Prayer Is Work
John Fogal
At a time in church history when it appears to some that more emphasis is given to entertainment and fun than to holiness and our total dependence upon God, maybe it is time to take another look at biblical praying.
Obviously, there is an aspect of prayer that is “sweet communion” between the sovereign God of the universe and the lowly believer who trusts in Christ. Jesus did say, “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:30). There is an aspect of praying that should be as natural as breathing but still neither effortless nor automatic. We do have the enabling of the Holy Spirit to pray as we ought, because we do not know how without the enabling of the Holy Spirit. I do not want to minimize anything on that side of prayer. Prayer is a delight!
However, the Bible does use words such as travail, pleading, fervency, earnestness, prevailing, wrestling, striving, agonizing, crying out, perseverance, importuning, fasting, and the like when describing prayer. I have been reading books on prayer by such writers as Oswald Chambers, E. M. Bounds, Andrew Murray, O. Hallesby, John Bunyan, Wesley Duewel, and others. Here are some quotes from some of them: “We do not pray at all until we are at our wits’ end” (Chambers). “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work” (Chambers). “Enflamed desires and impassioned, unwearied insistence delight heaven. Heaven is too busy to listen to half-hearted prayers” (Bounds). Think of people such as Praying Hyde, George Mueller, Brother Lawrence, and the Moravian Movement.
Prayer is hard work because it is a battle. We battle against our old nature. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41). That’s what Jesus said to his disciples when he asked them to pray with him for one hour. It is hard work because we are in a war against the enemy of our souls. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12). Paul writes about Epaphras, “who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus. He is always wrestling in prayer for you” (Col 4:12). Prayer is hard work because there are times when we are actually struggling with God himself. Think about Jacob wrestling with God in prayer. Jesus prayed “with loud crying and tears, through much suffering” (Heb 12:3). In the Garden, he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood (Luke 22:44).
Study the prayer life of the Apostle Paul. He seldom prayed for things, but always prayed for people. He did not tell people he would pray for them and then forget. He did it. Real intercessors have a different perspective on people and ministry and circumstances than most people who attend a church service as spectators. William Carey spent forty years in India as a missionary. He wrote the following to a small group of intercessors: “There is a gold mine in India, but it is as deep as the center of the earth. I will venture to go down into that mine, but you must hold the ropes.” That is what we need today—people who will be “all in” and hold the ropes. The sad fact is that most people think we are making it without this kind of prayer.
Today it is becoming popular to attend citywide “prayer meetings” that have very little praying as described in the two previous paragraphs. Asking people to “keep a person or situation in your thoughts and prayers” seems so shallow when compared with “prayer as work.” Lots of people think that if we have a large number of people “expressing their good thoughts and their positive energy directed toward me,” then something magical will happen to me in answer to “prayer.” Prayer is more than casually sending up a wish-list to a Santa Claus in the sky.” Someone has wisely said, “Prayer without fervency is not prayer—only talk.” Who is the God to whom you are praying?
Many people ask, “Does prayer work?” A better question would be, “Do I view prayer as work?” Have we really prayed if we cannot say with the Psalmist, “I cry out with my whole heart” (Ps 119:145)? Yes, prayer works! The Bible says, “Anyone who comes to him [God] must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb 11:6). God is still saying to us, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chr 7:14).
I encourage us to pray like the saints of old prayed. See our desperate need. Realize there is no one else to whom we can go but God. Pray with an absolute sense of total dependence upon God. Remember that God will not despise a “broken and contrite heart.” He delights when we cry out to him in prayer. God does things in answer to prayer that he otherwise would not do.