“17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.” (Psalm 34:17 NIV).
Joseph Scriven wrote, “O, what peace we often forfeit, O, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” Now you recognize those words from the hymn, “What A Friend We Have in Jesus,” but Mr. Scriven never intended those words to be published. Those words were written to his ailing mother in a letter of comfort. Someone once wisely observed, “A Christian’s practical theology is often in his hymnology.”
Prayer is a weapon that is not only greatly misunderstood but it is a weapon that is often vastly underused! “You have not because you ask not,” the brother of our Lord wrote (See James 4:3).
The Bible is full of wonderful promises regarding the holy privilege of prayer that all believers enjoy. Yet, because our vision is so often limited, our requests seem to go unanswered (See James 4:3-10). There is a lot of wrong teaching in the world regarding what God does and does not promise His precious people. When we believe the illusions we always become disillusioned. This is never more prevalent then when it comes to prayer. “In Jesus Name” is not a magical incantation that will deliver our desires immediately to us. I fear some treat that phrase “In Jesus Name” as the budding child magician treats “abracadabra.”
Many of you know that I am an amateur illusionist (magician if you will). Occasionally I do a quick pocket trick for a child, and they become mesmerized by it. They want to try it. I try to discourage them and divert their attention, but once in awhile, there is that strong-willed child who cannot or will not let it go. Eventually I will hand them the object and they will try to make it disappear. I remember one little boy squeezing the object, shaking it, using every magical phrase he could think of, but of course the coin would not vanish. In utter frustration he handed it back to me with the assured statement, “Your magic coin is broke!” That’s how many people treat prayer.
Let me assure you, I don’t do “magic.” Slight of hand, illusion, call it what you want, but there is no magic about it. In order to bring about the magical effect, I have had to spend months sometimes learning a move. Regardless of what we seem to believe, prayer is not magic, nor is it illusion. Prayer changes things because it taps the resources of God. Now, I say all of this to come to the reality: “In Jesus Name,” is not some mystical incantation that will acquire for us the impossible, but “In Jesus Name,” is the recognition that we pray with the authority of the Son behind it. Prayer that finds answers is prayer that starts in heaven; we just complete the circuit so to speak.
One of the reasons so many are so disillusioned with prayer is because we’ve focused our eyes on this world and have taken them off reality. God’s promise to deliver cannot be limited only to this world. If God’s promise of deliverance was for this life only, it would be a futile promise indeed, for this life does not last.
Here’s what I know. God does not lie. The promise of our text is sure: “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.” David experienced that temporary deliverance from Abimelech when he wrote this Psalm, but he did not experience the full deliverance until he closed his eyes in death. We were not made for this life. We were made for eternity. As long as we persist in looking for our joy and rewards here, prayer will be at best an “ify” proposition. When we focus on the reality however, we soon learn the power of prayer and the lasting peace knowing that the Lord hears our prayers and “delivers (us) from all (our) troubles.”
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