ST TIMOTHY'S CHURCH - SERMON NOTES + GROUP NOTES
DATE
18/10/15
SUBJECT (also at StTims.org.uk)
Praying for specific results
TEXTS
Acts 3.1-10; Mark 11.12-16, Heb 5.7; Mark 9.23
St Peter praying for the lame man at the beautiful gate for him to be healed: Awesome, effortless confidence!
Wonderful to have that level of faith ourselves, wonderful to see such answers to prayer, eg…
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Pray for someone to be healed
pray for someone you know to become a Christian
to pray for God to overcome a specific problem you face
to pray for specific amounts of money
for God to provide the resources you need for a specific task, against all the odds
for God to rescue us from a specific peril
Not just wonderful to see our prayers answered, but also wonderful to have a sense of access to God’s almighty power,
wonderful to be interacting with God in such deep and personal way.
We’ve all tried specific prayer at different times. But been disappointed - it didn’t work out. This can really hurt. In our
discouragement we wonder if this kind of prayer is only for the apostles or some kind of super Christian, that you read
about in books, not ordinary people like us. Such a level of prayer seems impossibly high; out of our reach. In a different
league. Maybe just for the apostles (like Peter in Acts 3)?
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And we often resort to praying in a general kind of way. So we seldom can tell if our prayer is answered.
Yet in the teaching of Mark 11, Jesus tells his amazed disciples that ANYONE can pray for specific miracle
‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. 23 ‘Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, “Go, throw yourself into the
sea,” and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.
Similarly in Mk 9.23… ‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’
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How then do we develop such prayer?
One way is to consider analogy with Competent Olympic diver…
Video of an Olympic high diver – effortless confidence of 10m board gold medallist.
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How do they develop that competence, that effortless confidence?
1) Takes time – the “10000 hours” that many “experts” say is required to develop that level of competence
2) Takes risks – not mind the pain, the failure, the regular setbacks (video of painful failed dives!)
in other words it…
3) Takes a lot of dedication! (And so will we…)
But what motivates the athlete to be this dedicated, and not give up?
1. Faith in themselves and
2. Passion that drives them on, helping them persevere, helping them breakthrough barrier after barrier.
Those who give up and settle for more ordinary levels of competence, are those who lack the passion to persevere,
lack the passion to go on believing in themselves, and so plough through every setback…
The more our passion makes us willing to risk getting hurt, and being disappointed, the more progress we will make.
And the end result is so worthwhile, so fulfilling so exhilarating. The same applies to prayer
Often the only thing stopping us from seeing more specific answers to prayer is lack of passion, lack of faith
What do we do to overcome this, and to make headway?
Firstly to recognise its OK that we aren’t like Jesus yet! (eg prayer of Jesus in Heb 5.7ff)
Secondly to be reassured that Jesus is willing to help us grow in faith and passion if we ask him.
Eg when Jesus confronted this man saying all he needed was faith to see his child healed, he replied, ‘I do believe;
help me overcome my unbelief!’
- Similarly we cry out to God to help us to have breakthrough in our lack of faith, or lack of love.
Its vital we realise its OK we have a long way to go before we develop the love, the faith, the dedication of Jesus! But
being discouraged and demotivated by setbacks and discouragements is then an opportunity for us cry out to God
“Lord I don’t have enough love to have enough faith I feel like giving up but you can help me to have more!”
Questions:
1. What does Mark 11.22 ff teach us about prayer?
2. What are some of the reasons that God wants us to ask Him for specific answers to prayer?
3. Why do we find this difficult?
4. What lessons might we learn from the Olympic Diver analogy?
5. What might help you / your group begin to pray more specifically?
6. What positive results might you experience?