Luke 6: The Benefits of Prayer for Your Life

Introduction

Listening to the most recent messages at the Église Évangélique de Réveil Lausanne (Riponne), Fernand Clerc noticed how much emphasis the church was placing on prayer. He chose to follow the same direction with a message titled "The Benefits of Prayer."

His text is Luke 6:12-16: "It happened in those days, that he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God." At daybreak, Jesus calls his disciples and chooses twelve of them, whom he names apostles. The preacher dwells mostly on the first of these verses.

Luke places great importance on the prayer life of Jesus. He comes back to it seven times besides this passage, eight times in all. Anyone who reads this Gospel cannot doubt it: Jesus prayed, he cultivated a life of prayer, and he gave it his time.

Outline of the message

1. If Jesus prayed, who can do without it?

"Jesus prayed" can sound like a platitude. What makes it less ordinary is this: if there is one person on earth who could have done without prayer, it is Jesus. And yet he prayed.
"If Jesus prayed, I really do not see who can afford the luxury of not praying."
J. C. Ryle, a nineteenth-century English pastor, wrote a book titled A Call to Prayer. In it he states: "God has no dumb children." In other words, there is no such thing as a Christian who does not pray.
He adds: "The habit of prayer is one of the clearest signs of true Christianity."
A Christian who does not pray is like a pianist who does not play the piano or a footballer who does not play football. You have to wonder whether they really are what they claim to be.

2. Spontaneous prayer: God is closer than you think

Jesus surely practiced, better than we do, that spontaneous prayer which springs from the heart and can rise to God at any hour, in any place, in any circumstance.
The Christian has a major advantage: permanent access to the Father, day and night. Paul writes that through Jesus, "we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).
Fernand Clerc tells how, one day, driving and preoccupied, he said to the Lord, almost in a tone of complaint: "Do you not have a word for me concerning this situation?"
A few hundred meters later, he found himself behind a bus. On its rear window was a large poster: "Yahweh will keep you from all evil" (Psalm 121:7). A small inner voice said to him: "There is your word."
You can call it a coincidence. But the bus was there, he was not necessarily driving that road at that hour, and not every bus carries a message like that. "Call it what you like, I call it an answer to a spontaneous prayer."

3. Setting aside times for prayer

Praying spontaneously does not excuse you from setting aside times for prayer. Jesus withdrew to chosen places: a garden, a desert, a mountain.
The preacher admits this is hard for some, depending on their workload. He thinks of mothers of young children: the baby is already awake in the morning, and in the evening, after three words, it is time for the bottle. "You should not make yourself sick over it." In those seasons, spontaneous prayer has its full place.
Daniel, when people were trying to trap him, got down on his knees three times a day, prayed and gave thanks before his God, "as he did before" (Daniel 6:10). It was not a reaction to crisis, it was his way of life.
Peter, while traveling, went up on the housetop around the sixth hour to pray (Acts 10:9). If the text gives the hour, it is because this was part of his habits.

4. Good habits of prayer

The preacher observes that evangelical Christians, perhaps Pentecostals most of all, are wary of habits, as if habits could only be bad.
An unhealthy routine can take the place of fervor. But the habit of praying at certain times, in set-apart places, remains a good habit.
"If we do not do it, it is not because we do not have the time, it is because we do not take the time." And the devil will always manage to make us forget to put it in our calendar.
Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China, said about reading the Bible, and it applies just as much to prayer: "Satan will always find something for you to do when you are supposed to be praying, even if it is only closing a shutter." The phone rings, a small task is waiting, and prayer time turns into something else.
When he came to faith, people spoke more of a "personal devotion": a time of Bible reading together with prayer, praise and worship. Without trying to set a record, fifteen or twenty minutes, or a little more depending on each person's availability.

5. The promise attached to prayer in secret

Jesus says: "But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matthew 6:6).
The text does not confine prayer to the private sphere. You can pray in a group, at church, in public. The problem is doing it to be seen. Praying in your room with the door closed and then broadcasting it everywhere is no more noble.
You do not need to shut yourself in a room: if you prefer to walk in the forest, that works just as well.
"Your Father who is in secret": he is there. Ecclesiastes says that God is in heaven and we are on earth (Ecclesiastes 5:1), but he has "a second home" in every room where the door is closed and someone is praying.
According to John Piper, the wording "will reward you," as in the World English Bible, fits better than "will repay you."
This is not a trade: "I prayed for an hour, so I am entitled to this or that." What God gives, he always gives by grace, and being able to call on his name at any time is already a grace.

6. Three benefits of prayer

A renewed anointing. J. C. Ryle writes: "Prayer secures new and constant outpourings of the Spirit." At the baptism of Jesus, "While he was praying, the sky was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove on him" (Luke 3:21-22). Not before, not after, but while he was praying.
The preacher adds a caveat: the Spirit does not fall on us every time we pray. One preacher spoke of "the ceiling effect," that feeling that our prayers go no higher than the ceiling. But when we pray, the Spirit of the Lord is at work, and we are far more likely to be visited, renewed and filled by praying than by not praying.
A walk in victory. Edward McKendree Bounds, a lawyer turned itinerant preacher, wrote eleven books, nine of them on prayer. He said: "When prayer is honored, God reigns in our lives and victory is assured."
In Gethsemane, Jesus prays: "Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him (Luke 22:42-43). Strengthened in this way, he was able to go all the way. An old hymn says: "Triumph is possible for the one who fights on his knees."
A peace that surpasses all understanding. John Wesley, the eighteenth-century revivalist behind the Methodist movement, prayed every morning from 4 to 6 o'clock. One of his colleagues, seeing him come out of his study one morning, noticed that his face was radiant with peace.
Paul writes: "In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).

7. God answers, sometimes before the prayer is over

Someone said: "Prayer is like a cathedral bell." You pull the rope down below, and it rings up above.
When we call on the name of the Lord, we do it down here, but it rings up there, and sometimes he answers before we have even finished ringing.
The message ends on the promise from Isaiah: "It will happen that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Isaiah 65:24).

Key takeaways

Jesus, who could have done without prayer, spent a whole night in prayer. No one can afford the luxury of not praying.
Spontaneous prayer is permanent access to the Father, but it does not replace the times set aside for God.
It is not time that is lacking, it is the time we do not take. The habit of praying is a good habit.
A promise is attached to prayer in secret: your Father who sees in secret will reward you, always by grace.
A renewed anointing, a walk in victory and the peace of God come with those who call on their Father.

Personal application

Does your prayer life look like that of a pianist who plays, or of a pianist who no longer touches the instrument?
When was the last time you offered the Lord a spontaneous prayer in the middle of your worries?
What time and what place could you set aside for prayer this week, and put in your calendar?
Which "shutter to close" most often takes the place of your prayer time?
In what situation do you need today to be strengthened, renewed or kept by the peace of God?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why did Jesus pray if he was the Son of God?

Fernand Clerc acknowledges that saying "Jesus prayed" sounds like a platitude. But if there is one person on earth who could have done without prayer, it is Jesus. Yet he prayed, and he spent a whole night in prayer. If Jesus prayed, no one can afford the luxury of not praying.

Should you pray spontaneously or set aside times for prayer?

Both. We have access to the Father at any moment, and God hears spontaneous prayer. But Jesus, Daniel and Peter also set aside times and places to pray. If you do not do it, it is not that you do not have the time, it is that you do not take it.

What are the benefits of prayer according to this message?

The preacher highlights three, drawn from the lives of God's servants and confirmed by Scripture: a renewed anointing of the Holy Spirit, a walk in victory, and a peace that surpasses all understanding. These are graces, not wages: God always gives by grace.