Now it
came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of
His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray,...” Luke 11:1
_________________________________________________________
Prayer.
It’s
the lifeblood of every believer—every follower of Jesus Christ.
It’s
the lifeblood of every person who has a devotion to God.
It’s
even the last resort for every agnostic fence sitter who hasn’t, can’t or won’t
make a decision about what they believe or Who they believe in.
Jesus’
disciples ask Him a lot of questions, like what do his parables mean where is
He going and why is He doing certain things, but it is His praying that seems to really grab their attention.
We
don’t know why—whether it’s the way He prays, the power of His prayers, or how
often He prayers—but prayer obviously grabbed the disciples’ attention, and
they wanted Jesus to teach them how to pray.
Jesus
doesn’t respond by giving them a lengthy, academic discourse on why they should
pray or the benefits of prayer. What He says is: “When you pray, say:” and then
launches right into what is famously known as The Lord’s Prayer,” but what is
really a model prayer for his followers. (His personal prayer, recorded in the
Book of John doesn’t look anything like this simple,
get-right-to-the-point-and-cover-all-the-bases prayer recorded in the Book of
Luke.)
Immediately
Jesus takes the position that, 1) Prayer is important, (we can glean that from how
often he prays); and 2) He assumes His disciples pray.
His
disciples prayed then, and they should be praying now.
Just
how important is prayer? One look at the Bible tells you. The Old Testament (Hebrew
Scriptures) is filled with the beseeching, praising prayers of the Old
Testament saints. The New Testament is full of powerful examples of them too.
James, the brother of Jesus and author of the Book of James, was called “Old
Camel Knees” because he was said to have spent so much time on his knees in
prayer.
Martin
Luther is thought to have said: I have so much to do that I shall have to spend
the first three hours in prayer.
In
his first epistle to the Thessalonica church, Paul instructs the believers to
“pray without ceasing.”
And
it’s worth noting that research indicates that people who pray have happier,
healthier lives, and they are more likely to survive catastrophic events and
illnesses, and live longer. (If you’d like a fascinating read on this subject,
get the book, The Survivors Club: The
Secrets and Science That Could Save Your Life, by Ben Sherwood.)
I
think you get the point. Prayer makes a
difference in your life.
*But
what exactly is prayer? It’s a reasoning-together between a Father and His child,
a Lord and His follower; a deep, heartfelt conversation between two friends.
When
you’re deep in depression, it may feel to you as if nothing will make a
difference in your life. Everything is so bad that nothing is going to fix it. Not even prayer. Nothing looks good to
you, outside or within. You’re unhappy, miserable, dejected. You feel as if the
entire world is against you and you’re going nowhere. And, often, you don’t
care about the going-nowhere-part, because you don’t possess enough energy to
care.
It’s
at this point that you may need one of the most beautiful, effective prayers
ever recorded in the Bible. It’s the one Peter says, (actually, he probably
screamed), when he starts walking across the water, takes his eyes off Jesus
and gets a good look at and earful of the howling wind and begins to sink.
It’s
dramatic, and a little humorous. Peter gets right to the point. “Lord, save
me,” he yells. And Jesus immediately stretches out His hand and catches Peter, to
keep him from drowning. But Jesus gets in a lesson when He does it. He says to
Peter, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
And
that is often the crux of our depression problem.
Doubt.
Doubt
in others. Doubt in ourselves. And, yes, even doubt in God.
Things
happen, and the world doesn’t revolve exactly the way we think it should, or
our life doesn’t go according to our plan. We get thrown horribly off-balance
and don’t make the right adjustments, don’t think rightly about our situation.
In
the end, we fall into the trap of judging our current situation—and then
projecting the outcome of it—by our own limitations, and often forget about
God—who has none. Or we simply
project our limitations upon Him, thinking or believing He really can’t do any
more than we have done to change the situation.
Before
I go on, let me insert here that I do not
believe for a second that all illness,
including mental illness like depression, is caused by sin in someone’s life. I
think to believe that is to blatantly ignore Jesus’ own comment on the subject,
and to disregard the story of Job. Certainly all sin, illness, physical,
mental, material and spiritual deterioration and death entered the world
through one man, Adam. But constantly telling ourselves, or listening to
someone else tell us, that we’re sick or depressed because of our own sin—or
someone else’s—actually causes us to wallow in self-pity, denies the lifesaving
power of the cross, and forfeits the redeeming, saving work Christ did there!
*(See footnote at bottom of page.)
Again
and again, especially when I am suffering the most, I remind myself of what
Paul says to the young pastor, Timothy: “For God has not give us a spirit of
fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (My emphasis.)
If
I believe that verse, then I must reason that something, or someone, has stolen
my (spiritual) power and sound mind from me—or I’ve let them have it—and I want
to do everything in my power to recover them!
Whether
we admit it or not, recognize it or not, pay heed to it or not, we are all
involved in a raging spiritual warfare, with hidden land mines planted
everywhere, so I shouldn’t be surprised when those mines explode and send my
life helter-skelter. And when it happens, I should instinctively know what I
must do to fight on to win.
Pray.
For
I believe it is through the magnificent, healing power of prayer that you and I
can gain victory over depression and debilitating grief.
I
believe praying is the single most important activity you do in your life,
after accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, because it is the most life-changing activity. Praying, more
than anything else, has the power to
alter and restore your life!
And
right now some of you may be asking, “Andrea, what is prayer? What does it
look like?" The short answer is: It’s a reasoning-together between a Father and
His child, a Lord and His follower; a deep, heartfelt conversation between two
friends.
Next
week we’ll get more specific. I’ll cover what I believe are the most effective
prayer strategies and why I believe them to be the most effective. But if you
want to get started right now, begin by opening up your Bible and researching
the subject. Find some of those powerful prayers uttered by the saints. Go
through Psalms and see what David and the other psalmists had to say in their
prayers. If you have a concordance, start with a word search.
And
if you’re really struggling in depression and sadness, and find strength and
motivation in extremely short supply, you can always follow Peter’s example.
“Lord,
save me!”
If
you do, you can be assured that He will!
___________________________________
Until
next week,
Thanks
or joining me!
Blessings,
Andrea
* Depression has a myriad
of causes. And as I’ve pointed out in the past, one of the causes is due to a
chemical imbalance, which is sometimes so severe that it warrants medication.
If you need the medication, TAKE IT, but make sure you are simultaneously
working through other avenues to recover.
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