Do you make Jesus pray in vain?

Do you make Jesus pray in vain?  If you're like me, the answer's yes.  Way too often. Why does it matter? We're still saved, aren't we? What's the big deal?

What do I mean?

Lk 22:31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

Satan is the accuser.  He's out to destroy all of us.  With Jesus praying for us, how can Satan ever win?

Do I make Jesus pray in vain?

Unfortunately, the answer is - all too often.

 My first version of this was in April 2015. I wish I could say I don't make Jesus pray in vain anymore. I could say it. But it wouldn't be true. So let's bring this up to date here in 2022.

Like now.  I can't tell you how much I feel I've wasted His prayers.  Take the past year or so - looking for something or someone to make this life worth living.   I feel like my life really has been passed through a flour sifter.  It's in tiny little pieces.  What I expected to be the best time of my life is turning out to be even worse than anything that came before.  If Jesus is praying for me, why am I still being sifted?

That last paragraph is from the original. I have to say, there were good things between 2015 and 2022. But then there were the continuing troubles that we're promised. A few surgeries, including one that unsuccessfully tried to remove prostate cancer. I wrote up a couple of those.

One, from a really bad staph infection, is at God – is it time for me to go home? BTW, that's "home" as in Heaven. Believe it or not, that was one of the good times.

The cancer one is at Did God Forsake You If Cancer Surgery Isn’t 100% Successful? This current time is at Active surveillance for cancer again. Help me overcome my unbelief.

I'm still here. Still writing. But still wishing there weren't so many times when my initial response to things wasn't what it maybe should be. But for those of us who have issues with depression, it's not always so easy. That's in Christian and depressed. How is that possible?

How can Satan ever win with Jesus praying for us?

Let's get back to the earlier question. Satan is the accuser.  He's out to destroy all of us.  With Jesus praying for us, how can Satan ever win?

The answer to that question - is all too obvious from what we just read above.

Consider these passages.

There is a cost to following Jesus

The Cost of Being a Disciple

Yes, if we are true followers of Jesus, then we are disciples of Him as well. And, we are commanded to "make" more disciples in The Great Commission. It's not a "pretty please". Nor is it "if you can find the time". It's a command. And it's to us. You can learn more about that in Who’s supposed to do the Great Commission? Christians or the government?

Lk 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Jesus doesn't mean to literally hate someone. That's the opposite of what He wants. After all, we're even supposed to hate our enemies. For instance, see Don’t settle for less, #04: Don’t dwell on your haters.

Rather, Jesus wants our love for Him to be so great that, by comparison, our love for anyone or anything else appears to be like hatred. In other words, on the spectrum of pure love to pure hate, our love for Jesus is so far up the spectrum that all other love from us is way down towards the opposite end.

Lk 14:28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

When we set out to accomplish something, we generally try to figure out our chances of success. No one wants to fail, especially if it's obvious to others.

But, do we do that when we set out to follow Jesus? Do we really know what we're getting into? Or do we just assume everything's going to be great and jump in with little to nothing other than blindly following a friend into who knows what? Here, Jesus tells us we must count the cost first. Check out How can it cost me nothing but ask me for everything? for more on that thought.

Lk 14:31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Another example of the need to count the cost of following Jesus.

One thing about this though. I wonder, if I knew what was going to come in my life, would it change some of my choices? Pondering the consequences of our choices goes into the choices we make, the consequences, and the fear that may come with thinking about the consequences.

By this time of my life, I know my choice way back when I was a kid to become a Christian was the right one. But I can't help but wonder, would someone in grade school, knowing what was to come, especially if he knew Jesus promised us troubles for following Him, still make that choice?

Of course, not everything that happens to Christians is because we are Christian. But from what the Bible tells us, some of them are. Which ones? Who knows? But some. Not knowing which ones might weigh heavy on someone just considering whether or not to follow Jesus, don't you think?

Lk 14:34 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out.

Here's what that part means. It's about those of us who call ourselves Christians. Followers of Christ. Disciples of Jesus.

If the salt have lost his savor. A disciple must have certain essential qualities. If these are gone, he is useless to Christ, and as the saying goes “not worth his salt.” The salt in use during Christ’s time was impure, and the sodium chloride could be leached out of that common salt. This represents the type of disciple Christ does not want.  ¹Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M., eds. (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (p. 2048). Thomas Nelson.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

At this point, you might wonder who ever becomes a disciple if they do all that counting and considering. And while everything Jesus said is true, this last line really puts its mark on everything preceding it.

That line is telling us that what Jesus said earlier can only be truly understood after we have the Holy Spirit. After we're baptized. Furthermore, it will be more completely understood as we grow in our faith. In other words, we have a view of what we're getting into before we actually get baptized. Then, as we continue to grow as Christians, we also increase our understanding of what the cost truly is.

So, it seems more like Jesus isn't telling us to know and understand everything before we take the first step of our journey. How can we, when the Holy Spirit is required to understand? Rather, it feels more like Jesus must be telling us that this counting the cost is a continual process.

Consider something James wrote about when "stuff happens". What we read below is about developing faith. Things happening in order to foster that development. Perseverance. That's not one-time stuff. That's growth.

Trials and Temptations

Jas 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.