Praying with Confidence
1 John 5:14-15
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes, Pastor
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Greeley, Colorado
August 1, 2021
INTRODUCTION: I heard a funny story about a lady who was very religious. She went to the pet store and she bought a parrot. She said to the owner, “I want to buy a religious parrot to take to my home.” And he said, “Well, I have a female parrot, and all she ever says is, ‘Let us pray. Let us pray.’” She said, “That's the one for me.” So she took it to her home. And every day that parrot would say, “Let us pray, let us pray.” And that would remind that lady to pray.
Not long after, this lady began to date this man, and it just so happened that he had a boy parrot. And the man said, “I'm coming over for supper tonight. Would you mind if I brought my boy parrot so that he could get to know your girl parrot?” And she said, “Sure, bring him along.” He brought his parrot in the cage and set it down beside that girl parrot.
And that boy parrot only had one thing that he knew how to say. He said, “Let's kiss, let's kiss.” And when the girl parrot heard that boy parrot, she said, “My prayers have been answered!”
If you want to know how to get your prayers answered, the answer is not a parrot. The answer is in the word of God. Let's read what the Bible has to say about in 1 John 5:14-15:
This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.
In over 35 years of being a pastor, I’ve never met anyone who said that they are totally satisfied with their prayer life. It’s like basketball. We never attain perfection, but we’re always striving to improve.
Here’s a little history of my personal prayer life. In 1978, 43 years ago, I totally surrendered my life to the Lord. I was saved when I was twelve years old, but there was a period of backsliding in my life when I was a teenager; I was confused and struggled understanding God’s call on my life.
But when I was a senior in high school in 1982, I sold out to the Lord and I said, “Lord, for the rest of my life, I'm going to try to live faithful to you.” And I knew I needed to pray several times a day, but it was a struggle for me. So to remind me, I wrote the word “Pray” with an exclamation point inside of all of my school three-ring binders and spiral notebooks, and I wrote the word PRAY! with an exclamation point.
Every time I picked up my school materials, I would see the word pray to mind me to pray. But even to this day, praying regularly doesn’t come easy – it is something I have to make myself do every day.
Maybe you’re frustrated with your prayer life. It may seem that your prayers aren’t being answered. I’ve met some people who have given up on prayer and others who give up on God. They say, “I’ve tried praying and it didn’t work.”
That’s like walking into a dark room and flipping the light switch and nothing happens. You don’t curse Thomas Edison and say, “I’ve tried electricity and it doesn’t work.” Instead, you start looking for the reason why the light didn’t come on. Is the bulb blown? Is the power off? Has a breaker tripped? You seek to find out WHY the light didn’t come on.
When your prayers are unanswered, you should start looking to find the reason why. Think of it this way. There are natural laws that govern our world. For instance. You probably know that water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. But that law is conditional. Water boils at 212 degrees at Sea Level at Standard Barometric pressure which is 29.92 inches of mercury. If you change the altitude, the temperature required to boil water changes. For instance, if you are in a cabin on a mountain at 8,000 feet above sea level water will boil at around 198 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the air pressure. That’s why some recipes have a different set of instructions for higher altitudes. In other words, the natural law that says “Water boils at 212 degrees” is conditional.
There are spiritual laws as well. Here’s one: God answers prayer. That’s true, but there are conditions that must be met. So, in this message, I want to share five conditions for answered prayer.
(1) PRAY TO YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER. You can learn to pray more effectively. When the disciples watched Jesus, they only asked Him to teach them one thing. They said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus said the way to begin is to say, “Our Father who is in Heaven.”
When you pray, you’re not talking to “the man upstairs” or you’re not praying to Mother Earth or the Great Spirit. Jesus taught us that we have a Heavenly Father who is generous to His children. In Matthew 7 Jesus said, “If you have a son who asks for bread, are you going to give him a stone? Or if your son asks for a fish, are you going to give him a snake?”
Then in Matthew 7:11 Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.”
Every religion practices some kind of prayer. Buddhists pray to Buddha. Muslims pray five times a day to Allah. Hindus pray to a multitude of different gods and goddesses.
A pastor was traveling to Asia and he saw dozens of statues of Buddha. There were always people praying there. They are usually praying out loud. He said, “Because it is a place of prayer, I always pray a prayer like this, “Father show these people that Jesus is Lord and that one day every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
He continued: “Once when we were in Bangkok, we visited the famous reclining Buddha. The room was crowded with people kneeling and praying. I prayed my usual prayer and a Thai man dressed in a business suit heard me and asked, “Are you from America?” I said, “No, we’re from Texas.” He smiled and said, “Even better.” He was a nice guy and I asked him how often he came to pray. He said, “I only come when I am about to take a business trip, I always come and ask Buddha for good luck and good fortune.”
Isn’t it sad, my friends, that man only prayed when he wanted something for himself. I would wager a guess that there are a lot of Americans who only pray when they have a personal need. For many people, prayer is like calling 911. But prayer means having a relationship with God as your Heavenly Father. Jesus said we may call God “Abba” which means “Papa.” Effective prayer must be directed to our Heavenly Father.
(2) PRAY IN THE NAME OF JESUS. Not only must you pray to the Heavenly Father, but you must pray to Him in the name of His only Son, Jesus. This means we have access to God through Jesus. Listen to this promise from Hebrews 4:16. Because of what Jesus did on the cross the Bible says, “Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.” The only way to approach the Father is in the name of Jesus. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Think of it this way. Let’s say that prayer is like writing a letter. On the envelope you will put the name of the person you are writing and then the address. God the Father is the recipient, and the correct address is through Jesus Christ our Lord. The post office won’t deliver mail if the address is not correct – and prayers not prayed in the name of Jesus never reach their destination.
Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14).
Whether I am praying at a community business luncheon, the interfaith Holocaust Memorial Service or at the Colorado State Assembly of legislators I pray in the name of Jesus. If people say, “Don’t pray in the name of Jesus,” I respond: “While I deeply respect the rights of all citizens to have different religious beliefs, as a follower of Jesus, I will be praying in His name.”
Praying in the name of Jesus isn’t a secret code or phrase like “Shazam” or “Open Sesame.” It means more than just adding those words before you say, “Amen.” Praying in Jesus’ name means you are praying in the authority of Jesus. You are praying by His permission.
Pastor and author Ron Dunn wrote a book on prayer entitled Don’t just Stand There, Pray Something. In it he tells the story that illustrates what it means to ask in the name of Jesus. Once he had taken his three kids to a county fair where there were carnival rides. So, he bought a bunch of tickets, and as his kids entered each carnival ride, he would tear off one ticket for each of his three children, one for Kimberly, and one for Ron Jr., and one for Stephen. This system was working great for several rides. But Ron said he had just torn off the tickets at the tilt-a-whirl and given them to his three children. But after his son, Stephen, got his, there was a boy he’d never seen before who stepped out and held out his hand for a ticket. Ron said he pulled those tickets back and said, “I’m sorry, son, I don’t know you.” Then Steven turned around and said, “Dad, he’s my friend. I told him you would give him a ticket to ride with me.”
Ron said that even though he didn’t know the boy, and even though the boy didn’t deserve a free ticket, Ron gladly gave him one. He said he did it because his son had told him to ask his dad and his dad would give him a ticket. In essence the boy was asking for a ticket “in Stephen’s name.” And Ron said he was just making good the word of his son.
When we go to our Heavenly Father in prayer we can ask in the name of Jesus. God doesn’t hear me because of what I have done or because of who I am. But He will move heaven and earth to honor the name of His Son.