In the day of trouble, pray!

Sermon for Easter 5

James 1:22-27 + John 16:23-30

What do you do when you have troubles, or are in trouble? What do you do when things are falling apart, and all appears hopeless? What do you do when you have some great need? There are two things a Christian should always do in such times, and sometimes there’s a third. The first thing is to turn to God’s Word, both reading it and hearing it preached. The second thing is to turn to God in prayer. Pray to your Father in heaven, which is the theme of this Sunday in the Church year. The third thing, if it’s available, is to do something about your trouble. If you need a job, don’t just read and pray. Go look for a job! If you’re hungry, don’t just read and pray. Eat something, if you can! If you’re injured, don’t just read and pray. Seek medical attention! Sometimes there are things you can do about your troubles. But often times there isn’t much you can do about them. There are some problems that you can’t fix. And so you’re left with the first two things, which are very powerful things. Let your troubles drive you back to, into God’s Word. And then turn to God in prayer.

What is prayer? Christian prayer, Biblical prayer, is talking to God, pouring out your heart to God, calling upon God for help in the day of trouble, whatever the trouble may be, asking God for the things you need. We begin every Sunday service with a prayer, an invocation, calling upon the name of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—to receive our worship, to hear our prayers, and to bless our hearing of His Word. Prayer is only and can only be directed toward God, because prayer presupposes that God knows you, whoever you are, and can actually hear you, wherever you are, and that He can hear and attend to, not only you and your prayer, but every human being who is praying at the exact same time. Only God, who has the divine attributes of omniscience and omnipresence, can do such a thing.

Who can pray? Not just anyone. The one who prays to a false god provokes the true God’s wrath. The one who prays while doubting that God hears, or while doubting God’s goodness, cannot actually pray. As James says in his epistle, If any of you (that is, you believers in Jesus) lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

So who can actually pray? Only the one who knows and who believes in the true God. Which is the same thing as to say, only the one who believes that God the Father sent His only-begotten Son Jesus into human flesh, to redeem mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Only the one who believes in Jesus, who died for us on the cross, and rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, back to the Father’s side. Only the one who uses Christ as our Mediator before the Father’s throne and trusts that He will hear and help. To everyone else, the Father holds up His hand and says, “I will not hear you, apart from My Son, because you are a sinner. But through Him, I will hear you, even though you are a sinner, because, through faith in Him, I account you to not be a sinner. Approach Me through Him, and you will always have My ear!”

Why? Because the Father himself loves you, Jesus says to His disciples, because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from God. The word for “love” in this verse is not the love God has for all men, the sincere devotion He has toward all men, desiring their salvation. No, the word for “love” here is the love of friendship, of fellowship, of common interests and common likes. The Father will hear the prayers of those who love Jesus, because He loves and accepts them as His own dear children for Jesus’ sake.

So ask!, Jesus says. Pray to the Father and ask for help in My name, and you will receive. You will receive exactly the help you need, even if it’s not exactly the specific help you asked for.

And how do we pray in Jesus’ name? It starts with using Christ as your Mediator, going to the Father through Him, trusting that the Father will hear you, not because you have earned His favor, but for Christ’s sake, because Christ has earned His favor, and His ear, for you.

Then it means to pray as Jesus prayed, trusting in the Father’s love, trusting in the Father’s goodness, trusting in the Father’s wisdom, trusting in the Father’s plan. Ask for the things you need in the day of trouble, in the day of sorrow, and trust that your Father cares and knows how best to send help, and that you will receive from Him the best help, the best fulfillment, even if the fulfillment looks different than what you specifically asked for. Trust, and also, submit to God’s care, as Jesus also did in the Garden of Gethsemane, where He prayed, “O Father, take this cup from Me! Yet not My will, but Your will be done.”

So. Are you in trouble, or do you have troubles? Pray! Are you sad, or lonely? Pray! Are you depressed, or confused about the future? Pray! Do you have a need? Pray! Are you thankful? Pray. Have you sinned? Pray, in Jesus’ name. Moms and dads, pray for your children! Children, pray for your mom and dad! Husbands and wives, pray for each other. Church members, pray for your fellow church members, and for all Christians everywhere, and for the non-Christian, too, who has no right or ability to pray for himself.

And, of course, if there is something you can do about your situation, take the strength and the wisdom God will give and do it. And, of course, don’t neglect the reading and the hearing of God’s Word. That should go without saying. Prayer that is not grounded in who God is, what He has done, what He has commanded, and what He has promised, as revealed in Scripture, is prayer without a foundation. But combine your study of Scripture with prayer. And you will have a powerful remedy in the day of trouble. Call upon Me in the day of trouble, says the LordGod. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me. Amen.