When is the Right Time to Pray?

January 13, 2025

In the Gospels, Peter is always presented as the bold, brash disciple who will take chances, speak His mind and ask questions. In the TV series “The Chosen,” Jesus and Peter are conversing (Season One, Episode Eight). When Jesus asks Peter what is troubling him, he gives a vague answer and Jesus says, “You can tell me the truth.”

Simon responds, “Are you telling me you don’t already know what is in my head?” Then Simon continues, “I am the only one of the disciples that is married.” Jesus asks if He should have only called single men, and Simon expresses the difficulty of being married and following Jesus.

Jesus tells him, “You are scared that things could get worse, and you won’t be there for your wife.”

Simon rolls his eyes and says, “See, that’s what I mean. You already know anyway.”

Jesus says, “Simon, everyone here knows what you are thinking. It doesn’t take God’s wisdom.” Then, Jesus and Simon look at the disciples standing around, listening, shrugging and nodding in agreement as they all laugh together.

Have you ever wondered how hard it would be to be one of the disciples like Simon Peter? In Matthew 10, Jesus sends the disciples out on a mission to proclaim the Gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons, and they do it. In Matthew 17, Jesus takes Simon, Peter, James and John up the mountain where they see Him transfigured into a glowing form of Himself. Moses and Elijah are there too. Jesus saves the day and casts out the demon, but the disciples want to know why they can’t cast out the demon after they have already done so.

When they come down the mountain, a father has asked the disciples to cast out a demon from his son. They cannot do it, and the crowd and the disciples do not understand why. In Mark 9:29, Jesus responds, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”

What would have happened if they had prayed? They might have realized that they were being arrogant. They might have found that the father or son needed forgiveness from sins, freedom from evil or some other word from God to glorify God. This is always the point. God is glorified. When God wants to use us to do His miracles, He wants us to give all glory to Him, and often, to do that, we will need time in prayer to understand what God is doing and how He wants us to act.

On a retreat, we gathered around one of the men who had a badly infected ankle which was not healing because his circulation was bad. He asked if we could anoint him for healing. There were about seven of us. We anointed him for healing, laid hands on his shoulders and prayed for him. After several of us prayed, everyone in the group indicated something was wrong.

Someone suggested we needed to pray, listen for God’s voice to speak to our souls and guide us to know what He wanted. We asked God to reveal His will for healing the man, then we listened and a number of us heard a clear leading in our souls that we were doing this to impress one another. We were more concerned with praying a profound prayer than lifting up simple prayers, led by God’s Spirit, that God would heal this man. We asked God to forgive our sins, we prayed prayers of humility, and then we started over. The prayers were much simpler and very profound. We all sensed that God was moving, especially the injured man. The next day, the man was so excited to show everyone that his infected ankle was almost healed and he could walk without pain. We glorified God for His mighty power, with full knowledge that we had no power, and did nothing to heal the man except obediently and humbly ask for God to act through us.

How often do you turn to prayer to discern what God is doing in your life, and seek to do things according to His will? When things aren’t going right, do you trust your own wits and wisdom first, or quickly turn to prayer to find God’s answers? Do you have a regular prayer routine in good times, where you learn to listen for God’s gentle whisper to your soul, or do you primarily pray when you are in trouble? May we give God all the glory when He uses us to advance His Kingdom.

(To learn more about Al Earley or read previous articles, see www.lagrangepres.org. You can purchase my book, My Faith Journal, at Amazon.com, a compilation of 366 articles as a daily devotional).