Going Deeper in Pray (2/28/2010)

Another great sermon from Matthew (2/28) on great prayer. The 4 points about prayer are awesome and clearly direct our focus when praying. What I hope to do is to maybe take a step deeper into the topics as they come, and reflect a little on how to make the discipline a part of everyday life. For isn’t that the real issue, making what we learn something that spreads out from Sunday morning worship to the rest of our lives. To do that I will raise up a question, think about that question and toss out a thought about a way of life. Hoping for some push back on all of that down the road.

That first question – why pray at all? I have heard it said that God knows what is going on right now, and God knows what is coming down the road – unless you are an open theist but that’s a topic for another day – so what use is prayer. For some of us the answer is pretty prompt and succinct. We need to pray because the Word commands us to pray and we don’t need more than that to engage in the practice. I surely am not in a position to deny that truth. I think, however, it may be something to consider both for evangelizing down the road but also just maybe thinking about that question will make us go a little deeper into prayer and what it does to us. As well a final caveat, no way are these thoughts exhaustive, but simply an idea that may need to be filled out, and again hoping for some push back and growing.

Here goes.

My thinking goes prayer isn’t about asking God to do us a favor – now that may sound a little harsh in one sense, but somehow approaching God in this way seems like we are acting as though God were some sort of magic talisman so if we get the combination right, our wishes come true. However, I do recognize that prayers for supplication have occurred and have been answered (a great story of a prayer for supplication is with Hezekiah and what seemed to be a final illness and Hannah’s prayer for release from her barrenness).

My thinking is that prayer isn’t about reciting a formula. Repeating a formula week after week really gets us nowhere, and somehow I have this feeling God finds it boring and maybe a little offensive to hear unfelt recitations of praise week after week (here we can think of praying the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm or the Nicene Creed). However, I do think there is a certain power arising from a liturgical practice, or if you will, engaging in some spiritual disciplines.

My thinking is that prayer isn’t about looking pious or more Christian. Here, the first picture popping up is the Gospel narrative about the Pharisee praying and the tax collector beating his breast, and asking for forgiveness.

So why pray?

Maybe prayer is about being in conversation and being in relationship. There is something more about prayer than supplication, recitation and being pious, though prayer does, at times, involve all 3 of those things. But if I understand Paul correctly, and his admonition that we are to be in prayer constantly, then engaging in continual supplication, or performed a mindless recitation, just doesn’t seem to really fit or be something we would do unceasingly. Though we all know someone who does in fact do that (and as I make that statement I am intentionally avoiding any room with mirrors).

Maybe prayer is about becoming empty. Maybe prayer is about giving up the fears we have to God, so prayers of supplication are vital, but we are not necessarily praying to get the right answer or get God to do us that favor. Maybe prayer is about offering up praise, about acknowledging He is God and we are not but not stopping there (though I do think there is that powerful need to be trained and that has a lot to do with prayer but that is for another day). Going deeper, maybe by emptying ourselves of our fears, and acknowledging He is God, we become receptive. By pushing out beyond ourselves, there is now room for the Holy Spirit to speak to us – because being in conversation means being open to the other and engaging in a series of listening and speaking. Maybe God is seeking our conversations - wanting for us to be in constant relationship. Maybe that is why we need to be in prayer.