Prayer: The Antidote to Apathy

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dear friends in Christ, in the Revelation to St. John we read about the Church of Laodicea, which is neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. They felt strongly about nothing. They neither became outspoken unbelievers and blasphemers opposing the Gospel, nor were they fervent in faith and love. They were weak in mind and spirit. They knew the truth of God, that God became man, joined Himself to our mortal nature suffered and died for their sakes and for the sake of the whole world—and—they did not care all that much about it. It made little difference to them.

They were entirely apathetic to the Gospel of Christ. Certainly, they bore the name Christian and thought themselves part of the Church, but they also thought themselves rich and in need of nothing from God. Thus the Lord says: “I will spit you out of my mouth.” The harshest words in the seven letters to the Churches are saved for the Laodiceans since being apathetic and lukewarm is the most difficult of the spiritual sicknesses to deal with.

A man who is passionate—yet dead wrong—can be spoken to, taught, rebuked, or reasoned with. But what shall we do with a man who simply does not care? We say, “consider this,” but his mind is empty. Or “read this” and his eyes glance over the page yet see nothing. We teach, “Thus saith the Lord,” yet the ears hear nothing. A man without passion, either for or against the truth of God, is like a statue who cannot think, speak, listen, or do anything at all. Furthermore, this apathy enables many other sins and false belief, for why go through the effort to resist sin and temptation when it does not matter all that much?

Religious apathy is one of the greatest and most pervasive sins in American Christianity. This apathy is all around us. If we think it doesn’t affect us, then we must open our eyes to see that it is in the air we breathe and the water we drink. Religious apathy and indifference is the presumption. It is the default way of living. It is always easier to be apathetic than to be zealous for the Lord. Every influence around us is pushing us towards apathy rather than towards zeal. If we aren’t actively pushing against it and pursuing zeal, apathy and indifference towards the Lord and His Word and Work of grace is where we will fall.

The Promises of Prayer

Now I say all this because our Gospel reading for today provides help and a solution for those of us who feel apathy creeping in. Jesus gives His disciples a prescription that their joy may be full. And joy is a passionate emotion that casts out indifference and brings about a religious revival in those who feel it. What is the tool Jesus prescribes to bring joy and revival to the disciples and to us also? Does He tell them to embark on grand new programs and ambitious events to bring about revival and religious feeling in their midst? Is this the solution to an incomplete joy? Or does Jesus tell them their joy will be full when they have a thriving VBS or children’s program? Or is the solution to an incomplete joy to try something entirely new and reinvent yourself and your congregation on a regular basis? People try such things time and time again to bring revival and renewal to their congregation.

Dear friends, these things do not bring completed joy and revival to a congregation. What does Jesus say? He says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (Jn 16:23b–24). Yes, it is as simple as this: ask, and you will receive. Or, put another way, pray to the Lord and your joy will be full. The trick to renewal and revival and the solution to indifference and an incomplete joy is prayer.

When we put our hope for renewal, the end of indifference, and for fulfilling our joy into programs and activities or the reinvention of the congregation then we are putting our hope into our own hands and abilities. Prayer is altogether different. We don’t go to the Father in prayer to tell Him everything that we have accomplished, but we go to Him with open hands say: O Lord, I need help. O Lord I am a poor, miserable sinner. O Lord, without You, I can do nothing and I have nothing, but You Yourself have said, “ask, and you shall receive.” Pray and your joy will be full. All that we do not have, we trust in the God and Father of all to give to us.

Jesus Himself teaches us to take our prayers directly to the Father knowing that they are heard by Him. Jesus says in our text: “In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (Jn 16:26–27). This should be taken as consolation beyond measure. The Father Himself loves us and desires to hear our prayers. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gave us access to the Father by His death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father. We have utterly free access to God whether at Church, or at home, or at work, or on the road. In all circumstances in life we may pour out our prayers to the Father in the name of the Son. On this account, we may all be considered royal priests praying and interceding before God and making spiritual sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving.

All that we need to pray is confidence in this Word of the Lord which teaches us that the Father loves us and desires to hear our prayer on account of our faith in Jesus Christ. On account of this faith, our Heavenly Father no longer looks at our own worthiness and merits, which are still tainted by sin in this life, rather He looks upon the merits of Christ and receives our prayers because of them. God does not receive us because we are good. He receives us because Christ is good and has washed away the stain of sin by His blood. We have been joined to Christ on account of His love and Christ is one with the Father who receives us as His own.

When Should We Pray?

No Christian, then, should ever wait to pray until he is able to deem himself worthy. No one should say: before I can pray I must do this or that good work. Or: first I must remove from myself some such sin or temptation, then I can pray. We are so prone to setting up for ourselves arbitrary rules or benchmarks before we can call ourselves worthy to pray. Yet, if we indulge in such thoughts which prevent our prayers, we will never find ourselves perfect and worthy to stand before God and petition Him for whatever it is that we need. Then we will be entirely without prayer and will needlessly drive ourselves away from God.

Do not wait for the perfect time to pray. It will never come. The Lord has said, now, pray without ceasing. In good times and in bad. Pray when you think you are worthy, pray when you think you are not worthy. Pray with rejoicing, pray with mourning, pray for help, pray for peace, pray when nothing in particular is on your mind at all. Pray if only to remind yourself that God is with you at all times. By praying in this way we keep the second commandment, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God” by fearing and loving God and we call upon His name in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.

Perhaps you were taught from childhood “to say your prayers” first thing in the morning, last before bed, and at mealtime. This is a good and godly custom that your life and days may be well ordered and centered on Christ. If you have lost the habit, or never were taught it in the first place, I exhort you, pick it up again! In the morning pray the Lord’s Prayer before you do anything else. Do the same at night as the very last thing before you go to bed. In this way, you consecrate and make holy your whole day to the Lord with the Word of God and prayer. As you pray you may also pour out from your heart anything else that you might need to say to God so that you begin your work with joy, or rest in peace. If you wish, you may also add Luther’s beautiful Morning and Evening prayers from the Small Catechism. Let these prayers remind you every day of the wonderful work our Lord has done for us and continues to do for us all the days of our lives.

How Should We Pray?

Often we ask ourselves, “for what should I pray?” Especially we ask this when our prayers become stale and unenthusiastic. This is where pre-written prayers come into play which act as our guides and teachers of the whole breadth and depth of things for which we can pray. I have found that the more I read prayers written by others, and add my own “amen” to them, the more bountiful and spiritual are the prayers which come from my own heart. We are simply blessed beyond measure in the Lutheran Church with beautiful prayer-books of every kind and for every occasion. It is hard to recommend one over another because there are so many wonderful prayer-books. If you don’t have one, you should pick one up. The catechism prayers, likewise, are to be treasured for their beauty and brevity. Also, many hymns are prayers set to music.

But of course, we must also look to Scripture directly for guidance in prayer. Consider the entire book of Psalms, since it is truly a divinely inspired prayer-book, covering the whole life of faith and breadth of human emotions. Each and every psalm may be prayed to God according to the need and circumstances of the Christian. For this reason, the psalms became the center piece around which the non-communion weekday services of the Church revolved. The psalms cover every question, concern, trouble, joy, or thanksgiving that the Christian may come upon in this life. They provide a great model for how we ought to pray in this troubled life.

Brief Exposition on the Lord's Prayer

Of course, the chief prayer of the Christian Church, which encompasses all other prayers is the Lord’s Prayer. With this short prayer—only seven petitions in all—Christ our Lord teaches us to pray for all things we need in this life. Let us, then, consider the Lord’s Prayer—much more briefly than it deserves.

Jesus teaches us, above all, to address God as “our Father who art in heaven,” so that we may believe that He is our true Father and we are His true children and that, with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear Father.

Then, in the first petition we ask: “hallowed by thy name.” In this petition we pray for all true teachers of God’s Word and that we would lead holy lives according to it. But we pray against all those who would teach falsely or live evil lives. For God’s name is profaned among us when anyone teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word.

In the second petition, “Thy kingdom come,” we pray that the kingdom of Satan, of death, and of darkness would be overthrown among us and that the kingdom of God would be established among us through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. This kingdom comes when we, by grace, are given the Holy Spirit who teaches us to be faithful and true to God’s Holy Word.

In the third petition we pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die.

The fourth petition is “give us this day our daily bread.” Here we learn to pray for everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body. We pray for those in authority, for our parents, for our family, for the necessary food and fruits of the earth, for seasonable weather, for peace, and for blessings on our own labors. Sometimes we think these things are not spiritual enough or beneath God’s concern, but He also is intimately aware of the needs of your body and has great concern for them.

In the fifth petition, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” we pray that God would be merciful to us and that He would not pour out His wrath on us, even though we greatly deserve it on account of our sins. Rather, we ask that He would bestow on us forgiveness and grace as well as the power to become better day-by-day to do His will, to live peaceably with others, and to forgive them their sins.

In the sixth petition, “lead us not into temptation,” we ask that God would give comfort and consolation to all sorrowful hearts with His Word and Holy Spirit and that we may be rescued from plans and striving of Satan who desires to lead us into all manner of false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice.

Finally, in the seventh petition we pray, “deliver us from evil.” This petition, in summary, teaches us to pray that we would be rescued from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and that, when our last hour comes we may be given a blessed end, and be graciously taken from this vale of sorrow to God Himself in Heaven.

Then the prayer is ended with “Amen,” which is a cry of faith that means “yes, yes, it shall be so.” We may say this with full confidence knowing that our Lord Himself has taught us to pray in this way.

"In the Name of Jesus"

When we commit ourselves to this prayer, we pray everything that our Lord would have us ask of Him. The is truly good and pleasing in His sight and He will surely hear our prayers since He has promised to do this. If you only ask the Lord our God, He will strengthen your faith, bind up weak knees, and grant you wisdom to know Him aright. And so we pray knowing that it has many great promises attached to it for Christians of goodwill and that through it our Lord will strengthen us and our congregation.

When we commit ourselves to prayer, just as our Lord has taught us, we will see how it can move mountains, how indifference is cast away by the power of the Holy Spirit, and how a true, spiritual revival is brought among us so that we may believe and live as we have learned in the Word of God.

Above all, remember that we pray to God the Father, as our Father, directly “in the name of Jesus.” For He is the one whom God has highly exalted and there is no salvation except in his name. Christian prayer is not a work of repetition or mental prowess. It is a work of the Spirit whom Jesus sends us from the Father. The words of Jesus teach us the truth and so Christians always pray in repentance and humility trusting that God is indeed their Father and loves them dearly for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Messiah Lutheran Church, Saginaw