Asking God for Knicks Tickets

Suggested Reading: Acts 9:32-43

My wife and I have always enjoyed watching the dramedy Castle. It is the story of Richard Castle, a wealthy novelist who works alongside several New York City police detectives, doing research for his books and helping to solve homicide cases. As the show progressed, two of the detectives, Ryan and Esposito became very comfortable with asking Castle for tremendous favors: front rows seats to the Knicks games, reservations at restaurants nobody could get into, cool gadgets for the precinct that the police budget couldn't afford. They never abused their relationship with Castle, but they certainly made the most of his resources and his willingness to do big favors.

In Acts 9, Tabitha, a Jesus-follower who had been a pillar in the Christian community in Joppa and was constantly engaged in good works and acts of charity, died. Several widows who loved Tabitha, instead of preparing her for burial, placed her in an upper room and sent the Apostle Peter a message: "Please come to us without delay" (Acts 9:38, ESV). When Peter arrived, they immediately began showing him all of the wonderful things she had provided for them and talking about the incredible person she had been. Their request was clear: our friend has died, and we want you to do something about it. This was an audacious request. As a pastor, I'm not sure how I would react if someone called me over to their house because a friend had died and they wanted me to fix it. But that is exactly what these ladies did to Peter. And then Peter did exactly what they wanted him to do.

Sometimes we forget that we serve a God who does the impossible. Or, at least, we pray like we've forgotten. We face impossible situations and simply resign ourselves to the fact that nothing can be done.  We look at a marriage that has deteriorated with no possibility for reconciliation, but we don't ask God to step in, revealing himself and miraculously restoring the relationship. A loved one faces a terminal diagnosis, but instead of anointing the person with oil and having the leaders of the church pray for their recovery (James 5:14-16), we pray for decreased pain and comfort for the family. We fail to make the most of our relationship with a God who has all the resources of the universe at his disposal and wants to move in our lives.

God may have other plans. God may be planning on using these impossible situations to shape us or to lay the groundwork for something bigger. But God may also be waiting for us to make the impossible request so that people can see exactly who God is and what God is capable of. We serve a God who answers impossible requests and solves impossible problems. Maybe it's time we start praying like it.

Casting Out a Demonic Half-Shaft

Suggested Reading: Mark 4:19-29

A couple years ago the half-shaft went out on my Pontiac Aztec (a car I, thankfully, no longer own). To replace it, I had to take off the tire, the wheel assembly and then remove the shaft from a specialized joint. I wrestled with that shaft for hours but it wouldn't budge. I googled the problem only to discover that removing the shaft required a special tool I did not own. After googling the tool and discovering that it cost more than I made in a week, I went out and wrestled with the shaft some more. Finally I gave up, reassembled the tire assembly, put the tire back on, and very carefully drove the vehicle to a repair shop, defeated. Normally, I can make due without the specialized tools recommended for repair jobs, but in this particular case there was simply no substitute for the right tool.

Jesus's disciples discovered something very similar when they tried to cast a demon out of a young man whose father had approached them in Jesus's absence. Though they tried, the disciples were simply incapable of casting out the demon that plagued the boy. Jesus, of course, had no problem with the demon when he tried, even though the disciples' failed attempts had threatened to undermine the father's faith. The disciples questioned why they couldn't cast out the demon themselves, and Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer” (Mark 9:29, NLT). In spite of the disciples' years of training at the hands of Jesus and their awareness of how he operated, they had forgotten the most vital tool at their disposal: prayer.  

Sometimes, we forget the power and the necessity of prayer. We begin to think that our Bible studies, training courses, and evangelism seminars are enough. But for many of the tasks we face, the essential, indispensable tool that we need is prayer. Prayer is essential to connect us to the power of God, and no matter how skilled we may be in other areas, no matter how knowledgeable or educated, we will inevitably face many things that simply cannot be overcome except through prayer, inviting God into the situation with the power only God has at his disposal. Without prayer, we will find ourselves pounding our heads against the walls in frustration and failure rather than rejoicing in magnificent displays of God's power.

Whatever your problems and whatever your skills, don't forget the indispensable power of prayer. Prayer is always the right tool for the job.

Permission Slips, Trust, and Racist Comments

Suggested Reading: Matthew 15:21-28

Once, when she was in grade school my daughter wanted me to sign a permission slip for something at school. The way she went about it just about drove me crazy. She asked if I would, and I told her that I would have it for her before we left for school. Three minutes later she was back in front of me, asking if I had signed it yet. I assured her I would have it for her before we left for school. Three minutes later she was back again. In spite of the fact that I had assured her several times it would happen, and in spite of the fact that my wife and I have a pretty good track record at following through on things like that, my daughter was so focused on it, and so insecure about it, that she just kept coming back.

Matthew 15 shares the story of a woman at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to trust. A Canaanite woman had come to Jesus asking that he cast a demon out of her daughter. Jesus ignored her. He ignored her to the point that the disciples finally came to Jesus and begged that he, at least, send her away because she was driving them crazy, too. Jesus announced that he couldn't help her because she wasn't a Jew. The woman barged her way in, falling before Jesus, and begging him again. Jesus again told her he couldn't help her because she wasn't a Jew, this time basically calling her a dog. When she responded that even dogs got scraps, Jesus finally relented and told her that she would get what she asked for. Mark's version of the story adds one more detail. When she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone (Mark 7:30, NLT).

Why is that detail important? Well, if I was that woman, desperate to help my little girl, and this man had ignored me, put me off, made what I might consider racist comments, called me a dog, and then finally agreed, but wasn't going to go with me, I don't know that I would have left without him. I probably would have been convinced that he was only agreeing so I would leave him alone. But this woman left. She believed in him enough to take him at his word and go home in faith.

Sometimes, we are persistent in prayer simply out of devotion and discipline. But sometimes we are persistent in prayer because, deep down, we don't really believe that God will do what is best for us. We keep praying, not because we trust God, but because we don't. Like my daughter, who had every reason to believe I would keep my word, we sometimes pester God because we are nervous and insecure, because we don't really believe God will provide for us like God promised.

Persistence in prayer is a wonderful thing when we pray out of our faith. But sometimes we must intentionally put our insecurities aside and demonstrate our faith by letting go, moving on, and allowing God to follow through without pestering him in our insecurity. James tells us that we should pray, asking God in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord (James 1:6-7, HCSB).

What have you been pestering God about? Have you been persistent in prayer because you trust God or because you don't? Maybe it's time to let some things go. Ask God, one last time, and then trust God to do what is best, both, for you and for God's glory. Don't allow your prayers to demonstrate your lack of belief.

Insulting Your Dinner Host

Suggested Reading: Ephesians 3

One of the things that drove me crazy when my children were younger was how they had no shame in asking people for things. We'd go to someone's house and my son would ask if he could have the fireplace poker because it would make a good sword or my daughter would ask if she can have an entire bowl of fruit three minutes before our hosts served us dinner. At times, my children had absolutely no shame. And while my wife and I were trying to teach them appropriate manners, we still had the regular cringe-worthy requests that came every time we were a guest in someone's home.

Sometimes, however, I wish we were a whole lot more like my children in our prayers. I can't count the number of times that a group or church has invested a large amount of time and money into an outreach project and then I heard someone pray, "Lord, let us reach just one person because then it will all be worth it." Every time I hear that prayer, it makes me moan in despair, and I think, Who do you think you are talking to? Some bum on the street? You're talking to the Almighty Creator of the universe! Ask for the entire community!

Ephesians 3:20 reminds us that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (NIV). If God really is capable of doing so much, and if God's goal really is that no one should perish, why don't we ask God for more? I think, 1) we are trying to set our expectations so low that we won't be disappointed or 2) we are trying not to be presumptuous towards God. Often, I think we use #2 as an excuse for #1. But doing that is like going into someone's home for dinner and avoiding the dinner table but asking for a stick of gum. Sure, we're not being presumptuous, but we are probably being insulting.

Paul reminds us of how much God is able to do above and beyond our imaginings right after offering a prayer that we will be able to understand how long and high and wide and deep is the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18, NIV). Paul asked for the impossible and then reminded us that God is capable of doing the impossible.

As you seek to follow Jesus and turn the world upside down like the apostles, don't be timid in your requests of God, especially with regard to His kingdom. Don't ask God to help your church reach just one soul, ask him to help you reach thousands. Don't ask God to help you pay your bills, ask him for enough to pay someone else' s bills. Don't ask him to help you see a new facet of him, ask him to help you see all of him! When it comes to making requests of God, sets your sights on God's Kingdom and then have no shame. Don't insult God by asking for so little. Give him a chance to make his glory and power known. God may choose to only give you one soul. Or God may respond with an incredible outpouring of power.

Answering Doctor Who's Prayer

Suggested Reading: Luke 18:1-8

There was an episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor was trapped in a place he'd been sent to via transporter, a place where, each day, everything in the room (including himself) reset to the way it was when he arrived. Being the doctor, he was able to figure out that this had happened every day for approximately 4,000,000,000 years. But he didn't let that stop him from continuing the same routine every day as he slowly made progress toward escaping. He continued doing the same thing over and over again because he believed it would eventually work and it did.

In Luke 18, we see Jesus tell the Parable of the Persistent Widow. This widow, who desperately needed the judge to grant her justice, came to the judge day after day after day. So, even though this judge as a man who "neither feared God nor cared about people," (Luke 18:2, NLT)  he eventually gave in and granted her justice just so she would stop pestering him. Jesus concluded the parable by asking, "So don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?" (Luke 18:7-8, NLT). Jesus was addressing those whose prayers for justice (and perhaps other things) seem to go unanswered. That's why he said, "Will [God] keep putting them off?" Their prayers haven't been answered yet. The passage seems to imply that by the time Jesus returns, many of those prayers will still not have been answered and that those who keep praying are those whom "he will find on the earth who have faith."

What if the Doctor had gotten to the place where he finally decided that nothing was ever going to change and simply gave up? What if he stopped believing that doing the same thing day after day was eventually going to work and he just stopped? Sometimes, that is how we treat prayer. Sometimes, we stop praying for a particular person to be saved or healed because we stop believing it can ever happen. Sometimes we let our prayers go unsaid because, somewhere inside, we've stopped believing that they make a difference. So, rather than be faced with the disappointment of possibly unanswered prayers, we just stop praying. Or sometimes it is just easier not to think about that need than to continue yearning for something that, in our opinions, is taking too long to happen.

Yes, sometimes, what we pray for take a long time to happen. And sometimes we stop praying for it to happen. But have we stopped praying about it because we completely trust God to make it happen and have left it in God's hands? Or have we stopped praying about it because we've stopped believing anything will ever change? You are the only one who knows why you've stopped. So tell me, when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on earth who have faith?

Pestering God About Mr Gatti's

Suggested Reading: Matthew 6:5-15

When my kids were younger and I was occasionally home with them during the summer, I tried to take them somewhere fun on Fridays if they had been good all week long. Before our local one closed down, Mr. Gatti's was their favorite destination. Each Friday morning,  the questions would begin. "Daddy, are we going to Mr. Gatti's?" "When are we going?" "Are we really going to Mr. Gatti's?" "Do we get to go?" "Please, can we go to Mr. Gatti's?" "Are we going?" Sometimes, I would finally respond, "If you ask one more time, we're staying home!" It drove me crazy, especially when they asked from a sense of insecurity, from lack of trust in me or, at least, when it felt that way.

Sometimes, though, we treat God the same way my kids treated me. We think if we ask God over and over again we will get what we want, as if repeating it a bunch of times will get God to do something God doesn't want to do. But Jesus told us, “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again." (Matthew 6:7, NLT). When Jesus warns us against simply repeating our prayers over and over, I believe he is saying two things: 1) Give God more credit than that and 2) Trust God more than that.

Do we really want a God who changes infinitely grand plans just because we bother him until we drive him crazy? Do we really think God's patience is so small that it works that way? God is loving enough to respond to our requests but God is not so small we can change God's mind by being annoying. Beyond that, we must trust God more than that. We must trust God enough that when we present a need, we know God will meet that need in the manner which is best for us and will bring Him the most glory.

Being consistent in prayer is one thing. Pestering God because we think we can force his hand or because we don't really trust him is another.

Pitching Well to Save God's Reputation

Suggested Reading: Exodus 32:1-14

In the movie Little Big League, a twelve year old boy gets the chance to manage a major league baseball team. One of the players, a pitcher, doesn't like the idea of playing for a twelve year old and threatens his young manager with playing very poorly if he doesn't get traded off the team. The boy tells him that he will not be traded and reminds the pitcher that, when his contract is up, no one will want a pitcher who didn't pitch well. Suddenly, for the sake of his own reputation and in order to be valuable enough for someone else to sign him, he pitches extremely well. The twelve year old manager just had to remind the pitcher that his own reputation was at stake.

A similar dynamic exists at times throughout scripture with God being reminded his reputation is at stake. Perhaps the first time we see it blatantly is with Moses. God has just given Moses the law and before Moses comes down from the mountain the Israelites create a golden calf and begin worshiping it with pagan rituals. God, in his anger warns Moses that he is going to destroy the rebellious, idolatrous Israelites and start over with Moses.  But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. “O  Lord!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people!" (Exodus 32:11-12, NLT). With the fate of Israel at stake, Moses reminds God that his reputation was also at stake.

Too often we lose sight of what is most important: that God is glorified so that the world is drawn to the Savior. We ask God to provide for us because we need something, because it is good for us. We ask God to move in a person's life because they need it. Those reasons are well and good. But what about the times when we don't deserve to have God intervene in our lives? What happens when the person we are praying for is openly rebellious against God? When we have no ground to stand on, we need to shift our focus back to where it always belonged in the first place: on bringing God glory. When we have failed, or are on the verge of failing, when doing so would be detrimental to God's glory, when it would be "bad" for God's reputation, when we finally realize how poorly we ourselves have handled God's reputation, we can pray for God to move for the sake of God's reputation alone.

We may not deserve for God to use us, we may not deserve for God to move in our lives, but God always deserves to be glorified. When we can shift our focus back to that truth, it should affect both our behavior and our prayers.

Reading My Wife's Mind in Sodom and Gomorrah

Suggested Reading: Genesis 18:20-33,19:27-29 (or read the entire story Genesis 18-19)

I can read my wife's mind. Not all the time. But in a very specific set of circumstances, she doesn't have to finish speaking because I know exactly what she is thinking. See, she says, "Honey..." which is not unusual in terms of addressing me. But there are times when she says it that I know she wants ice cream. Every time she wants ice cream, I can't explain it, but I know she does. I don't know if it is the way she calls me or the expression on her face but I can tell she wants ice cream. I can tell exactly what she is asking even though she never actually asks. Normally she just confirms my guess with a sheepish grin and a big nod.

In Genesis 18-19, we see an example of God doing the same kind of thing with Abraham. God had let Abraham know of his intention to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham began questioning God, concerned that God would destroy the righteous people along with the unrighteous. Abraham began negotiating with God to spare the city if so many righteous people could be found within it, starting with 50 and working his way down to 10. Now Abraham probably was actually concerned about righteous people being killed alongside the unrighteous, but he was probably mostly concerned about his nephew Lot and Lot's family, who had recently moved to Sodom. Abraham never specifically mentioned Lot's name but after God had sent angels to rescue Lot and then destroyed the city, the scriptures state, "So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when He demolished the cities where Lot had lived" (Genesis 19:29, HCSB). Even though Abraham never specifically mentioned Lot, God knew exactly what Abraham was asking. The New Testament talks about the same mysterious dynamic this way: "In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings" (Romans 8:26, HCSB).

We may not always know how to pray for what we want or need. Sometimes, we may not even know what it is that we want or need. In each of those cases, God is capable of reading our minds. Whether through God's unique ability to see inside our thought process or simply because God knows us so well, God knows exactly what we mean, even if we don't know exactly what we mean. Never be afraid to pour your heart out to God even if you don't have a clue what you're saying. While people are only capable of going by what you say, God is capable of going by what you mean.

If you are in a difficult situation and you don't know how to pray or what to pray for, just pour your heart out to God. God knows exactly what you mean and exactly what you need. Trust him and, like Abraham, God will know what you're really asking.

Praying Like We're Terrorizing Psychiatric Patients

Suggested Reading: Philippians 4:4-9

In the Superman prequel series Smallville, Lois Lane discovered that Clark Kent was a super-powered hero long before he finally told her. At one point, Clark was facing a very difficult decision and Lois wanted to help but didn't know how. In natural Lois style, she barged into her therapist's office, traumatized the patient waiting for a session and then proceeded to share the dilemma with the amused and confused therapist. Finally, before the therapist had a chance to say anything, Lois thought of a solution, thanked the doctor for the advice (which she never had a chance to give) and then marched off to carry out her newly created plan. The scene has actually been repeated on a number of shows: Patient walks in with a desperate problem, talks so quickly the therapist never gets in a word, then rushes out, having come up with their own solution to their problems and feeling much better.

One of the interesting things about this dynamic is that it is also common to prayer. Philippians 4:6-7 reads, "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus" (NLT). Paul urges us, tell God what you need and then thank God for what he's done already and you will have peace. Much of the reason for that peace is the process of turning your problems over to God and then thinking about all the ways God has already dealt with your problems. When we force ourselves to remember how God has intervened in the past, it helps us to trust God in the here and now. The effect is even more profound when we are thinking about God's provision in God's presence by directly thanking him for it.

I'm not a big fan of most scripted prayers, but I do believe in being intentional with our prayers. One of the best things we can do, especially when we are worried, is to turn our concerns over to God and then to thank him for all the things God has done. By doing so we remind ourselves that God really is watching out for us, that God really does have the power to answer our prayers, and we ground ourselves in the reality of God's loving care for us. When we're grounded in God's loving care, it is really hard for us to worry about anything.

Voice Passwords and Disconnected Exorcists

Suggested Reading: Acts 19:8-20

When she was younger, my daughter had this journal that was really more of a toy than something she wrote in. The journal had a voice lock on it. She could program it to open when she said a particular password and she changed the password from time to time, but she didn't change it because her brother figured out the password. Typically, we all knew what the password was. But knowing the password didn't do us any good because the lock was keyed to my daughter's voice. I could stand in front of that journal all day long, saying the password of the week until I was blue in the face but it wouldn't open. The journal's lock cared as much about the person speaking as the password itself.

In Acts chapter 19, we find a group of traveling exorcists, seven brothers, who were known for casting out demons. They had heard about Jesus and about Paul and decided to add one more "magic formula" to their exorcism routine, casting out demons 'by the Jesus whom Paul preaches...But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered' (Acts 19:13-16, NLT). These men had decided to invoke the name of Jesus because of its power but had failed because they had no actual connection to the person of Jesus.

Sometimes, I wonder if we treat the name of Jesus the same way. We try to ask God for things "in Jesus' name" without actually being connected to Jesus and yet expect to get what we ask for. We try to convince people to "put God back in schools" without trying to bring people into relationship with God first.  We treat prayer like a formula instead of using the time to mingle our hearts with a God who gave everything to be with us. The name of God has power, but only because it is connected with God himself. Apart from the Person, the word is meaningless.

How connected are you to Jesus? How invested are you in the person of Jesus? A name is just a name if you aren't connected to the Person.

Asking Already Answered Questions

Suggested Reading: Luke 18:35-42

In the Tom Cruise movie, Minority Report, three psychics hooked up to a computer interface predict crimes before they happen. Those yet uncommitted crimes are prevented, when possible, and the people who have not yet committed any crime are then punished for their potential future sins. When the potential abuses of this system are turned against one of its primary operators, suddenly people realize the difference between crimes that supposedly will occur and crimes that actually have occurred.

While scripture teaches us that God knows our words and actions long before we ourselves do, God also has this fairly consistent tendency to want to hear our prayers before letting us experience the answers to those prayers. For example, in Luke 18 Jesus was traveling down the road and a blind man began calling out to him. Jesus stopped, had the blind man brought before him, and asked what the blind man wanted from him. Now, everyone who reads this story knows exactly what the man wanted.  Everyone present that day probably knew exactly what the man wanted. But Jesus still asked so the man could respond, "Lord, I want to see!" (Luke 18:41, NIV).  We see a similar dynamic in the garden of Eden when God asked Adam why they had hidden from him and whether they had eaten the forbidden fruit.

Yes, God knows what we need. Yes, God often sets the answers to our prayers in motion long before we ever pray for that need.  But God still likes to be asked just like every one else and, amazingly, God often times things so that the final fruition of God's behind the scenes work on our prayers only occurs when we finally ask God to move. No one likes to be taken for granted, not even God, and it's hard for us to grow spiritually when we take God for granted.

Even though Good knows what you need, ask God anyway. The asking itself often does the most good.

Getting Ready to Swing

Suggested Reading: Matthew 14:21-21

Something I used to do on occasion that I really haven't had much time for recently is go to a batting cage. As much as I enjoy baseball, most of the time I have to settle for listening to games while I am attempting to accomplish something else rather than actually getting to play. But the thing about a batting cage is, when you put your money or token or code into the machine, you better be ready to swing the bat. If you ask for the ball, you get the ball. You don't have a lot of time to stretch and take practice swings. Once you give the machine your money, you had better be ready to start swinging. You had better be ready to get what you're asking for.

In Matthew 14, we find the familiar story of Jesus feeding 5,000 men plus their families with just five loaves of bread a couple fish. A detail that often gets overlooked is found in verse 19. The disciples report that they only have a small amount of food. Jesus tells them to bring the food to him and then "He commanded the crowds to sit down on the grass" (HCSB). At that point, I'm sure the disciples must have thought that he was crazy. All he had was a few loaves and fishes and he commanded five thousand men with their families to sit down and get ready to eat! What in the world was Jesus doing? Jesus was getting ready to swing before he put his money in the batting cage.

Jesus knew what he was going to do. He knew the miracle he was asking for and which would surely come, and he prepared for it. He acted as if he already had the food on hand and was simply distributing it. Many times throughout scripture we see this same M.O.. Ten lepers came to Jesus to be healed and he instructed them to go show themselves to the priests (who could verify their healing) but they weren't healed until they actually headed on their way to the priests (Luke 17:11-19). Elijah asked a woman who had just enough to feed herself and her son to first make a meal for him and that God would provide for her, but it wasn't until she actually made Elijah's meal that she could watch God keep her containers from emptying out. (1 Kings 17:8-16)

Quite often we ask God to provide, we ask God to do big things in our lives, but then we go on living as if nothing has changed. Instead, when we ask God to provide, to meet a need, to do something big in our lives, we should demonstrate the faith to live like God has already provided, we should prepare to receive what God is going to send our way. If we are praying that God will send us someone to share our lives with, we should be preparing ourselves to be the most stable, mature and godly persons possible so we are ready for their appearance. If we are asking God to send young families to our churches, we should prepare our facilities and our classes for them so that we are ready to welcome them and send the right messages when they come. If we are praying that God will bless us financially, we should be making sure that our financial house is in order so that we are ready to handle that blessing well.

Part of having faith is preparing to receive the things that we are praying for. If we don't, it's like trying to stretch after putting your money in the batting cage--we may miss it entirely or, worse, get hit in the head.