Before Amen {At Advent}
An Advent study on prayer adapted from the book Before Amen by Max Lucado
Father,
You are good.
I need your help. Heal me and forgive me.
They need help.
Thank you.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Day 4: They Need Help
I have a book called The Prayer Chain: A Christmas Story about Prayer by Kimberly Williams Shaw. In the book a young, struggling, widowed mother and her eight year old daughter, Jessie, are a link of the prayer chain in their church. On a cold Christmas Eve day, the little girl answers a phone call about a praise report for an answered prayer as her mother is coming in with a small bundle of kindling and they faithfully write the answered request on a slip of paper and put it in a full jar in their kitchen with other answered prayers. Later that evening, they have run out of firewood to heat their home and quietly kneel beside their beds to pray with full knowledge that God meets all their needs. In the morning, outside their door, they find a cord of wood stacked and a paper message fitted like a ring around their doorknob that reads, “God Bless You.” Jessie takes the message to put it in the answered prayer jar and decides instead to fit all of the slips of answered prayers together like a chain. Then they wrap their prayer chain around their Christmas tree together.
We can be intercessory prayer warriors for all people who need prayer.
Prayer recognizes that we are powerless to change the course of someone’s life, but we have access to The One who can.
Prayer is the weapon that we use to defeat the devil in his evil schemes. Prayer covers distance in miles that we can’t travel ourselves when we wish we could. Prayer is powerful, but it is not a crutch, I learned from Pastor “Choco” Wilfredo DeJesus from the Global Leadership Summit in August 2014.
Jesus taught many times on prayer. He invited the requests of people for prayer. And he never got tired of hearing their requests.
“And great crowds came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at His feet, and He healed them.” (ESV) – Matthew 15:30
Lucado teaches on intercessory prayer and says,
“He (Jesus) never grew impatient at the requests. But he did grow impatient at the lack of one.
A father once brought his demon-possessed son to the disciples of Jesus. They attempted to help the boy but failed. When Jesus learned of their failure, he erupted in frustration. ‘O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.’ (Matt 17:17)
Such an outburst! Jesus is so überpatient that any sign of impatience is disconcerting. What was the oversight of the disciples? Simple. They never took the boy to Jesus. Not in person and apparently not in prayer. They attempted to heal the boy without calling on Christ. He had to command them: “Bring him here to Me.”
Jesus has a strong word for this: Unbelief ‘Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief.”’ (v.19-20)
Unbelief: attempting to help others without calling on Jesus.
When we have a right relationship with Christ, we can recognize the need of others to be saved, bring requests before God in their suffering, and faithfully believe that He will fulfill His promises. In the Christmas story, we read about a man named Simeon, who was prompted by the Holy Spirit to go to the temple on the same day, and at the same time that Joseph and Mary brought Jesus so that he would see God’s salvation, and prophetically pray for all people.
Simeon Prays:
“And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.” Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
‘Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace. According to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory to your people Israel.’
And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.’” – Luke 2:22-35 ESV
Simeon was a righteous and devout Jew. We don’t know much about him except that he was very familiar with scripture and prophecy, he was counted as righteous by God through faith, and he believed in the coming of the Messiah and the fulfillment of Scripture that the Gentiles would be added into the story of salvation. We also know that he knew the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus would lead to Mary’s suffering. We assume that he was old because he said that he was ready to “depart (die) in peace,” and the Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Simeon prayed for revelation to the Gentiles. The only way people come to the realization that they need God is through revelation by way of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2). In the days when Jesus was born, only the Jews had any hope of righteousness before God. They were the only ones who had means of purification from sin. The Law of Moses had to be followed perfectly, and for a Gentile, that was impossible. Simeon knew the Scriptures and the prophecies, and he knew that God would reveal himself so that all people could be saved through his son. He prayed that people would get the help they needed for salvation through revelation.
Simeon prayed for the glory of Israel. The glory of Israel is when all of Israel is saved from their enemies and all covenant promises are fulfilled (Zech 1:71-75). Jesus came, and Simeon recognized him, but the nation of Israel did not. Simeon was waiting for the revelation of all Messianic prophecy in the coming of Jesus, we believers wait for the second coming. We have a hope, anchored in Christ that our needs will be met, but we need to pray for the hope of people who do not believe. We need to be the Simeon’s of today, righteous in our faith and devout in prayer for people who need Jesus and for His second coming.
And finally, Simeon prayed for the suffering of Mary. We know so many people, including ourselves who are suffering, and have a need for prayer. Simeon identified Jesus out of a crowd of people he had never met, and knew he was the promised Messiah. He also knew that Jesus was marked for suffering on the cross, and that his mother would almost not be able to bear the pain, so he prayed for her.
Lucado says that “intercessory prayer isn’t rocket science. It acknowledges our inability and God’s ability. We come with empty hands and high hopes. Why? God ‘is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.’ (Eph 3:20).
When it finally came time for Jesus to hang on the cross, He Himself gave us an example of intercessory prayer and asked His Father, “forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.” (Luke 23:24 MSG) And Lucado writes, “Jesus, even Jesus, left his enemies in God’s hands. Shouldn’t we do the same? You are never more like Jesus than when you pray for others. Pray for those you love; pray for those you don’t. Pray for this hurting world.”
They need help. They need our prayers. They need to know salvation in Christ, they need the hope of eternal life, and they need help in their suffering. Pray for them, and then put their answered prayers on a chain.
Discussion:
John 14:12-14, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
If we really believed everything Jesus says in this passage, how would it impact the way we pray? What stands in the way of us praying like this?
Matthew 17:14-20 – Jesus loved when people came to him with requests and supplications. He was willing to stop what he was doing to help them.
What seemed to irritate Jesus was when people tried to take care of things themselves instead of bringing the need to him.
What seems to be frustrating to Jesus in this passage?
Reflection:
What is one specific, detailed, and important prayer that I have been reluctant to lift up to God? How can I begin knocking on his door about this concern?
Action:
- Ask to be put on the prayer chain if you are not already on one and set aside time to pray for the requests of others.
Fill out slips of paper for answered prayers like in the story The Prayer Chain to help you grow your faith in the power of pray