I think when it comes to prayer, most of us are a bunch of chickens. My whole life, I’ve heard people pray in such a way where they dance around the thing they really want to say instead of just saying it. I’ve heard people pull punches with God and even apologize for bringing up what they’re asking of Him. Sometimes, when people do get around to asking for the thing they really want God to do for them, they’ll immediately frame it by saying, “but only if it’s Your will, Lord.” In other words, these folks will effectively withdraw their request as soon as they make it by deploying the ‘if-it’s-Your-will’ clause. I have to be real here and admit that I’ve prayed like this as well. We all have. We learned it from other believers. We want to treat God with the respect He deserves and we don’t want to sound like a bunch of demanding, ungrateful punks rattling the gates of Heaven, so we back off from asking for the thing we really want. The thing is, Jesus didn’t teach us to pray this way. Jesus told His guys to pray with honesty, intensity, determination and even a disregard for social propriety. He told a story about a guy going over to his neighbor’s house at midnight and begging for bread to feed some unexpected guests. It’s a rude request and the neighbor flatly refuses, but Jesus says the bread was given. Wow. That’s prayer. It’s stubborn and real, even if it is disrespectful. Real prayer says, “I’m not leaving your porch until you answer me.” Does that make you uncomfortable? Jesus said it’s the way to get what you want.
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