Are Your Prayers Directly Proportional To Your Challenges? (A Theology of Prayer)

Luke 6:12 – One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

Luke 6:13 – When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:

God does not answer prayer because of intensity and/or length. God does not answer prayer because of vocabulary used or convincing language used. God is not moved to act when we pray and include some crying and tears. God acts in His sovereign wisdom in our favor which may or may not be related to what we pray for.

Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane until His sweat became blood. Yet the prayer He made for the cup to be taken away was not answered but God’s will was done. Prayer is not answered because of sweating, tears and language of desperation.

The question that begs to be answered is, if God acts according to His will eventually, why should we pray? We pray so that we address our anxiety and consequently surrender to God’s will. Prayer brings us to the presence of God who convinces us that His will is superior to our wisdom and requests.

Prayer changes us, it doesn’t change God. Prayer brings us to God, it doesn’t bring God to us. Prayer prepares us to accept God’s will, it doesn’t influence God on what to do. Therefore God urges us to pray because it is good for us. Prayer is good for us and not for God.

Prayer prepares me to work with God. Prayer does not force God to work with me. Therefore I need prayer when I have an assignment because I desire to work with God.

When prayers we make are answered it is because our will aligned with God’s will. When prayers are answered the way we prayed, it is because God has graciously acted because in that matter in which prayer was a condition for receiving. When prayers are answered the way we requested in prayer, it’s not because of who prayed, or how we prayed, but because of God’s sovereign will.

When prayers are not answered it could be because God has a better plan than what we were requesting for. When prayers are not answered it’s not because God doesn’t care. When prayers are not answered it could be be because the one praying has a problem with God.

The person praying can get in the way of prayer being answered if the prayer he or she is making is not a prayer of confession and repentance. God answers prayers of absolutely anyone who seeks confession and repentance of sin. If you are a sinner you are an enemy of God. If you regard God as an enemy, do you expect Him to entertain your prayers? This is why, it is wisdom to begin every prayer with confession and repentance, so that sin does not get in the way between us and God as we pray.

We pray without ceasing because our will without ceasing tries to impose itself against God’s will. Without ceasing my human nature feels it’s better placed to guide me as opposed to being guided by God’s will. I therefore pray without ceasing to get my human will subdued. I therefore pray without ceasing so that I surrender to God’s will.

If you cease praying your will causes you to resist the will and guidance of God. If you cease praying your will causes you to start doubting God. If you cease praying you start blaming God. If you think prayer is designed to change God, you will soon start to blame God.

Intensity and length of prayer depends on the size of the challenges we are facing. Our key text today tells us that prior to choosing the critical twelve disciples, Jesus prayed the whole night. A whole night of praying is intense and long. The assignment ahead was equally critical.

When you have serious problems or challenging assignments, you become anxious. You are anxious because you want to control the outcome. Yet God is best placed to control the outcome. The only way to restore God’s control and surrender your control, is to pray intensely and long enough for your will to give in to God’s will.

When we don’t pray proportionate to our challenges and we think that prayers influences God, we end up misled by positive answers and disappointed by negative answers. We should pray until anxiety is under control. We should pray until we accept whatever outcome God gives.

David fasted and prayed for their first child with Bathsheba. When the child died, David had adjusted to that answer from God. He bathed, ate well and went about his normal businesses. Fasting and prayer changed him to accept God’s will. Fasting and prayer did not change God who said the child must die.

Jesus prayed intensely in the garden of Gethsemane. Before prayer he was anxious and He told disciples that He was sorrowful to the point of death. After prayer Jesus stood changed and confident. His tone and attitude changed. He told the disciples the enemy is here let’s meet him. Intense prayers didn’t change God’s will for Jesus, it changed Jesus to accept it and live with it.

Prayer should be proportionate to our challenges until we adjust to let God choose and lead. Prayer should be made with understanding that it doesn’t change God, it changes us. Prayers should end when any answer from God is okay with us. May such be our prayer life in Jesus’s name, Amen!

**Some of the thoughts in this article are borrowed from the book Steps to Christ by Ellen G. White, Chapter 11 – The Privilege of Prayer. The book is available online under the Ellen G. White Estate website. It’s available in many different languages.

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