Questions about Prayer

Kay >> Hi. I am Kay Daigle. I’d like to welcome you to this episode of the Beyond Ordinary Women Podcast. Today I’m talking with Claudia McGuire. Welcome, Claudia.

Claudia >> Thank you.

Kay >> Claudia spent years on staff at a church in Plano, Texas, at Chase Oaks, and she now still does Bible teaching, and she speaks at retreats, leadership, training, conferences—whatever. And we are so glad that she is one of our BOW Ministry Team members. So she’s not really a guest, but she is a co-worker in this ministry. And it’s been a privilege to know Claudia since we were in seminary together.

Claudia >> Thank you. You, too. I feel the same.

Kay >> Yes. So today we’re going to talk about prayer. We’ve talked about prayer previously, and we’re going to talk a little bit about prayer today. We’re going to talk about your Prayer Questions Answered. So if you have had a question, possibly Claudia will answer that question today because I think she’s come up with some general questions that a lot of people ask.

Is that right, Claudia?

Claudia >> I think so. I’ve heard these questions. And then I’ve also just thought through these seem like logical questions to me. Some of them are kind of seem harder than others, but I think they’re all relevant. Right?

Kay >> Right. I totally agree.

Claudia >> So I just have observed that over the years, as I’ve been in Bible study or led Bible study or been in small groups, or mission groups or, you know, all kinds of situations like that with I should say, fellow Christians, fellow Christ followers, I’ve just observed that there are people who seem to be uncomfortable with praying, right?

Kay >> Yes.

Claudia >> So just praying, just uncomfortable with it. Even if maybe they’ve been a part of your group for quite a while. Or even if maybe they’ve known the Lord for quite a while, there’s this uncomfortable thing that happens. And, you know, not to call on them when it’s prayer time and whatever situation you’re in. Some don’t like to pray aloud.

I’m not saying that they don’t pray. That some don’t like to pray aloud. They just don’t like that.

Kay >> Yep.

Claudia >> And some people are uncomfortable when other people pray. Like, I just kind of sense that sometimes from people. And then some others don’t. We kind of touched on this in another recording that we did, but some others don’t want to share requests because they feel God’s not going to hear me, this isn’t worth his time. Nobody wants to hear this or it’s just something that I’m not ready to put out there before people, which is I understand that.

So maybe we can address some of this mystery that seems to surround prayer or at least have a discussion of things that might keep us from praying in all kinds of situations. And hopefully as a result of this, that we who pray out loud or don’t have a problem with prayer might discover a more vibrant prayer life from knowing more about why and how we pray.

And it might even help others engage in the act of prayer, public prayer, private prayer, prayer request, those kind of things. So that’s how I came to do this, to just delve into these questions. So again, I just hope it’s helpful.

Kay >> I’m sure it will be. I’m sure it will be. Well, let’s just kind of start with the basic why pray? You know, we believe that God knows everything anyway. So why in the world does he call us to pray?

Claudia >> Yeah, you know, it’s interesting because I wasn’t raised in a particular well, I guess I was. I was raised in a religious family. And although my family started falling apart, there was divorce in my family when I was about 21 years old. We went to church, but we prayed. I mean, prayer was—I don’t remember my mom, like, coming into my room at night praying about a situation I was involved in, although she might have. My memory isn’t as wonderful as it used to be.

But, you know, we prayed for people and we prayed about our meals, and we prayed. You know, we prayed. We knew what prayer was. And I think that what you just mentioned, that people are like, why do this? God knows what I want anyway. Or God knows I’m thankful. God knows my heart well.

Prayer is actually encouraged and commanded, both in the Bible. So it’s a practice that we see throughout the Bible. It’s modeled for us as being this deepening, really ongoing relationship with our Heavenly Father. And I do believe that if we are Jesus followers, then we need to follow Jesus, and Jesus prayed.

Jesus actually appears to me that he speaks a lot less about prayer than he does actually praying when you read through the New Testament. It’s kind of like, Oh, well, he didn’t talk a whole lot about prayer, but he prayed. You know, you see him going off. It’s interesting. Yeah. So in Philippians 4:6, we’re told. (Many of us are so familiar with this verse.)

“Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God.” And this leads to God’s peace, right? It’s a peace that the world can’t give. Only God can give it. That’s a major reason to pray. Peace is something we all need in all situations. We need peace. So that’s a good reason to pray.

And then in Luke, 21:36, Jesus tells us as he’s talking about his coming again, he tells us to be on alert be on alert, and to pray at all times to pray for strength as life gets harder and as stranger things begin to take place.

He tells us, You know what? You’re going to need to pray about this. And so even though prayer is encouraged and commanded and we know what it’s for, to just solidify and keep open that relationship with our father, Jesus also told us to do it. We’ve had there’s lots of examples of it throughout the Bible. We are supposed to pray.

Again I wouldn’t call you and ask you to go to lunch. And we sit down at lunch and I just don’t ever I don’t ever ask you about you. I’m just there talking, talking, talking. And then I get up and leave. You know, that’s not going to do a lot for our relationship. So a relationship is this communication.

It’s a reciprocal thing. It’s us communing with one another, me and God. And I love that. So that’s why we pray. There are million reasons you could probably find throughout the Bible, but those are a few.

Kay >> Yeah. I mean, our relationship with God is a big one. And I don’t know about you, but I have actually sat down with people who only talked about themselves and never asked about me. So I know exactly what you’re talking about. And that is too often how I’ve prayed in the past, and some days I pray that way anyway.

Claudia >> Yes.

Kay >> Even though I know better.

Claudia >> Yes. True.

Kay >> Yeah. So that’s great. So is there a specific way we’re supposed to pray? I mean, I think that’s one reason people don’t pray. They think, you know, I don’t know how to pray because they think there’s only one way to pray. So how do you answer that?

Claudia >> Yes. Like, it’s interesting that Matthew 6:9, begins with a prayer that Jesus told his followers to pray. Right? And that started out with acknowledging God as your Father. But you can only do that if you understand that you’re a child of the father. Right? And a father and a child need to have a relationship. They need to. There’s a relationship there.

So that’s an example of things to that whole Matthew 6:9. It’s an example of things to or elements to include in a prayer that you might say. But it isn’t a magic formula. You know, you can say the Lord’s Prayer, you can say Psalm 20. There’s a lot of songs that you can say as a worship to God.

Or as part of your prayer life. But it’s not a magic formula. If someone’s looking for that, there isn’t one. And I know there have been books that have been sold on the fact that there are magic formulas and there are magic handkerchiefs and there are magic books and there are magic things that you can use to get closer to God.

But that’s not true. I don’t believe that is true.

Kay >> God is not a genie.

Claudia >> No.

Kay >> Just say the right words and call genie forth and get it to do what we want him to do. That’s just misrepresenting who God is.

Claudia >> Right.

Kay >> To think that our words are what make the difference.

Claudia >> Exactly. Yes. And again, help is an honest prayer before God. It’s only one word. But if you’re saying, “Father, I know that you are my God and I just need help.” God knows what that is. Sometimes that’s all you can say because you’re speechless. Or you’re breathless or you’re in an awful situation or that kind of a thing.

Also in 1 Peter 5:6-7, we’re told to “humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” And I think prayer is a humbling experience. And again, as Americans, we don’t like being humbled very much. We like being strong and mighty. God looks at that sometimes as being proud, and so that’s not really the way we want to approach God.

And then Hebrews 4:16 tells us, on the other hand, to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.” So there’s a balance there, confidently not that, hey, I’m so wonderful. But confidently noting that knowing that you’ve been invited into this relationship and into God’s presence through prayer. That’s a good thing. So just remembering that there is a balance there.

And so there’s a million ways to pray. And we could say that for every one of these questions that we’re going to talk about. But there are ways that we do want to approach the father. So that there’s not right words and magic formulas. Definitely.

Kay >> Right. So why did the disciples ask Jesus how to pray?

Claudia >> It’s interesting because when I thought about that, I’m like, well, people prayed all through the Old Testament, and these disciples would have had access to those prayers and those stories where God was involved. And on the other hand, I thought, well, if Jesus was with them every day or whatever physically, and they observed him, and yet they still had to ask Jesus, How do we pray?

I feel like I’m in good company. You know, I feel like, okay, well, we shouldn’t feel so bad if the disciples asked that. And I realize it wasn’t just for their good. It was for our good also. So again, we can go back to Matthew 6:9.

This is Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2 where Jesus gives his model of prayer to his disciples. Again there are prayers all through the Old Testament that I believe these disciples would have been aware of.

And I think they were aware of prayer and they probably prayed in some way, but they might have seen a modeling by their religious leaders, based on what the Bible says, of prayers that were more about were about something else other than praising God. And maybe they just wanted Jesus’ input, like teach us correctly how to pray.

On the other hand, I also know, again, as they were hanging out with Jesus, the Bible tells us that Jesus would go away to a quiet place and pray. He would leave them and go pray on several occasions and go to a mountain. And he would stay behind. Maybe that was a new thing to those disciples because they had never really seen that model before.

And that might have made them wonder what’s he saying or doing like when he goes away by himself, like, why can’t we come? Why can’t we be there? Why doesn’t he just say it with all of us? You know?

So that’s kind of why I feel they asked that and why Jesus gave the answer he did. Again, as a model, not repeat this prayer every time you get on your knees, every time you go into your room or your quiet place to pray.

He’s not asking them to say this every time, but he does want certain things acknowledged I believe in prayer. So that kind of led me to the question. So is there a wrong way to pray? Is there a right way and is there a wrong way? And that’s kind of a strange question, but there are a few things that we’re told in the Bible that aren’t really good for our prayer life.

In Matthew 6:5-7 Jesus is recorded as saying, “Don’t pray in order to be seen and admired.” We’re also told “not to use meaningless repetition, as some do, thinking that a lot of words will get us a lot more attention.” Right? You kind of alluded to that a minute ago. So don’t pray selfishly or arrogantly for other people to be impressed.

And going back to the disciples, the question we just answered, I feel like maybe that is what the disciples witnessed. Were their leaders, their religious leaders praying loudly and long and these repetitive prayers over and over. And when they saw how Jesus prayed, there was a difference. There is a major difference there.

And so I think that would have made me want to say, “Well, Jesus, how do you pray? Because we’ve been taught that these guys are loud and they yell, and they want to be seen and they’re on the street corner. And they’re, you know, all these and over and over and over and over and over, they’re saying these same sentences over and over. And so I think that that is definitely I think that’s definitely a way not to pray.

That can be wrong. And I think also what that comes down to is your heart. You know, your heart is an indicator when you come before the father, are you coming humbly? Are you coming arrogantly or you doing it so other people will hear what you say? Are you saying these things to impress someone who’s in the room?

Or are you know, that could be a way that again it’s a heart check.You know, it’s a heart check.

Kay >> Yeah, absolutely.

Well, what about answers to prayer? Because I think some people don’t pray because maybe they tried it, maybe they prayed and nothing happened as far as they were concerned. So what about my answer to prayer? God never answered it. What’s the point in praying?

Claudia >> I hear that. And you and I both know people who say I’ve been praying about this for years and nothing’s happened.

Kay >> Yeah.

Claudia >> We don’t know that nothing’s happened. Again God works in a different realm than we do. And he might have been doing five billion things that we’re just not ever going to be aware of in that person’s life, in that situation, in whatever that might be.

But going back to Matthew 6 in verse eight, Jesus says, your father knows what you need. He knows before you even ask him. That goes back to why pray? He knows what we need before we even ask him.

So you might ask for something different. You might ask for something you want, but your father knows what you need. And so I think we can miss the answer by looking for that thing we wanted. Right?

Just because we pray something that we think would be fabulous for us or someone we know doesn’t mean that God’s not working. That goes again to listening and looking to see where is God at work? Did he answer that prayer? And you just blew past it because that’s not what you were expecting. You were expecting an answer to your prayer.

But you know what? God’s infinite. He’s got a million ways he can answer your prayer. And I just don’t think we see that sometimes. Sometimes we just don’t see it.

Kay >> Well, in a sense, sometimes we kind of think of praying to God as giving Santa Claus a list, you know, here’s my list. This is what I want. Do it, you know? And we have that perspective of who God is. Then it would cause us to think, to really not listen, really not listen to what God’s trying to tell us about him.

Claudia >> Right. Right. You’re right. We have something in mind that we want. We’re expecting. So why would we look for anything else? Yeah.

In 1 John 2, there’s something said about the confidence that we have before God, that

“if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” And that’s a fine line because there are stories about tell that mountain to move, you know, do this.

And I’m like, those are that. But I think I have faith but I don’t know that I can move a mountain. I mean, I couldn’t. God could, right? Nothing’s impossible with him. But when we pray and this again, is a heart attitude, we want our will to line up with God’s will. We want that to happen. And although we might not know what that is at the moment, we’re asking or praying about something.

We still can pray “God not my plan, but yours would just keep my eyes open in my heart open that I can see that, and then I can follow that,” you know?

And so we have to trust that God, in his infinite knowledge might be keeping us from something that would be even more painful, keeping us from something that would just knock the legs out from under us or, you know, just keeping us from a path that he doesn’t want us to go down, that he knows.

He sees the beginning of the end. He knows. And that takes trust also that if it just turns out differently than you want sometimes that’s just God really protecting you.

Kay >> Yeah. So what is God’s timing have to do with that?

Claudia >> Well, I think that is right hand in hand with what you just said, that some people are like, let’s pray that doesn’t work. You know, God doesn’t hear me. Or like you said, I don’t know how, but and the truth is and you let me know if you have something else to say about this, but I’m not sure of God’s timing.

Again, God has a personal relationship with each one of us, and he knows the timing for me. If I believe in a Heavenly Father, and I believe that he’s perfect, I have to believe his timing is perfect. But man, it’s not going to feel that way all the time. We are impatient. Not only are we proud people are impatient people.

And, you know, I think about the Israelites when Moses went up on the hill right? To get the Ten Commandments and they made an idol while he was gone because it just took him so long they couldn’t even stand it. So they had to have a golden calf too. And I’m like, “Yeah, don’t go looking for the golden calf.”

That’s probably not good. Being patient, because God’s timing is not ours. You know, that’s a good thing. And again, as you’re waiting patiently, God’s answer could be no. We’ve heard this before. It could be no or not now, yes or now, next year or wait.

Or it could be “I’ve got something else for you. Just be patient. I’ve got something else.”

Kay >> Yeah, yeah. That’s good. So what role does faith play in praying? I mean, we know we’re supposed to have faith, but is there a certain amount of faith we’re supposed to have for God to answer our prayers?

Claudia >> That’s a good question, too. And even recently, I was asked in a situation where someone was praying for a healing and someone had made them feel like they didn’t have enough faith, and that’s why it hadn’t come. And it just broke my heart. I don’t believe that. I do believe that faith is involved. But it also goes back to God’s will and God’s plan.

And we’re just infinite people. We can’t see it all. But of course, selfishly, if someone we know is struggling or hurting, we’re going to pray for their healing. We’re going to pray for that. And that’s our obedience. That’s what we’re supposed to do.

So in Matthew 17:20, it does refer to that faith of a mustard seed. If you have faith as a mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible to you. So some faith is needed, obviously, when we pray. Some faith is needed. You must have faith that God is God and that God’s able to do more than you can ask or imagine. If you don’t believe that God is God, who are you praying to? It’s just a question.

In Matthew 11:22, Jesus tells his disciples to have faith in God, and that faith is what is behind prayer. Asking for things in prayer, going to the Father in prayer. You cannot be a doubter of God and his ability and at the same time ask him to move on your behalf. Right? I mean, you might not have this magnificent faith you might not feel very faithful or full of faith or full of trust. But you can’t come to God and be a doubter of God. It just doesn’t make sense. Does that make sense?

Kay >> Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like what people have done often is take the faith and put it in God doing exactly what you want. Do I really believe God will help me? Do I really believe instead of the faith being in God? God is God, my faith is in God. Whatever ends up happening with this request, I still have faith in God.

And I think we’ve said that faith is in my faith. In other words, I’m trusting in my own faith being big enough for this to happen, instead of trusting in God and his sovereignty, his power, his goodness, his love—all those things. I think that’s part of the problem with people trying to conflate faith and your faith. You have to work up enough faith to heal.

Claudia >> Right?

Kay >> If you don’t work up enough faith, well, then it’s your fault.

Claudia >> Right?

Kay >> You know, and it’s like going, “God, I don’t have a whole lot of faith that you’ll do this, but I do trust in you. This is the best I can do. I don’t know if you want to do this. I trust in you. I’m humble enough to say I trust in you. And I have faith. My faith is in you, though not necessarily in this being the answer.”

Claudia >> Right.

Kay >> I don’t know if that makes sense or not.

Claudia >> It does. And you know, there’s also we hear a lot there is a wise person recently said, “don’t mix your Christianity with paganism.” It’s kind of a hard thing to hear because we live in a world that’s full of paganism. Really. There’s just an old word for current reality.

And you talk you know, people talk about putting that out to the universe or doing certain exercises that are going to get them what they want or stir up God to answer.

You know, there’s just a lot of, and people sell things and make a lot of money on self-help or things that come across as Christian or based in Christianity. But they’re full of paganism. They’re full of things that bring an idol or a strange practice alongside God. And I don’t think God honors that.

Kay >> Yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, it is magic. It’s trying, you know, incantations, if I say the right words, then God will act. And, you know, a few years ago I ran across some women that had been through a seminar, and that’s pretty much what they were believing. That there are certain words and they took some words out of the Old Testament and somebody was teaching them this prayer from the priest in the Old Testament.

If you pray this way, then you know, God is going to move. And it is, it’s just paganism.

Claudia >> Yeah. And that I think probably more than many things that really bothers me because I’ve seen it within my own group of friends, you know, my group of friends. Things that they’ve done or they’ve talked about doing I just feel like, why would you go to a shaman? Why would you go to this thing? Why would you, you know? It’s like God’s not good enough.

Like, I have to drag myself up these steps and be broken and bloody and bleeding so he’ll hear me when I get to the top.

Kay >> Yeah.

Claudia >> Yeah, no. Okay.

Kay >> All right. Let’s move on. What is intercessory prayer?

Claudia >> Okay, well, that’s a big word for a simple thing, I think. Simple as far as how we can engage in it. Romans 12 verse 10 and 12. We’re told to be devoted to one another, right? With brotherly love. And that brotherly love includes preferring people over yourself, others over than yourself, humbling yourself. It involves serving the Lord, rejoicing, persevering, but it also involves being devoted to prayer for one another.

It’s just one of the “one-anothers” that we should do, be praying for someone else, praying for a situation. It could be praying for someone you don’t even know. It could be a situation that’s going on in the world that you have just felt very burdened to pray for. That’s interceding in a situation either in a people group, some place in the world, whatever, that you just feel like it’s touched your heart and God’s put it on your heart to pray for them.

Galatians 6:2 also says that we’re to “bear one another’s burdens” and that also includes prayer, you know, praying for people, not just thinking about people with compassion and saying I’m thinking about you, but praying for them and then serving them out of that compassion for them, you know, out of your love for them.

Paul says in Ephesians 6:18.”With all prayers and petition, pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.”

That’s intercession. “And pray on my behalf (That’s intercession.) that I might make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” He was asking the church, pray for me. That’s intercessory prayer. And Paul asked for it. And that’s a good model that we’re supposed to ask for that too.

I remember a time in my life when my husband and I, we just found ourselves prayed out over a situation. No more words. It was so painful, just didn’t know what to do. And our pastor met with us at the time, and I will never ever forget as we talked through dinner over dinner with he and his wife, you know?

He just said, “You know what? Can I just take that from you? I want to pray for that. You let it go. It’s become such a hard thing for you that I would like to just take it up and give you all some rest in this prayer that you have been crying out to God for.” And he did. And I completely trusted him to do that. Some people can say that and they might forget about it. They might forget about in a day or a week or two months, I don’t know.

But God still heard it. If it was just one time, they prayed that. But that was a huge introduction to me for a new phase of intercessory prayer. That I might be able to bear someone’s burden by just saying, “hold off unless God puts it on your heart. Let me just pray about that for the next week, just to take it off your plate. You’ve got so much going on.” And that was just a godsend to us, you know?

Kay >> Yeah, I love that.

You know, even the Lord’s Prayer is our father, give us this day our daily bread. So Jesus taught it right there in the model prayer as well, because it’s all about us. We pray for us.

Claudia >> True. That’s true. True.

Kay >> Well, is there a prayer that God doesn’t answer?

Claudia >> Oh, this is getting harder, Kay. These are harder questions. I should have saved easier one for last. I think that’s just a hard answer. Okay. And many people might disagree with me on this, and I don’t I’m not saying this, it’s what I found in the Word. It’s not my word. So I feel comfortable saying it, although it doesn’t feel great, if you know what I mean.

So Proverbs 15:29 says, and it’s Proverbs, but, “The Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” And we know that righteousness comes through our faith in Jesus Christ, right? So he hears the prayer of the righteous, but he’s far from the wicked.

Okay, in John 9:31 (Let me see if I can find this other.) Jesus healed a man and then he was brought into the synagogue. I think his parents were brought to the synagogue and then he was brought into the synagogue also. And the Pharisees questioned him because Jesus had healed him and they wanted to know who is this guy and why did he do this and whatever.

And that man in his either new found faith or in the excitement of his healing, he says he offers this reply to the Pharisees: “We know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is God fearing and does his will, he hears him.”

Well, that’s a hard statement, but I’m not there yet. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, we’re told, a natural man. And that’s someone who is a pre Christian, someone who is not yet saved by Christ. “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised.”

Someone who does not accept the Spirit of God would have a hard time praying to God or being heard. Again who is he praying to if he doesn’t believe in God? So he can pray. I know of people of many different faiths that pray but we’re talking about the prayer of a Christ follower. Someone who believes in God believes that he is, and I believe has the Holy Spirit working for them.

In Hebrews 11:6 the Bible says, “And without faith it’s impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.”

Those are really hard verses. But I’m also convinced that if you come to God wanting to believe in him, wanting to be heard, that God comes to you. I mean, it works together. God knows your heart.

But I do believe there are prayers going on all around us that might have nothing to do with the God that we believe in and follow. And again, that’s a hard thing.

Kay >> Yeah. And of course, we know God’s sovereign. He hears them. But this is a hearing that means he’s going to act in accordance with that. It is a different kind of hearing than just yeah, I hear those words. But you know. God knows people’s hearts and he, you know.

Claudia >> Exactly yes, he does know. He does know our hearts. And again, that’s hard. But this prayer is a relationship with God.

Kay >> Yeah.

Claudia >> Yeah.

Kay >> Well does Jesus pray for us?

Claudia >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you, Jesus, for praying for us. John 17:9 and 20 says Jesus. It shows as a prayer that Jesus prays to his Father. And he says, “I ask on their behalf, speaking of his disciples at the time, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom thou hast given me for they are thine. And I do not ask on behalf of those alone of these that are here right now, but for those also who believe in me through their word.”

So for all believers to come, that’s just a beautiful prayer from Jesus that he’s so aware of the now and the yet to be that he’s saying, “I’m praying for you. I’m asking on your behalf for these things from the Father, but also for those who are coming, that they will know that I’m praying for them, that I prayed for them, and I’m praying for them.”

And I just love that. I love that. That’s kind of the way Jesus went out of this world, talking about him praying for us. Ahh. Luke 22:31 and 32. This was an interesting one to me that another pastor actually brought this up and I started thinking about it. That at the Last Supper Jesus tells “Peter, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat.”

Oh man, that would be horrible. But I believe it happens all the time, right? Like living in this world kind of feels like being sifted like wheat sometimes.

So Jesus says that he tells him, “Peter, Satan’s asked to sift you like wheat,” but Jesus also says, “I’ve prayed for you, Peter, that you won’t fail, and that when you turn again you will strengthen your brothers.”

Ahh. I love that!

In just that one little thing. Jesus, his words are so packed with power. Within that one thing he’s confirming Satan’s out there, he’s going to be working against you. And he’s had to kind of ask us, “Can I mess around with Peter?”

But I’m going to be praying for you. So, okay, we know that’s about the fourth thing, okay, and Jesus prays for us and he’s praying that Peter’s faith will not fail.

Another incredible thing. And that when Peter realizes what he’s done, he repents, that’s the turning. He turns again. He’s like Jesus said, “I was going to deny him three times. And I did. And I can’t believe I did this.” He turns and he is so disappointed with himself. But Jesus says, I want you to use that to strengthen your brothers.

Ahh. And you know, we’re suppose to comfort others with the comfort that we receive from God. And I just love that little picture of a huge present that Jesus gives us through his prayer for us.

One more thing. In 1 Timothy 2:5, we’re told: “there is one God and one mediator between God and man, and that’s the man Jesus Christ.” Jesus is actively involved in our prayer, and he is, I have no doubt that He’s actively mediating for us today.

Kay >> I love all those verses. I’m with you on them. They’re so encouraging.

Claudia >> I need them.

Kay >> Yeah, they’re just such encouragers. Do you feel like we have to work hard to be heard? I mean, do we just have to? I mean, I hear some people talk about really wrestling in prayer and struggling in prayer. Is that always necessary? I mean, maybe it’s necessary for, like, the situation where you talked about you and your husband praying.

You were wrestling with God in prayer, but the burden of that became very too much for you, really. And your pastor took it off of you. And that’s a wonderful story. But does God hear you more because you work so hard or was it maybe just the wrong time? I mean, I don’t know.

I don’t have the answer here.

Claudia >> Well, I’m not, I have an answer, but I’m not sure it’s a complete answer because, again, we serve this infinite God that has a million answers. But one thing is in Romans 8:26 and 27, you know, we’re told that we don’t really know how to pray for ourselves. We really don’t know how whether that’s working hard, barely praying, not whatever.

But that’s why we have the Holy Spirit that intercedes for us with these groaning that are too deep for words. And he helps us in our weakness.

So that makes me think I think I have to pray the way God has put something on my heart. And if it is a thing that he’s given me every day, or if I feel very compelled to continue to lift that thing up to him, I will. I believe when it becomes a barrier between me and God that I begin to resent him or that he’s not hearing me, that he doesn’t see me, that he doesn’t.

If it’s affecting my faith in a way that is not productive then I might need to look at that again. I might need to just say, God, “I surrender. I’m laying it down on this altar. I’m not going to pick this up again until I feel like you are calling me to do it.”

I think there is a time I mean, we Jesus kind of in the garden. I don’t know he was wrestling with God, but he certainly was sweating. But I think that’s because it was such an emotional and physical aspect to his being that he maybe never imagined, couldn’t really think about what that felt like in a human body. Do you know what I mean?

It was he knew what was coming and he was praying, if this can pass, please let it pass. But I want your will, not mine. He knew what was at stake, but he was praying hard that night. And there was a lot on the table.

One of the ways that I do want to address this, though, is kind of what I went back to earlier was about the paganism mixing with Christianity and also people telling you… oh, but if you just and these come across my Facebook feed, pray this prayer and you’ll have three blessings before Monday morning.

Well, it’s Monday morning and you know, I had a million when I woke up. I was alive and got out of bed, and I could walk and breathe. I had a house, you know, all those things but you know, that kind of a thing. And that instance where someone was told you don’t have enough faith, that’s why the healing didn’t happen.

You know, the shame aspect of it.

But there’s a story. I say that because this story just seems very real to me right now based on just our world and kind of going back to the just the weird ways we might pray or try to get God’s attention. The story in 1 Kings 18 about Elijah and the false prophet.

So Elijah was a true prophet. And then there were all these false prophets. And Elijah challenges these prophets to call on their gods. He’s like, okay, let’s meet at this mountain. We’re going to call on our gods. We’re going to set up you set up your offering first, and they did their altar and put their offering on it.

And that what they were asking for is that god would just consume, you know, just consume the offerings. Let’s see him act, do something. And so they do that. So the false prophets go first and they’re calling on their god and it says they call from morning till noon.

I don’t know if that’s 5:00 in the morning, 9:00, but they called for a long time and nothing happened. No one answered, nothing happened. Everything was the same.

And then from noon until like midday, they leaped all around the altar. They were leaping and cutting themselves and crying out with loud voices. And then they started cutting themselves. Yeah. So the blood was gushing out, trying to get the attention of this god. And it says they raved until the evening.

It just wears me out reading that, you know, that chapter and no one answered. And I thought, Thank you, Lord, that I don’t have to do that. I don’t have to cut myself, yell, scream, rave and jump around to get your attention.

I’m just so thankful that Jesus is the reason why I can pray and come before you very humbly and softly and quietly, sometimes just looking for you.

So the story then turns to Elijah, and Elijah does the same thing.He builds an altar out of stones. He does it in the presence of all the false prophets and the people that were there. He digs a trench around it and he puts the wood on it, and then he puts the ox on it for the offering. Then he douses the whole thing three times until the trench is filled with water.</p>

You know, it’s already been absorbed into the ground, but he put so much on it that it’s filled up, the trenches filled. Everything’s been doused with water, the offering, the stones, the wood. And he just offers this simple prayer you know, he’s like, “God, please make yourself known. Please make yourself known.”

And man, did he. Fire fell it consumed the altar, the stones, the wood, the ox and lapped up the dust. It says even the dust was consumed and lapped all the water in the trench was gone.

And so that very humble prayer of Elijah is inspiring to me, that I can just go and say, “God for your glory, for you to be known would you please hear my prayer?” And that is so peace-giving instead of thinking, yes, I have to have all this, well, how much is enough faith?

I mean, is it finally enough faith when that mountain moves into the ocean? Is it finally enough? I mean, what’s enough faith?

And I remember in seminary I think it was Howard Hendricks talking about somebody saying that my prayer life isn’t long enough. I want to start doing like 2 hours in the morning.

He’s like, “Really? How much is enough? If you prayed 24 hours a day, would that be enough?”

Kay >> Yeah.

Claudia >> And what good are you to anybody if you’re praying, you know, he just made it feel so much more doable when it’s like, just pray. Just get out there, acknowledge your Father, ask for what you need, thank him for what he’s done, lift up others before him and wait. You know?

Kay >> Well, I know years ago when I was a young adult, that you know/ I was never really comfortable praying because in the church that I grew up in, it just seemed like the people who prayed at the front used all these big words all these thees and thous, which was popular at the time because of the King James Version of the Bible, you know, just all those things.

And so yeah, I mean, I talked to God myself, but I just felt very inadequate about it. And I know that one day my kids were taking their naps. They were just a little bitty at the time, and I wanted something to read. And I went to my bookshelf and apparently my mother had planted a book there that was called Prayer A Conversation with God or something like that, by Rosalind Rinker.

And she just you’re just talking to God it is not about these words. It is not about, you know, saying it the right way. It is just you are talking to God. And it just revolutionized my prayer life because I felt like I could just be I could just pray in more the sense of Elijah that you’re just simply asking God for what you want to happen.

It’s not there’s not a mystery about it. There’s not a process that you have to go through. It is just you’re talking to God as if I’m talking to you now.

Claudia >> Yeah.

Kay >> And it made a big difference in my life. So I hope the people out there will recognize that. And not make this something that it’s not supposed to be.

Claudia >> Right. It shouldn’t really be about you. And I think that when I’m in a prayer group or we’re praying wherever, whether that’s over a meal or in a group or whatever, I know I’m not judging somebody’s prayer, you know? Unless it’s to a foreign deity or some situation that I’m uncomfortable with. But I don’t!

Oh, every prayer is I think it’s just music to God’s ears. You know, every prayer offered in faith from a heart that’s devoted to him or just searching for him. I believe it is. It’s music to his ears.

Kay >> It is. Well that kind of brings me to some of the other resources that we have. Kelly Arabie and I did one on Practical Prayer Solutions, which talk about praying aloud. We talk about distractions in prayer and just some practical ways to overcome these impediments to prayer that we have. Just some practical ideas on what to do when your prayer seems boring.

What do you do about that? And how to deal with all these prayer requests you’re given? You know, if you’re in the church and you’re active in the church, you just hear all these prayer requests, and there’s just so many. What do you do with that? How do you organize it, or how long do you pray for them? Those kinds of things.

So you can find this on our Media List if you will go to BeyondOrdinaryWomen.org and go to the Resources, at the bottom of the pulldown menu, you will see the Media list, and that would be on there. If you just want to search for prayer, that would be a topic that all the prayer resources would come up. And you can look for Claudia for our other conversations that we have had.

We just did one on praying with obedience.

Claudia >> Yes.

Kay >> So you can search for that. We have other guests that have talked about prayer. And I would really encourage you to do all those things. Claudia, I’m so grateful for all the work that you did researching all these verses to help us see what the Bible says about these questions in prayer.</p>

<p><span style=”color: purple;”>Claudia >> Well, thank you. My privilege. Again, I learn every time I get to do one of these with you. So thank you for that opportunity.Kay >> Well, thank you for joining us. And we will look forward to all the rest of you joining us soon on the Beyond Ordinary Women Podcast.