How to Pray (Part 4)
Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 28:58
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· 43 viewsAs we continue our look at the model prayer, we learn that godly prayer asks for what I need today.
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As we pick back up in our study of the Sermon on the Mount, we have found that Jesus is teaching us who we are to be and how we are to behave if we are his followers. He describes us as part of his kingdom, and as such, we are called to live with a different priority than those around us.
One way that plays out is through prayer, which we have been looking at over the last few weeks.
We have seen that prayer is that communication and communion we have with God where we acknowledge the needs in our lives and in the lives of our family, church, community, and world, and we ask him to intervene as he sees fit.
Thus far, we have seen that prayer isn’t an outward show or better if we speak a lot of words. We don’t need those things because our Father sees us and knows what we need.
We have seen Jesus modeling prayer for us, teaching us to acknowledge to whom we are praying and seeking for his kingdom to be expanded and his will to be done before we ever ask him for what we think we and others need.
This morning, though, we are finally getting to the section where Jesus begins to teach us to pray for the needs we see.
It is a simple verse, but it is incredibly powerful, so read through the text with me. Let’s start back at the beginning of the prayer...
As we focus in on verse 11 today, we will see that Jesus teaches us that a God-honoring prayer asks for what we need today.
Maybe a story will help us see this a little better:
Goldilocks and the Three Prayers
Once, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. We all know the story about the porridge and the chair and the bed. We know about the grumpy papa bear, the gentle mama bear, and the sad little baby bear. Depending on how badly your parents wanted to scar you, Goldilocks either barely escaped with her life or was eaten by the bears. Let’s go with the version that says she made it out alive.
One day, after Goldilocks had grown to be an adult, she decided she would try her hand at prayer. Her mother never really taught her to cook, what with her wandering off into the forest and all, and her husband was having to get used to burnt food, night after night after night.
She said, “I know what I’ll try! I’ll try to pray.” That night, right before Goldilocks drifted off to sleep, she prayed her first prayer. “God,” she said, “I know that I’ve never really been good in a kitchen, but if You could make me a gourmet chef, that would be really great! I’d be the talk of the neighborhood, and everyone would want to try my cooking. I might even land a show on TV!”
Now, Goldilocks thought she heard somewhere that whatever you ask God for, he’ll give you, so she woke up the morning and ran for the kitchen. She pulled everything she could out of the fridge to make a gourmet breakfast of homemade croissants, crepes, hearty omelets, and more.
Well, you can imagine what happened next. On his way back to the station, the fire chief said that he had never seen flames that high coming from a stove, and that he hoped her eyebrows would grow back real soon.
Goldilocks was heartbroken. She said to herself, “Prayer must not work. I’ll just have to do this myself.” So she prayed her second prayer. “Okay God,” she exclaimed, “if you’re not going to help me, I’ll do this myself.” So she tried and she tried and she tried, but she never could get the hang of cooking. “Was that 1 teaspoon of baking powder or 1 cup? Oh well…it won’t make much difference.” Meal after inedible meal was tossed in the trash, so much so that her family was spending all their money on eating out and buying new pots and pans to replace the ones she ruined.
Finally, one day, Goldilocks gave up. She had tried on her own, and she just couldn’t make it. She wasn’t really trying to impress anyone or pray anything fancy. As she prayed her third prayer, she simply said, “God, I need help. I can’t keep going on like this, and I need you to help me feed my family today. Could you please help me fix just this one meal?”
Know what happened next? Goldie fixed an edible meal! It wasn’t fancy, but it was filling, and it was just what her needed. That day, Goldilocks finally learned the lesson of prayer. It’s a lesson she should have learned at the Bear’s house in the woods—Don’t look for too much, don’t ask for too little; let your requests be somewhere in the middle. Ask God for what you need.
Have you ever found yourself in that same struggle? You have a legitimate need, but you find yourself wanting way more than what you need?
Do you often find yourself praying for more than you need?
Instead of being content with what God would give us, like a stubborn kid, we ask for more, more, more!
Either that, or we don’t ask at all. Maybe that’s you—You don’t ask for too much; in fact, you rarely ask God for anything at all.
As we will see this morning, in a simple phrase, Jesus models a request that we all need to remember.
Whether you ask for too much, or never ask for enough, remember today: A God-honoring prayer asks for what I need today.
Let’s unpack this idea further and see how God has shown us this principle throughout the rest of the Bible.
1) Don’t ask for too much.
1) Don’t ask for too much.
As Jesus teaches us to pray, he is teaching us to ask for the things that we need.
This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t pray about things we want; what he is teaching us is that our main focus in prayer is on what we need.
Jesus teaches us to ask God to provide for us what we need to make it through each day.
Let me be clear here: When I say too much, remember that there is nothing too big or too hard or too complicated for God to handle, so I am not saying that you shouldn’t pray big prayers for God to move in big ways.
However, we sometimes approach God like Goldilocks and ask God to do things for us that wouldn’t be helpful, that might actually hurt us, and are more than what we need.
In the book of James, we find out that there is a reason we often ask for more than what we need:
What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?
You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
It isn’t because God isn’t powerful enough or able to meet all our needs at once. He literally spoke the universe into existence, so he is completely able to do anything. He raised Jesus from the dead, proving his power over death itself.
God could, right now, provide you with everything you would ever need.
However, often, we are asking for things that don’t meet the criteria we looked at last week for our requests: we aren’t asking for God to expand his kingdom influence, and we aren’t asking in line with what he wants and desires.
We are asking for what we want, not what God does!
Instead of asking for the moon, Jesus models that God-honoring prayer is praying for what we need for today.
Why?
Because asking for daily provision reminds us of our continual dependence on God.
Think back to the pattern that we find in during the time Moses and the Israelites wandered in the desert.
After God brought Israel out of the Egypt, they needed some food.
God could have provided them from the very beginning with enough food to last for weeks.
Yet, we find in Exodus 16, God provided them with what they needed each day.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.
He provided daily to test them. He gave them just enough for what they needed so they would always remember that he was the one who provided!
When the people took more than they needed for the day, it would rot overnight.
God was clearly establishing a pattern of daily dependence on him.
That hasn’t changed. Jesus again affirms that every day, we need to ask for what we need that day.
Could it be that the reason God isn’t answering your prayer like you would want is that he knows you are asking for more than what is best?
Is it possible that he is keeping you tight in your finances or that you are struggling so much with a particular health need or struggling at work is because, if he were to provide more, you’d spend it on yourself?
Be honest, right now: Why are you asking God for what you are asking him for?
Ask God to sustain you with what you need for today.
He has promised to meet every need that you have. Are you willing to let him?
Where do you find His promise to provide all your needs?
Let’s just find a few:
He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?
And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
God has promised to provide what you NEED, not everything you want.
Here’s the great blessing, though. Often, God provides more than you need.
If your pantry is stocked, or if you could order takeout on the way home today, God has provided more than you need for today.
If you have money in savings, God has provided more than you need for today.
Are you thankful for that, or is it not enough? Are you still asking God to give you more so that you can impress people or not have to work hard or life would be easier?
If you are asking God for more than you need, or if he has provided more than you need, what do you plan to do with it?
Are you giving of your time, talents, and treasures so that he will be glorified, or are you hoarding what God has given you?
Ask God for what you need.
God, give me what I need! Not too much, not too little, but just enough for me to be dependent and thankful.
Now, let’s balance this out with what else we see in Scripture…
2) Don’t ask for too little.
2) Don’t ask for too little.
Is it possible that we don’t ask God for enough?
Remember what James said, “You don’t have because you don’t ask.”
I’m afraid that this is what many of us do. Like Goldilocks in our story, we think we can figure it out on our own.
Let’s get really honest for a minute: How many days this week did you pray for God’s help, knowing that without his help, the day would be a loss?
We find stories throughout Scripture of men and women who tried to do what they could without asking for God’s help.
You find it in Genesis as Abraham and Sarah tried to fulfill God’s promise of providing them a son without God’s help. You remember what happened? Ishmael was born, and his descendants have been perpetual enemies of God’s people.
There are other examples in the Old Testament, but for time’s sake, let’s fast forward to the New Testament.
In Acts 19, we have a story that’s almost comical. You have seven sons of a guy named Sceva. They saw that God was doing great miracles through the Apostle Paul, even to the point of using Paul to cast demons out of people.
So, instead of asking God to help them cast out demons, they just tried to say the same stuff that Paul would say. They encountered an evil spirit, and they commanded the demon to come out by “the Jesus Paul preaches”.
Here’s what the Bible says happened:
The evil spirit answered them, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul—but who are you?”
Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them all, and prevailed against them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.
The next verse goes on to say that pretty much everybody in town heard about it.
So you find these seven guys who are humiliated because they didn’t ask God for what they needed and tried to do life on their own.
Is that you today? Are you trying to do life on your own?
Remember that James tells us:
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
If you want God to move in big ways, you can’t expect him to work without you asking. We’ve seen already this morning that he desires you to recognize your daily need of him.
Are you willing to do that, or are you going to try to make it on your own?
Which of Goldilocks’ prayers from the story can you identify with this morning?
Has God pointed out to you that you need to be content with what he is providing, and stop trying to get him to give you more than you need? Has he shown you this morning some attitude in your heart like selfishness or pride or insecurity that won’t stop asking for more and more?
Or, are you like Goldilocks’ second prayer? You may have tried to pray and it didn’t work out so hot, so you’ve decided to just try to work it out on your own.
We have seen that it doesn’t work out well. Think about Abraham, and the sons of Sceva—Self-reliance never results in the things God can do.
So what should we pray? “Give us today our daily bread.”
God, give me what I need. Give me the strength, give me the food, give me the money that I need to be exactly who you have created me to be. Don’t give me so much that I stop being dependent on you; help me to always recognize my need.”
This doesn’t mean you don’t pray for the future or plan for the future, but it does mean that you pray in such a way that you trust he will meet your needs as they come.
Listen: God has promised to give us everything we need.
Remember what Paul said:
And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
How do we know? Because he has already met our greatest need.
In just a few moments, we are going to take the Lord’s Supper together.
As we do, we are commemorating the time when Jesus took our sin upon himself and died in our place.