his is the final exercise for our week of looking at what Jesus taught about prayer. Read Mark 9:14-29.
There is an inherent sadness in this account, it seems. Demonic forces are causing horrible suffering to a boy and his family, and the disciples are unable to do anything about it. In his commentary on Mark, William Lane remarks that this scene “exhibits the disaster which occurs when men from whom the power of faith may be expected are proven to be void of power when it is needed.” The disciples were “void of power,” unable to drive out the demon, unable to join God in his kingdom work in this instance.
Jesus himself drives out the demon, and afterward he withdraws with his disciples to a house for a time of debriefing. “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” they ask. Perhaps they were wondering if their technique was wrong, or if they said the wrong words, or in the wrong order. Maybe they didn’t ask the right questions or perform the right gestures. Or perhaps they were simply trying to follow Jesus and were discouraged that they didn’t seem to be able to do it. Why didn’t it work?
Jesus’ response has baffled many commentators and theologians: “This kind can only come out by prayer.”
What Jesus seems to be indicating is that prayer is a kind of training ground or practice field for ministry in the kingdom. There is a difference between the “in the moment” crisis of ministry and the “behind the scenes” training for ministry.
Just like an firefighter cannot expect to perform well “in the moment” simply because she wants to fight fires, we cannot expect to function effectively as agents of God’s kingdom “in the moment” just because we want to. Training is needed, for firefighters and exorcists. The training that firefighters undergo is meant to help them to automatically function well “in the moment.” Likewise, a consistent and deep life of prayer will help us function effectively “in the moment,” when kingdom breakthrough is needed.
The feeling the disciples had of being “void of power” is one I have felt many times: I encounter a situation into which I would love to bring a token of the kingdom, only to find myself powerless to do so. The good news is that the disciples, although they couldn’t do anything about this situation in Mark 9, are eventually able to do the kinds of things we see in Acts, presumably because they stuck with a long-term training regimen of disciples to Jesus and prayer.
This is also the good news for us. Although we may have squandered many opportunities in the past because of a lack of prayer, God’s forgiveness is available to us, and we can begin training today for greater kingdom effectiveness through prayer.
Prayer exercise
Write down your normal prayer rhythms, however scrawny they may be. What kinds of prayer… what times… how much time… don’t shy away from being brutally honest with yourself and God about how much time you actually spend at the “spiritual gym” of prayer.
Offer this rhythm to God in prayer and ask him to show you where you need to change your “workout.” You might need a little tweak here or there. You might need a complete overhaul. Just like with a physical workout, be careful not to push yourself too hard too quickly. Ask someone wiser to help you craft a “prayer workout” that will move you toward greater spiritual power and kingdom effectiveness.
Take a few moments and read Luke 18:1-8.
Sometimes people are taken aback that Jesus compares God to a disrespectful, unjust judge. But the point of parables is never one-to-one correspondence. The point Jesus is trying to make is spelled out pretty explicitly by Luke in the first verse: “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Thanks Luke! That’s really helpful.
Jesus is informing his disciples that they can expect bad treatment, injustice, etc (refer to Luke 17 for this context). Like the widow, they are to be persistent in their prayers for deliverance and justice, because if an unjust judge will eventually give her justice, how much more will God do the same for those he loves? It’s the same kind of thing when Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?”
Again Jesus seems to be placing a lot of emphasis on the character of God, the essential goodness of the One we are praying to. Of course God will eventually vindicate, of course he will bring justice, because of who He is. It seems this is the first thing we doubt when our prayers aren’t answered according to the timetable we set up. It’s remarkable how quickly we begin to suspect God’s motives when our prayers aren’t answered immediately.
The call to action in this parable is for us to “pray and not give up,” to maintain a tenacious, faithful persistence in prayer, especially as we pray for justice. The basis of this kind of persistence is an unshakable belief in the goodness of God and the certainty of his deliverance.
The Psalms are stuffed with prayers for God’s deliverance to come to those who are suffering. Praying the Psalms is a very ancient Christian practice that has helped many people give words to their “groanings.” Today we tend to stick with the “happy” Psalms, but the darker ones can really help us give utterance to our emotions and stay tenacious in prayer.
Is there a difficult situation or relationship that you have given up praying about?
Perhaps when the prayer wasn’t answered in a timely manner, you began to doubt his goodness. Perhaps you doubted God’s ability to bring justice or truth. Regardless, this prayer exercise is designed to help you start become more tenacious and faithful in “crying out day and night” to God.
The exercise is simply to read Psalm 13: out loud, slowly, at least seven times. Jot down your reactions and responses. Leave a comment about what happened.
There comes a time in every kind of training when your body hits the wall. It doesn’t matter how bad you want it on the inside, you just can’t keep going. This is one of the best examples of how our spirits and our bodies are intimately connected.
Jesus’ best friends had this problem at the worst possible time. At the cusp of his betrayal, public shame, and impending death sentence, Jesus took his closest partners on the greatest revolution of man and headed into the grove of olive trees at the garden of gethsemane for one reason: to pray. Jesus was on the verge of personal breakdown, beseeching God to change the course of history – if possible – and sweating blood in anxiety. He asked Peter, James, and John, his closest friends, to pray.
“Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Mark 14:37-38).”
They fell asleep.
I’m fascinated by this passage, mostly because of what Jesus is teaching about prayer, but partly because pf what we can infer.
Prayer is “watching”
Jesus talks about “seeing” in spiritual terms quite frequently, and here he seems to indicate that prayer is a kind of watchfulness that will actually make a difference. It’s important enough that he wakes them up to continue. I wonder how many of us feel that same sense of urgency about active prayer? Do we really think prayer will reveal anything? Do we think it matters?
The watchfulness of prayer guards us against temptation
Being watchful apparently had something to do with guarding against temptation. But what temptation? Usually when we hear that word we think of personal seduction – lust, greed, lying, etc. – but this isn’t the setting for those sorts of sins. It’s the middle of the night in an olive grove! I’m reminded of Jesus’ words in John 5, “I can only do what I see the father doing.” Perhaps Jesus is tying prayer to the ability to recognize what God is doing, and the inability to recognize God at work causes us to be tempted to resist it. After all, it was immediately after this that Peter tries to resist Jesus’ arrest with the sword, cutting off a soldiers ear. Jesus prayed, and recognized the work of God. Peter didn’t, and resisted it. Was that his “temptation?” If so, how often do we miss the move of God in our own midst because we’re not “watchful” in prayer?
Prayer is rigorous
Most disturbing, how often do we miss God’s move because we’re simply to spiritually “flabby” to keep up the pace? Jesus makes it clear that his three best friends don’t fail for lack of sincerity, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Jesus is a seasoned veteran, able to keep long watch and run the spiritual race to completion, but the boys – being still only a few years into their training – are simply unable to keep up. Prayer is far more than an occasional therapy session with God that comes along whenever we feel the urge. Done properly, it is a rigorous endeavor that taxes the body as well as the mind, just like any other serious discipline. Only those who train accordingly, like Jesus, will persevere to see the prize that can only be recognized in prayer.
Prayer Exercise:
Time to stretch your limits. If you were training to run, you would add a little distance or a steeper incline. Let’s do the same. You’ve learned the Lord’s prayer as an outline for coming before God, now use it to push yourself. However long you normally pray, set aside a longer session. If you typically pray 10 minutes, set aside 30. If 30, set aside, 45, and so on. Now use each line of the Lord’s prayer as a point of meditation to walk yourself through a prayer that moves from reverence, to intimacy, to petition, confession, forgiveness, etc.
A word of caution: the point of this exercise is not length, it’s depth. Don’t go babbling on just for the sake of stretching it out (we’ve already learned about that, remember?). We need to learn to plumb the depth of our hearts, our world, and our God with our imagination in prayer. This is one way the Spirit get deep into us through prayer and begins to reveal to us what God is doing. This is how we learn to see.
