This is the Truth Network. Encouraging Prayer. God offers an open invitation for His people to talk with Him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. You found it more difficult to pray? Well, today on Encouraging Prayer, we're going to talk about why prayer matters more at a time like that than perhaps I've ever realized.
James? There's a lot of places in Scripture. Gideon at one point asks if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? You know, David writes in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You think of Martha telling Jesus at Lazarus' tomb, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. That's another way of saying, why weren't you here?
Or Jesus, again, praying Psalm 22 from the cross, you know, why have you forsaken me? But what's important, I think, to understand in those instances is this isn't just a why that's insisting on its own way. This is a why about God, I know you, I love you, I've trusted you, and I don't understand this. You know, why does he allow some of the things that he does?
And if we're in a relationship with him, sometimes asking why like that, I believe is something God wants us to do because it helps us go deeper in our relationship with him, and that's a good thing, isn't it? Oh, I love it. I love that, James. I mean, what insight that, you know, simply, you know, in a relationship with anybody, all of a sudden, things catch you by surprise, you didn't see that coming, and you go to them rather than assume anything. It's probably a lot smarter to go and say, you know, what's going on? I don't understand.
God, help me. But what this shows us is that the relationship, again, is everything. I mean, we may not receive that answer right away, you know, we could go on wondering for years, and I honestly think that there are some things on this earth that we just cannot understand because we don't have the perspective. But the point is to keep the lines of communication open with God, keep praying, stay in relationship, and also go to him in worship when we don't understand. And I think that's tremendously freeing for us.
I don't know how to put it except that it kind of, you know, removes from us something of the burden of self. And honestly, God loves it because we're walking by faith and not by sight. But again, you know, this is about just humbly being with him. It's not, well, I have some questions I want to ask you, God.
I heard Francis Chan respond to that. You have questions for God? God has questions for you. The beautiful thing, James, is I think about what you just said from my perspective and something that God has been showing me this week is back to the 22nd Psalm, right? It starts out, my God, my God, you know, why has thou forsaken me? And clearly, this is Jesus from the cross.
This is Jesus, right? And he's experienced this. He's saying why, you know?
It's exactly what he says. But also, in that same Psalm, you know, go down about three verses and David says, slash Jesus, I'm sure, that you inhabit the praises of your people. And in that, you think about it as I'm praising you, you're in that. And isn't that what we really, really, really want is him to be with us during the heartbreak of whatever is going on that's causing us to be there anyway?
Yeah, that's exactly right. And if Jesus isn't our example in prayer, then I don't know who is, you know? And, you know, God has ways of showing us and just affirming his presence that we don't want to miss, even if we don't have all the answers. And I had something happen this past week as well that really made me realize that years ago, when I lived in California, I was an associate pastor at a church. And the pastor there was a friend. And there was a church nearby that was looking for another pastor. And I had been one of their favorite guest preachers, so they asked me to apply for the position. And interestingly, I did, but nothing came of it.
It went to one of my good friends from Princeton. And what happened afterwards, we went out to lunch, this friend and I, and I said, well, how close was it? He said, well, let me tell you this. They said, if I ever need a guest preacher, call on you.
But the second thing is that I should probably tell you, your senior pastor kept it from happening. And, you know, Ravi, I felt so betrayed. I was so angry. And this was in the city where, you know, the rest of my family live in California and our children had just been born. And I thought, oh, we can settle here and this will be a good place for us to be. And I'll tell you, I was bitter and I didn't understand, you know, why God allowed it. Eventually left that, you know, church where I'd been serving and was called elsewhere. But here's what happened. Keep in mind, this is over 30 years ago.
And just this past week, I'm watching a show where this couple goes to this same city in California to unwind. And as I'm watching it, all this comes back. I hadn't thought about it in years. And what happens is that that night I go to bed thinking about, you know, that situation.
And I find myself thinking, well, God must not have allowed it because I know there's also a lot of darkness in that city. And who knows what would have happened? Well, the very next morning, I get a text just out of the blue. We hadn't been in touch for months. And he says, it's a good thing you didn't get the position in.
And he names that city. And he says, you know, I think you would have been too comfortable. And you might have been corrupted there. And what blows me away is we hadn't talked about this in decades. And yet it was as if God was tapping me on the shoulder and saying, James, I understand. So beautiful. So I think it's a really good opportunity for us to pray right now that we all would get there.
Do it. Jesus, thank you. Thank you for James' story. And thank you for all our stories, the way that you've come in when perhaps we didn't think it was the right thing to do. But, Lord, help us to praise you before we see. Help us so that we can have you closer than ever, Lord. We thank you so much that you come after us in prayer in so many different ways, Lord. Help us to get there. Help us to find that place of praise so we can be with you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org. Or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.
