Great expectations?

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8

 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:13-14

When it comes to praying for particular topics or people – “intercessory” prayer – what’s your experience? Would you describe it as (a) dogged perseverance or (b) red-hot expectation?

All right, for most of us it may not be quite either of those extremes! But I ask because anyone who has been seeking to live seriously as a Christian for any length of time is likely to find themselves puzzling over it.

Certainly, dogged perseverance is taken for granted in the New Testament. It is often pointed out in sermons that Jesus’ well-known “ask… seek… knock” saying could well be translated “ask and go on asking, seek and go on seeking, knock and go on knocking” (Matthew 7:7). And he even told a story – the story of “the persistent widow” – to show his disciples that they “should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).

But then there are those other passages where, frankly, Jesus’ words seem almost too good to be true. John 14:13-14 is an obvious example: “I will do whatever you ask in my name… You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”. Whatever we make of that little phrase “in my name” – which is surely key -  Jesus certainly didn’t intend it simply as a magic formula to tag onto the end of our prayers in order to guarantee their effectiveness. The fact is that Jesus wants his followers to be expectant when they pray; and we mustn’t water that down.

It’s a conundrum. And it boils down to a question: If I have persevered in prayer for a particular matter over perhaps many months and even years, and that prayer has not yet been answered, how can I possibly maintain a spirit of expectation? Isn’t that just too much to ask?

I find myself wanting to say to God: “Look, Lord, I do have faith, I really do – whatever else has kept me persevering as I have! But expectation, to a large extent, is a mood, a feeling, and moods can’t just be conjured up by will-power! Yes, I can always accuse myself of not having enough faith – and I’m sure that’s true. But didn’t Jesus say that faith as tiny as a mustard-seed can move mountains? Lord, what do you expect from me?”

I think I know what God’s reply must be: “My dear child, just keep on plugging away in prayer. Don’t try and psyche yourself up artificially; you’ll only end up getting discouraged and depressed. But keep believing the promises! Your prayers will be answered, and the day will dawn when everything comes clear”.

I don’t think I can do any better than that – please let me know if you have a better suggestion. How we hold together in our minds day by day the two poles of vibrant, expectant faith on the one hand and stubborn, determined  perseverance on the other is one of those paradoxes of the Christian life.

However, there’s a marvellous story in Acts which, I’m tempted to think, might have been given to us by God to help us with precisely this puzzle.

In Acts 12 Simon Peter is delivered from prison by God: his deliverance involves a full bag of miraculous tricks (so to speak) - an angel; a heavenly light; chains dropping off; iron gates swinging open.

Wonderful! But we shouldn’t really be surprised, should we? After all, verse 5 tells us that “the church was earnestly praying to God for him”.

But no sooner has Peter come to his senses, and decided to head for the house of Mary the mother of John Mark, where that prayer-meeting is in full swing, than a wonderful miracle degenerates into something not far short of farce…

Peter knocks on the door; a servant girl called Rhoda comes to see who’s there; she realises, to her wonderment, that it’s Peter – and promptly runs to interrupt the group bowed in prayer with the breathless announcement “Peter is at the door!”

Whereupon they burst into joyful praise – “Thank God! Our prayers have been answered!”

Well, actually, no they don’t. I made that bit up.

They tell poor Rhoda off: “You’re out of your mind!” (verse 15). They don’t even do the obvious thing and say, “Then for goodness’ sake, you silly girl, go and let the man in!” No, they convince themselves “It must be his angel!” Note that: anything rather than believe in the very miracle they have been praying for. Doh!

Meanwhile poor Peter is still knocking on the door…

Of course, it all ends well. But this is what occurs to me: If, even in those wonderful early days of the church - days of Spirit-filled faith and miraculous events - the first followers of Jesus could fail in such a comically ridiculous manner… well, I’m not suggesting that that excuses our faltering faith, but perhaps God in his mercy is happy for us to draw a little comfort from it.

It seems we aren’t the first believers whose expectations fall short of their faith!

Thank you, loving Father!

Father, when prayer seems routine and dutiful, please help me to persevere. When there is a strong sense of exciting things afoot, please help me to rejoice in your powerful, mysterious, unpredictable workings. Amen.