Honest Prayer

It seems that prayer is one of the most neglected means of grace. Thomas Watson once remarked: “Christ went more readily to the cross, than we do to the throne of grace.” Watson’s observation in the seventeenth century is still true today. The biggest evidence of this is the small number of people attending prayer meetings. Christian commitment to prayer is ridiculously miniscule. Worse still, even during prayer times in worship gatherings, there are evidences suggesting that many Christians do not know how to pray. Honestly, I often wonder if people in church—whose eyes are closed—are truly praying when someone is “leading the prayer.”

We all remember that on His last week on earth, Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the Temple. He caused quite a scene there because He overturned the tables of the merchants and drove them away. Then He said, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’” (Matt 21:13; quoting Isa 56:7). Today, I sincerely do not think that we are guilty of having turned God’s sanctuary into a den of thieves, but I am not quite certain whether our churches will not be judged for failing to make God’s sanctuary a place of prayer.

The Scriptures has a lot of say about prayer. One of the most crucial ones is written by James: “You do not have because you do not ask God” (4:2).

To be honest, reading James 4:2 makes me very uncomfortable for two reasons.

First, it seems to vindicate prosperity gospel. According to Wikipedia, this is a movement teaching that faith, asking, and positive thinking will increase one’s material wealth. The idea is that when humans have faith in God, He will deliver His promise of security and prosperity. If we confess these promises in faith, God will give them to us. It is a “claim it, have it” ideology.

Secondly, it contradicts what I affirm and believe about God’s Godness. I know that God is free. God cannot be forced to do things. He is the Lord of the universe, and I am nothing. But the passage seems to say that I, a mere insignificant creature—a bug, a useless chaff in the wind (Ps 1:4; Job 21:8), a grass or flower that withers (Isa 40:8; 1 Peter 1:24)—have a significance in the universe that my prayer can affect God’s decision. We do not have, because we do not ask. The verse seems to say that my prayer—yes, my simple prayer—can change the condition I am in, particularly of not having something.

Surprisingly, the same thought was expressed by Jesus: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt 7:7-11).

The only thing we must do is ask! But there’s a catch. How should we ask?

We must ask earnestly. The word “ask” refers to pleading with the whole heart. It is asking what we desire with all our hearts. It is not an uncommitted prayer. It is not asking with the lips; it is asking with the whole heart. It is pleading to the point that we are grieved when what we asked for is not given to us. It is like my daughter asking for a Stick-O, and becoming really frustrated when she is denied. It is not asking with an indifferent attitude, or not caring whether our prayers are answered or not.

What is important is not the number of times we pray, but the fact that we mean what we pray and that we really desire what we pray for. When we pray for the healing of a person, and we really do not care about the person and whether he or she is healed, do we think we truly prayed? When we pray for our food out of plain routine, do we think that God will truly bless our food? When we pray with our mouths for God to bless our pastors and our church, and yet we do not really care about things such as ministry and the like, do we think we really prayed?

Genuine prayer is praying out of the depths of the heart, beseeching God to grant us what we really desire. It is a genuine insult to God when we come to Him with words, but we do not really mean them. John Bunyan once wrote, “When you pray, rather let your heart be without words than your words without heart.”

I remember some of the prayers I uttered while I was a young boy. Night after night, when I was in my elementary years, I prayed that I would get an academic award when the commencement exercises come in March. Even as a small child, I was very specific with my prayers. When I think about them now, they seem childish, but when I was young, they were the honest contents of my heart. Perhaps what we need today as believers is to go back to being an honest child in praying. As we have matured in our intellectual capacities, we have expanded our vocabulary and learned to construct poetic statements. Then we employ these learnings in our prayers, trying to flatter God [and the congregation] with our jargons and complex sentences. But perhaps what God really desires from us is the simplest expressions of what our hearts truly desire. No pretenses. No sugar-coating. No flattery. Just plain and honest utterances coming from the depths of our hearts.

So the important question is this: What is it that we really desire in our hearts? What do we truly desire? Have we told God about them yet, no matter how ridiculous they might sound? Or are we just mumbling things that we do not really care about?

The worst possible scenario for a Christian is when he or she does not desire anything godly anymore, which is why he or she does not have anything to pray about too. He does not have because he does not ask; and he does not ask because he does not care. To make the questions more focused and general to us:

Could it be that there is no personal growth in us because we do not really seek or desire to grow in our faith? We do not have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control because we do not ask God for these virtues, because we don’t really care. Could it be that we are not asking for more of God because we are already content with our spiritual status as infants? We do not pray much because we do not really care much about God anyway.

Could it be that the reason why the church is not growing is that we are not praying about it, because we don’t really care. We do not have the desire to see our empty seats filled. We do not care whether our attendance is dropping. Anyway, we can find another church if our local church closes down. Could it be that there are not even 5 or 10 who are genuinely praying and desiring for this church to become a sanctuary-filled people whose lives have been transformed by the grace of God?  

Could it be that there is no revival in our church and in our nation because we do not really ask for it from God, because we don’t really care? We do not have the desire for ourselves, for the church, and for the nation to be swept away by the mighty power of God. Yahweh once said, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14). Could it be that the reason this is not happening in our lifetime is that we do not desire it? There is no intense longing to see our neighbors become transformed by the power of the gospel.

Could it be that there seems to be nothing happening in our lives and in our church because we do not have spiritual desires and aspirations? Could it be that we are already content with where we are? Could it be that our spiritual desires and aspirations are swallowed up by our earthly and worldly desires (James 4:4, 7-10)?

These are really tough questions that every believer should courageously face and answer. We are accountable to God, whether we like it or not and whether now or later.