Praying With Expectation
We are not called to pray with excellence but with expectation.
By: Steve Cook, Perimeter School Parent and Prayer team Memeber
One of my favorite accounts in the Bible is right after Jesus feeds the 5000. It always makes me think of that famous series of commercials that said,
“Hey,_______, you’ve just won the _______! What are you gonna do next?!” And the guy or girl says, “I’m going to Disney World!”
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen that commercial on TV in quite a while, so I may just be dating myself, but basically the point of it was that Disney World was so awesome it was the only thing that could top the most amazing experience in a person’s life. It was a brilliant campaign!
So, when I think about this amazing miracle done by Jesus (arguably His MOST amazing miracle, since it’s the only one besides the Resurrection to be mentioned in all four Gospels), I imagine somebody shoving a microphone in His face right afterward, asking that same question. Only this time the answer wouldn’t be, “I’m going to Disney World!” It would be, “I’m going to pray!”
“Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.”
Mark 6:45-46
(cf. Matthew 14:22-23, Luke 9:18, John 6:15)
Jesus went to Pray
No victory laps around the Sea of Galilee. No parades through downtown Capernaum. No human interest fluff pieces in the Jerusalem Times to build on the buzz. No 3,000 denari-a-plate dinners at Pilate’s beach house to drum up financial support for the ministry. Not even a small celebration at the local inn with His d-group.
Nope. He just went up to a mountain to pray.
It was the first thing He thought to do. But then, it was ALWAYS the first thing He thought to do, even after this, one of His most fist-pumping feats ever … or, maybe … BECAUSE of it.
Prayer is not only where Jesus ran to for peace and comfort in times of intense pain and suffering. It was also His place of joy in triumphs, His place of perspective and vision in uncertainty, and sometimes just His place to be still and know. It was all of these places. And it still is.
Praying with expectation
Whatever He was talking about with His Father on that mountain right after feeding the 5000 (*see below for my thoughts on this), it was as natural and necessary to Him as breathing. In fact, everything He said and did on Earth came from that same consistent, nurturing relationship He had with His Father through prayer.
“For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment - what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
John 12:49-50
And that’s what makes the Perimeter School Parent Prayer Ministry so important to me. I certainly am not the most well-spoken, erudite man on campus. I never have been. In fact, I identify way more with Moses and Paul in that way than with great orators like Peter and Stephen. I’m not the most charismatic, and I certainly don’t even have the faith of a mustard seed.
But thankfully, prayer is not about those things. It’s about consistency. We are not called to pray with excellence but with expectation.
“So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:5
Join us for parent prayer
I was blessed to learn these simple truths when I first started as a Perimeter School prayer representative seven years ago, and they have never left me. They are two things we still try to foster in the Prayer Room:
We welcome ALL prayers, of any length. (Matthew 6:7)
We aren’t afraid of silence. (1 Kings 19:12)
We want is His Spirit. All the time. In all circumstances. Just like Jesus modeled.
If that’s what you want too, we invite you to join us every Tuesday morning, starting at 8:45 AM, on the Parent Prayer conference call.
Call-In Number - 425-436-6387
Access Code - 796193
We also invite you to join us in a time of corporate fasting for our covenant family on Tuesdays from 8:15 AM - 2:15 PM.
And finally, if you’re on social media, we invite you to join our Parent Prayer GroupMe here.
All are welcome!
*When Jesus went up on that mountain to pray, I like to imagine that He and His Father talked about the storm that was coming and how Jesus was going to walk on the water and calm it. How, even after what the disciples had just witnessed with the loaves and the fish, they would still doubt and need yet another miracle before believing (well, all of them except Peter … sort of). And finally, how Jesus, even after all that failure and misunderstanding by those He loved and invested in the most, would remain the same - yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
“For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
Psalm 103:14
God shows up in our messy places and transforms ordinary moments into holy ones.