My heart sank this morning when I reviewed the emailed weekly prayer list I received from our church. First, I was again disheartened by the sheer volume of requests from so many hurting and desperate Christian people, many of whom are on the list every week. But secondly, I was greatly agitated by the incredible ignorance of so many members concerning prayer, in spite of the recent sermons teaching about it. How can this be?!
In 1843, Charles Finney said this:
“Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.”
I have published this quote in longer form several times in my writings, and I keep being struck by how timely it is to the Church in our day. If in 2024 our believers pray ignorant prayers, it is not because they are stupid, rather it is because the preachers and teachers of our day have not done their jobs up to God’s standards. Many of the people on the prayer lists I receive every week persist in praying prayers like, “Oh God, please make my life better.”, or “God, please make the world a better place.”, or my personal favorite, “Please help so-and-so find herself!” I am not criticizing the people requesting prayer, not at all…what I’m saying is that it is beyond obvious that someone is not doing any kind of a good job at teaching us how to pray effective prayers, and that’s reprehensible. There is no defense for it.
Shame on our pastors for letting this kind of ignorance continue to exist among their congregations! And shame on them for not rebuking the men and women who hold teaching responsibilities in their churches! In the Bible book of Hosea, the prophet says in chapter 4, verse 6a: ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.’, and I believe part of that ‘lack’ is due to the poor teaching we routinely get concerning prayer. Prayer is most often under-valued, but the reason for that poor evaluation has everything to do with our lack of knowledge concerning it.
I would suggest a good first step would be to teach Christians the biblical value of specific prayer, and that means praying prayers that will give God the specific credit He deserves when He answers. For instance, if I were to pray that God would make the world a better place, how exactly would I know He had answered? And perhaps one should gently correct the person praying that a loved one would ‘find herself’, by suggesting they offer themselves to God as His solution, and pray they could be used in helping the lost person find God. We cannot and will not ‘find ourselves’ unless we first find Him and learn our place in His plan. Why don’t we know this already? Why are today’s Christians so ignorant? This world isn’t here so we can be the center of the universe…it’s here so we can show and live out that God is. Why don’t we know that?!
The pastors (elders), teachers and prophets in our Bible were “burdened” with leadership responsibilities heaped on them by Almighty God. Rather than worrying about their popularity, their safety, or their income, they had a holy fire placed in their bones by God Himself. They literally had to be faithful to His call, or they would implode. And that’s it…they were “called” by God, not by man. My first Christian mentor often said our seminaries could more accurately be called cemeteries, because people went into them with faith and graduated without it. I would suggest that is probably still true today. I would also inquire as to just how many men in our New Testament Bibles had the equivalent of seminary degrees? Most were more acquainted with fishing…but they had walked with Jesus, and that was the limit of their credentials.
My heart cries out for the men and women God has held in reserve for just such a time as this. I know, absolutely know He has them, for He always reserves a Remnant for Himself. At no time in our history have we needed men who would stand and say, “Thus says the Lord..”, and make our hearts tremble with the fear of God! I am desperate for it, so desperate I struggle to put it into words! Where are they?! I know God has them!
Today I would shout out to those in leadership positions in our churches: “Stop thinking about your 401K’s and your 501c3 designations – put yourself on fire for the holy God you are supposed to represent. You have never been so needed and necessary than you are right now. ‘Love not your lives unto death’ and you will prevail!”
Don’t put yourselves in line to soon face God and hear Him ask, “Why didn’t you…?”
John Miltenberger
Photo: NY Public Library
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