Prayer (Part 1)

Prayer (1)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 2/22/2015

A young man stepped up to the checkout-counter in a small drugstore with three boxes of chocolate: small, medium, and large. The pharmacist asked him what his plans were for the three boxes, and the young man replied, “Well, I am going over to my new girlfriend's house for dinner tonight. Afterward, I plan to kiss her goodnight and give her one of the boxes of chocolate. If she doesn’t let me kiss her, I’ll give her the small box. If she lets me kiss her on the cheek, then I'll give her the medium box. But if she really lets me lay one on her, I'll give her the large box.” So the eager young fellow made his purchase and left. That evening he arrived at his new girlfriend’s house where he met her parents and sat down for dinner. Before the meal started he asked if he could say grace. Then he began to prayer this elaborate earnest prayer. He rattled on about forgiveness, grace and mercy for almost five minutes. When he finally said amen, his girlfriend leaned in and said, “Wow. You never told me you were such a religious person.” Nervously, he whispered back, “And you never told me your dad was the pharmacist!”

We can all pray when we really need to, can’t we!?

In fact, nearly all of us pray. According to a study released in 2008 by Brandeis University, ninety percent of Americans pray at least once a day and half pray several times a day. Surprisingly, the study also found that even among atheists and agnostics, nearly one in five still pray daily. Isn’t that interesting? Just in case?

We all pray . . . some.

We pray to stay sober, centered, or solvent. We pray when the lump is malignant. When the money runs out before the month does. When a dear friend is in the ICU. When our marriage is struggling or our kids are straying. We pray. But wouldn’t we like to pray more? Better? Deeper? Stronger? With more fire, faith, and fervency?

I’ll admit, I struggle with prayer. I get easily distracted. As soon as my eyes close my mind wander. My train of thought derails. I think about the all the things on my to-do list. I think about all the things that should be on my to-do list. Did I even make a to-do list? I spend half my prayer time apologizing for getting sidetracked.

Maybe you can relate. If so, take comfort. We aren’t the first to struggle with prayer. The first followers of Jesus needed prayer guidance too. In fact, prayer is the only tutorial they ever requested. The apostles never asked Jesus how to preach. They never asked him how to pastor a congregation. But they did ask, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). You can almost see the urgency sketched on their faces. The words are both eager and expectant. Over and over again, the disciples had watched Jesus withdraw to secluded places to pray. And they had seen the serenity Jesus exuded in the aftermath.

Thankfully Jesus didn’t leave them, or us, hanging. In Mathew’s account of this story, Jesus reveals four secrets to developing a richer and more fulfilling prayer-life. Four secrets to real intimacy with God.

• PRAY SINCERELY

The first secret to prayer is to pray sincerely.

The first thing Jesus told his disciples was how not to pray: “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them” (Matthew 6:5 NLT). The “hypocrites,” that Jesus is referring to were likely religious leaders, but actually he could have been referring to anyone. In the Jewish culture, prayer was very important. In fact, there were certain set times of the day when everyone was expected to pray—no matter where they were or what they were doing. A devout Jew would stop, drop and pray wherever he happened to be at the appointed time, even if he was on a busy street. But some people would make certain that they were in a public place at the time of prayer—a street corner or a synagogue, perhaps—so that they would have a large audience to pray in front of, demonstrating how pious and religious they were. These hypocrites had turned their spirituality into stage production.

Today, I think many of us suffer from the opposite problem. We’re afraid to pray in public. Just ask my Sunday School class. Each week I ask the same question: “Who would like to pray for us today?” There are always one or two willing volunteers, but the other eight or nine immediately start shuffling the pages of their Bible and try to avoid eye contact.