Answers to Some Reader Questions about Prayer, Prayer Burdens and National Sins

A reader recently asked some very perceptive questions about my views concerning prayer, prayer burdens, and prayer for national sins. Here, I am publishing my answers to those questions. (The reader also asked some personal questions, which I omit from this posting):

You asked:  “Also that what matters is your relationship with the Lord not what denomination someone is or isn’t. I got the impression that you, as I, have found godly people with some godly info to learn from all Christian sectors..am I right?”

Answer: Correct.

You stated:  “So anyway, hopefully you will not find it strange that Jesus wants to talk to us and that if we truly seek him and learn to listen we can in fact hear from him. That many people in the bible conversed with the Lord and they were not ‘special supernatural people’ and He is no respecter of persons.”

Answer: I agree.  He created us to make us his children and friends.  He wants to talk to us, and he does.  He talks to me. I have written about this, and plan to write more about it. We train our children not to hear God, so we shouldn’t be surprised that most people don’t hear him. See, for example, this short article and the two that follow it: Young children as mystics

You wrote:  “I have learned that the MORE we not only seek him but ABIDE in Him, praying constantly, singing to Him, thinking on Him as you would a boyfriend as a lovestruck teenager, acknowledging and thanking him throughout the day, talking to Him and being aware He is in fact right there and responding to what he impresses on your heart and mind>>the more we do that the stronger the connections gets>>the more we hear from Him; the more He comes to us, and the more we want to.”

Answer: I am also being led to acknowledge his presence and activity all around me.  I am aware of him.  It is a growing experience.  But I also sense that, in some other ways, our experience of this is somewhat different.  Emotionally, my experience doesn’t sound like it is entirely the same as yours.  Yes, I love Jesus.  But my emotions surrounding his presence and activity, and the sometimes apparently contradictory aspects of his activity, can range from admiration, to affection, to confusion, sorrow and even anger.  I read about Biblical situations like Elijah being told that, before he died, he would be involved in anointing Elisha as his successor, anointing Jehu as king of Israel (Jehu, who used the devil’s methods of deception and blackmail to kill Ahab’s descendants and the worshipers of Baal) and Hazael as king in Damascus (Hazael, who conquered, and slaughtered, much of Israel), then telling Elijah: “It shall come about, the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death.”  1 Kings 19:17.  God sent his prophet to anoint all three of these!  The question then becomes, “God, what were you doing?”  It only makes sense in the very long term.  I see things in the world around me, and in my own life, that arouse the same kind of questioning.  But it’s not surprising that my emotional experience is different from yours–we are different, and God understands that.

You wrote:  “How sad is what is going on? So sad. It is utterly infuriating how people can’t SEE with their real eyes—so many so deceived but still stuff is so evident I just cant understand how they cant see.”

Answer: After Jesus healed the blind man in John 9 and the Pharisees kicked him out of the Synagogue, Jesus told them: “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”  John 9:39-41.

You wrote: “Well I believe in eschatology. I do kind of to a degree share your view only in the way that the Bible itself (which is fascinating to me!) from cover to cover is FULL of types,shadows,patterns,layers. SO that yes some of those things have happened but they will most def happen again only larger and stronger..in fact are happening before our eyes.”

Answer: I think you may have misunderstood me.  I believe Jesus is returning.  I also believe the Bible tells us something about that.  What I don’t believe is that the Book of Revelation (the Apocalypse of John) is intended as a linear chronological account of the “end times.”  My main reasons for this are 1) the earthly life of Jesus–his birth, death and resurrection–is presented in Revelation 12 (in the middle of the book, not at the beginning) as a “sign” in the heavens; 2) it is obvious that the judgments of the first four seals (the horsemen–the lust for military conquest/political power, war, shortages contrived to rob the people and enrich the powerful, and death by famine and plague) have been continuous and apparently random throughout history and are not unique to the “end times;”  3) the fifth seal (martyrdom of those faithful to God) has also been fairly continuous throughout history; 4) it is only the sixth seal that appears unique to the “end times;” and 5) there are similar patterns among the trumpet and bowl judgments, suggesting the sets are not chronological, but telescoping.  The heavenly “sign” of Jesus’ earthly first coming (Chapter 12) is part of the aftermath of the seventh trumpet! So this is pretty obviously not a straight chronological account.

But God’s view of time isn’t linear, either.  See, Eternity and Invisible Time as a Creative Process.

You asked:  “Do you by chance know how to read Hebrew or Greek?” 

Answer: Greek, yes, though I’m not by any means an expert.  Hebrew–I audited one course at a nearby Bible college 40+ years ago, and have used what little that taught me to make sense of secondary sources that discuss questions about the Hebrew Bible text.  But no, I really can’t read Hebrew, at this point, I can only make sense of what others are saying about it.

You asked:    “I see that you studied physics?”

Answer: Yes, also chemistry.  My present paying work is as a paralegal in a law firm that does chemical products liability defense, among other things.  I have fairly routinely used what I learned in my chemistry (B.S.) and biochemistry (M.S.) degrees over the years interpreting science for lawyers. 

You asked:  “Do you pray?”

Answer: Yes.

You asked: ” I assume that you do but I mean really pray, fervently, seriously, pray?”

Answer: I hesitate to answer this question “yes” or “no,” because I don’t know your definition of “fervently” and “seriously.”  I know that some who are regarded as “prayer warriors” seem to hold up a standard that seems to involve great emotional intensity and long, sustained, periods of begging God to act as being necessary to show God we’re “serious,” and, no, most of my prayers don’t meet those standards.  But most of Jesus (really very few) recorded prayers didn’t meet those standards, either.  During the storm on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus’ prayer was three words:  “Hush, be still!” (Mark 4:39).  In going about healing people and casting out demons, there is no record of any long prayers.  Jesus simply told people to be healed, or demons to leave, sometimes also giving the people he was healing some instructions.  The prayers were simple.  At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus wept (John 11:35),  so sincere emotion in our prayers is a good thing.  But Jesus’ prayer was, again, short.  Jesus thanked God for hearing him, then said that he had prayed that for the benefit of the crowd, “so that they may believe that You sent me.”  (John 11:41-42).  Jesus’ petition, then, was only three words:  “Lazarus, come forth.”  (John 11:43).

Jesus longest recorded prayer is his prayer for the unity of all of his followers for the rest of human history, and our glorification together with him, recorded in John 17.  It’s only 26 verses long, and in it Jesus never repeats himself!  It was a very complete prayer, but not a long one.

Jesus’ only prayer that we know went on for hours making a single request–three hours, in fact–was his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane.  During that time, he prayed only a single prayer with such great intensity that he sweat drops of blood.  That prayer was ““Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”  (Luke 22:42; Matthew 26:36-45). This is not a prayer any of us will ever need to pray–at least, not in the same sense Jesus was praying it. He was facing the greatest agony any person has ever faced. He was asking the Father to relieve him of the necessity of bearing the sin of the whole world on the cross. And, at the end of three hours of pleading, the answer to his prayer was “no,” there is no other way, and Jesus accepted it.   

The prayer model Jesus gave his disciples (Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4) was short and simple.  I’m sure he intended that we should add specifics to it–for instance, in praying “your Kingdom come,” to bring out specific situations he brings to mind in which his kingdom needs to be manifested visibly, or in praying “give us this day our daily bread,” to bring out specific needs.  But he didn’t say to pray for hours, repeating the same requests over and over until he tells us to stop.  In fact, quite the opposite–just before giving his model prayer in Matthew, he warns: “when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matthew 6:7-8). 

Yes, I recognize that, right after the model prayer in Luke Jesus tells the parable of the persistent friend, who comes to a man’s door at midnight asking for bread in an emergency, and keeps asking until he receives what he needs, with the conclusion “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”  (Luke 11:5-8).  But I do not see this parable as an instruction to spend hours at a time begging God for something I want. 

Instead, I see this parable as parallel to the later parable of the widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18:1-8.  This parable doesn’t say the widow camped at the judge’s door.  It says she came to him repeatedly, over time, with her request for justice–and ultimately, the judge, though unjust and uncaring, said he would give her justice so she wouldn’t wear him out.  The implication of the parable is that God is much better than the unjust judge–he will give justice–what is right, not what we want–to those of us who persistently come to him for justice.  It’s about persistence in trusting God (“yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”), not the number of repetitions or hours spent showing him we’re serious. 

This is also shown by the very similar passages about asking, seeking, and knocking that are found in the same discourse as the model prayer and very close to it in both Matthew and Luke:

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your  heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

Luke 11:9-11.

  The parallel passage in Matthew ends with “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11).  God is committed.  If we ask and seek him, he will give what is good.

Implicitly, you also ask whether I believe in receiving prayer burdens from God, as you have?

Yes, I do.  I have had one for Iran–where the number of believers is growing rapidly in spite of persecution–for about 20 years.  I’ve written about the story of that, and other things, here: Friends, Angels, Perspectives and Overcoming my Prejudices

Implicitly, you also ask whether I believe that part of a prayer burden for our own country should involve confessing national sins, as Daniel and Ezra did? 

Yes, but we need to be careful to define our “national sins”–which we also may share with our nation–correctly.  Our predominant “national sins” are not necessarily the activities Christian-oriented politicians and politically-oriented preachers are telling us have to be changed (and that we need to give them time and money to help change).   In fact, these sinful acts of others are only symptoms of something much deeper, something neither laws nor political activism will change in a positive way, at least not for very long. To cite the two sins most commonly railed against, I am personally neither an abortionist nor a homosexual–these are moral failings of others that we incorrectly think we will appease God by correcting.

The real problems we need to confess first, and address within the church, are only three in number (and I’ve written about all of them in the past):

1) even within the church, we trust in government, corporate and even Church institutions to provide for us, rather than trusting God, see God’s Initial Response to my Strange Prayer for the Gift of Prophecy;

2) even in the Church, we mistreat or shun other people, sometimes along race, sex or class lines, and sometimes just because it builds our ego or seems profitable to us, in much the same way the world around us does, see Prophecies for the United States of America; and

3) within the Church, we build our own petty kingdoms instead of Jesus’ Kingdom, resulting in disunity and ineffectiveness; see Is God Waiting to See our Oneness before Jesus Returns? and the three articles following it.  

If we get our dependence and trust right in the Church first, we will start to see God doing things outside the Church, too.  And that is where our prayer focus needs to be–not on the moral failings of others.

About moral failings, you may also find this article interesting:
No Merit — The Golden Key to Freedom in Christ