Three Levels of Prayer

Some people have demanding jobs, like a doctor or a president of a company, and they are faced with important work each day. May I suggest to you, friends, that the most important work in the world is that of prayer. Vital prayer life is demanding work.

I'll never forget I was with my homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen Offred, and we were sitting in a study, and we were discussing the topic of prayer, and Dr. Offred was 86 years old at the time, and he looked me in the eye, and he said to me, Christians think the older you get, the easier prayer becomes, but it's the hardest work that faces me. I find myself at my age, having to fight to get the necessary solitude to spend with the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer. That's what he told me, and it was Stephen Offred who taught me how to have a daily quiet time with God each day.

I remember him also commenting that he believed a preacher was only as tall in the pulpit as he was long on his knees in prayer, and I want to share with you today, friends, a message on prayer. My text can be found in the Gospel of Matthew. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in Matthew chapter 7 and verses 7 through 8. The title of my message today is The Three Levels of Prayer, and let me read us the words of our Lord Jesus Christ on this vital subject of prayer. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His Holy Word. Ask, and it shall be given you.

Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth, and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

Well, there are several aspects I'd like to draw out from our passage today, friends, and I will divide them into the three categories of casual prayer, serious prayer, and persistent prayer. I believe this is being true to our text and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ who, on the Sermon on the Mount, was relating the degrees of difficulty in prayer, the three levels of prayer. Observe first, friends, casual prayer.

The text reads, Ask, and it shall be given you. There is very little effort expended in asking. A child can ask its father for a piece of bread.

It is simple and easy to ask, to make a request to God. I believe this is the level of casual prayer, where a believer prays to God and asks Him for something. It is casual prayer, and I believe this is the level of the church at large today.

We, as Christians, ask God for a thing, and we go no further with it. Our prayer life is mainly a casual one, of minimum effort, and I believe this is the category of the majority of believers today. Stephen Alford used to tell me that he knew from experience from knowing thousands of pastors, all over the country and all over the world, that he knew the average pastor only prayed 10 minutes a day, 10 minutes.

How about you, friend? Get out your clock and time yourself for a week each day, and be honest before God, and write down how much time you spend with God in prayer each day. You might be surprised. So we have this casual level of prayer in merely asking.

Then we see the next level of prayer in our text. Seek, and ye shall find. Well, there is a higher degree of effort expanded in seeking for something.

We see this illustrated throughout scripture. The merchant man seeking goodly pearls made a great effort in his search, leaving no stone in the seabed unturned until he found the pearl of great price. Then he made the effort of selling all he had to go and buy it.

The woman with the lost coin literally turned her house upside down seeking it, and then rejoiced when she found it. The shepherd went over hill and dale seeking and searching for the lost sheep, and then with great effort hoisted it upon his shoulders and carried it home along the same rugged path rejoicing all the way. So too in prayer, friends, we see our Lord here state to us in no uncertain terms that he who seeks shall find.

This level of prayer requires more effort than the first level. More diligence in prayer is required, more watchings, perhaps even more fastings. But the point is clear that there is expanded a higher level of effort in seeking as opposed to just asking.

I believe this is what Christ is teaching us here. I have been praying for over 50 years, and I can assure you, friends, what I'm relating to you today is the oil straight from the can, as we say in the South. For this too has been my own experience in prayer.

Prayer requires effort, friends. Look at the burdened prophet Elijah as he diligently and carefully rebuilds the altar of sacrifice, placing the wood and stone in order before he calls down the fire of God in answer to his prayer. There is great effort expanded in seeking something.

I believe there is more desperation involved in seeking a thing urgently. Whether it's an advanced university degree or learning a craft or a profession, there is usually a great deal of time and sacrifice to gain something worth having. What cost counts and what counts costs.

So too we can relate this to our own prayer life and diagnose if we are merely askers or seekers when it comes to vital prayer. God hears desperate prayer, friends. I can assure you that.

Now let us look at this third advanced level of prayer. It's an elevated level of prayer as we climb higher in the life of prayer. Oh friends, when you mountain climb, the higher you go is more rarefied at the top.

There are obstacles on the way up, challenges that will face you, but once you get to the top of the mountain, you can't beat the view. Climbing higher with God is like that. He gives us more grace every step of the way as we seek his goodness and live for his glory.

Well notice how Jesus relates this third level of prayer in the following way. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. This speaks of the persistence in prayer, the importunity of prayer as related in the parable of the friend knocking on his neighbor's door in the middle of the night seeking bread for his friend.

It was his importunity in prayer that made the owner of the house get up out of bed and open his door to give him the desired request. There is a great deal of physical effort seen in knocking to have a door open from the inside. Notice someone else has to answer the door and open it to you.

The picture here is one of persistence in prayer. Look again at the burdened prophet Elijah with his face between his knees praying seven times for the rain cloud to appear. So this next level of prayer, I believe friends, is the hardest to maintain.

We give up after a while. Years ago I used to pray weekly with a group of pastors. It was their request to me to spend time with them on a weekly basis as we sought God's face in prayer for revival.

And each of these men was serious about seeing revival come to his church. And each week we met and prayed. There were six pastors when we began and gradually after a few months they began to drop off with various excuses as to why they couldn't come anymore.

They were too busy with their church to meet any longer to pray for revival. Finally I was left alone to pray. I repeat it is this persistence in prayer that so few attain.

This is indeed the hardest aspect, the hardest level in prayer if I may so speak, to continual knock on the gates of heaven until God himself opens the gate to us in answer to our persistent and desperate prayer. Oh friends, how our very prayer lives would be impacted for good if we adopt these three levels and add them to our prayers. I believe the church today is impotent in its prayers because of our laziness in prayer.

We have time for every other thing but the serious matter of prayer. The best thing I ever did personally in my prayer life was to get rid of my television and give God the time I used to spend watching television to time on my knees and in my bible on prayer. It's been five years now since television programming has been out of my home and I don't miss it.

God has been faithful as he has developed my prayer life to him because what costs counts and what counts costs. Well friends, I hope this little lesson on prayer has challenged us to enter into a deepening life of prayer to God for his glory. Oh let us pray.