A SHORT PRAYER

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Matthew14:22-32

“Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. ‘It’s a ghost,’ they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ ‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.’”

           

Here we read about a most amazing miracle, the walking on water by Jesus and Peter. Jesus had been teaching to a large group of people and apparently dismissed the crowd and instructed His disciples to go on ahead of him in the boat to the other side of the body of water. Like Jesus so often did, He had plans to remain and pray to His Father in Heaven. When Jesus finished praying He returned to the shore and found the boat already a great distance out in the water. Apparently a wind had begun to blow for we are told the boat was being thrown to and fro by the gusts of wind and rough water. Across this rising and falling water surface Jesus walked towards the boat.

 

When the disciples saw Jesus, they were very afraid and thought He was a ghost. It’s perfectly understandable why they did. Here they are in a small boat fighting to keep afloat in the darkness of the evening and they see a figure walking on the water towards them. Jesus senses their fear and shouts; “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Here Jesus both encourages them to not fear their surrounding situation or to fear who is coming towards them in this most miraculous feat of walking on water.

 

Comforted by Jesus’ words the disciples calmed down and Peter makes a bold request as only Peter could. He asks if Jesus will tell him to come out onto the water. It is interesting that Peter makes this request in such a manner. He didn’t necessarily ask for Jesus to enable him to walk on the water. He just asks that Jesus command him to come to Him. This implies what possibly Peter knew, that Jesus had authority over the laws of nature and could enable him to walk on the water. Peter knew that he couldn’t walk on water under his own power but very likely could with the authority of Jesus supporting him, thus his request to be invited out onto the surface of the water. Jesus does as requested and says; “Come.”

 

Peter’s assumption of faith is valid for when Peter steps out of the boat he is able to walk on the water towards Jesus. Now comes the moment that Peter and each of us face, the moment we step out in faith and strive to trust God for His provision. Often we begin our obedience to God with marvelous sufficient faith. We feel bold and encouraged by how God will supply our needs and grant us strength and courage in such an undertaking. Sometimes when the moment of testing arrives, we begin to take our eyes off how sufficient God is to provide for us. We lose our focus and begin to be distracted by the world around us. We judge our situation, not with eyes of faith but with weak knees of doubt. At this moment the world, the flesh and the devil can overwhelm our lives and cause us to sink into the distress of unbelief. This is what happened to Peter.

 

Peter begins to notice the winds that blow around him. He sees the rough surface of the water. He takes his eyes off Jesus and shifts his faith from his Lord to his own abilities and begins to sink into the water. He recognizes immediately his predicament and cries for help. We see the event unfold in the rest of verse 32, “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith, “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.”

 

While we might be disappointed in Peter’s lack of faith we do have to give him credit for one thing. He cries out a short prayer. How often do we in the midst of either a small or large struggle cry out in prayer to God? How many of us continue to look to our own skills, abilities and resources to supply our needs or retrieve us from our situation rather than consult God? We often seek God in times of immense grief and hardship, but how quickly do we seek Him in the small things? It doesn’t take much to whisper a short prayer for wisdom, strength, courage or faith. If we have a true intimate relationship with our Savior, praying to Him throughout the day should be as natural as breathing. I believe this is what 1 Thessalonians 5:17 means when it commands us to “Pray continually.” This scripture is not saying we should always be muttering prayers under our breath. It is instructing us to pray those short little prayers throughout the day as we face situations of all sorts.

 

These prayer thoughts can include both petitions as well as praise. We can request help from God in all circumstances and we can praise Him for His intervention and provision in situations as well. I believe many of us have a distorted view of prayer. We view it as the hot line to God to be used for only immensely important requests. We forget to utilize it for the small insignificant needs we have and we fail to thank God and praise Him when He answers such prayers. We sometimes do not remember that we can offer up prayers of praise and worship to God for providing and protecting us even when we haven’t prayed as well.

 

Charles Haddon Spurgeon the prince of preachers has something to say about Peter and short prayers, he says, “Short prayers are long enough. There were but three words in the petition which Peter gasped out, but they were sufficient for his purpose. Not length but strength is desirable. A sense of need is a mighty teacher of brevity. If our prayers had less of the tail feathers of pride and more wing they would be all the better. Verbiage is to devotion as chaff to the wheat. Precious things lie in small compass, and all that is real prayer in many a long address might have been uttered in a petition as short as that of Peter.”

 

Our prayers do not have to be long and eloquent to be effective. God isn’t impressed with huge words or paragraph upon paragraph of spiritual repetition. He desires a simple, heart-generated, honest prayer. When we pray to impress others we have not prayed honestly. When we pray from our heart God listens intently to each syllable of the words that fall from our lips.

 

In this scripture passage it is interesting that as soon as Peter and Jesus climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Possibly Satan was whipping the wind up to test the faith of the disciples and Peter. Could it be that once the situation of testing was resolved with them safely in the boat there was no more need for the wind? Peter received the answer he desired for his brief short prayer. Jesus saved him. I’m sure Peter had regrets for his lack of faith, but I’m also sure his trust and faith in Jesus grew because of the situation.

 

It is apparent that the disciples were impressed with the authority of Jesus over nature for in verse 33 it states, “Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’” The word used here of their response is “worshiped.” They worshiped their Lord and Master. Their faith that He was the Son of God was also further strengthened. When we go through similar situations of testing and struggle and offer our short simple prayers of petition we can rest assured that our faith will grow by leaps and bounds. While it is best we do not shift our focus from our Lord, we know there will be times when we will do this. When we lose focus we can know for a fact that God is only a prayer away. When we are at our wits end we know that God doesn’t require a long-winded grammatically correct prayer, just a short, to-the-point short prayer from the heart.

 

Consider the following quotations from Christians in history and how important they viewed prayer in their lives.

 

“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”

Abraham Lincoln

 

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

John Bunyan

 

“We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all. Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don’t want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of ‘good time’ is seldom in sync with ours.”

Oswald Chambers

 

“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?”

Corrie Ten Boom

 

“Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer.”

John Bunyan

 

“Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.”

Hudson Taylor

 

“Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with God.”

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

 

“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.”

C.H. Spurgeon

 

“We tend to be preoccupied by our problems when we have a heightened sense of vulnerability and a diminished sense of power. Today, see each problem as an invitation to prayer.”

John Ortberg

 

“Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.”

J.C. Ryle