Sermon – The Power of Prayer
John 17:1-21a; Isaiah 1:12-17
5/17/26
Would you consider yourself to be “good” at praying? There are folk out there who would consider themselves to be good prayers. Even still, how would they even evaluate that? Have they gotten the answers they were seeking or the needed help that drove them to pray? Some do keep prayer as the go-to for when they are pressed by a need, maybe for when they are desperate or are feeling tried by the world and pressed. On the other hand, we really should pray for much more than our dire or pressing need. God is not and has never been cosmic Santa, but that has never stopped some from trying. If that sounds crass or harsh, it is. Praying is so much more, thankfully, and I believe that when you go to your knees in prayer it is with more than a wish list. Prayer is first and foremost about thanking God, praising God, and embracing the Spirit of God’s love. We go to God because we love our Heavenly Father and cherish the life we share. Prayer can easily be conversation, albeit more one sided.
So are you good at praying? Yes, I am back to that question. It is actually a more important question than I had previously thought. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Anything important to us is worth investing in and growing. Any activity that we might consider essential to the life we want to live is certainly something worth improving. Or perhaps you can accept the heart surgeon working on you or a loved one who did just enough to get by – who is marginally acceptable and happy to stay there. I’d even rather have people working the drive-thru lane who care to be good at their jobs. Whether we think about it or not, we all appreciate being good at things – everything from brainstorming to bridge to conversation to knitting to cooking to driving and to simply helping, even walking, eating, and sleeping are things we would rather do well. It is so strange to me that there are so many, many things out there that we just might work to be good at, but prayer is something that (I suspect) we might feel funny about saying we do well. Even if I am not great at something important to me, I do at least want to be better. When was the last time you said to yourself, “I really want to be better at praying?”
Honestly, I propose that we have worked on being good at washing our hands more than prayer – not that we don’t pray, but that we might not try to be good at it or at least better.
That reluctance comes with a price: maybe weak, empty, and meaningless prayer. Isaiah lays out what comes with the lack of a heart for God. The people in Isaiah’s day were going to church “so-to-speak.” They were making offerings, many offerings. They were observing special, holy days and going through the motions, but they did not care about the people, God’s people, the family of God who are vulnerable and oppressed. Just being religious does not give you God’s ear. Saying the right things, doing the right things, and looking the right way does not make God listen to you if it is all a show. Not only were they putting on a show in Isaiah’s day, they were actively oppressing the weak and poor. They were not good at praying which was once symptom of their lack of love for God. How does God even answer a selfish, weak, empty prayer?
Thankfully, it is actually possible to get better at praying, to even get good at praying. This does not mean that every prayer you offer will be amazing or that you will never get tripped up or tongue-tied. You might even say the wrong thing from time to time because of a situation you did not know or you forgot something important. We will most likely never be able to call down fire from heaven, raise someone from the dead, or cast out demons with our prayer, and I am perfectly fine with that. That is not the kind of prayer that will sustain my faith, but my hope is in more loving prayer. That is better prayer.
Prayer begins with love, and you actually have to want to do it. It can be uncomfortable and awkward and incredible personal, especially with others. It makes the person praying vulnerable, and that can be scary, but prayer is so important that it is worth the risk, and it is very possible to get better doing it. In fact, it is inevitable to improve as you exercise the gift.
Prayer is like an important relationship in that it begins with love, and you must want to be in that relationship. It can be uncomfortable and awkward at first because they are very personal. We become vulnerable when we trust others with our lives and what’s important to us, but that love is worth the risk of vulnerability, and we grow in our ability to handle special relationships better through experience. When we want to grow a relationship, to make it better, it takes work. The same goes for prayer.
It is possible that people get worried about prayer when they pray in front of others or for others. That is fair. Public speaking is not everyone’s cup of tea, but we pray out of what? Oh yes, love. We need more prayer in this world, not less. We need better prayer in this world, not worse. We need people who are good at praying, and we can grow into that gift.
I must believe that at some point in your life you were touched by a prayer. It could have been one in a religious setting or maybe a prayer around the kitchen table or with a parent when you were little before bed. Maybe you were part of prayer at a public setting or in a community service. Maybe you had a moment with a someone in deep need for prayer and the opportunity created a God-moment. Maybe you prayed over the phone or through a screen or just by yourself in a special way. Maybe it was prayer in a crisis or tragedy. Anyone who has that experience should have a good sense of how important and necessary this gift is for the people of God, for God’s family.
It is tough, however, when prayers do not seem to work out, when we pray for something to happen and it never does or maybe even the opposite happens. Some people like to pray for signs, for God to speak to them in Moses-and-the-burning-bush fashion. You would be much better off talking to someone else in faith than trying to get a billboard from God. If you are disappointed by prayer, then it is because you are praying for the wrong things. This is something you discover more and more as you practice and grow and get better. We can definitely take a page out of Jesus’ book.
The passage I read from John’s Gospel is part of the greatest prayer in the Bible. This is the big prayer Jesus makes right at the end of his life just before he is arrested. Here, while he has the peace and space, he lays out his heart for his disciples before God. It is beautiful and expansive with the prayer taking up the entire chapter. He even prays for us, the ones who will believe because of the witness of those who followed him all those years ago. This prayer is all about love. You hear Jesus’ love for God the Father, how grateful Jesus is to be doing the will of God in the world, and for how he has succeeded in his mission. But it does not end there. Jesus presents us to God as something precious. He even asks that we can share the same unity that he and God share. That is a huge request! He wants the very best for us all, especially now as he is preparing to depart from them. Just a few verses before, Jesus explained that he was leaving for a little while but it was for the best. In the meantime and following, we would need help to get through life.
Prayer is that help. Prayer is God’s heart for us and our heart for God. It is the breath of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Do not leave this gift to the experts, to those who are “good” at prayer. Prayer is for you and me. It is one of those amazing and powerful things that is right here for anyone who earnestly seeks a better love in God. It is so simple, so easy, and so good. Pray without ceasing, friends. Join me now….
Holy and Loving Father, we sometimes do not know what to pray or maybe how to pray as we think we should. Our prayers might feel weak and silly, and we are afraid to be honest. Show us your heart for prayer. Show us our oneness in you. Show us how our hearts can be enlarged in yours to hold your people in new ways, and give us confidence to be your praying people. Bless those for whom we pray, those situations that we place before you, and the needs beyond our words. Bless us as your children, also, as others pray for us. We need more prayer, more time with you in your Spirit, more life in your joy, and more love in Christ, in whom we pray. Amen.
Amen.