“God’s command to ‘pray without ceasing’ is founded on the necessity we have of His grace to preserve the life of God in the soul, which can no more subsist one moment without it, than the body can without air. Whether we think of or speak to God, whether we act or suffer for Him, all is prayer, when we have no other object than His love, and the desire of pleasing Him.”
John Wesley, “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection”I know a man who was asked to take a walk with the Lord. And the man said yes.
Then the man asked the Lord, “Where are we going?” And the Lord said, “Do you trust me?” And the man said, “Yes. Absolutely.” The Lord said, “We are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.”
The man took a minute, then he asked the Lord, “How long a trip is this?” And the Lord laughed and said, “I don’t tell anybody that, but we have today. Ready?”
And the man said, “Let’s go.”
The Lord had chosen to allow the man to walk a path that involved a rare and aggressive illness for which there is no known cure. Along the early part of this walk, the man heard his specialist say, “You need to understand, this is what will take you out.” And the man heard the Lord whisper to him, “You also need to understand, you’re going to be all right.”
The man knew both of them knew what they were talking about, and he trusted them, because he knew they both had his best interests at heart.
And by the wonders of modern medicine, the active grace of God, healthy choices and the prayers of his friends, they are fighting this illness to a standstill, so far.
Now the man has never been what some would call “a Great Man of Prayer.” He just wasn’t wired to be a fireball. He was more of a slow burn kind of man. He was a man of constant prayer, just not boisterous prayer. Being an introvert by temperament, he lived life inside his head. So he was in constant conversation with the Lord — all the time. And the Lord missed no opportunity, through his Holy Spirit and his Word, to teach the man how he should pray.
As the word got out about the new path the man was now walking, the Lord brought close friends around him to encourage him and pray for him. Everywhere the man went, his friends constantly told him, “I’m praying for you.” At a conference, an author friend spoke strong words of declaration into his life. A seminary president, a seminary professor, a missionary and several pastors tracked him down as a group, laid hands on him, anointed him with oil and prayed powerfully for him. Three young pastor friends pulled him aside and prayed the glory down! Others assured him, some in tears, that they were praying for him.
A former church member found him at another conference and prayed a sweet prayer of thanksgiving over him. At the end of a seminar session he and his son led, a leader called the group to pray on his behalf. The leader told the group not to gather in close because of the man’s compromised immune system, but the man said, “Why not?” So, they crowded around him and cried out to heaven for his healing.
And that has never stopped.
People in his local Wesleyan church are constantly assuring him that they are praying for him. And they mean it.
Some of his most cherished words of encouragement have been, “I’m praying for you, Papaw!”
The man has had friends boldly declare his healing, declaring that Satan has no dominion here and disease has no right to be here. And the man received this gladly.
The man also had a friend declare, “I am praying for your complete healing.” The man asked his friend to back that down a couple of notches, because that doesn’t happen until we get to the other side! “We don’t want to rush things.”
Through all of this, here is what the man I know is learning about prayer.
First, the power of prayer is a real part of that part of our existence that is more real than what we see.
Second, every prayer we pray is answered, just like every child’s request is answered. The answer may be “yes” or it may be “no.” It may be “wait.” It may be “not this but that.” Or it may be “this and that,” and a bunch more things you never asked for! It is our job to pray humbly in faith. It is the Lord’s job to answer according to his wisdom and his will — his good, perfect and pleasing will.
Third, prayer is a process that brings growth and maturity to the one praying and transformation to the one for whom we pray. By being faithful in our conversations with the Lord, we learn to discern the mind of Christ for our circumstances, and for the needs of others. Through the prayer of faith, a person in one place can be used to see a miracle in the life of another person in a distant part of the world. Surely, if you can talk to them on your phone and be heard, you can talk to heaven about them and be assured you are heard.
Perhaps the best thing the man has learned about prayer is this: he has learned to put everything else aside and to simply pray …
“I want what you want.”