#7 Every Christian Should Pray

Today is week 7 in our series, 10 Things Every Christian Should Know. This lesson will no doubt change your life and the world; it is that important. Here it is: every Christian should pray. Now, you likely know that, but there is a difference in knowing and doing, isn't there?

For years I've argued that it is more likely that many of us spend more time getting ready for our day by bathing and grooming and dressing than we do preparing ourselves spiritually, even on Sundays. No wonder this world is in the shape that it is. If you've been in the hospital as a patient or a visitor, even, it's likely you are familiar with the call button.

Imagine a patient in a hospital bed. The IV is empty and beeping. The meal is two hours late. The room is on fire. The television is stuck on C-SPAN with the highest volume. The patient at the bed, with all of this going on, chooses not to use the call button.

A ridiculous illustration, I know, but all too often in our lives we fail to hit the call button of prayer in difficult circumstances, or even every day. Philippians 4:6 tells us, "Do not worry about anything, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God." Today let's focus on eight words from Philippians 4:6, 8 life-changing words: "Let your request be made known to God." If you do that as a believer, your life will be so much better.

Now, please know that I'm not saying that your life will be free of difficulties. Two of my dearest friends, who are strong, strong Christians, are at this minute dealing with cancer. Both of them are big believers in prayer, and they're letting their requests be made known to God. First Thessalonians 5:17 puts it this way: "Pray without ceasing." The last part of James chapter 4, verse 2 tells us that "we have not because we ask not."

An illustration I think of is that I had a friend in college that had a lot of dates. He wasn't particularly handsome, but every weekend he had a date. I asked him once how he did it, and he told me, "I asked a lot of girls out. Some of them are bound to say yes." There are too many believers that ask nothing of God.

Let me share with you a couple of my favorite quotes on prayer. John Piper said this: "A prayerless Christian is like a bus driver trying alone to push his bus out of a rut because he doesn't know that Superman is on board." Edwin Harvey said, "A day without prayer is a day without blessing, and a life without prayer is a life without power." You know, the more I read scripture, the more excited I get about prayer.

I want us to look at a story today that really gets me excited. It's in Second Kings chapter six. It tells us this: "One day the group of prophets came to Elijah and told him, 'As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small. Let's go down to the Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet.' 'All right,' he told them, 'go ahead.' 'Please come with us,' someone suggested. 'I will,' he said. So he went with them.

"When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. But as one of them was cutting a tree, his axe head fell into the river. 'Oh, sir,' he cried, 'it was a borrowed ax!' 'Where did it fall?' the man of God asked. When he showed in the place, Elijah cut a stick and threw it into the water at the spot. Then the axe had floated to the surface. 'Grab it,' Elijah said, and the man reached out and grabbed it."

I love the story. Axe heads don't float, do they? Well, the only way to find out is to pray a prayer. If I'm Elijah, I feel bad for the guy who lost the borrowed axe head. As an aside here, it's biblical to not loan out your tools.

Back to the story. If I'm Elijah, maybe I'll let him borrow my axe. Maybe I take him to Home Depot. But it doesn't cross my mind to pray that it would float. But this is Elijah we're talking about here.

In the story, when Elijah asked the apprentice, "Where did it fall?" if I were the apprentice I might say, "What difference does it make? It's gone." Scripture doesn't give us the exact prayer, but Elijah had to ask God to intervene. He could not have done this on his own power. This is one of my favorite stories because this isn't a life and death situation.

Here we should learn that God cares about all aspects of our lives. You know, God is great because there's nothing too big for him, and God is great because there's nothing too small for him. Stories like this help me to redefine reality, and the reality is there's nothing that is too difficult for God.

Years ago, when electricity was first brought to rural America, a lady signed up. The utility company noticed that her power meter barely moved; her bills were insignificant. They sent a technician to investigate. The investigator found out that the lady used her power for about a minute a day. At night she would turn on a light just long enough to light her kerosene lantern.

She didn't know what she had. You know, I think that we are like that with prayer. There was a great revival in Wales in the early 1900s. Over a hundred and fifty thousand people came to Christ. Whole communities were converted.

The crime rates dropped. The police force reported they really had nothing to do. Courts had no cases to try. Families were healed, friendships were mended, marriages were saved.

One of my favorite parts of the revival that's recorded in history tells us that men whose language had been filthy before learned to talk without cursing. Well, this caused a bit of a problem at the mine. The horses, or pit ponies as they were called in the mines, were so used to being cursed at and sworn at, they couldn't understand orders given in good, clean words.

Historians say the great revival started because of one man, Evan Roberts. It said that God would wake him at one o'clock in the morning and that he would pray until five o'clock AM. Great things happened. Evan Roberts was a mere 25 years old when that revival began.

What can one person do? Why don't you pray and find out? Christians need to pray, and when we pray, we change the world, and God changes us. Let's pray together.

Lord God, help us to pray. Help us to want to. Help us to pray more than we waste our time and many other pursuits. Help us to pray for those people that we tell them we're going to pray for them, and help us to pray for entire families, for our church families, for our neighbors, for this world that needs it. God, make us people of prayer always. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.