WESTMINSTER CONFESSION DOCTRINES

All About Prayer

Psalm 5: 1-8; Mark 1: 35-38

“A long time ago, when the broadcasting industry was still in its infancy, a letter was sent to the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) from a prospector in the hills of Montana. Written on a brown paper bag that was stuffed into an envelope was this unusual request: ‘I am a regular listener to your programs, and as a friend I want to ask you a favor. It gets lonely up here, and besides my radio and my dog I haven’t much else for company. I do have a violin that I used to play, but now it is badly out of tune. Would you be kind enough at 7 o’clock next Sunday night to strike an “A” so I can put this fiddle back in tune?’ At first the officials just smiled at his request. But then the manager of NBC thought about it, and the request took on a bit more perspective. So the following Sunday night the network interrupted its scheduled programming to sound an ‘A’ and give their friend his pitch.”

Sometimes I get out of tune, and I know you do too; no, not musically, but spiritually. At those times we need to get the “pitch” again. In fact, it would not be a bad idea to start out each day by getting the pitch from God. The notes will be on love, forgiveness, patience, kindness, and the like. And that’s what I want to remind us of today: a way to wake up, warm up, and tune up to God.

Mark 1:35 is filled with all the depth, wisdom, and example of our Great Teacher himself. Its message is so easy, yet so elusive; so beautiful in its simplicity that its message may not speak to us. The verse is simply this: “And in the morning, a great while before day, He rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed.” The first phrase of that sentence is this: “And in the morning, he rose.” That’s the wake up part. It also tells us when Jesus prayed. Jesus certainly prayed at many different times during the day, but his “preparation prayers” were in the morning as we find them in this passage. My friends, today I am making a case for morning prayer, believing that Jesus as our example and the New Testament as our authority both support it. Some will ask, “Why not just pray the night before to prepare for the next day?” Certainly that may be helpful to some. Or why not pray during the day as you meet certain demands and get into a bind? Certainly those prayers help too. But aren’t many of our days so exhausting and full that by the end of the day or in the midst of a crisis, our patience for listening has been tried and our creative juices are dry? Jesus’ days were like that; look what he had been doing the day before: Scripture says he began preaching after spending 40 days in the wilderness being tempted. Later that morning he passed by the Sea of Galilee and the he saw fishermen who he immediately called to follow him and they did. Then we went to the synagogue and taught to an astonished crowd as one with authority. Next he performed an exorcism on a man possessed by an unclean spirit. Now it was the middle of the afternoon and he left the synagogue and took his disciples to Simon and Andrew’s house where Simon’s mother-in-law was sick with fever. He took her by the hand, lifted her, and healed her. In fact she felt so well that she got up and fixed them some supper. But wait! The day isn’t over for Jesus. That evening, the disciples brought to Jesus not one other sick person, not two or three, but brought ALL who were sick and possessed of demons that they could find. And who gathered to watch? A few interested people? The family members of the sick? The curious medical students? No, think bigger: “The whole city,” Mark records, “gathered together about the door.” And there Jesus healed the sick and cast out the many demons in the possessed persons.

Only then do we read about Jesus’ rising in the morning to pray: just another day in the life of the Messiah, God’s chosen son. And how does your day compare? Certainly mine, though it can be hectic and frantic at times, pales in comparison to a day in the life of Jesus Christ. And Jesus chose to meet his day by starting off with prayer; intentional, fervent prayer. If your days are anything like his, would there be a better time to pray? Real prayer takes the concentration of an accountant, the scheduling of a tour guide, and the dependency of a baby. If you think you can make it through life’s ups and downs by yourself, helter-skelter, go ahead and try. But one day you may come to your knees at the edge of a nervous breakdown, or a divorce, or a heart attack or the like, and God will be waiting to hear your prayer. And do you know what your trouble will have been? That you never stopped to ask the Lord to strike an “A” chord, to get your life in tune with your Creator. Without that request, your life can only be in tune with your own life at best, or completely out of tune at worst, like a piano that has sat in a damp room for years.

This text begs us to wake up to the reality of life that we cannot make it for long without prayer. It also begs us to put prayer first, early in the day, before we begin out tasks. All of life follows that principle. Who among us can sing at our best without having first warmed up? Indeed the vocal chords can be harmed when they are pushed without warm up. Who among us can do our best at softball, swimming, running, gymnastics or other physical activities without first warming up? Indeed consequences in the form of torn or pulled muscles or stiff joints can cause pain before proper warm up. But many people go day in and day out at a frenzied pace or an apathetic one with no time built in to focus on God, to communicate, and to listen. Jesus couldn’t keep his pace without prayer. Trying to do so leads to the side- effects of bitterness, burnout, exhaustion, or physical ailments. When that happens, the singer cannot sing, the athlete cannot compete, the mind cannot think and the Christian can hardly function. Clearly warming up is necessary.

Tuning up, whether like a piano or like an engine, is necessary as well. A piano out of tune is a virtually useless instrument. An engine out of tune is severely hampered. A person without the spiritual tune-up of prayer is a well about to run dry. And a pump that runs dry cannot prime itself. Now you say, but prayer can help us any time, why does it have to be first, in the morning? Here are some examples: have you ever tried to get out of bed when your leg is asleep? I have, and I have fallen to the ground or grabbed furniture. Have you ever answered a phone when you are mostly asleep? Hard to make sense, isn’t it? Just like prayer done later in the day, yes you can rub your leg until it wakes up, and then tumble back on your bed wide awake, but what good does it do to be fully awake after the phone call or the step out of bed? The effectiveness is much less, just as prayer done later is less effective. So as far as warming up is concerned, how helpful is it to be warmed up after the game, the concert, the competition, or after the muscle is pulled? Likewise praying for help after the exam, or a difficult decision, or being sick does nothing to help your situation. You have chosen to go through it on your own, and then when things get tough, you turn to God to bail you out. Calling on God beforehand tunes you in to his will from the start.

That’s the last point: tuning up with prayer. What orchestra can play its best if it tunes after the concert? What car runs most efficiently if it is tuned up after the summer vacation? The American clergyman Ralph Cushman wrote: “I met God in the morning, when my day was at its best, and his presence came like sunshine, like a glory in my breast. So I think I know a secret, learned from many a troubled way: you must seek him in the morning if you want him through the day.” And so listen to this concluding quote and guess what kind of person wrote it: “Prayer is the most powerful form of energy that a person can generate. The influence of prayer on the mind and body is as demonstrable as secreting glands. Its results can be measured in terms of increased buoyancy, greater intellectual vigor, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of human relationships. Prayer is absolutely indispensable to the development of the human personality.” What great words of assurance. Are they from a hymn writer, do you think? No. A minister? No. They were written by Dr. Alexis Carrell, a physician, a scientist, and . . . a Nobel Prize winner.

Now: when will YOU pray tomorrow?

Jeffrey A. Sumner August 27, 2006