This is today's message in the United Methodist Churches of the Wheatland Parish. The Bible verses used are Mark 2:1-12; Mark 5:25-34, and Matthew 8:5-13.
There's an old story, and you've probably heard some variation of it. It's about this town that's going through a terrible drought. It has not rained for months. So, the pastors in the town get together and rent the biggest hall in town, and they call a prayer meeting. Everyone in town is supposed to come together and pray for God to give them rain.
The night comes, and sure enough, everyone shows up to pray for rain. The hall is packed. One of the pastors takes the stage to start the meeting. He looks over the crowd and says, “So, how come nobody brought an umbrella?”
The point, of course, is that, if no one brought an umbrella, then no one really expected God to answer their prayers. They thought praying was a good thing to do, and they may have had hopes, but they also had doubts. No one really believed, no one really trusted, no one really expected that God would, in fact, do what they were asking God to do.
We've been talking for almost two months now about the power of prayer. We've talked about all sorts of things. We've talked about what the Bible says about the power of prayer. We've talked about how prayer creates a relationship with God and opens us up to God's guidance. We've talked about how prayer unlocks God's power. We've talked about how prayer gives us strength. We've talked about how prayer clarifies our faith. We've talked about all these ways—and we could've talked about many other ways—that prayer has power.
So now comes the big question: do we believe it? Do we really believe that prayer has power? Because if we do, then our prayers should create an expectation inside of us. We should expect that God will answer our prayers.
Now, as we've talked before, that does not mean God gives us everything we ever want. I doubt that God would answer my prayer to win the lottery, although God certainly has the power to do that if God chose to. But at the same time, we've talked about how Jesus said God knows how to give good gifts to God's children. So, if our prayers are humble and sincere and if we're truly doing our best to follow God's will when we pray, we should expect that God will answer our prayers and give us those good gifts. We should trust in God's power and in God's goodness. If we don't, then all this stuff we've been talking about in regard to the power of prayer is just that: talk. We really don't believe it.
We read three short little stories from the Bible today. Each one of those stories is a story of someone who absolutely believed that Jesus would answer their prayer.
The first one tells about four guys who have a friend who's paralyzed. They want to get their friend to Jesus, because they know Jesus can heal him. And when they cannot get to Jesus because of the crowd, the cut a hole in the roof of the room where Jesus is and lower the guy down. They had no doubt about Jesus' power, and no doubt about Jesus' goodness. They knew, they absolutely knew, that Jesus could heal their friend and would heal their friend if they could just get their friend to Jesus.
The second one tells about a woman. She's been sick and suffering for twelve years. Jesus is walking by where she lived, and there was a big crowd around him, as there sometimes was. And this woman fights through the crowd, struggling desperately, reaching out, just wanting to touch Jesus' cloak, because she believes doing that will cure her. She has no doubt about Jesus' power, and she has no doubt about Jesus' goodness. She knows, she absolutely knows, that Jesus can heal her and will heal her. She does not even think he has to do anything. If she can just touch his clothes, she knows she will be healed.
And our last story is the story of the centurion, a Roman solider who was in command of a hundred men. He has a servant who is paralyzed and suffering. He does not even think Jesus has to come and touch his servant to heal him. He says all Jesus has to do is say the word, and his servant will be healed. He has no doubt about Jesus' power, and he has no doubt about Jesus' goodness. He knows, he absolutely knows, that Jesus can heal his servant and will heal his servant. All he has to do is say the word, and it will happen.
So how about you? How about me? Do we have that kind of faith? When we pray, do we have any doubts about God's power or about God's goodness? Do we believe—in fact, more than do we believe, do we know—do we absolutely know that God can do the things we ask? Do we expect that God will, in fact, give good gifts to us, God's children?
I don't know about you. I have to confess that I don't. I'd probably be one of the people who did not bring an umbrella. I mean, I believe that God is good. I believe that God has power. And I pray for God to do certain things. And sometimes I don't necessarily pray for specific things, but I just pray for God's help or God's guidance.
I pray, and I try to believe, and I try to trust, and yet, somehow, I'm always kind of surprised when God actually comes through. Sometimes I'm more than just kind of surprised, I'm really surprised. I can look back at my life, and see where God has come through for me time after time after time, and yet, I'm still surprised when it happens again. And I'll bet I'm not the only one here who's like that.
I think God understands why we're like that. I don't think God gets mad at us for it. I think God must be kind of disappointed, though. God's also probably kind of sad. Because when we do that—when I do that—we make our lives a lot harder than they need to be. We give ourselves a lot more worries than we need to have. I think there are a lot of times God wants to say to us—and does say to us, in lots of different ways--”You know, your life would be so much easier, and so much better, and so much happier, if you'd only trust Me.”
The thing is, when we talk about the power of prayer, what we're really talking about is the power of God. God has more power than we can ever imagine. We know that, we believe it, and yet, when it comes right down to it, it can be really hard for us to trust that power.
Why? Because of sin. We are proud, independent, stubborn, sinful people. We think we need to do things ourselves. We think we should do things ourselves. We want to do things ourselves. And so, we do. Instead of surrendering ourselves to God's will, instead of trusting God's power and God's goodness, we think about our own will, and we trust in our own power. And it's not necessarily that the things we do are bad things. It's just that, again, we make things harder on ourselves by doing things our way rather than by doing them God's way.
Did you notice what Jesus said to each of the three people in our stories? In the case of the man with the four friends, we're told that Jesus healed him “when Jesus saw their faith”. In the case of the woman who touched Jesus' clothes, he said to her “your faith has healed you”. He said to the centurion, “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
Faith. That's what it all boils down to. Faith. If we have faith, we can trust God. If we have faith, we can trust in God's goodness and in God's power. If we have faith, we will expect—in fact, we'll do more than expect, we'll absolutely know—that God will give us good gifts, just like Jesus said God would do.
So there's the challenge to us. How much faith do we have? Do we have enough faith to expect that if we pray humbly and sincerely, that if we truly do our best to follow God's will when we pray, that God will answer our prayers and give us those good gifts? Do we have enough faith to not just believe in the abstract, but to absolutely expect it? Do we have enough faith to believe that, if we pray for rain, we'd better carry an umbrella?
God wants us to trust. God wants us to believe. God wants us to expect. Our lives are so much easier, and so much better, and so much happier, when we do. And when we do, that's when we fully feel the power of prayer.
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