TV Program

Current Episode

Now I Lay Me Down

2006-04-30

PRODUCTION #: 1048

SPEAKERS: Shawn Boonstra, Mark Finley,

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake…"

You know, that's one of the first prayers most of us learn. And in the innocence of childhood when we haven't learned to doubt, we go to bed each night genuinely believing that angels will stand by our bed, keeping us safe. We assume that our prayers will be answered.

But then we begin to grow up and we learn that life is full of disappointment, heartache and suffering. Somewhere along the way, our child-like trust is shattered and as a result, sometimes we begin to doubt the power of prayer. Can you really expect God to be listening when you speak to Him? Does it really make a difference when you pray or do the words bounce off the ceiling?

You know, a little while ago, a friend of ours had lost her driver's license in the airport and she was understandably worried. So my daughters, ages two and five, got down on their knees and asked Jesus to help her find that driver's license.

You can imagine their excitement when she went back to the airport and actually found it.

"Daddy," they said, "Jesus answered our prayers."

Well, the rest of that day, those two little girls asked Jesus for one thing after another. And I have to admire that kind of simple faith. As a preacher, it's refreshing to see two people who trust God so implicitly. And personally, I hope they never start to doubt.

But I'm afraid that as they grow up, they're going to discover that you don't always get what you ask for.

Maybe you've had the experience of sitting in church, listening to people talk about their prayers being answered. And in the back of your mind, as you listen to their stories of miraculous intervention, you wonder, "Why in the world doesn't God answer my prayers like that?"

Let me ask you something. Is there a formula that guarantees success in your prayer life? I've heard people suggest that if you don't pray a certain way, using certain words, God will never listen to you.

And I've heard other people say that if God doesn't give you what you ask for, it's because you just don't have enough faith. Is that true?

Today, Pastor Mark Finley is with me in studio to talk about the subject of prayer. Mark, it's great to see you again.

MARK: Shawn, I'm glad to be here. This is really a vital subject.

SHAWN: It's an important one and I want to cut right to the chase. Listen, is there really any evidence that prayer works? And I'm talking about scientific evidence. People say, "Oh, those Christians can believe anything they want, I want proof."

MARK: Christianity is based on faith. Faith that God loves us, faith that God only desires our best good. And if there were no room for doubt, there would never be a need for faith. So you can't prove God in a test tube. But there are some fascinating scientific studies that have been done recently on prayer that, at least to my mind, give me more evidence to believe than to disbelieve.

Now it doesn't take away the need for faith. But the evidence, I believe, is on the side of faith and not on the side of doubt.

There are 79 medical schools in the United States that have courses on prayer and healing.

SHAWN: You're kidding!

MARK: There are, and in the 1980s there were only three. And the reason for that is this: The scientific studies. Two hundred scientific studies have been done on intercessory prayer. Some of them have been called double blind studies.

SHAWN: Now, explain that for me a little bit.

MARK: OK, a double blind study is one in which the people praying are praying for specific people, but neither the doctors nor the nurses nor the people being prayed for know that they're being prayed for. In other words, if a person is being prayed for, the argument would be that he will send out positive chemical endorphins in his mind and with positive thinking will heal himself. There is no divine activity.

SHAWN: It's simply psychosomatic. He knows he is being prayed for and so it helps.

MARK: Right, in fact there are physicians who are atheists that say to their patients, you go pray. Not because they believe in prayer or because they believe in God, but because they believe that if you pray, you release these positive chemical endorphins and you'll heal yourself.

SHAWN: So tell me what happened then, when nobody knew that the prayer was happening.

MARK: OK, the first study was done by Dr. Randolph Byrd in San Francisco in the San Francisco General Hospital. It was done on people who had coronary bypass surgery. There were 393 of these people and they divided them into two groups, the prayed-for group and the non-prayed-for group. Neither group knew that they were being prayed for. So it's difficult for your mind to influence your body if you don't know you're being prayed for.

SHAWN: Right.

MARK: The names of the prayed-for group were given to committed, faithful Christians. They prayed for each name. Then something remarkable happened. The ones that were prayed for had fewer infections and fewer complications. They improved much more quickly.

In fact, this study was reported in 1988 in the Southern Medical Journal. The title of the study was "The Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit Population."

And the study said that if what we tested was a medication, it would have become the most popular medication in the world. It was that effective. Just amazing.

Dr. Luvicki studied 3,300 patients from 1991 to 1993 with bloodstream infections. And he studied their hospital stay. The prayed-for patients had a drastically reduced hospital stay.

One of my favorite studies was the study done in the Cha General Hospital in Seoul, Korea. It was a study done on in vitro fertilization, women who would come in and have in vitro fertilization to become pregnant. The pregnancy rate in the studies was 26 percent. Now the interesting thing that they did was this. They decided to study this question: What if we start praying for these women who are getting in vitro fertilization?

No Christian church was involved in monitoring the study. It was a study monitored by the hospital, monitored by physicians. But they gave the names of these women out to praying Christians. The in vitro fertilization rate from the ones who were being prayed for went from 26 percent to more than 50 percent.

SHAWN: Twenty-six all the way up to 50. That's significant.

MARK: So, if you want your wife to get pregnant, prayer is a big help.

SHAWN: Now, I seem to remember, we didn't have children for quite awhile. And then after we had our first one, somebody told me, Shawn, we were praying you would have a child. And there the child came.

MARK: Are they continuing to pray?

SHAWN: Well, I've asked them to stop now. We have a lovely family.

MARK: Shawn, you know, prayer and science are not antithesis, there is no big wall between them.

SHAWN: I agree.

MARK: Prayer makes a significant difference and there is hard scientific evidence. Now I also need to say, that of the 200 studies, in about two-thirds of them, prayer made a dramatic difference. And about one-third of them, statistically, we've not seen a difference.

SHAWN: Amazing. Now, I know somebody's reading this thinking, "All right, there are the statistics. There is evidence that prayer works, but as I go to church, I see some people who have a dynamic prayer life and mine doesn't feel that way. And I don't seem to get answers like other people. Are there principles that can lead to a stronger prayer life?"

MARK: You know, Shawn, as I have read the New Testament, particularly, I've isolated a number of principles that at least to me, make real sense from Jesus' prayer life.

The first principle is found in Mark, chapter one and verse 35. Jesus is speaking and He says, "Now, in the morning, having risen a great while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place to pray."

Actually, this is a text about Jesus, not so much Him speaking, He speaks a little later in the passage.

But in this passage, Mark records that early in the morning Jesus went out to pray. So I think that this is the first principle, have a time to pray. Set some time aside, every morning or every evening.

Most people find, in the morning, that they like to start their day with prayer. So the first principle is, have a regular time to pray.

You have a regular time to eat. For a growing spiritual experience, have a regular time to pray.

SHAWN: So choose some time of the day when you know that you have the privacy and the alertness. But schedule it, do this regularly.

MARK: In my own personal life, I certainly pray in the morning, but that is not my most effective time to pray. I pray in the morning, but my most effective time to pray is after things are done at the end of the day, although I've started my day with prayer. I pray throughout the day, but the evening time for me, as I reflect upon the day, is the time when I have my most meaningful experience with God.

The Bible doesn't tell us that the time to pray is the same for everybody. But it does say, have a time to pray.

The second thing you'll notice about Jesus' prayer life is He had a place to pray. He often went to Gethsemane to pray. And when I get a new home or when I move from place to place, I always look for some place to pray.

When I was living in the South a number of years ago, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, we were at a school and had some students living with us. The house was always full of laughter, cheer and noisiness. And so, it was difficult for me to pray in the house. It was a small home.

So I often went out on the trails, we were living in a wooded area, and there I had a little place to pray, out by a brook that I'd regularly visit.

If you're in the city, that's not really practical. So, find a place to pray, some quiet place in your home. If you are a housewife, let that prayer time be when the kids are napping or let it be before the kids get up in the morning. But find some place to pray.

SHAWN: So, a time and a place. I can identify with that. You know I grew up in British Columbia. We had a lot of mountains. I like to go up the mountain, right to the top. You know, it has to be a little mountain, cause you don't have that much day. But, to go up there, you know that's where Moses went to meet God, and I want to meet with Him there.

MARK: So everybody finds some time or some place to pray.

Thirdly, pray aloud. Look at Jesus in the New Testament. You remember His model prayer, called "The Lord's Prayer." And that's found in the book of Luke, it begins, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name."

SHAWN: Now, you're in Luke, chapter 11.

MARK: It says, and 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."

The disciples came upon Jesus, and the Bible says, "when He ceased." In other words, He was praying out loud. And they heard these audible prayers from Christ. And as He was praying out loud, they were so impressed, they said, "Teach us to pray."

Throughout the Scripture, you find that Jesus' prayers were prayers that He prayed out loud.

SHAWN: Now, that's quite different from the way we pray today, isn't it? Because, I mean we pray out loud if we're with a group. But you're talking about praying out loud on our own.

MARK: That's right. In fact, you look at Matthew, chapter 26. Again, the disciples come upon Jesus in Gethsemane. And verse 39, He went a little farther and fell on His face and prayed.

If you drop down to verse 42, He went again a second time and prayed. Verse 44, so He left them and went again and prayed the third time.

So Jesus prayed aloud, silent prayer does not always need to be secret prayer. And secret prayer does not always need to be silent prayer.

When you look at the model of Jesus' prayer life, He is praying aloud. Now, obviously, there are times for thought prayers. We are driving in a car and we dart out a prayer.

We are walking down the street and the Bible says, pray without ceasing. That means being in an attitude of prayer. So we pray.

It would be a rather strange thing if you go into a business meeting and in the middle of the business meeting you need wisdom and you begin praying aloud.

So certainly, we are concentrating our minds. But, praying aloud has unusual benefits. Here is why. Have you ever had your mind wander in prayer?

SHAWN: Oh, there's no question about it. I can admit it and I'm a preacher.

MARK: Sure, and my mind wanders in prayer, as well. Now, why? When you are thinking your prayers, often your mind begins to wander. And you don't even know it's wandering. And two or three or four minutes later, hey, wait a minute, my mind was wandering, I've got to bring it back.

When you are audibly praying, the brain has to engage, so that words come out of the mouth. And when you stop speaking, you immediately know your mind is wandering. You catch yourself. So, audible praying engages the mind and it is a signal when you stop, that your mind is wandering and it makes it much easier to pray.

So, I've found, you have a time to pray, and a place to pray and you pray out loud. Now, there are many Christians who say, "I'm not going to pray out loud. Because if I pray out loud, Satan is going to hear me. And I don't want him to hear me and he can't read my thoughts."

SHAWN: Now, there is some truth to that. The Bible does say that only God knows the heart. God knows the mind. Satan doesn't read our thoughts.

MARK: That's correct. But, is Satan omnipresent? Satan is a physical being. He can only be omnipresent through his angels. He is not omnipresent, everywhere, only through his evil angels.

When you begin to pray, Shawn, God puts good angels around you and the evil angels are beaten away.

SHAWN: I believe that.

MARK: So, it's not that Satan is going to learn your strategy when you pray. God can close you in, in the closet of His love.

SHAWN: Frankly, any strategy you and I come up with is not going to hold a candle to what the devil can do anyway.

MARK: Sure, Jesus had the most important decision of His life in going to the cross and in Gethsemane, He was praying out loud.

So, that's the model of Jesus' prayer.

SHAWN: What were the first three again?
I want to get these settled.

MARK: First, you have a place to pray. Second, you have a time to pray. Thirdly, you pray aloud.

SHAWN: Pray audibly.

MARK: Where only God can hear you.

SHAWN: OK, now I'm ready for number four.

MARK: OK, here is the fourth. Use the Bible as subject matter for prayer. Why does your mind wander? You see prayer is not only, many people think that prayer is simply requesting something from God. But prayer is opening the heart to God as a friend. Prayer is fellowship with God. Prayer is this intimacy with God.

What kind of fellowship would we have, Shawn, with our wives if we never talked to them?

SHAWN: Right!

MARK: You know, they talk to us and hopefully, we talk to them. There is that dialog back and forth.

So, how does God speak to us? He speaks to us through scripture. Some of the most marvelous prayer times I've had are praying through the Psalms.

For example, I've taken Psalm one, and I'm down on my knees, and it goes something like this.

SHAWN: Let me join you there.

MARK: So I'll begin to pray and I'll read the Psalm, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly."

And I'll say, Lord, you are speaking to me in that passage. I don't want to walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Lord, I only want to be a godly man. I want to be a godly father, I want to be a godly husband. I want to be a godly leader in my work today.

Then I continue to read, "But His delight is in the law of the Lord and he meditates in it day and night." Lord, help me delight in obedience. Help me find my greatest joy in doing the things that you want me to do.

So, as I read the Psalms, it says, "he brings forth his fruit in its season and his leaf won't wither. Whatever he does shall prosper."

Lord, only you can make me prosper. Lord, you promised, I'm going to be a prosperous man. Maybe not so financially prosperous, but a prosperous man in the lifestyle that I live.

So Shawn, what I find is this. That often we get so busy in our lives that it keeps us from that quiet meditation, that intimacy with God. God is not a celestial Santa Claus whom we simply ask for gifts. He wants to give us gifts, certainly, but God is a loving Father, who wants a relationship. He wants that intimacy with Him of getting to know Him, to having Him live in our hearts and live in our lives.

And that is what occurs when we follow these principles in prayer.

SHAWN: Now, I can see that that last principle, in particular, is powerful on several fronts. I have had a lot of people come to me and say, I don't know what to pray about. I pray for my family and I pray for the same things every night and I pray for the missionaries and then I run out.

But if you are praying through the scriptures, you have God's subject material for prayer. You are on the same wavelength as Him to begin with.

MARK: Exactly, Shawn, there is something else that I have found helpful. And I take the acronym "acts" and I use that in my prayer life. And sometime before I pray, I take a blank sheet of paper and I'll simply write down on that blank sheet of paper: A-C-T-S.

"A" is for adoration, and I think, "What are all the things I want to adore God for?" I adore Him because Jesus died for me. I adore Him because He created me. So I come before God and I say, "God, I adore you." That's the "A."

"C" is for confession. I look at my own heart and ask, "Lord, where have I failed today with my wife and my kids?"

"T" is for thankfulness. I ask, "What am I thankful for, tangibly, in my life today?"

And "S" is supplication. That's what I ask Him for, those are my requests.

So, sometimes I write that down on a piece of paper ahead of time. A – adoration; C – confession; T – thankfulness; S – supplication.

I write down those specific things and as I pray, I pray out loud and I look at that list of the things to keep my mind focused.

SHAWN: Now, as I listen to those four things and I think about the prayer Jesus taught us, they are all there.

MARK: They are all in the Lord's prayer. Sure.

SHAWN: They are all there, so this is really a heaven-based model for praying.

MARK: It is.

SHAWN: Here's another question I get all the time from people. There is this story in the Bible about a widow who comes to a judge and asks the same thing again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, until the judge finally caves in and gives it to her.

The impression that some people get is this: "Is God asking me to repeat my prayer over and over? How many times should we pray for something?"

MARK: Shawn, that story is not a comparison. It is a contrast story. It's not saying that God is like the judge. It's saying He is NOT like the judge. If you have to go to the judge again and again and again, you just beg and squeeze something out of him and finally just to get rid of you, he gives it to you. You see, that's the point of the story.

But what the Bible is saying is that God is not like that. He is like a loving Father who wants to give you gifts.

But as far as persistence in prayer goes, the reason we persist is not because God is not willing. But have you ever prayed for something today and promptly forgot about it? And then three months later, you realize that wasn't very important after all?

SHAWN: That happens more often than I'd like to admit.

MARK: You know, that which is so important to us today may not be important in three months. The reason for persistence in prayer is to develop within our hearts the sense of commitment regarding the thing that we are praying for, and it also develops our faith.

SHAWN: Fantastic. Now, here is another question, I've been asked this a number of times. Why bother praying if God is omniscient, if He knows everything and He knows the future and He knows the past and He knows where everything is headed, then why bother bringing things to Him in prayer?

MARK: God respects our freedom of choice, and in the universe there is a controversy between good and evil. And God is doing everything He can to work in our lives, even if we don't pray. God's doing everything He can for our son or daughter, even if we don't pray. But as we pray, it enables God to do more than if we didn't pray. Because He looks at the devil and He says, "Shawn has the freedom of choice. He's praying and I want to pour my power out through Him." So God respects our human freedom. That's why we pray. To open ourselves up to the blessings of God through that intercession.

SHAWN: Now, it has occurred to me, too, I know what my children need, but I sure like to hear it from them.

MARK: Exactly!

SHAWN: You know, today, I know somebody's reading this and they are sick with cancer or they've had a huge disappointment. They have prayed and God seems to be saying "no."Why does God say no, sometimes?

MARK: Shawn, I have come to this conclusion. God always says yes.

SHAWN: OK.

MARK: He doesn't say no. Now God's yes and my yes may be different. I'd like to speak to somebody today who is hurting, who is really bruised. You've been through a divorce, you prayed that your marriage would stay together, but that marriage has fallen apart. And you have said, "God, where were you? You said 'no.'" You've prayed for healing for cancer, but you don't have much hope and you said, God, you said no."

God may have said no to the things you wanted, but He is saying yes to you. He is saying, "Yes, I love you." He is saying, "Yes, I will strengthen you." He's saying, "Yes, you can cope with it."

You see, God's yes may not be my answer. Sometimes God says yes to the things that I request and there is healing. The marriage is healed. But sometimes, God's yes is different than my yes. Sometimes, because life is cruel, and there is a battle between good and evil, God does not always immediately answer my prayers the way I would like him to.

But when you pray, He is saying yes to you. He is giving you hope. He is giving you courage. He is giving you strength.

SHAWN: Why is God so interested in our prayers?

MARK: Because He loves us so incredibly. And Shawn, there is one prayer God always answers, it's the prayer for our salvation. It's the prayer for our forgiveness, it's the prayer for spiritual power. When we come to God and ask Him for those things, we can know that for that specific thing, He will answer. For salvation, forgiveness and healing. His other yes may be different from what we think yes ought to be. But in eternity, He will explain how He did the best for us even when we couldn't think about it or know about it.

SHAWN: Thank you Mark.

You know, Mark Twain wasn't exactly known for his exceptional devotional life. In his famous novel, Huckleberry Finn, he takes a little jab at prayer. Listen to this as Huckleberry Finn is speaking on the subject:

"Miss Watson, she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day and whatever I asked for I would get. But it weren't so, I tried it. Once I got a fish line, but no hook. It weren't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. 'No,' I say to myself, 'there ain't nothing in it."'

You know, just like Huckleberry Finn, a lot of us simply misunderstand the purpose of prayer. In a fast-paced modern age, we assume that heaven runs like a drive-through fast food restaurant. We just pull up to the window, place our order and drive away a couple of minutes later with exactly what we want.

But that is not what prayer is for. God doesn't exist to fulfill everybody's wishes any more than you do. He is not some sort of heavenly vending machine where you can get anything your heart desires day or night. Prayer isn't online shopping. It's a relationship with God. And if there is one thing I know, God really does hear your prayers.

And He will do it in His time, in His way, when it will achieve the greatest good for the kingdom, He is going to answer them. Sometimes for one reason or other, the answer isn't quite what we expected.

But one day, when you stand in the kingdom of heaven, and you review God's plan to save this planet, I know you are going to be completely satisfied with what He did.

And I don't know about you, but when I get to heaven, I'm going to check to see if there is a prayer log somewhere, a place where angels recorded the prayers of God's people.

If such a book exists, I know exactly what you'd find inside, a list of every single one of your prayers and beside each of them, a checkmark. Because on that day, as you stand in the presence of angels, you are going to know that God answered every one of them with exactly the right answer.

You know, the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that Jesus lives to make intercession for us. And that means, right now, at this moment, He's eager to hear from you.

Maybe you've been struggling with doubt. Maybe you wonder when you are going to hear from God.

You know, Pastor Mark, I think I'd like to have a special time of prayer right now for a person who might be doubting or struggling.

Would you lead us in a prayer?

MARK: Sure.

PRAYER:
Father, there are times in our lives when you seem to be silent, and that silence troubles us. But by faith we reach up and have a sense that you care, that you love us and that you are working behind the scenes in this great controversy between good and evil for our best good.

We know your intentions toward us are loving, and that although at times we cannot see the answer to our prayers, you are answering them nevertheless with God's yes. And so we praise you for that. We believe that and we face our day today with hope and courage. In Jesus' name, amen.

Scriptures Used in “Now I Lay Me Down”

"Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed."
—Mark 1:35 (NKJV)

"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, as John also taught his disciples.' So He said to them, 'When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."'
—Luke 11:1-4 (NKJV)