Prayer is our theme for today.
That is, as we continue to consider spiritual warfare, recognizing there is a war that happening inside of us and outside of us that we cannot see and so we need spiritual weapons, because we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood.
Last week we considered the existence of the devil and comfort that Jesus defeats him for us.
Today, we consider how we ask that One through whom we have victory for help in the midst of battles we can and cannot see.
The Canaanite woman cries out to Jesus, Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.
Prayer is not easy.
Did you ever think Spiritual warfare was easy?
Prayer is not easy. It was not easy for this woman, who seemed to be ignored by Jesus, mocked by Jesus’ disciples, and finally when Jesus does speak to her, she does not get the answer she, seemingly cold answer from Jesus, until the end when He says O woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire.
Prayer is not easy. It is often a struggle against our will and God’s will for us. Christians have often used our Old Testament story where Jacob is wrestling with God as an example of prayer.
Wrastling ain’t easy and neither is prayer. But we pray in the confidence that though we do not understand and see everything, we do know and believe that as our Epistle says, We have been justified by faith, so we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, we pray, in the mist of battle, in that peace Jesus wins for us.
That did not go as I expected it to go.
How many times has that happened to you?
Whether it was a conversation with someone, or a morning at home, or a day at work.
Things just don’t go as you expected it to go.
To say that prayer is a part of spiritual warfare is only the beginning of a Christian conversation, because often prayer does not go as you expected it go, because neither does battling with the sinful flesh and the world and the devil go as we expect it to go.
There are many times that Scripture reveals that people brought many to Jesus who were sick or who were oppressed with demons and it simply says that he healed them.
That was easy, right?
Lord, give me patience.
Lord, heal them.
Lord, help me because…
And then, boom.
That was easy.
Has that happened to you before?
Except, how many stories in the Scripture and in your life don’t go that way?
The end result is often the same. He helps them. He helps you.
But things certainly didn’t go the way anyone had expected when they asked Jesus to help.
I don’t know why Jesus treated the Canaanite woman the way that He did.
Seem to ignore her. Let the disciples speak harsh words about her. Speak some harsh words Himself.
I don’t know if she expected a battle or if this did not go as she expected it to go.
“Jesus help my daughter,”
“Ok, she’s helped.”
Wouldn’t that have been easier?
Except, in this story, because perhaps it did not go as she expected it to go,
The daughter is helped and
This woman’s faith in Jesus is forever strengthened and
Jesus’ disciples learn very specifically about His love for the Gentiles too and
they learn about the great faith this woman and are thus taught to emulate it and
countless Christians have been strengthened by this story for thousands of years and
you are strengthened in the goodness and power of Jesus,
that He came to destroy the works of the devil for you,
and that you can know this when things are going just as you expected them to go and when things are not going at all as you had expected them,
that there are a lot more “and’s” to your story than you could possibly know.
There’s a lot things we don’t know why Jesus does what He does.
And that’s so important to understand because
Prayer is engaging with the person of Jesus, with God.
Prayer is not like a vending machine where you press A 5 and get a kit kat bar.
Prayer is not often like you ask for healing and patience, and Jesus always immediately gives you healing and patience.
Prayer engages the person of Jesus, to One who gives healing and patience, who can help
and though He is good, and He loves you and He can give you what you ask,
He often knows even further what you and others around you and who will come after you need.
There is spiritual warfare, things happening inside of us and outside of us that we cannot see, so the only thing left is to hear from the One who does see them and ask Him for help according to His Word.
Prayer is faith believing and clinging to the love of God while struggling against unbelief and despair that is caused by the war that is happening inside of me and outside of me.
Prayer is spiritual warfare that believes that Jesus wins for us while still engaging in the battle that is set before in this flesh and in this life.
Prayer does not rely on some idea that I can win, either against God or the devil.
But relies relies on the promise that Jesus wins for me and for you against the devil and against our own sinful flesh.
Psalm 25 says it this way: To you, O Lord I lifted up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame.
You won’t be put to shame.
Your sins are forgiven,
and your death has been defeated,
and you will have God’s favor for Christ’s sake.
And so as Psalm 25 goes on…..
Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.
Prayer wrestles with God and says like Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.
Prayer trusts God’s promises that He gives to us, and clings to those promises, especially in suffering.
Romans 5:Since we have peace with God…we [even] rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
I believe that you know that Gospel, and so therefore, I can encourage you to keep praying, to not grow weary in praying, and that you will receive that.
But I also believe that it is the Gospel that is the power of the prayer.
So, we pray because Jesus promises He protects us from the devil.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.
We pray, because Jesus promises He blesses us.
Lord, I will not let you go, unless you bless me.
We pray when things go the way we expected them and when things don’t go as we expected.
Lord, help me.
Because Jesus promises that we are at peace with God and He is at peace with us.