The Amazing Race: Prayer
Mark 5:1-13
The call of Jesus is to be a disciple. Disciple and the word discipline are closely associated. To make a commitment to be a disciple is to make a commitment to follow Jesus in the discipline of his life practices. When I say yes to Jesus, I am not just saying I believe in Jesus. I am making a commitment to practice the lifestyle of Jesus through the daily disciplines of Jesus. Of all the spiritual disciplines we talk about and do daily, the discipline I tend to struggle with the most is the discipline of prayer. I think a lot of people are in the same boat. It is easier for me to do something. Bible study is doing something, serving is doing something, giving is doing something, but there is something in me that finds this resistance to prayer. Even when I begin to practice prayer, I find distractions come readily, but the discipline of prayer is not an option.
Last week we talked about the word and this week we’re talking about prayer. The word and prayer are our primary weapons to deal with the demonic power of evil that strategically schemes and works against us. Many people today believe that evil doesn’t exist. Yet the Bible tells us the power that works against us, the power that we are battling against, that rips at the very fiber of our culture, isn’t an enemy of radical Islam or any human force. It is a dark, evil, unseen power that we are fighting against. Jesus said one of the reasons the word of God, the living word, has some difficulty taking deep root in our lives is that evil is ready to steal it away as soon as we hear the precious word of God. So this is a power that we cannot deal with in our own strength and resources.
In our Scripture today, Jesus encountered evil. It is amazing how evil is so blatant. Evil is a like an equal opportunity employer. Evil doesn’t discriminate; it doesn’t care who it reeks havoc on. Evil doesn’t discriminate. If evil is everywhere, why do we resist the discipline of prayer? There is a delusion of control that tells us we can fix everything on our own. Many of us possess this overconfidence in our own human abilities, our education, technological advances and even in our own wealth. This overconfidence gives us this false sense of self-dependence and that we are in control. Too often we depend on pop psychology, on self-help books, on getting a whole bunch of information. And this information tells us: I can do this on my own. I can beat this one. I can handle it. I can fix this one on my own. Realize that you can’t chain or tame evil. To defeat evil, we must possess a disciplined prayer life. I am not talking about just a casual nod to God during the dinnertime prayer. I am talking about a disciplined prayer life that is totally dependent on God because we can’t beat evil by ourselves. We are talking about a radical prayer life that helps us totally depend on God because we can’t defend evil on our own.
Transformation can only happen when I come to a point in my life where I realize I can’t, but God can. Evil doesn’t discriminate. But somehow in our daily schedules, we forget that discipline is not an option. Discipline is like playing golf. If I know I am going to play golf, then I have to go to the driving range and hit golf ball, after golf ball, after golf ball. If I am going to play serious baseball then I have to go to the batting cage. That is what I am talking about: disciplined training prayer. When we have that kind of prayer in our lives we are recognizing the ultimate power and authority of God.
The second step of the 12 steps in a recovery program is this, “We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” It is not information or sermons that are going to restore us to sanity. There is not a pill that we can take or education that will fulfill us. It is a power greater than us. You know what I mean when I say you can believe right and still get kicked in the butt by doing wrong. How many will admit that right now? You know what is right, and you even say you will never do it again. Yet how many of you keep doing it again? Evil is stronger than me, and knowing right and being able to quote scripture is not a defense against evil. Jesus is stronger than evil. Jesus is the ultimate authority and is God’s plan. What God did on the cross shows Jesus is the ultimate authority over all authorities. If you look at verse 12, evil has to beg Jesus for the privilege to go live with the pigs. When I, through disciplined prayer, grab on to Jesus as the ultimate authority every day in my life, it is evil that will go live with the pigs and not me. It is why we have to train ourselves in praying in Jesus’name. We have to train ourselves continually.
I want to give you some training disciplines for the regimen of prayer. This whole year is going to be on training, growing up and maturity. Because this whole issue is a spiritual issue, evil’s purpose would be to distract you. It is why so many times when we go to pray, we start thinking of a to-do list and what has to get done. It could be good things, but this is what will happen: I will be focused during my Bible Study time and then I'll go over here to pray and I'll think, “When I get to work today, I have to tell Karen Smith this.” Or, “I’ve got to call my publisher in Nashville.” I'll even stop praying and start making a to-do list. Evil doesn’t want you to start speaking out loud the name of Jesus - because Jesus is the ultimate authority. What I have to do to break this confusion is literally speak out in repetitive cycles the name of Jesus. You can do it in many ways, but here is how I do it. One of the prayers I do is a sixth century monastic prayer called the Jesus prayer. Here is the Jesus prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” I say it out loud. It is important that I say it out loud. You can’t say the name of Jesus apart from the Spirit of God. I just keep repeating, Lord Jesus Christ, and I begin to think about those words. Lord Jesus Christ means Savior, Son of God, have mercy on me as a sinner. I'll repeat that again, and again, and again…sometimes for two or three minutes.
Another prayer that we know about is Our Father or the Lord’s Prayer. I'll repeat this sometimes several times. And I'll change my routine, just like when I do workouts with weights. I don’t always do the same thing. Repetition is important; many of you who work with weights know the importance of repetition. It is the same here. You have patterns and rituals you go through, but you also know it is important to change it up. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thou name, thy kingdom come . . . repeating it in different ways and emphasizing different parts.
I am talking about disciplined prayer. It is a necessity to restore sanity in my life. There are other forms of prayer, and just like with weights you have to keep changing this repetition. On some days, I use the ACTS outline. Many of you probably know this one. This is where you pray through the word ACTS. A is Adoration - that is kind of funky for me. How do you tell God that God is great? Here is how I do that one: I might say Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. Just saying those names is adoration. C is Confession: I will take time to confess my attitudes and actions…lust, materialism, attitude, actions that I have taken toward Carolyn, responses where I have not been a servant. I have made a decision. It might not be a wrong decision in my work, but if it’s a wrong decision and has negative consequence on people, forgive me, Lord, even though right now I think it is a right decision. T is for thanksgiving: it is important that we specifically name what we are thankful for. How many times do we yell when something bad happens to our kids - they are in an automobile wreck, they get sick, whatever. But how many days do we thank God for their safety, protection and health. S is supplication, or just naming what you and others need, asking God for something specific.
Another form of prayer is non-word prayers. This is when you are aware of being in the presence of God, and you let your prayer go wherever your mind goes. That is another form of this training in the discipline of prayer.
Again, I want to encourage you that these are not just teachings for information. You can know everything there is to know about prayer, but if you are not training in the discipline of prayer, evil is going to have you for lunch. The word and prayer are our primary weapons against evil that would come against us and ours.
We are going to pray the Lord’s Prayer together, but the first time through I am going to read it so you think about each of the words. We are going to go through it real slow and then we are going to say it together. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses in the same way we are willing to forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Now let’s say it together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses in the same way we are willing to forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
