What is the prayer you have not dared to pray?
What prayer seems so unlikely, so outlandish, that you have feared to pray it because you have the sneaking suspicion that prayer is not going to do a darn thing?
What is the prayer you have not dared to pray?
Maybe, it is a prayer that asks for a break financially: “Please God, just this one time.”
Maybe, it is a prayer that seeks an unlikely result on the medical front.
Maybe, it is a prayer that asks that a deeply ingrained human trait like hatred between people cease to exist.
Maybe, it is a prayer that you might finally, after years of living with girls, get a little boy!
What is the prayer you have not dared to pray?
There was a very bright 5 year old boy who once told his dad that he would like to have a baby brother and, along with his request, offered to do whatever he could to help.
His dad, a very bright 35 year old man, paused for a moment and then replied, "I'll tell you what, little guy, if you pray every day for two months for a baby brother, I guarantee that God will give you one!"
The boy responded eagerly to his dad's challenge and went to his bedroom early that night to start praying for a baby brother.
He prayed every night for a whole month, but after that time, he began to get skeptical. He checked around the neighborhood and found out that what he thought was going to happen, had never occurred in the history of the neighborhood.
You just do not pray for two months and then, whammo- a new baby brother.
So, the boy quit praying.
After another month, the boy's mother went to the hospital. When she came back home, the boy's parents called him into the bedroom.
He cautiously walked into the room, not expecting to find anything, and there was a little bundle lying right next to his mother. His dad pulled back the blanket and there was -- not one baby brother, but two!! His mother had twins!
The boy's dad looked down at him and said, "Now aren't you glad you prayed?"
The boy hesitated a little and then looked up at his dad and said, "Yes, but aren't you glad I quit when I did?"
I did not write the joke, so do not shoot me for the bad pulpit humor!
What struck me about the joke though, other than the punch line of course, was the boy’s skepticism toward prayer. You do not just pray for baby brothers, and get one (or in this case two) in a couple of months. It usually just does not work that way, does it?
Well, no, it does not.
So, we do not even ask these unspeakable prayer requests in the first place, because they may seem impossible or ridiculous. This sort of hesitancy in prayer makes sense.
Though completely reasonable, the problem with such hesitancy in prayer is that when we choose not to pray, we are also choosing not to have a full relationship with God.
The widow in Luke’s story had no such hesitancy. She had a matter of justice that was not being corrected…or even heard.
Similar to the football players who still continue to kneel for the national anthem to raise awareness concerning racism in America, though public pressure has told them consistently to stop kneeling and stand, this woman keeps on hounding an unjust judge regarding the injustice she has been suffering. She just will not quit, and it is driving the unjust judge crazy!
The unjust judge who does not care about God, or anyone but himself for that matter, gives in and grants her justice just to stop her hounding.
So, if an unjust judge can grant this woman justice, how much more will our loving God listen, and maybe, hopefully, unbelievably, go further than listening and actually do something when we call out our prayers, no matter how ridiculous or unlikely they may be?
Jesus promises us that God will help when we cry out. that is what a loving parent does. That is what a loving God does.
Now, listen, I know. I know the “what ifs” and the “but what abouts” that cause you to even yet resist praying those prayers that you have not dared to speak aloud to God.
We are heirs of Jacob who wrestle with God and push back against God’s movements silhouetted all night by the light of the moon. But, notice one thing about Jacob: he shows up for the fight. He shows up for the wrestling match against God and does not hold back. Though he does not gain any headway against God through the night, at least he has one thing going for him; God is right there with him.
When we wrestle and struggle with God, we are not alone. God is right there.
What is the prayer you have not dared to pray? What prayer seems so unlikely, so outlandish, that you have feared to pray it because you have the sneaking suspicion that prayer isn’t going to do a darn thing?
How about you pray it anyway?
How about you bother God’s ear like the woman to the unjust judge, or you start a wrestling match with God like Jacob next to the waters of the Jabbok? Because here’s the thing: God is willing to hear. God is willing to be right there. Our faith may waver, but God’s faithfulness toward us does not.
As Martin Luther has been quoted as saying, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of God’s willingness.”
In other words, prayer is being open to hearing God's answer, no matter what the answer may be.
What is the prayer you have not dared to pray? I urge you to take a moment to pray that prayer right now.
It's quite all right to bother God!
That's better than a calm façade,
Or resignation of your lot;
For Jesus says the one who's got
The gumption not to knuckle under
Exhibits real faith and wonder
That justice, always, God intends,
Although we may not comprehend
The schedule! Thus, the widow's might
Is in her cry the judge make right -
Which teaches us to fight despair
By voicing what becomes real prayer.
- Scott L. Barton
These words from Scott L. Barton make me think of a type of prayer that seems fitting for today. It is called a P.U.S.H prayer.
For the entire one of you reading this who loves acronyms, it stands for “Pray until something happens.”
It is living the story of the widow and the unjust judge. It is living the story of Jacob and his wrestling match. It is living a life of faith, where we do not know the results, but we are willing to pray anyway.
We pray and pray and pray some more, until something happens…until justice has been granted. We pray until we have seen the grace of God fall of us in some way.
God is right there with us, so we pray until something happens.
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