Eyes-Open Prayer
As the book of Acts opens, Jesus is getting ready to say goodbye to his closest followers. Just before he ascends into heaven, Jesus sets forth a vision he wants these early church leaders to accomplish. So, he tells them in Acts 1:8…
“…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Now, just think about that for a second. If you were one of those early church leaders hearing Jesus say these words, could you imagine how overwhelmed you’d feel? Jerusalem might not be so bad. But you want us to go to Judea and into Samaria – enemy territory? And the ends of the earth? This is quite an overwhelming mission. Now look at verse 9.
After he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
So, Jesus throws down this challenge of spreading the good news to the ends of the earth, and then he’s like, “Well…see ya later!” and he ascends to heaven. What would you be thinking at that moment? Verse 12 tells us they head back the three-fourths of a mile to Jerusalem , and I could only guess that these guys are thinking, “What in the world are we supposed to do now?” Have you ever thought that? What in the world am I supposed to do now? Maybe some of you are in a season of that right now.
There are different manners in which we can ask that question. Sometimes we can ask, “What am I supposed to do now?” in a manner of desperation. Your boss says you’re no longer needed at the company. What are you supposed to do now? You find out your marriage is falling apart, that your spouse wants a divorce. What are you supposed to do now? The doctor says, “You need to sit down. I’ve got the test results. It’s not good news.” Your investments take a huge hit, and you’re wondering, “What am I supposed to do now?”
Sometimes, we can ask it out of confusion as if we’re scratching our heads and wondering, “What am I supposed to do now?” Parents, remember when you brought your first baby home from the hospital? You walked in the house, and now there are three of you instead of two. You prepared really well for the birth. But now what? Or how about when you graduated from college? They handed you a diploma, but you weren’t really sure what to do next. What am I supposed to do now?
And then sometimes, we can ask that question with a sense of anticipation and excitement. Like when you start a new job. Or maybe you’re a newlywed and you’re beginning a new life together. Or maybe when we hear a new strategy for us as a church, and there is a great deal of excitement and anticipation. What are we supposed to do now?
Maybe the disciples were feeling all these things as they made their way back to Jerusalem. There’s desperation because Jesus just left for heaven. There’s confusion because he wants them to go to the ends of the earth, and that’s gonna take some planning. And there’s anticipation because Jesus told them the Holy Spirit would come upon them in power.
What are we supposed to do now?
Whenever you find yourself asking that question, I want you to know there’s always an answer. I know we tend to ask it rhetorically as if there are no answers to it. But I’m telling you there’s always an answer. In fact, the answer is always the same. What am I supposed to do now? There’s one right answer to this question every time. Pray.
And that’s what these early church leaders do. When they get back to Jerusalem, verse 14 says…
They all were continually united in prayer…
Could that describe our prayer life – continual? Maybe for some of us, we would say prayer isn’t even a first response, but a last resort. When people don’t know what to do next, they try different options. They’ll go see their therapists for counseling or their doctors for medication or read a book for self-help. Prayer comes last for some people.
But that’s the first thing these church leaders do. And it wasn’t just a one-off. The key word here is continually. And I think this is what separates a church that prays from a praying church. It separates a person who prays from a praying person.
So, we want to be a praying people here at The Hill. But I think it’s gonna be difficult for a lot of us because of how we approach prayer. We’ve learned some things about prayer over the years that just aren’t accurate. And we probably need to unlearn a couple of the things we were taught about prayer.
One thing we need to unlearn is that there’s a right time to pray. We need to unlearn that. I don’t know about you, but I grew up with the idea that there is a right time to pray. It was before meals and at bedtime. That’s when you prayed.
Another thing we need to unlearn is that there is a way to pray. What happens when someone says, “Let’s pray”? You assume the position. You bow your head and close your eyes.
So, we think there’s a certain time and a certain way to pray. And we’ve created this box that we’ve shoved prayer into. But we didn’t get these ideas from the Bible. There’s not one example in the Bible of eyes closed during prayer.
Now don’t get me wrong here. Please continue to pray before meals and at bedtime. Continue to bow your head. But just know that we’ve picked up some habits along the way that may be keeping us from having the type of prayer that God would want us to have that would be more consistent in the life of a follower of Jesus.
We’re calling this message “Eyes Open.” The challenge for us is to practice eyes-open-prayer. And here’s what I mean. Let’s become followers of Jesus who pray not just at certain times of the day when we bow our heads and close our eyes, but who have a continual, ongoing conversation with God where we speak and listen to him as we go about our day; that no matter where we are, we’re praying.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 says…
pray constantly,
The King James Version says…
Pray without ceasing.
Imagine what it would look like in our lives if we actually did this as a church. Imagine the impact we would have on our community if we prayed with our eyes open. When we go on walks around the neighborhood, we’re not just walking, we’re praying. We’re praying for the neighbors we know and we’re praying for the neighbors we don’t know. When we go to work and bump shoulders with somebody in the break room, what if we just whisper up a prayer to God for that person? When you watch the news, you don’t just watch the news, you pray the news. You’re praying for the president. You’re praying for all those death row inmates whose sentences were commuted. When you watch a football game, you don’t just pray for your team to win, you pray that God would smite the heathens on the other side of the field. When you go out to dinner, you don’t just pray for your food, you pray for your server, too.
Prayer is an ongoing conversation you have with God throughout the day whether you’re sitting in classroom or a parking lot.
What would it look like if we as a church did this? Imagine the impact we would have in this community and in the world if we committed to eyes-open-praying. I believe God would inspire us to be more open to showing the love of Jesus to others.
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.