“What’s Wrong With My Prayers?” – Matthew 7:7-11

My mother was telling me a story earlier this week about something that happened to my sister, Suzy, when she was just a little girl.  Evidently, Suzy won some kind of contest and with the $5 she won, my parents let her buy a hamster and cage.  Suzy loved that hamster and named him Sesame.  Sesame was very loving and gentle but after a while he learned how to open the cage on his own and get out.

The first time it happened, they found Sesame right away and put him back.  But then the next time he got out, he was just gone and Suzy was heart-broken.  Mom said she prayed every day that God would help them find Sesame but they knew that the chances were not good because there were cats around the house and there were just too many places to hide.  They looked and looked but after two weeks, they just knew that Sesame was a goner.

But every day, Suzy continued to pray fervently that God would help them find Sesame.  One night, two weeks later, mind you, Pop got up in the middle of the night and went to the kitchen for some water and just happened to think about one place they hadn’t looked behind the dryer where the vent hose was supposed to go so he got a flashlight and shined it back there and what do you think he found?

He found Sesame - alive and well - picked him up and ran into Suzy’s room and woke her up to show her little Sesame and they all rejoiced, including little Sesame who was probably just glad to get some regular food and water!  There’s no telling what he had been eating or drinking but they said he was just fine.  Can you imagine how happy Suzy was that God had answered her prayers?

Have you ever had a prayer answered like that?  Maybe you have and maybe you haven't but it begs several questions.  How do you get a prayer answered like that?  Does God even answer prayer like that or was that just luck or karma or just good circumstances?  If God does answer prayer like that, why doesn’t he answer mine?  What do I have to do or say to get God to hear and answer my prayers?  We are basically asking, “What’s wrong with my prayers?”

Well, Jesus had lots to say about prayer.  Let’s start out by looking at Matthew chapter 7, verses 7-11.  This is part of the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached.  It may have been preached over the course of several days.  We don’t know and it doesn’t matter.  What matters is that everything He taught in this sermon is counter-cultural.  It was then and it is now.

He started by giving the Beatitudes which said that the poor in spirit will gain Heaven, the meek will inherit the earth, the merciful will be shown mercy and those who are persecuted will be blessed.  All of which was the opposite of what had been taught and believed by people in that day just like it is today.  The brains of His disciples must have been smoking because He turned everything they thought they knew upside down. 

Being angry is the same as murder.  Lust is the same as adultery.  Turn the other cheek.  Love your enemies – what?  Don’t you know His disciples were looking at each other thinking, “This is impossible”?  And they were right!  It was impossible then and it’s impossible now, everything He taught was and is impossible without a relationship with the Teacher.

When Jesus goes on to teach about answered prayer, it, too, is impossible.  I’ll get right to the point, to the point of His sermon and mine and just say that all this is impossible without Him but with Him, all things are possible.  So, just keep that in mind as we read about prayer in Matthew 7:7-11.  Jesus said,

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹"Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

I heard a quote the other day from somebody I had never heard of that said, “I talk to God but the sky is empty.” ― Sylvia Plath  Do you ever feel that way?  Sure you do.  We all do sometimes and yet Jesus, the Great Teacher, says right here that if you ask it will be given to you.  Well then, what’s wrong with my prayers because I’ve been praying for a long time for God to send me a new Corvette and still nothing?  I’m not even picky.  I told you either Velocity Yellow or Race Red will be just fine.

Well, we all know that is not what Jesus was talking about and we will talk some more about that in a minute but let’s look at what He did say.  He said that we should ask, seek and knock and when I looked those words up in my giant concordance I learned pretty much nothing.  Those are plain words, plainly spoken.  We know what it means to ask, to seek and to knock, although they are used in the present imperative which just means that we should keep on asking, keep on seeking and keep on knocking.

The commentaries I read, as usual, want to make it more difficult than Jesus let on.  They say it is of course implied that we seek with a proper spirit, with humility, faith, earnestness, sincerity, and perseverance, under the direction, guidance, and influence of the Holy Spirit.  We ask in faith and fear, and with submission to the divine will and if we do all those things, we will receive.

Well, Jesus said “Ask”.  It reminds me of taking golf lessons.  Have you ever had golf lessons?  It’s awful.  Don’t ever do it if you can help it.  Bend your knees.  Keep your back straight.  Left arm bent.  Right arm stiff.  Lean forward with most of your weight on the back foot but not too much.  Eyes down.  Head up.  Neck twisted.  Brain fried.  Now relax.  Who can do all of that?

If Jesus was your golf coach I think He would just say, “Hit it, hit it hard and keep on hitting it!”  All that other stuff may be true but that is not the point Jesus was making here.  The real secret comes in verses 9-11 where Jesus talks about how a good father treats his kids.  He said that we as humans, as parents, know how to give good gifts to our kids and we are basically evil.  How much more our Father God knows to give His kids gifts.

It reminds me of the old story of a little four-year old girl who really wanted some pearls just like her mother had.  Her mother had a beautiful necklace with gorgeous pearls and, of course, the daughter wanted to be like her.  She finally got some cheap, plastic pearls out of a toy vending machine but she loved them.  She wore them everywhere and with everything.

But one day her daddy came to her and said, “Honey, I really like those pearls.  I really want them.  Will you give them to me?”  Of course, this bothered the little girl because she loved her daddy but she loved these pearls and they were her prized possessions so at first, she said, “No” but it really bothered her to say that to her daddy.

Her daddy asked again later.  “Honey, I really love that necklace.  Will you give it to me?”  Finally, with tears in her eyes and not understanding but loving her daddy she grudgingly took off the necklace and gave it to her daddy and when she did her daddy pulled a little box from behind his back and traded it to the girl.  When she opened the box there was a beautiful necklace made of real pearls just like her mother’s.

That daddy knew how to give good gifts, didn’t he?  He wanted the best for his prized possession too, didn’t he?  How much more does our Father want to give us good and perfect gifts like it says in James?  Okay, I never have been an expert on prayer.  Honestly, I don’t know how it works.  I know that we are told to do it even though God already knows what we need.  We are told to approach the throne of grace with confidence as it says in Hebrews 4:16 and yet be humble.

We are told to do it fervently like it says in James 5:16. But honestly, I don’t know how or why it works but I know it does and so I do it.  What I do know is that God wants us to talk to Him.  He wants to talk to us.  He wants to have an on-going relationship with Him that includes an on-going conversation and that’s what prayer is.

There is a fascinating story in the 5^th chapter of Genesis about a little-known man by the name of Enoch.  All it says is that Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.  It says in Hebrews 11, “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: He could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.”

This is one of those times I really wish Genesis told more of the story.  I don’t need to know what happened to the dinosaurs but I want to know more about this Enoch guy.  Apparently, God enjoyed Enoch’s company so much that He walked with him every day and finally one day God just said, “Hey, we usually go to your house but today you are coming to mine.”

How cool is that?  I want that!  If I ever just disappear and nobody can find me, just assume that’s what happened, ok?  I’m probably dying in a ditch somewhere but just assume I Enoch-ed outta here.  That would be awesome!  What God wants, believe it or not, is to have a close relationship with you. 

This passage in Matthew is about how to get your prayers answered but God wants to do more than just answer your requests.  He wants to have a relationship where you each talk and each listen, with you telling Him what you want and Him telling you what He wants and that there is a closeness there that is manifested in peace and joy in your life because you are a friend of God.  You are a prized possession of the One True King, the Alpha and Omega, the great I AM and He wants to answer your prayers and give you, not just good things, but the best things.

But go back to Hebrews chapter 11.  Turn there.  I want you to see this.  Hebrews 11 is called the “Faith Chapter” of the Bible and, while I said I don’t know how prayer works, I think we are on to something with this whole faith thing.  Look at Hebrews 11.  We will read verse 5 but it’s really verse 6 I want you to see.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: "He could not be found, because God had taken him away." For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

“Earnestly seek Him.”  Do you see how all this starts to come together?  A relationship with Jesus is more than just having your prayers answered.  If that is your only concern, you’re doing it wrong.  That is a by-product of seeking Him.

Matthew 6:33 says, ^“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  You don’t have to understand how prayer works.  In fact, you never will.  You do it by faith, as a child praying for their pet.  You pray.  You pray harder and you keep praying until your prayer is answered or God tells you “no” and if He tells you “no” then that is a great answer given by a loving Father.

I’m so glad God doesn’t give me a new Corvette.  I have to admit this.  If He did, I guarantee you I wouldn’t get out of the dealership before the sin of pride had come over me as I compared my beautiful, new, Velocity Yellow Z-06 with the Napa leather seats and the 6.2 liter V-8 that goes 0-60 in…see I’m doing it already! 

God, thank you for your gift of that little, old Kia Sorento out there with 200,000 miles on it.  What a wonderful gift that car has been and what a wonderful answer to prayer.  God knows how to give the perfect gifts and He wants to give you those gifts.  He has a store room in Heaven full of good and perfect gifts just waiting on you to seek Him and His Kingdom.

I read something the other day.  A woman overheard her son praying his bedtime prayers and he said, "Dear God, thank You for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy."  Sometimes God answers our prayers like we want and sometimes he changes our “wanter”.  Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

That doesn’t mean He will give you everything you want, it means that He will change what you want to be more like what He wants and, of course, He will do this because when you are seeking after Him, hanging out with Him, talking with Him in close relationship, you will start to look, act and smell like Him and pretty soon you start to want what He wants.

When you start to pray what He wants then He starts unloading that store room and starts shoveling out blessings pressed down, shaken together and running over on you, His beloved and precious child. 

So, here’s what I want us to do.  Let’s bow our heads and close our eyes and let’s start by spending some time praying about what we should pray about.  That’s right.  Ask God right now if that desire of your heart is the desire of His heart.  If so, keep praying.  Ask.  Seek.  Knock and keep at it.  If you don’t get an answer, keep praying.  Unless He tells you to do something else, keep doing what you are doing.

Now, ask Him if there is something in your life that is not best for you.  It may be a person, an attitude, a habit, a word or a place.  I don’t know.  Ask God to search you and try you and see if there is anything displeasing to Him.  Come to the altar if you want.

If you want somebody to pray with you, grab them by the arm and do it.  Maybe you need to give something up.  Maybe you need to rededicate your life or maybe you need to join this church.  Maybe you don’t hear from God at all because you have never asked Him to be Lord of your life and to forgive your sins. Maybe you need to come, by faith, to God and stop trying to rule your own life and just give it all to Him today.  Do that now.