How to Have a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ May 13, 2007
Starting the Conversation: Prayer
Matthew 6:9-13
Last week we started this series by talking about our need to first be reconciled to God before we can have a relationship with him. This week I want to talk about starting the conversation with God. How do we talk to God? In future weeks we’ll look at how we can hear from God.
The simple answer to the question, “How do I talk to God?” is to just start to talk – say anything, say what you are feeling, tell him what you hope he would do in your life, tell him about your day. It is simple as that – Just talk.
But you might be like the disciples who had been praying as good Jews for their entire life, and they came to Jesus and said, “Lord teach us to pray.” There are things about prayer that we can always learn; whether we have been praying for a long time, or if we are just starting the conversation.
The best place to look for how to pray is with the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples after they asked the question.
The Disciples ask the question in Luke’s Gospel, but we are going to look at the parallel passage in Matthew for the answer.
9 "This, then, is how you should pray:
" ’Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
(for yours is the kingdom
and the power
and the glory forever.
Amen.)
I’m 41 and I repeated this prayer every day in school, at least up until grade 8. I’m not sure about high school. Where is the cut off of when they stopped saying the prayer in public school? – if you went to Catholic or private school, you don’t count.
The point is, that this is a great scripture to memorize – most of us know it by heart only because we had to repeat it so many times. Your children, if they are in the public board, don’t have the gift of learning this prayer from memory – so it is up to us to teach it to them! It will put them in good stead for praying for their lives.
The reason that it is great to memorize is not so that we can rattle off the words without thinking and call it prayer, the reason is that this pray is a great model that shows us how we can shape our prayers. I want to walk through it this morning phrase by phrase that we might understand it together and that we might allow Jesus to teach us how to pray
" ’Our Father in heaven,
Jesus is the first to teach his disciples to call God “Father” Others had said that God is like a father to us, but no one had the audacity to call him “Father.”
I have shared here before that there was a time in my life – not too long ago – that I wasn’t obeying Jesus command to call God “Father.” I called him God, or Lord, but very seldom did the words “father” pass my lips in prayer. It is not that I have any great father issues, or that I was opposed to calling Him “Father,” I just didn’t.
So, with the prompting of Jesus’ prayer, I began to make a habit of calling God “Father” in my prayers. It has completely changed my first mental image of God! And it has changed my relationship with him. When you call someone “Lord” there is a distance between you, they are in charge, and you are not. This might be true of God, but it is not the whole truth. Lord gives the image of a judge, deciding whether I am in need of judgment or not. Once again, this might be true of God, but it is not the whole truth. A father may have to discipline, but my first mental image when I say father is of the forgiving father welcoming the prodigal home. When I use the name “Father” I am drawn into intimacy with my maker that I can not get to using the name “Lord.”
By inviting us to call God “father,” and starting there, Jesus is telling us that prayer is all about relationship – it is not about rattling off a bunch of words so that we can get what we want, whether they be rote prayers, or our own words, we must always be aware that we are talking to a real person who we are in relationship with.
hallowed be your name,
It may seem strange to go from this intimate word, “Father,” directly into praise, but it reminds us that although he is our father, and our friend, he is still the God of the universe. We are called into intimacy, but we are also not to take the relationship lightly.
Hallowed is a word that we likely only use in this prayer – it simply means “May you name be known as holy by your people – may everyone give you the honour you deserve.
This phrase also teaches us to start our prayers with praise – It’s so easy to come to God and then start right in with the shopping list like he was the great grocer in the sky. This is not te way that it should be.
Psalm 100:4 says “I will enter his gates with thanksgiving, I will enter his courts with praise.”
I have always seen those verses as descriptive – the psalmist is describing what he is going to do. But lately I have seen them as prescriptive, telling us that this is how you enter into God’s presence, you come in by praise and thanksgiving.
It is like the tradition among some native Canadians when they do not go to see an elder without bringing a gift as a sign of respect and affection.
As a sign of our respect and affection for God, we do not enter without giving a gift of praise and thanks. It might be hard to do if you are in a bad situation – Paul tells us to give thanks in all things, even when we are suffering, Not that we should give thanks for the bad situation, but thant no matter what our situation, we should find something to give thanks for. If nothing else, we can always praise God for his character.
In your own prayers, you may want to praise by speaking out your felt praise, or by reading a psalm, or singing worship songs.
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Once again, instead of rushing in to ask God for what we want, we stop and ask him what he wants.
“God, the first thing that I want, is what you want, because that would be so much better than anything that I could ask for.”
Just a few paragraphs below the prayer, Jesus says this:
Matthew 6:25-33
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life [e]?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
By praying “Your kingdom come…” before we get to our own requests, we are following Jesus’ teaching and seeking the kingdom first. Jesus says, if we seek after God’s Kingdom first, he will look after the rest of our needs.
What does “God’s kingdom” mean? God’s rule, wherever he is in charge. The way that God would like things to be.
The way that we can pray this for specific issues we are concerned about is to imagine what the situation would be like if it were in heaven – and then pray that.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
This is when we can bring all that we need before God – it sounds like it is mostly putting food on the table, but Martin Luther says that Jesus is talking about “Everything necessary for the preservation of life, like food, a healthy body, good weather, house, home, wife, children, good government and peace.”
There is nothing that is too big or too small to ask God about. Never think that he is too weak to deal with the big issues or to unconcerned to deal with the small issues. 1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Debts, trespasses, sins – the things we have done wrong, and forgiving the wrongs done to us.
Jesus washing Peter’s feet – once you’ve had a bath, you only need to wash your feet.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Protection from ourselves, and our own failings
Protection from the Devil and all his wiles
We are used to saying:
for yours is the kingdom
and the power
and the glory forever.
Amen.
Just as we began with praise and blessing, so we finish.
Pray
Always - ! Thessalonians 3:17 tels us to pray continually – there is no place that you cannot pray – you might not always be able to close your eyes… but you can always pray.
Make a habit of praying daily
Pray with other Christians
Conclude with three hermits story
