“God protect me today, get me through this ordeal, don’t let me fail you, don’t let me back down, turn back, give up, I will have succeeded today if I’ve not denied you.”
Christians who live out the gospel all over the world will pray this kind of prayer and for some they pray it daily. In prison or in hiding, a refugee or spat at in the street, this is their prayer.
James pastorally advises the people, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise.” (James 5 v 13)
What kind of trouble? Was it the suffering due to the oppression by the wealthy? Perhaps James was saying, ‘to you Jewish Christians, since you have come to Jesus, is your family rejecting you because of your faith, are you suffering persecution? Is anyone among you in trouble?’
And us?
I was sent a headline of a newspaper recently from an Islamic nation, “Two Christian women face the death penalty in Pakistan for removing a sticker carrying a verse from the Koran from a Muslim colleague’s locker they were asked to clean.” Can you imagine their prayer today?
And us?
Every day the Jews say a prayer like this one: “May it be Your will, HaShem, my God and the God of my forefathers, that you rescue me today and every day from brazen men and brazenness, from an evil man, an evil companion, an evil neighbour, an evil mishap, the destructive spiritual impediment [‘Satan’], a harsh trial and a harsh opponent, whether he is a member of the covenant or whether he is not a member of the covenant.” (The Complete Artscroll Siddur)
And us?
If you are in trouble today, whatever you do, please do ask God for help.
Hours from his death, Jesus is preparing his disciples for what is ahead of them. He tells them he is going away but they will see him again. But when they do things will be different. It will be wonderfully different and it will be centred on our opportunity to pray.
We will ask the same person that Jesus asked. We must approach the Father in the same way Jesus did and to ask.
We come to the Father in prayer acknowledging we are followers of Jesus; we belong to him; and the glory of God is the most important result.
Jesus told us trouble is ahead. For those reading this today then you know in your life you have had all kinds of trouble. You may even be in great difficulty now.
James says use words, pray, ask. He only said it because he firmly believed it works. It still does.
Missions Paul 