Connecting With God Through Prayer Series

Connecting with God through Prayer

Series: Connecting with God

Brad Bailey – May 12, 2024

Intro

Today we are concluding our series “Connecting with God”... in which we have

engaged identifying our location... that is...the position we are in...including being finite

beings...who have tried to hide from our own defiant independence... and then how the

very nature of creation whispers... and how our longing for justice is an echo of God’s

voice... and then how our desire for significance is vain apart from a larger purpose.

Finally last week... Josh described how we connect with God in stillness...calm...

for that is what the presence of God bears.

Jesus declares that God rules over chaos... he stills the storms... because his

presence is connected to the calm...not the chaos.

God’s call to us is captured in Psalm 46:10 [1]...

“Be still, and know that I am God...” - Psalm 46:10

Today...as we conclude this series...I want to expand on that... on how we engage

God in that space.

While a quiet soul is not limited to quiet places, it may be developed there.

This is what we see in Jesus... Jesus began his days in quiet places...where it was

easier to quiet his soul. His was so often found praying... and spoke of living out of

what he heard and saw from the Father in heaven through prayer.

When God embodied a human life in Christ...he showed and shared the connection

we can have with God.

When those closest to Jesus saw his life.... They asked him to teach them to

PRAY... to teach them how to actually have a relationship with God.

And Jesus begins....Matthew 6:5-6

"... when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in

the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth,

they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room,

close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who

sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Hypocrites.... Is a translation of the Greek work used in theater...which reflects the

actor who in those days wore a mask... and tried to convince an audience they were somebody

other than who they really were. That is what the religious leaders were doing. [2]

The simple but significant truth is that if we carry on as actors... to be accepted

by others... we may indeed have some who like our performance... but that will

be our ‘reward in full’... that’s all we get.

The first thing Jesus says is that we need to go into our room and close the door.

Jesus isn’t challenging a place for public prayer per se, but rather the very essence

of performing...of trying to be somebody we are not.

We can all become performers... actors among actors... never able to escape the

false selves we have formed.

As Brennan Manning describes all too well [3]...

“Have you ever felt baffled by your internal resistance to prayer? By the

existential dread of silence, solitude, and being alone with God? Beware the

impostor!

The false self dreads being alone, knowing "that if he would become silent within

and without he would discover himself to be nothing. He would be left with

nothing but his own nothingness, and to the false self which claims to be

everything, such a discovery would be his undoing."

As he describes... we can all become imposters...we can all develop some type of

identity that we believe will make us acceptable. We’ve played the part so long we

don’t know any other way to be.

> To be in the presence of the one who sees us beneath the character we play... is

uncomfortable.

The truth is that we long to be loved...but we fear being seen.

But God knows... that our false selves will never be loved...because they are not real.

They will never hear God...because God knows that only real people can hear.

What Jesus is teaching us... is essentially ... that God is seeking our true and full

presence...so we need to get real.

It’s fascinating to me that Jesus doesn’t focus on God showing up...but on what

we need to do to show up.

He says “God sees what is done in secret...and WILL reward us.”

Jesus knows that God is always present.

What if the truth is that God is more present than you right now?

What if God who is Spirit is always present... and waiting for our true selves to

show up... to close the door to the audience we perform to ...and center

ourselves before the one true source of our existence?

Jesus is telling us that connecting with God begins with bringing our true selves