Teach Us to Pray

“Teach Us to Pray”
Based on Matthew 6: 9-13
Preached at lifepath church on January 25, 2009

You can see by the title in your bulletin that this sermon is going to have something to do with prayer. Perhaps that interests you greatly and you are sitting on the edge of your seat. Perhaps the thought of a message on prayer makes you sigh and grit your teeth, steeling yourself to endure a half hour of boredom. The subject of prayer produces a lot of mixed feelings in us. That’s because prayer is full of paradoxes. It is the easiest thing in the world to do – prayer is simply talking to the God who is all around us - but it is also seems strangely complicated and we often feel like we’re not doing it right. And very few of us would admit to being much good at it. Prayer taps into the most powerful Force there is and sometimes when we pray mountains are moved; and yet our prayers often feel weak and ineffective. Prayer can be the most uplifting of experiences, filling us with a peace that passes understanding and a sense of fulfillment and yet our mind often wanders while we’re doing it, don’t they? Prayer is at the heart of our most important relationship but we often find ourselves making excuses to avoid it. When you stop to think about it, prayer is simple and complicated, easy and difficult, powerful yet expressed in weakness, deeply fulfilling yet often a labor. Prayer is full of paradox.
And while we know we should pray, we really feel like we need a bit of help if we’re going to do it. Many of us struggle to set aside time to pray. When we pray it feels shapeless and unfocused. We’re not really sure what we’re supposed to do. What are my prayers supposed to look like? We’re not sure how to begin and we’re not sure when we’re done. Often we’re not sure if we’re praying the right way. Am I supposed to do it this way? Am I missing something? The first disciples of Jesus were just like us. The Gospel of Luke tells the story in chapter 11, “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples’” (Luke 11: 1). Hey, Jesus, we really could use some practical instructions when it comes to prayer. Jesus then proceeded to teach them what Protestants call “the Lord’s Prayer.” If you grew up Catholic, you know it as the “Our Father.” It’s the prayer we recite each week in church, “Our Father, who art in heaven…...” And while it is a good exercise to say it together as a fellowship, another way to use it is as a structure – an outline – for all our prayers. And if we want to know better how to pray, it’s worth looking at.

So what we’re going to do is go through the Lord’s Prayer – we’re going to travel fast and light and get through the prayer in its entirety. We could devote a whole sermon to each little portion of the prayer. But this morning we are going to focus on doing something very simple and very practical: we’re going to use the Lord’s Prayer to create an outline for how you do your prayers each day. So if it feels like I’ve rushed through a section of the prayer that you’d like to have spent more time discussing, shoot me an email and send me your question. But by the end of the sermon you should have a practical step by step process to structure your daily prayer time.

I’m going to ask the ushers to pass out something that you can take home with you to use as a step by step guide.I *(I'm posting this on the blog as well)

Let’s turn to Matthew. There are two versions of the Lord’s Prayer, one in Luke and one in Matthew. We’ll look at Matthew because it’s closer to the one we recite each Sunday. Also, I’m going to read from a different translation than I normally do. The New Revised Standard Version uses language that is a bit closer to what we recite while still being modern English. I’ll read the whole thing and then we’ll go back and look at it verse by verse. Listen now to the word of God. (Read Matthew 6: 9-13 NRSV)

“Our Father in heaven…..” (verse 9). Knowing what to call God and how he wishes to be addressed is both important and controversial. Calling God “Father” is natural to some people and very difficult to others. Our view of God is often shaped by how good a father our dad was. Some people had earthly fathers who were harsh or uncaring or weren’t there at all and so the image of a father may be more emotionally tricky for them. A couple of quick words. Don’t measure God’s fatherhood by the frailties of earthly fathers. There is an interesting line in the prophecy of Malachi which talks about a coming prophet of God whose mission will be to “turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children” (Malachi 4: 6 NLT). Why would such a mission be necessary? Because as earthly fathers, our hearts naturally incline away from our children to other things. God’s desire is to turn our hearts back to our children. Why? Why is that his desire? Because his heart is always turned toward his children. He is constantly bending his love toward his children. And who is a child of God? What does the Bible say? “But to all who believed (Jesus) and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1: 12 NLT). The reason why we can approach God in prayer is because our faith and acceptance of his Son makes us brothers and sisters of Jesus. When Jesus instructs us to pray to God as “Father,” he’s saying to his followers, “Because you have placed your faith in me, you are now full members of my family. God is not abstract and unknown to me. He is my Father. My Heavenly Father is now your Father as well. You are accepted and welcome. My Father’s heart is always turned toward his children.” When you pray you don’t have to call God “Father” every time but it’s a great reminder that now we are a part of the family. And God loves his kids.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (Matthew 6: 9 NRSV). Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed is an old word for holy. If we were to put this line into simple language it might sound something like, “God, may you be treated according to your true worth. May you be honored and loved and respected and thanked because of who you are and what you do.” Before we know God very well our prayers usually consist of asking for things. Asking for things is good and we’ll talk about it in a moment, but as we begin to know God better we sense that prayer should be more than me asking for things. Jesus says the first component of prayer is to honor God - to praise him and thank him for who he is and what he has done. Starting off your prayer by saying thank you is a spiritually healthy thing. Whether you are thanking him for the beauty of the day or perhaps thanking him for answering a prayer you said yesterday. Saying thank you lifts us up and out of ourselves. Saying thank you takes our focus off our own problems and helps to focus on the Solution. There’s a promise in the Bible that says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand…..” (Philippians 4: 6-7 NLT). Do you hear the promise there? Make praising and giving thanks a part of your prayer time and you will experience the peace of God. Praise is the first element of prayer. I’ve given you some suggestions for how to do that in the little handout. I find singing to be the best way for me. I sing quietly – off key – sometimes I use a song I learned in church. Sometimes I just kind of make up the words. You may not be that dorky. There really are a million ways to praise him.

We’re traveling fast and light. Let’s move to the next line of the Lord’s Prayer. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6: 10 NRSV). God has a plan for this world. He is bringing his kingdom into it. That’s why Jesus came. His death and resurrection began to establish the kingdom of God. The Bible says the future the kingdom is consummated and fully realized. But the present time is a time of already and not yet. The kingdom has begun to arrive but it’s not fully here. The Lord is King but not everyone recognizes his authority. In the meantime those who are loyal to the king serve him and carry out his orders and his work. We are the King’s people. And one of the things he has told us to do is pray. We pray for others. We pray for the sick. We pray for peace. We pray for God’s purposes to be carried out – his will to be done. We wonder what good prayer does. Doesn’t God already know what needs to happen? Wouldn’t he do it anyway? Why does he need to talk to him about stuff that he needs to be doing? Think about it this way. Why does God ask us to do anything? He could do everything himself. Yet he tells us to care for each other and help each other. And we do. We feed the hungry. We buy school supplies for disadvantaged kids. We help people in need. And when we do something good, we realize God did it those things through us. Yes, God could do all things alone, but a part of God’s love for us is that he gives us the dignity of sharing in his good work. Prayer is not much different. We are not just physical creatures. We are spiritual creatures. Prayer is sharing in the spiritual work of God’s kingdom. When we pray for others God works through those prayers just as much as when we take someone a hot meal, God uses that action.

There’s a ton of other stuff I could say about the nature of prayer but we’re moving quickly and I want to convey to you how important our prayers for others are. You see in the little outline I gave you some suggestions for how to pray. I keep a prayer journal. It’s nothing elaborate. It’s just a three ring binder with a section for each part of the Lord’s Prayer. There’s a section where I write down things I’m thankful for. Maybe you don’t need to do that. But I would encourage you to keep a prayer list. You can keep the list in your daily planner, or on your laptop, whatever works. Have it handy so that when you pray you have the list. What goes on the list? I just write the date, the name of the person and a word or two about their need. Each day I use it to make sure I haven’t missed anyone. I keep a list for my family, one for church members and issues, and one for the wider world. I usually keep my prayer for each need quite short. And then when the prayer is answered, I put the date on which it was answered and draw a line through it. There’s nothing that gives encouragement like seeing a list of answered prayers.

What’s next in the Lord’s Prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6: 11 NRSV). Ah, finally we get to what we normally think of when we think of prayer: God I need some help! You could keep a list of these things too - or several lists for several areas of your life. Or if you’re someone who has your day planned out, you could go through your day and ask for God’s blessing on each component of your day. The point is that there is nothing wrong with asking God for very practical help. God help me deal with this client. God help me get my kids out to the bus stop without losing my mind. Don’t be afraid to ask God to help you with little things. Daily bread isn’t a big thing. But it’s a pretty important thing. We learn to trust him by walking with him through our day. And our days are filled mostly with little things. By helping us with little things, God helps grow our faith so that we can trust him with big things. Give us this day our daily bread.

Moving fast and traveling light: “And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6: 12 NRSV). This is one part of the Lord’s Prayer that people memorize differently depending on which church they go to. Some churches say “forgive us our trespasses…” Both are fine because both are using slightly different language to say, “ask God’s forgiveness for the things we do wrong and forgive others for the wrong they’ve done to us. In the Matthew version of the Lord’s Prayer the Greek word really is best translated as debt. The idea is that when someone sins against us, they incur a debt, which is why we talk about “getting even.” But be that as it may. The main point is that Jesus says a huge component of our prayer should be asking for and offering forgiveness. I used to wonder why God made our forgiving others so important. Right after he gives the Lord’s Prayer he says, “If you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6: 15 NLT). But the Kingdom of God is all about forgiveness. God is reconciling the world to himself. If we want to participate in the kingdom we have to participate in what the kingdom is all about – forgiveness. You can’t bring your hate and bitterness into heaven with you. It wouldn’t be much of a heaven if you could, would it? But enough of the why of it. Let’s have a little how. I have a section in my prayer journal where I write down the people who have wronged me or wounded me. And pray for those people. I try to make the prayers specific if I know of specific needs. Bless their marriage. Give relief them from their arthritis. Things like that. I don’t always enjoy that part of it. I don’t always “feel” forgiving. But I tell God that I release the debt. I forgive the debt that person owes me. I also spend some time asking for forgiveness for the wrongs I’ve done. I don’t always like listing those either. But putting the two together sometimes makes it easier for me to forgive others. Because I’m not so perfect myself.

And finally we see, “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one” (Matthew 6: 13 NRSV). This is the only part of the NRSV that really sounds different from the one we recite – “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” But the basic point is this. There are a lot of things in this universe which are bigger and more powerful than we are and many of them threaten us spiritually or emotionally or physically. If you get to the end of your prayers and there is still something you are anxious about. Lift it up and ask for God’s protection. I love the line in the Bible that says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5: 7)

So there you have a simple structure for how you can have a rich and full prayer life. If you go quickly through this you can do it in 15 or 20 minutes. Of course you can spend quite a while with it too. I realize that there are lots of paradoxes and mysteries about prayer we didn’t talk about. And I’d be happy to get a few emails with questions. But the best way to learn about prayer is not to talk about it. It’s to do it.

Amen