Our Wednesday morning worship service started out as a prayer service when Dr. Wilburn was our pastor. Bit by bit it evolved into the more formal worship service as we know it today. I must admit this has been my doing for the most part. When Dr. Wilburn left and I took over the activity by default, this was all I knew. It has been a learning experience and a most rewarding one for me.
In the intervening years, people have addressed their personal concerns to me about prayer. Among our church members as well as outside the church, people have commented on the fact that there is a lot of talk about prayer and about the power of prayer but were unclear about prayer. They had questions such as what is it, what does it do, why is it important, how should I pray? I learned to pray by hearing others, and I still consider myself a babe as to what prayer really is.
Ten years ago, my daughter gave me a calendar devoted to the subject of prayer. Each day contained a thought on payer. It was of immense help to me in understanding more about prayer. Over the course of the past several years, I have presented homilies on how to pray, but reflecting on the questions that have been raised, I have been led to speak today on prayer, first in the generic and hopefully build on it.
To begin with, “prayer” expresses the most comprehensive and enlarged approach to God that is possible. It is communion with God. It is access to God. It is a movement toward Reality. Prayer is the device through which we become engaged with the essence of our self. It is also the manner through which we move self to an engagement and deeper companionship with God. Through it we discover others in a new and more profound way. In short, it is the essence of the spiritual life and the enjoyment of God.
There are many forms and varieties of prayer. “Supplication,” for example is an intense form of prayer. We make supplication when we have an urgent personal need or concern pressing upon us. It is the way of pleading for some one thing, often with a very specific point of focus. In contrast, “intercession” is a form of prayer which stretches beyond the particular to the horizons of free expression of the soul’s approach to the Almighty. It is not confined or limited, but is an offering in confidence and trust, an influence to be used for others.
Edward McKendree Bounds, who was one of the great spiritual influences of the past century, spent a great deal of his energy studying the Scriptures and praying. From his efforts came forth a series of spiritual classics on prayer. Quoting from one of his writings, he insisted that:
“The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil everywhere. Prayer is one phase of its operation, is a disinfectant and preventive. It purifies the air; it destroys the contagion of evil. Prayer is no fitful, short-lived thing. It is no voice crying unheard and unheeded in the silence. It is a voice which goes into God’s ear; and it lives as long as God’s ear is open to holy pleas, as long as God’s heart is alive to holy things. God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. The lips that uttered them may be closed in death, the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God’s heart is set on them and prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them; they outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world…. The strongest one in Christ’s kingdom is he/she who is the best knocker. (“Ask, and it shall be given unto you, seek and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened” Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9). The secret of success in Christ’s kingdom is the ability to pray. The one who can wield the power of prayer is the strong one, the holy one in Christ’s kingdom. The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray.”There is no singular formula on how to pray, but spending a moment listening and speaking with God, no matter how halting the attempt, is the first step to a life of prayer.
We should be grateful for that unnamed disciple who had the good sense to ask Jesus “Lord, teach us to pray.” That request brought forth from our Lord a model prayer that stands among the greatest treasures which man possesses, “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Jesus said to his followers, “Pray then like this…our Father who art in heaven.” The first suggestion Jesus made was to address God directly and in a very close, intimate way: Abba, “Father.” What a fantastic thing that Jesus should teach us to address God as “our Father.” With this instruction he has given to us a profound definition of God. He is not some vague “ground of all being,” but “our Father.”
Prayer, therefore, should have about it the intimacy of a conversation between a son or daughter and a loving father.
But Abba really means something closer to “Daddy.” When my children were growing up, they never called me “Daddy;” they called me Father. In later years, they started to call me “Dad,” and I realized what I had been missing sub-consciously all those years.
We must know the person to whom we are turning, or we cannot address God properly. If we treat a loving father as a vicious tyrant or a distant monarch, we do not make much contact. It is difficult for the father to relate with warmth when he is mistrusted or held at arm’s length. It should be a dialogue that is characterized by honesty and familiarity. It was the Apostle Paul who pointed out that when we cry, “Abba! Father! It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15).
The familiar story of the prodigal son in Luke’s Gospel (Ch. 15:11-24) gives us an image of what God is like. This man gave his son freedom to leave home and even gave him his share of the inheritance knowing full well, but hoping otherwise, that it would be squandered. Yet each day he would go and stand staring out into the desert, hoping against hope that he would see some trace of his son on the distant horizon. Then one day, he saw a weary, broken figure and recognized him before the son realized his father was rushing out to greet him.
The father ran up to his son and hugged him, while the son pleaded only to be granted a servant’s status. Instead, the father gave him the best robe, sandals for his feet, rings for his fingers. Then he ordered a fatted calf to be prepared for a feast so all might rejoice that his son had returned home.
We don’t think of the father as being a prodigal, but he is. The dictionary gives as a second definition for this word, “lavish.” This is the kind of father to whom we pray when we say, “Our Father.” Our God is a prodigal Father, lavish in His nature. God is so much better than anything we could have dreamed of or hoped for. God is not “wish-fulfillment,” because no one can imagine in their deepest sense that such an overflowing love is the source and center of the world of which we are a part. It takes real faith to believe that the world can be like that when humans are what they are.
The petition “Give us this day our daily brad,” emphasizes the need for daily prayer as a regular part of our lives. Some people argue that prayer should be spontaneous rather than habitual. They say that daily prayer may lapse into sterile routine, sort of form without any real force behind it. This is always a danger, but sporadic prayer may be under a worse threat: if we pray only when we are “moved” to do so; prayer may become so erratic that it disappears all together. Isn’t it a fact of experience that where there is no regular habit of prayer, the result is very little praying? We need to make prayer a regular part of our every day life, in order to assure that it remains a vital part of our lives.
When we pray for our “daily bread,” we are recognizing that our lives are dependent upon God’s good gifts. We could not live for a moment without his daily provisions. It is the petition of one who understands that we need more than the material “bread” of life, for man “shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). To pray for our daily bread is to call upon God’s power to enrich and nourish our lives both physically and spiritually, to energize us for our living.
At the heart of our prayer should be the sincere desire to discover the will of God for our lives. Jesus prayed at every crucial moment of his life for God’s guidance. At the beginning of his ministry he went into the wilderness and prayed for strength to resist the devil and to be obedient to the Father. Before selecting the twelve disciples he prayed all night for God’s direction. Before facing the agony of the cross, he prayed, in the Garden of Gethsemane,
that God’s will, not his own, be done. The prime purpose of prayer is to discern the will of God…to know the mind of the Father.
Having received God’s “word” for our lives, the Christian’s prayer moves on to an act of submission. Just as the patriot disappears in his attachment to his country, the artist in his art, the singer in his song, so must the Christian disappear in his Christ. “He must increase, I must decrease.” The climax of true prayer is found in the submission to the will of God; “The will be done,” is the highest form of faith. From the willingness to offer such a prayer of submission comes a life radiant with the power of the Holy Spirit. God sent Jesus Christ into the world with a plan so we might have that power and He gave us this prayer so that we might know how to pray to become instruments of this transformation and love.
PRAYER: “Our Father who art in heaven…”- Lord, help us remember today that You not only rule the universe but also know us and love us as a Father with the tenderness of a Mother’s heart.
“Hallowed be Thy name…”- We thank and praise You for the beauty of the world and the blessings of Your grace and love.
“Thy kingdom come…”- Help us spread Your joy and kindness and shine Your light in the lives of our families, friends, and everyone we meet today.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”- Show us the plans You have for us, and help us to follow Your will with a faithful spirit.
“Give us this day our daily bread…”- You give us everything we need for a good and happy life. Let us use these gifts for Your glory, and also generously share them.
“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…”- Help us to see others through Your eyes of compassion and forgive them even when it is hardest just as You have forgiven us.
“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil…”- Be the light onto our path wherever we go, and let Your holy angels keep us always.
“For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.”- May we keep in our hearts that our strength, our hopes and our joys are in You – today and forever. Amen.
