Prayer: Keep on Knocking
Pentecost IX, July 25, 2010
Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Luke 11:9-10
How loud do you have to knock before God opens the door? How many times do you have to come back and knock, and knock, and knock? This is the question of someone who has prayed to God for a long time with no seeming results. "Come on, God, open the door." As when we telephone someone and say to ourselves, "Come on, pick up the phone." "I know you are there, pick up the phone!" "God, I know you are there, pick up the phone, open the door, listen to my prayer!" When God who is infinite and eternal does not answer our requests which we think need to be answered immediately, it can be frustrating. Of course God could be giving the answer and we don't like it. If we ask "Give me a million dollars," he may very well say, "No." God knows what is best for us. Jesus said that a good father will not give his son a scorpion if he asks for an egg. Neither will he give him a scorpion if he asks for a scorpion. As a child has to trust his father, so we have to trust our Father who art in heaven.
The real problem is not that we knock and God does not answer. Jesus promises he will and we trust that, and know from our faith experiences that God does answer. The real problem is that we do not knock. The problem is that we do not pray. There are many reasons for that. We may think God doesn't care about us. We may think it won't do any good to ask God so we will just try harder on our own. We may think that God won't give us what we want anyway so why bother to ask. We may think that God cannot help us, that he has no power to do so.
We may think that prayer is a waste of time. We might think that our request is for something impossible. Oh, we know that God is almighty, so in faith we do believe that God can do anything, but there are some things that we think God probably will not do anyway, so why pray? For example, why pray for a good grade on a test when we have not studied? Why pray for a person who has terminal cancer? Work, don't pray. Perspiration is better than meditation. These ways of thinking are all from bad faith, or lack of faith. The only way to overcome them is to trust in God who promises to answer prayer. The only way to overcome our lack of prayer is to pray more.A more serious reason not to knock on God's door is because people do not know where to knock. I mean, many people do not know about Jesus, so they cannot call out in the Name of Jesus to pray. These are the people who are not Christian believers. And so what we must do is show them the way to God's door. Jesus said, "Seek and you will find." In Japan, people who are new to the church and who are searching for Jesus are called "kyudosha," "seekers." They are searching for salvation, they are studying the Bible, and they are seeking Jesus. And the Holy Spirit gives them faith and guidance and leads them to the waters of Baptism. "Seek and you will find," and then you can "knock and the door will be opened for you."
"Ask and it will be given to you." Maybe we do not know what to ask for. Ask for anything you want. Even if you are not sure, ask with the faith that God might give you something better than you ask for. Go ahead and ask for something greedy or silly or crazy, God can only say "No." Ask and then say, "Your will be done." Even Jesus didn't get everything he prayed for. One time he prayed so hard that he was sweating blood, but his Father did not give Jesus what he prayed for. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that he would not have to suffer and die on the cross. He said, "If it be possible, Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Jesus knew the will of the Father. Jesus knew the plan of God from eternity to save us human beings. And so Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sin. He arose on the third day. He arose because his was the kingdom and the power and the glory. He ascended into heaven and has the kingdom and the power and the glory. And from heaven, he hears our prayers, he sees our sorrows and joys, he knows our loves and disappointments; he knows what we want even before we ask.
People have often asked, "If God is all-knowing and knows what we will pray for even before we ask, then why do we need to pray at all?" We pray because we know that God knows what we want and our prayers are moments of praise and thanksgiving. Our prayers show our faith. Our prayers show that we know God has the kingdom and the power and the glory. And in our prayers we learn that God's will is done on earth when it becomes our will to trust in God with our heart and soul.
How should we pray? What should we pray for? The Lord's Prayer is an excellent guide, because Jesus taught us that prayer, we can be sure that God wants us to pray for those things in the prayer. If we pray the Lord's Prayer correctly, it should take about 5 minutes at least to pray it, as we think about all the daily bread items we need or all the sins we need to be forgiven and all the sins we need to forgive others of, when we think of the temptations and evil that we need to be delivered from, etc.
Let's constantly pray. Let's seek. Let's ask. Let's knock on God's door often and loudly and know that he will answer.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church