My Poor Example of Strong-Arm Praying

It is a mark of pervasive fallenness that even the most spiritual event can be corrupted. Even though Christians have been made new in Christ, we have not been made perfect; and our imperfections can manifest themselves in the most shocking ways at times. In one particular instance, I found that even prayer had succumbed to my fallenness.

This is how I saw it play out. On one particular Sunday afternoon I was mulling over the sermon delivered just a few hours earlier. My own personal assessment was that it was a homerun. There had probably been some combination of exceptional freedom in the delivery, coupled with a few gracious words of thanks and encouragement from members after the service. Whatever the case, I was feeling good.

As I sat there in the glow, I began pondering why all of this had happened. Why was it that this particular sermon went off so well, but others not so much? I thought about the passage and my study time; I tried to think of anything that stood out over the course of the week, but to tell you the truth, I couldn’t come up with anything. My mind turned to God and His work in this this particular sermon. And then it happened. The question came, “Did I pray more for this sermon?” Was that the answer? Had I simply turned to God in prayer and He answered by granting a good sermon? With that possibility rolling around in my mind I found another thought immediately on its heels, “If that is the case then I have got to start praying more.”

And there it was; a horrid adulteration of a sacred privilege. With just the possibility of prayer being the key for great sermons I was ready to hit my knees for the sake of idolatrous desires. Maybe here I should clarify that “glow” I mentioned above. Sadly, that glow was not the pure pleasure of God exalted and people blessed. Sure that was part of it, but there were flies in this ointment. Some of that glow was self-exaltation. Delight in the praise of man was mixed in, as well as dreams of bigger and better things that can come with mind-blowing preaching. Yes, your pastor is a sinner.

So what I had done is begin to think of prayer as something to twist the arm of God. Prayer can be used as a tactic for getting from God instead of a way of getting God. Here we need some careful thinking. Does prayer accomplish things? Yes, but not in a mechanical sense. God is a great God who exists with full and total sovereign control. In His sovereign designs, He has worked prayer into how He brings things to pass. This is a wonderfully gracious reality that shows the relationally-oriented God we worship. But at the same time, His sovereign control means that prayer will never be effectual as anything other than what it is meant to be.

The good news is that God is so great and so Fatherly, He won’t allow prayer to become a strong arm tactic. He wants us to cast our cares upon Him and in grace He responds to them according to His wise goodness. It is natural that as we cast our cares upon Him, we will do that according to what we think are good desires. But our desires are normally based upon very limited information and subject to fleshly corruption. Therefore, we should use prayer with great humility. Far from the strong arm tactic, we must seek to bring every desire under the one great desire of “hallowed be your name.” Right now, as imperfect people, we simple don’t have His hallowing as our greatest desire. We should strive for that. And part of that striving will be responding in humility when God graciously does not answer prayer in ways we thought would be good. As previously stated, our grasp of “good” is limited and often selfish.

Should I want to pray to God and find that He answers with great preaching? Absolutely. But clearly there are more important things that need to be prayed for first. God is first hallowed by a humbled contentment in Him. Can I be content with God as my Father, even as I remain a mediocre preacher? Apparently not yet, as shown by my earlier thought process. Yet, that is the goal. When I want Him more than I want to be a great preacher, then I am on the path to effectual praying, great preaching, and a life that exalts the greatest preacher of all, God Himself.