer sense of how he wants us to be involved with his Kingdom work.