Continual Prayer

Preface - I highly recommend Richard Foster's book, Prayer, as a resource as you study prayer.  Foster's book has been a valuable resource to me as I've developed this series on prayer and in my own efforts to deepen my prayer life.

Introduction and Definition

I love the lyrics in the song “Let Us Pray” by Steven Curtis Chapman when it says, “And just because we say the word, "Amen", it doesn't mean this conversation needs to end.  Let us pray, let us pray, everywhere in every way.  Every moment of the day, it is the right time.  Let us pray without end and when we finish start again.  Like breathing out and breathing in, let us pray.

There are so many ways to pray and today I want to talk about continual prayer (AKA Unceasing Prayer).  If prayer, at its heart, is really communion with God, shouldn’t prayer be something we do every minute of every day?  Why do we say “amen” and go on with our life—as if prayer were something we paused to do apart from everything else.  Don’t we want to walk with God all the time, to be in constant communion with Him?  Is that even possible?  It is possible and it’s called continual prayer and Scripture commends it to us.

Ephesians 6:18 – Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

Romans 12:12 – Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Never stop praying.

Now continual prayer doesn’t mean walking around all day with our heads bowed, hands folded, and eyes closed in prayer.  There are other ways to work towards a constant state of prayer throughout the day.  I want to share some exercises that can help you be in more constant prayerful communion with the Lord.

Breathe Prayer

One spiritual exercise is known as breath prayer.  A breath prayer is a short prayer you can pray in one breath.  An example of a breath prayer from Scripture is the prayer of the tax collector from Luke 18:13, “O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.”  Perhaps you remember the story…

The idea behind a breath prayer is to choose one breath prayer to focus on for an entire day.  Then, you say your breath prayer throughout the day as you are driving, working, cooking dinner, cleaning up, or whatever you are doing.  You don’t say the words of your prayer continuously; rather you say it whenever you think about it and try to reflect on it all day.  You make the prayer the focus of your thinking throughout the day.  In doing so, you stay in a prayerful attitude and open your heart to whatever the Lord might speak on the subject.  You can make up your own breath prayer or try one from Scripture, such as:

“Speak Lord, for your servant hears…” (1 Samuel 3:9 & 10, NKJV).

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1, KJV).

“Know that Jesus is Lord… Cease striving” (Based on Psalm 46:10, NASB).

“In Christ alone my soul finds rest…” (Based on Psalm 62:1).

"My help comes from the Lord…" (Psalm 121:2)

"Here I am." (Isaiah 6:8)

"Show your power." (Based on Psalm 80:2)

"Not my will, but yours." (based on Matthew 26:39)

"Come, Lord Jesus." (Revelation 22:20)

Practicing the Presence of God

Another way we can move toward the continual prayer of constant communion with God is an exercise called practicing the presence of God.  Psalm 13:8 says, “If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.”  We may know in our mind that God is everywhere, all the time, but our heart does not always feel God’s presence in every place, all the time.  It takes practice to help our heart feel what our mind already knows.  Christians throughout the ages have developed techniques to open the awareness of our heart to God’s presence with us all the time.

Few people jump straight into full awareness of God’s presence with us everywhere and all of the time.  We have to take baby steps to progress toward that goal.  You can think of it like learning to writing.  When you are a child—maybe five or six-years-old—you don’t jump from being illiterate straight to writing a long essays.  No.  First, you have to learn the alphabet—A, B, C, D…  Then you have to learn the sounds they make and how letters form together to make words.  And then, you have to learn how to hold a pencil and how to form certain pen-strokes that form letters and learn how to keep the words you write neat and all on the same line.  It takes years of practice to learn to write well.  In the beginning, you struggle because you have to think about every letter and every word you form.  Then, you learn to make coherent sentences.  Then, after a time, it starts to become more natural and you begin to write without having to think about it all that much.  It’s just natural.

The same is true when we practice the presence of God.  We take small steps that move us from the very beginning stages to more advanced stages where our awareness of God’s presence with us all the time is something we don’t have to think about; we just know it to be true and we feel Him and know Him all of the time.  Here are some steps that can help you grow as you practice the presence of God.

The first step feels a little artificial.  It is an exercise that takes practice and work.  You have to rehearse it again and again before it starts to be natural and you can move on to more advanced stages.  In the first step, we look for ordinary everyday reminders to call us to prayer.    Teachers could learn to say a quick prayer every time they hear the school bell ring.  Or maybe it could be a reminder to pray every time you see your favorite color.  Doctors, nurses, and surgeons might say a prayer every time they scrub up or wash their hands.  You could even set an alarm on your phone or your wrist watch to go off every hour to remind you to pray.  Your prayers need not be long.  They could be a simple breath prayer.

The second step in practicing the presence of God starts when our prayers begin to happen subconsciously.  After a while, our short, regular prayers start to become so habitual we don’t need the reminders anymore.  We don’t even think about it; we just automatically pray because our prayer habits have become so engrained into our daily life.  At this stage, you may start to see some practical changes in your attitudes and behavior.  You may be less agitated in traffic; you may worry less; you may treat people with more kindness.  You are beginning to feel that God is with you even in those moments you used to exclude Him from before.  Knowing He is with you changes how you act and empowers you to be more like Christ in every moment.

The third stage occurs as prayer moves into the heart.  Our prayer has become more of an attitude of the heart than of just words we say.  We may not even articulate a prayer, but our thoughts, feelings, and behavior now express the sentiments we formerly spoke in prayer.  We are walking in close communion with the Lord.  He is in us and part of us and our lives become a continual pray of God’s love.  We also begin to see others the way God sees them.  Richard Foster writes in his book Prayer, “We walk into a room and quickly know who is sad or lonely or dealing with a deep, inexpressible sorrow.  In such cases, we are able to slip over beside them and sit in silence, bringing comfort and understanding and healing, knowing that “deep calls to deep” (Psalm 42:7).

Answers to Objections

Some may have concerns about continual prayer.  In Matthew 6:7, Jesus warned, “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.”  Some have argued the kinds of continual prayers I’ve mentioned are like the repetitive babbling of the Gentiles that Jesus condemned.  But I don’t think so.  What Jesus was dealing with was religious leaders who liked to make a public spectacle out of the prayers in order to impress people and pagans who thought prayer was some kind of magical incantation they could use to control God. 

The kind of continual prayers we want to practice are secret prayers.  We aren’t doing them as a way of showing off for others.  In fact, if you do them right, you could go through your entire day without anyone even knowing you were praying.  It is a practice between you and God alone.  Furthermore, you are not trying to manipulate God by repeating your prayers over and over as some magical incantation.  The point of your repetition is to affect your own behaviors and attitudes, not God’s.  There’s nothing wrong with repetition.  In Matthew 26: 36-44, Jesus repeated his prayers about his cup of suffering three times in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Lord, if it is possible, take this cup from me!”  Furthermore, he said we should, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7).

  

Some people may be afraid of constant communion with God.  What if you are angry or having an argument with your wife or are angry at your kids?  While some might want Jesus to be very close to them in those moments, others might feel awkward thinking of God seeing them in those unflattering times.  It’s ok.  God is patient with us.  Richard Foster puts it this way in his book:

“Frankly, beyond the desperation prayers… (“O God, help!”), I have found that I cannot pray during these times.  So rather than try to fool myself by piously pretending constant communion, what I do in such situations is to ask God for a timeout.  He is gracious as always and understands our frailty.  In time we can come back and try again.  The question is not whether we fail again and again—that is a given; the question is whether over a period of time we are developing a practiced habit of divine fellowship.”

Conclusion

So, know that you’ve heard about continual prayer, how might you put it into practice in your life.  We need to pray faithfully.  We also need to pray deeply.  Prayer is the life blood of our relationship with God.  It is why we were put here on earth.  So how might you use the techniques of continual prayer to help you be in more constant fellowship with God through prayer?

Suffering Prayer

Preface

I highly recommend Richard Foster's book, Prayer, as a resource as you study prayer.  Foster's book has been a valuable resource to me as I've developed this series on prayer and in my own efforts to deepen my prayer life.

Introduction

There is a shallow, imposter Christianity--one popular with many, many people--that says believing in Jesus will keep you safe from suffering (or at least, will help you suffer less than those who don’t believe).  And many of us, if we are honest, spend most of our time praying that God will protect us from or take away our suffering.  And yet, again and again, the Bible talks about suffering as inevitable and even an essential ingredient in a Christian’s spiritual development.  Jesus promised we would suffer because we follow him as Lord and Savior.  In fact, he said, “If you want to follow me, you must deny yourself everyday and take up your cross and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)  The cross itself, is a torture device that was designed specifically to cause excruciating, long lasting pain.  And Christians are only faithful when we choose to pick one up everyday as we follow our Lord.  So, far from ending our suffering or even helping us to avoid it, the Christian faith seems to guarantee we will suffer if we choose to follow Christ--the suffering servant of God.  Now, to be sure, the suffering we endure is nothing compared to the joy of know the love of God through Jesus Christ or the glory of eternal life.  However, we will suffer in this life.

Suffering takes us out of the shallow waters of pop-Christianity into the deep waters of real intimacy with God.  To know true suffering, is to know something of what Christ knew as he hung on the cross; it gives us empathy with the Son of God who suffered for our sins. We understand in our very own aching bones:  this is the price of our rebellion. We know the pain only in part, but Christ bore the full hell of sin--the weight of every person's sin, the whole world's, completely.  So today, we will consider suffering as Scripture often does:  as a deep form of prayer, suffering prayer.

2 Corinthians 4:6-10

⁶ For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

⁸ We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. ⁹ We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

God’s Word is Unchanging

I am so thankful for the Bible! Were it not for the unchanging Word of God, we would be lost in the shifting sands of the world's pop-philosophies.  The world today says, “Suffering is bad.”  That’s just an unchallenged idea in America these days.  Perhaps our “avoid suffering at all cost” mentality is the root cause of many of our problems:  

• kids that have no self-discipline because their parents sheltered them from all suffering,
• a sense of entitlement--like everything should just be given to us
• and obesity is an epidemic in our society because exercise is a form of self-imposed suffering that few want to endure.  Better to just indulge ourselves as much as possible.

Most people take the easy road, one that bypasses short term suffering but leads to greater suffering down the road.  We do not have the will to be healthy because it requires suffering and the world has told us the lie that suffering is bad and must be avoided at all costs.  But the Word of God tells a deeper Truth:  suffering can be a virtue--when endured rightly by those who place all their faith in Jesus Christ.  Who do you believe?  The world or the Word of God?

Suffering Prayer

Prayer is so much more than we might have thought.  Most of us are familiar with prayer as:  something a preacher does in worship on Sundays, or a blessing before a meal, or asking God to help us or our loved one’s with a problem.  However, the colorful spectrum of prayer is much wider just than these few hues. Prayer comes in many forms.  One important type of prayer is called “suffering prayer”.  Suffering prayer is prayer that asks God to use our difficulties in a redeeming way.  

We all face trials in life.  Some are only minor irritations--a traffic jam or aching muscles or a cashier at the grocery store who was not very polite.  Other suffering comes from deep tragedies—our home burns down or our our parents neglect us or we lose someone we love.  Whatever the trials may be, you can turn them into a suffering prayer.  When you suffer, pray that God would use your troubles for redemptive purposes.  You can pray as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” (Matthew 26:39).  Jesus didn’t want to suffer, but he was willing to accomplish God’s greater good--the salvation of the world.  You too can ask God to turn your suffering into a blessing--for you and for others.  You could pray something like this:  “Lord, my feet are hurting today.  May their aching remind me of those in the world who don’t have good shoes to wear.  Take my suffering and turn it into a blessing for someone who’s in need.”  Or as you encounter a rude sales clerk this busy Christmas season, pray to yourself, “Jesus, I don’t know why they’re being so rude, but people were rude to you too.  Help me to be patient and a humble servant like you.  And please show your love to this clerk, for I don’t know what they are enduring.”

Another way to use suffering prayer is to voluntarily suffer on behalf of others in order to help set them free.  There is a way to listen as others share their troubles and prayerfully feel the pain with them.  I have at times been moved to tears by hearing someone’s pain.  I felt something of of what they felt.  Others have sometime done this for me as too.  When this happens, the load becomes lighter; two people can carry a sorrow better than one.  It is a fulfillment of Galatians 6:2, “Share one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  Now, it is also important to say you must let go of that burden after a short time.  No one should carry other people’s burdens for too long.  It could become too much and crush you.  As a pastor, I am always hearing of other people’s troubles.  Someone is always fighting with demons or falling ill or going to the hospital or grieving a loved one who dies.  I take each one seriously, but I cannot carry all of their pain, all the time.  So I try to carry it for a little while and then give it to Jesus, who is the only one who can carry all of it, all the time.

Fasting can be a very meaningful spiritual exercise that, unfortunately, is practiced too little in the Church in America.  Fasting is voluntarily denying yourself food for a time in order to seek spiritual nourishment.  Fasting could also be giving up other things besides food--like watching TV or using social media.  Fasting is a form of self-inflicted suffering.  Done rightly, fasting is not a way to go on a diet or lose weight; it is a deep form of suffering prayer.  Fasting has been a valuable tool for spiritual growth in the Christian Church for 2,000 years.  Many people in the Bible fasted in order to draw closer to God.  Jesus, himself, practiced fasting.  He fasted for 40 days and nights in the wilderness just before he began his earthly ministry.  Jesus also taught that some demons can only be overcome through prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29 KJV).

It’s very common to tell someone struggling with a problem you will pray for them.  “I’m having surgery this Friday.”  “Oh!  I’ll pray for you.”  It encourages them and our prayers are a blessing.  But consider this, how would they feel if you offered to fast for them?  Perhaps they say, “I have a interview for a new job tomorrow and I’m worried about it.”  And you say, “Friend, I’m gonna pray for you and I’m going to fast for you too.”  Maybe you could skip breakfast or lunch as a fast on their behalf.  Ask God to use your suffering as a prayer for them.

Conclusion

Suffering prayer keeps us humble and reminds us that we are very FRA-JI-LEE (fragile).  It is wonderful news that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is adopted into the royal family of God.  We are kings and queens--a royal priesthood in God’s Kingdom.  The divine light of Christ shines in our hearts, but 2 Corinthians 4:6 says we carry that divine light in fragile clay jars.  We are tremendously blessed, but don’t be too proud of yourself because we are easily broken.  Pride not only leads us away from God, it numbs us to the glorious presence of God all around us. 

Suffering Prayer draws us away from our prideful delusions of grandeur back into the reality of God’s glory and love.  Through suffering, 2 Corinthians 4:10 says, “...our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.” How might you use suffering prayer to go deeper in your prayer life?  Perhaps Christ is calling you to a more faithful and deeper  prayer life through the use of suffering prayer.

A Prayer on Suffering by Bernadette Soubirous

Bernadette Soubirous [Sue – B – Roo] was a sickly child born in 1844 to a impoverished family in France.  Her family was so poor they lived in the one-room basement of a friend that was formerly used as a jail cell.  Bernadette contracted cholera as a toddler and suffered from severe asthma for the rest of her life.  Her poor health stunted her growth.  She only grew to 4’7” tall.  Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity working as an assistant in the infirmary until she died at the age of 35.  Her life-long suffering kept her in constant communion with God.  She is remembered and honored for her deep humility and spirit of sacrifice.  I would like to conclude with her Prayer on Suffering (adapted):

Heavenly Father, we suffer. All our cries of anguish rise to You, our Comforter. In Your adorable heart, we grieve. To Your heart, we confide our sighs, our anguish, our grief to Your grief.  Jesus, sanctify our sufferings by this holy union. Grant that by increasing our love for You, our grief may become lighter and easier to bear.  Amen.

Liturgical Prayer

Preface - I highly recommend Richard Foster's book, Prayer, as a resource as you study prayer.  Foster's book has been a valuable resource to me as I've developed this series on prayer and in my own efforts to deepen my prayer life.

Introduction

As we head toward Christmas, I challenge you to pray more often and more deeply.  Prayer is essential in the Christian faith.  It’s not just something Christians do; prayer is our relationship with God.  Prayer is so much more than we’ve settle for.  There are so many ways to pray.  And our prayer life needs to be faithful and deep.  Faithful, meaning we pray often and regularly; and deep, meaning our prayers go beyond the shallow, surface prayers of immature faith.

Last Wednesday, I shared about examining prayer—where we examine our life for ways God reveals His presence with us and also invite Him to examine our hearts.  Sunday, I taught about the Lord’s Prayer (aka the Daddy prayer)—a simple model of prayer where we have a conversation with our Daddy in Heaven about whatever we want to talk about.  Today, I want to explore liturgical prayer.  Psalm 136 is a beautiful example of liturgical prayer from the Old Testament.  Here's a sample that would normally be lead by a worship leader with a congregation responding with the words in italics:

Psalm 136:1-9, 23-26

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords.
His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to him who alone does mighty miracles.
His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to him who made the heavens so skillfully.
His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to him who placed the earth among the waters.
His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to him who made the heavenly lights—
His faithful love endures forever.
the sun to rule the day,
His faithful love endures forever.
and the moon and stars to rule the night.
His faithful love endures forever.

He remembered us in our weakness.
His faithful love endures forever.
He saved us from our enemies.
His faithful love endures forever.
He gives food to every living thing.
His faithful love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of heaven.
His faithful love endures forever.

Liturgical Prayer

Liturgy is a scripted formula for worship or prayer.  For instance, every Sunday at our church, we follow the same general pattern for worship.  We make announcements, then have a prelude as the Acolytes light the altar candles, there is a call to worship, and then an opening prayer, etc.  The songs and prayers and messages change from week to week, but we usually follow the same general pattern.  The “pattern” (or order of worship) is the liturgy.  

We might also call a responsive reading a liturgy.  For example, we might recite the Apostles Creed that is printed in the bulletin or on the screens (or from memory); or we might use a responsive reading as we light the Advent candles or a prayer of confession from the back of the hymnal at the end of the service.

Ceremonies we act out—like lighting the Advent candles—are also liturgy.  This includes many ceremonies like:

• Holy Communion – where we break the bread and raise the cup
• The offering – passing the plates and lifting them up at the altar
• Baptism – sprinkling or pouring water over a person’s head
• The Acolytes lighting the candles on the altar
• Parishioners kneeling at the altar for prayer

All of these physical acts are a form of liturgical prayer.  Sometimes, we say formulated words (written prayers) as we perform the acts; we say, “This is the body and blood of Christ” as we share Holy Communion.  Other times, the rituals stand alone as acts of prayer by themselves as when the acolytes symbolically bring the light of Christ to the altar candles at the beginning of the service.

So let me explore two forms of liturgical prayer you could use in your private prayer times:  written prayers and ceremonial prayers

Written Prayers

Some people really struggle to know what to say in prayer.  I had one person tell me they have the prayer in their head, but really have trouble getting the words from their head to their lips.  Others who pray quite frequently often find that their prayers get repetitive; they always pray about the same things.  Fortunately, there are endless collections of prayers that people have written down through the ages.  There are prayers that cover the gamut of subjects we can pray about.  Examples of Written Prayers:

President Woodrow Wilson

A Prayer for All Nations by President Woodrow Wilson

Almighty God, supreme Governor of all people, hear our prayer for all nations, and so overrule the imperfect counsel of people, and set straight the things they cannot govern, that we may walk in the paths of obedience to you, and to thoughts that purge and make us wise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The Prayer of Saint Fancis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

The United Methodist Hymnal has prayers throughout its pages.  Books that collect and index prayers according to topics are also available.  And with the tremendous resources available on the internet, you can find prayers for any subject or occasion.  Struggling with depression?  Look up a prayer about depression.  Want to pray for someone on their birthday?  Do a Google search for birthday prayers.  Need a prayer as you get ready for Christmas?  Look up Christmas prayers and find one like this one by Melanie Chitwood: 

Dear Lord, don't let us miss You this Christmas season. Help us to simplify our activities and traditions so we can focus our celebration on Your birth. Thank You for being the Prince of Peace, and I ask You for that supernatural peace to reign in our hearts. Thank You for the simple but life-changing message of Your love for us. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

A drawback to written prayers is they might lack some of the spontaneity of coming up with your own prayer on the spot, but the drawback comes with a great benefit—spiritual depth.  Written prayers broaden what you pray about.  Left to ourselves, we might not ever think to pray about anything beyond the same people, concerns, and subjects we always think about.  Reading through collections of traditional and contemporary prayers exposes us to a multitude of ideas, yearnings, and insights from Christians from all over the world and throughout the ages.  And praying words someone else wrote down doesn’t have to be impersonal.  Often, you may find that reading someone else’s prayer inspires you to talk to God about the subject in your own words.  Now you have gotten to the heart of prayer.

Ceremonial Prayers

Ceremonial prayer is a prayer acted out in a ritual.  The variety of ceremonies is limitless.  And don’t be put off by the word “ceremony”, which might seem too “official” for what you do in your private prayer time.  A ceremonial prayer is just a physical routine that you do as a form of prayer.

If prayer is intimate communion with God, then it makes sense that our intimate times with God would include more than just talking.  Doesn't your time with close family and friends include more than conversation?  Let me put it to you this way.  Kelly and I have a habit of getting up and sharing a cup of coffee together on the couch at 5 AM on those mornings when she goes to work.  We get out of bed, let the dog out, make a cup of coffee, and sit on the couch.  We usually don’t talk much.  We’re both quiet people and it’s early in the morning.  Although few words are spoken, we are together and there’s an intimacy in our time which we intentionally spend together.  Drinking coffee is the ceremony, but just being together is the beautiful result.  We have other non-verbal “rituals” too.  We sometimes like to hold hands while driving in the car.  I open the door for her when we enter a building together. 

Now take that concept and transfer it over to your relationship with God.  What routines might you do that become a form of prayer while you spend time with God?  Some people like to read a chapter of the Bible or an Upper Room devotional every morning.  Others like to open their palms to heaven while they sing in church on Sunday.  Some like to kneel down at the side of their bed before they go to sleep.  

We don’t always have to use words when we commune with God in prayer.  Deuteronomy 6:9 instructs Jews to write the Lord’s commands on the doorposts of their house.  Many Jews have a Mezuzah on their doorpost that contains a written prayer statement called the Shema that says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”  Many kiss the Mezuzah when they go in or out of their home.  What prayerful rituals do you or could you incorporate into your life?  Could you hand copy or type a few verses of Scripture into a journal every day?  Could you turn your morning commute into a time to sing praises to God?  Some families find it meaningful to read the Bible together.  Some people have their own Advent candle ceremony—lighting one candle in their home for everyday leading up to Christmas.

Everyone has daily rituals in their life.  How might you take something you already do—a daily walk, a morning cup of coffee, taking a shower, doing the dishes—and turn them into a ceremonial prayer.  How do you make a daily ritual a ceremonial prayer?  It’s not hard.  It only takes you making it an intentional act of prayer.  Here’s an example of how it could look.

Loading the Dishwasher with Jesus

1. As you see all the dirty dishes needing to be cleaned, don’t be overwhelmed. Instead, be glad you have a way to clean them.
2. As you unload the clean dishes from the dishwasher, be thankful for all the ways Jesus has cleansed and made you new.
3. As you load dirty dishes into the dishwasher, envision Jesus graciously receiving all your sins.
4. When the dishwasher is full, be satisfied that Jesus has the capacity to carry all your sins away.
5. As you place the dish detergent in the washer, know the blood of Christ can wash away the stain of any sin.  As you start the dishwasher and hear it running, remember Jesus is cleansing your life--even now.  It may take some time to see the results, but you will.  Be patient.

Holy Communion

Prayer is communion with God.  Perhaps the greatest of all liturgical prayer is the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Through the use of bread and grape juice, we remember the love of God that was so strong it left the glory of Heaven to come down to our broken world to save us from our sins by dying on a cross.  Maybe you will find an opportunity to enjoy The Lord's Supper this season.  We will share it at my church on Christmas Eve at 5:00 PM.  

How could you deepen your prayer life through liturgical prayer?

The Lord's (Simple) Prayer

Preface - I highly recommend Richard Foster's book, Prayer, as a resource as you study prayer.  Foster's book has been a valuable resource to me as I've developed this series on prayer and in my own efforts to deepen my prayer life.

Introduction

One day an atheist who didn’t believe in God was walking through the woods admiring the beauty of nature and thinking how amazing it was the “big bang” created the whole universe and this marvelous forest.  Suddenly, a grizzly bear jumped from behind a tree and knocked the atheist to the ground.  Just as the bear’s jaws closed in to finish the atheist off, the man cried out, “God help me!” 

Everything in the world around him froze.  Even the wind stopped blowing and the birds ceased their chirping.  And then from Heaven a booming voice spoke.  “I am God.  And even though you don’t believe in me, I love you and want to help you.  What do you want me to do?”

The atheist thought for a moment and said, “I’m not a religious person and I don’t want to become one.  But if you could just give this bear some religion that should do the trick.”

God spoke with a voice of thunder, “So be it!  It is done!”  And then the forest came back to life again and everything returned to normal.  The atheist looked up hopefully at the massive grizzly bear standing over him.  The bear clasped its paws together and began to pray very religiously:

“Thank You, O God, for this meal I am about to receive...”

It seems almost everyone believes in prayer.  Of course, most people who go to church believe in prayer.  However, even people who don’t go to church will ask you to pray for them when they need help; or they will tell you they will pray for you if they hear you are having trouble.  Even atheists often pray for divine help when they are in big trouble!  (I guess it’s hard not to hope for a divine God when you desperately need supernatural help!)

Prayer is essential.  It’s not just something religious people do or something for those who desperately need help.  Prayer is a living relationship with our Creator.  Prayer is what we were made for.  But who really knows how to pray?

Jesus’ disciples asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.”  And Jesus gave them a simple prayer to model how to pray.  Today, I want to look at that simple prayer we commonly call “The Lord’s Prayer”.  Now, most of us have heard this prayer and recited it again and again ourselves until it’s so familiar we take it for granted.  That can hinder our ability to understand it.  So I encourage you to try to listen to the Lord’s Prayer with fresh ears this morning--like you are hearing it for the very first time.

Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father in heaven,

    may your name be kept holy.

¹⁰ May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done on earth,

    as it is in heaven.

¹¹ Give us today the food we need,

¹² and forgive us our sins,

    as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

¹³ And don’t let us yield to temptation,

    but rescue us from the evil one.

A Simple Prayer

Christians often enshrine The Lord’s Prayer as the holiest of holy prayers.  It’s been part of religious tradition for so long and often linked to some of the holiest religious experiences of our lives; we can’t help but think of it as a sacred prayer.  However, Jesus never meant for the Lord’s Prayer to be some super fancy sacred ritual.  When he told his disciples, “Pray like this…” he was actually teaching them how simple and ordinary our prayers ought to be.  In fact, the language he uses in the Lord’s prayer was so common, many of the religious leaders of his day would have considered it sacrilegious.  It was blasphemy for Jews of Jesus’ day to even say the name of God—for His name was thought to be too holy to be spoken by human lips.  To them, Jesus went completely overboard by calling God “Father”.  People thought, “How can any sinful human mortal presume to call the God of the universe, Daddy?”  But Jesus is the Son of God.  And when we trust Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are adopted into the family.  God is our Father too!

A Daddy Prayer

Calling God “Our Father in Heaven” (or “Our Daddy up in the Sky”) is precisely the point Jesus wants to make.  You see, praying really is very simple.  Now, I know not everyone has had a good relationship with their father here on earth.  However, if you did have a good father you trusted, you knew loved you, who you also loved, a father you felt very comfortable being with and talking to, you would know you could just go to your dad and talk about anything.  It’s what your dad wants you do because your dad loves you and loves to spend time with you.  And Jesus is saying, that’s our relationship with God and that’s what prayer is! 

Prayer is not some highfalutin religious ritual.  Prayer is us talking to our Daddy--our true Dad, our perfect Dad, our Daddy in the Sky, our Heavenly Father.  And that sets the tone for everything about simple, authentic prayer.  We can and should go to God in prayer like a child goes into the arms of a loving, welcoming father.  And God receives us in prayer like a loving, welcoming dad embraces a little child. 

I think we really ought to change the name of this prayer.  Instead of calling it the Lord’s Prayer, we ought to call it the Daddy prayer.  That’s the heart of what it really is.  We are simply talking to our Daddy, who also happens to be the God of the Universe.  What a blessing!

A Model Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer (or the Daddy Prayer) is a model for how we can pray.  Jesus didn’t intend us to have to recite it by wrote—like this was the only words you can pray.  (You can recite it.  I have heard people say sometimes when they don’t know what to say in prayer, they will recite the Lord’s Prayer.  And that works too.  It’s always good to have a few prayers memorized for when you just don’t know what to pray.)  But the Lord’s Prayer (the Daddy Prayer), is really meant to be an outline 
of the kinds of things you could pray about. So what’s in the outline?

• Address God – Our Spiritual Dad 
• Praise Him 
• Pray about our purpose 
• Ask for our basic needs 
• Pray about forgiveness 
• Ask for spiritual guidance 

A Prayer of Praise

In the King James Version, the version we recite on Sunday mornings, we say, “Hallowed be thy name…”  What does that even mean?  It means, “Daddy God, we want You to be revered and honored.”  God is perfect and holy and good and loving and powerful and we were created to love and honor and adore Him.  We want the whole world to honor and adore Him too.  So we praise Him in our prayers.  And in doing so, we lift up our own hearts.  Our spirits soar out of darkness and gloom as we reconnect with our created purpose—to honor and glorify our Holy God.  Every problem, worry, concern seem smaller when placed beside our praise of the One True God.

A Prayer for Purpose

Thy Kingdom Come…  Prayer helps us name and ask God to help us align our purpose with His divine purpose.  Prayer changes things.  And the most important thing prayer changes is us.  We might ask God to change our situations (and sometimes He does), but the most important thing God changes in prayer is our will and our desires.  The greatest blessing in life is to discover what God wants you to do with your life and the joy of living on purpose.  Those who follow Christ ask God to help us discover His will, to help the whole world discover and do God’s will until we realize His Kingdom’s goals on the earth as much as they are a reality in Heaven.

A Prayer about Basic Needs

Our Daddy God cares about our needs.  Jesus said that God knows and cares about every single bird that dies (Matthew 10:29).  You are way more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows (Matthew 10:31).  So we can ask Him to take care of our basic needs.  And doing so reminds us of our complete dependence on God.  Food seems pretty easy to come by for most people today.  But the reality is, every one of us is only a few hours away from being very hungry.  (Some of you are pretty hungry right now and really want me to wrap up this message so you can go have lunch!)  All of us are only a day away from being famished or a few days away from starving if there were no food to eat.  Do you think you are the one who puts food on your table?  “Well, yes.  I have a job and I buy my food.”  But the Christian is one who recognizes it all really comes from God.  Without His provision, we could not survive.  And we ought not ever forget that the simple and basic blessings of having enough to eat could be taken away in a heartbeat.  Some do not enjoy that blessing—maybe by no fault of their own. 

And so we pray, “Give us the food we need.”  And not just the food; what about all the other basic things we need?  We can and should ask our Daddy God for them.  He’s our Daddy and we need Him.  And our Daddy God loves us and will take care of us.  Pray about it.

A Prayer of Forgiveness

If food is our basic physical need, forgiveness is our basic spiritual need.  Without it, we cannot live.  Sin separates us from our Creator, who is the source of life.  And yet “all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  And “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).  “All who call on the name of the Lord [Jesus Christ] shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).  “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).  But Jesus also said, “If you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15).

Forgiveness can be very hard.  I don’t have time today to really address forgiveness.  All I have time to say is this:  we desperately need God’s forgiveness and we desperately need to forgive others.  And forgiveness—real, godly, divine forgiveness—is a miracle that is beyond our ability.  And so we need to pray about it and ask God’s help.

A Pray for Spiritual Guidance

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil..."  This life is a battle ground.  We don’t often realize it as we are driving around in our comfortable Toyata Camrys and SUV’s.  But while we are enjoying our homes—with their thermostatically heated and air conditioned environments—a spiritual war is waging for our souls just beyond the grasp of our physical eyes.  The Devil and His demons wants nothing more than to see you’re soul distracted, disarmed, and destroyed.  He is OK with you living a life of comfort and ease, with few serious problems—so long as that ultimately leads you to join him in hell for the rest of eternity.  Thankfully, God has not left us unprotected in this battle.  The Holy Spirit is available to show you the way of Christ that leads to eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.  The stakes are high.  We desperately need to pray for God to guide us to walk in the light.  “Daddy in Heaven, lead us not into temptation, but deliver from evil.”

A Word About Amen

It has become an almost universal practice to end prayers with the word “Amen”.  The word means “so be it”, and it’s a way of affirming what we’ve just prayed.  For most people, it’s just a way to signify we’re done praying.  Although almost everyone says amen, it’s not really necessary—especially when you are praying by yourself and you don’t need to let anyone else know your done.  You can say it or not say it, whatever you want to do.

Holy Communion

Prayer is communion with God.  Whenever, we have the privilege of sharing the sacrament of Holy Communion, it is also a kind of prayer—a prayer we act out as we take the bread and grape juice and remember the love of God that was so strong it left the glory of Heaven to come down to our broken world to save us from our sins by dying on a cross.  

I hope you will focus on prayer as much as you can.  It is the life blood of our relationship with God.