God Hears My Prayers, So Why Should I Pray for Things Twice?
00:00:00.000 | If the Lord hears our prayers, why do we find it necessary to pray for the same
00:00:08.400 | things over and over and over again, Pastor John? Is it not enough just to
00:00:12.720 | pray once, and why do we pray repetitively for the same things?
00:00:16.480 | Well there's an obedience in it. We'll start there, because Jesus gave at least
00:00:21.640 | two parables in which the point of the parable was "keep on knocking." And so in
00:00:29.960 | the parable he said the knocking of this widow, "Give me vindication, give me
00:00:35.320 | vindication," wore the judge out. So he yielded and gave her vindication, and
00:00:40.920 | then he said, "If that evil judge is willing to yield, then you know your God
00:00:45.160 | in heaven is going to yield." And yet the point was, I think the chapter begins, he
00:00:49.680 | told in this parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose
00:00:54.000 | heart. So clearly, "Vindicate us, hallowed be your name, bring your kingdom," or "Save
00:01:01.320 | my lost loved one," is to be repeated. Now that does raise the question, what's the
00:01:08.700 | difference between that and the vain repetitions of Matthew 6, where it says,
00:01:14.000 | "Don't pile up your words like the Gentiles who think that they will be
00:01:17.880 | heard for their many words." And I think the difference is, drawing out long
00:01:24.000 | prayers in the hopes that multiplied clauses and sentences will somehow make
00:01:31.480 | our prayers more appealing to God is what he's opposed to. A very simple,
00:01:35.920 | "Father, please have mercy, heal Joe." That's the sense. You don't need to say it ten
00:01:43.400 | different ways to make it sound good to the prayer meeting. The question is, how
00:01:48.200 | do you keep that from becoming vain and meaningless day in and day out? Here's
00:01:53.200 | the way I've done it. I have some things that I pray for, I have some people that
00:01:58.640 | I care about who are not spiritually where they ought to be, and I name them
00:02:02.440 | before God every single day. Here are two things that I do that I think keep it
00:02:09.240 | from being empty repetition. One, I try to mingle into the prayer the kinds of
00:02:17.080 | things I'm seeing about God and learning from God in my personal devotions, so
00:02:22.160 | that the way I see God this morning because of what I saw in his word fills
00:02:28.680 | out the longings that I have for those loved ones, so that the words I use and
00:02:34.360 | the ways I express myself are adjusted daily by the kinds of things I'm
00:02:41.040 | seeing in the scriptures. That's number one. Number two, and this is really
00:02:45.680 | significant, I think, suppose your wife has cancer. She's had it for a month
00:02:52.880 | and now you're praying. You're praying every day, "God, please don't take my wife.
00:02:57.680 | Don't take my wife. I need her. The children need her. Glorify your..." Now,
00:03:02.880 | that's going to be a simple prayer for healing every single day. Not a lot
00:03:07.000 | of different ways to say "healer," right? But here's what you can say,
00:03:12.240 | and it's made a big difference. You can say, "Lord, today is Friday. Would you do
00:03:19.280 | Friday's unique work for my wife? Do Friday's work. Do the work appointed for
00:03:26.840 | today. Do the healing work, the sustaining work, the faith-giving work that turns
00:03:32.440 | all this for your glory today." So that you don't speak generically every day,
00:03:37.680 | you speak specifically for that day's unique challenge and that day's
00:03:42.280 | unique work. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for listening to this podcast.
00:03:46.680 | Send your questions to us via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.
00:03:50.480 | Please include your first name and your hometown. Find thousands of other free
00:03:53.560 | resources online from John Piper at desiringgod.org. I'm your host, Tony
00:03:57.560 | Aranke. Thanks for listening.
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