Prayer. The one thing that you always wish you were doing more of, right? It's exactly what prayer is. In fact, I don't think that there is a person on the face of this earth that doesn't wish that they had spent more time in prayer during the regular course of their life. I can guarantee it. Even the most prayer filled person on the face of this planet wishes they prayed more. And we want to know how to do it. We want to know how to engage in it; we want to understand how to do it. We want to know how it works, how God answers it.
There are so many questions about it. But let's deal with some simple things today. How did Jesus teach us to pray? That's what we're going to look at today. Is how did Jesus teach us to pray? We're going to be looking at Matthew chapter 6, verses 5 through 15. I want to read them for you as Jesus himself; God teaches us to pray. So let's take his advice here.
He says this. "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you that they have received their reward. But when you pray - go into your room, and shut the door - and pray to your father, who is in secret. And your father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this."
And we know this prayer oh so well, very ironic that Jesus says, "Don't heap up empty phrases," right? "Our father 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 debts, as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others that are trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others that are trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Exciting stuff here. There's some great stuff in this short little text - as Jesus, God himself teaches us how to communicate. To him, to the spirit, to God.
So a couple of observations here that I make almost instantly. The first one is this. Is that Jesus is all about the motivation. I mean this first section here about the hypocrites and about actors, and about people who are faking their way through it. I love the reward that they get. The reward that they get is the reward of being seen by others. That's it. They don't get the reward of prayer actually working, because their motivation isn't in the right place. And that is essentially what Jesus is saying here. If you pray to put on a show - then your reward is the show, not the true outputs of spiritual prayer. Fascinating, isn't it?
And then Jesus says, "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. For they think they will be heard for their many words." We've all been in that situation where someone's rambling in prayer. And it sounds like they're making up for lost time or just coming up with fancy things to say. And I think Jesus here is not only saying, "What's your motivation?" He's saying, "Be meaningful." He's saying, "Be meaningful."
Because he already knows what we need. God already knows what we need. The spirit already knows what we need. They want us to use meaningful words and get at the heart of the issue of the things that we need. Because they already know what we need before we ever ask it. They still want us to ask because it shows the submission of life. And then Jesus gives this. This kind of pattern of prayer that we see here.
Now, I don't exactly know what you're prayer pattern is today. But I would assume that every one of you wished that you had better habits and better motivation, and more meaningful prayer life. I would imagine that that's true for you. And there's been many quotes down through time that has caused me deep reflection.
And one of the most powerful is the one on our study guide today. It's from S.D. Gordon. And it says this. It says, "The great people of the earth today, are the people who pray. I do not mean those who talk about prayer. But I mean those people who take time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. The something else is important, very important and pressing. But still less important and less pressing than prayer itself." Wow, that's a - some bold stuff right there. And maybe that helps us to reflect on and re-prioritize our life in some ways? Perhaps it causes us to reflect on what we really should be focusing on and thinking about?
I love this, from Martin Luther. He says this. "If I fail to spend 2 hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business, I cannot get on without spending 3 hours daily in prayer." How about that? He's got so much to do that he has to spend 3 hours in prayer. And that's precisely the opposite of what most of us think. We think - we could get those 3 hours back, and get something done if we weren’t praying. And yet, Martin Luther considers prayer the business of God. It is the business of God. Communicating with God is getting God's work done because we're trusting in God to do it. And it doesn't mean that we don't give any effort or action, means that we have to re-prioritize some things in our life.
So what is it for you, as we dare to think through this challenge? Rather than spend a whole lot of time pontificating about these things today, I want to pray for you today. For you, your group, the guys that you’re meeting with right now. But I want to challenge you to consider the re-prioritization of your own life, by giving you a few tactics that might help you to forge out some more prayer time in your life. I have used all of these, and they have helped me significantly for me to make progress in my communication with God - on my own. And so, I'm hoping that you'll grab on to one of these.
So here are some of the things that I have done to invigorate my prayer life. Number 1, I started with this a long time ago, because I found it to be biblically accurate. Here's the first one. Start praying out loud. Even when you're by yourself. Now I know that sounds a little odd and a little weird. But here's what motivated me to do that. Was that I read the Bible, and I see that Jesus is praying, and I have to ask myself, "How did these people know what Jesus prayed unless of course, he prayed it all out loud?"
And I've got to tell you; my mind drifts when I pray silently in my mind. So when I'm speaking it out loud, like I'm speaking to you right now - my prayers come to life. They feel as if I'm praying and talking to someone, and I'm forced to focus my prayer time. I - at one point in my life, started writing prayers out. And I found that that helped me as well, and it kept my mind from drifting. But most of the time, what I do is I say things out loud now. Like, usually early in the morning, I'll start praying out loud. Just a whisper. And I'll find a room of the house where I can do that. And it is awkward sometimes when your family members walk in and wonder who you're talking to.
But this was also true of Moses in the Old Testament when he was talking to God, and Joshua was watching. Just think about how powerful that was. That Moses was speaking aloud to God as a man speaks to a friend. It's-- And how profound is it for Joshua to watch that? Probably odd at first, but then after a while, it becomes very comfortable. And you can see in Exodus of Joshua, is intrigued by it. Deeply intrigued by the conversation. And learning something from it as well. So that's one of my tactics.
Number 2, I try to use the A.C.T.S. method of prayer. It's very simply an acrostic that stands for A - Adoration, C - Confession, T - Thanksgiving, and then S - Supplication. So adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. It's in your study guide this week. And I talk more through it in the study guide. So you need to pick up the study guide.
But this A.C.T.S. method of prayer helps me to get into a framework of thinking about prayer and praying in the right direction. Because I tend to - probably like you, jump to things that I want to ask God. And that's supplication. That's asking for things. But walking through the A.C.T.S acrostic - which is somewhat similar to the Lord's Prayer, helps me to do other things first. It helps me to adore God first. It helps me to confess things first. And it helps me to give thanks for things.
Next - all before I ask for something, and that helps my heart to get in the right place, to be quite honest. I've used this A.C.T.S. method for over 20 years. And I have no idea where it came from, but it has been probably one of the most helpful acrostics for me in all of my Christian life. No kidding. And I'm not a big fan of the whole acrostic thing, to be quite honest. But it works here, I believe.
Number 3 - here's another little tactic for you. Pray the psalms. A couple of years ago, I set out to pray a couple of hours a day. 'Cause I was very inspired by this quote by Martin Luther. And I'll tell you I - I need a way to focus when I'm praying, and I found that praying through the psalms was very powerful.
So here's how I did it. I just started at Psalm 1 and read all the way to the end of the book. It took me about six months to do it. And then I repeated it. But what I did was, I read a little bit of Psalm 1, and then I stopped when I felt convicted about something, and then I prayed in that direction. And then when my mind started to drift, I started reading again. And so it helped me - I found, to focus on my prayer pattern.
Fourth, here's another thing you can do. You can turn off that stinking noise box in your car, and you can like turn it off and turn that vehicle into a prayer chapel. Like, I call it a moving prayer box. We all have travel time every day, probably in our car in some way. Unless of course, you're working from home, and you never leave home and, you work in your pajamas. Of course, I'm jealous of you.
But most of us have places we go by yourself often. And just turning off the radio, and turning off all that noise - and chatter, and frustrating talk radio that we listen to all the time. Probably would benefit us, because it's just garbage for our mind most of the time. So turn it off, and start praying in your car. And every time you get in, turn it into your prayer box, your prayer chapel, your prayer incubator. And imagine Jesus driving in the - driving shotgun with you, and talk to him.
And finally, I think the final priority that I found is - you've just got to give it a priority in your life. You've just got to set a time and a place and a location. Where you start off a few minutes each day. And then build that pattern - and build it, and build it. Just start off with 5 minutes a day in the morning. And then turn that into 10, and then to 15. And then, if you want to try some of the mixing in - some of the other tactics I told you about, great.
Do it. But definitely don't do nothing, right? Don't do nothing. You know you need to be speaking to God. God wants you to talk to him. I think that's clear from Matthew 6 here. He wants you to ask. He wants your heart to be in the right place. He wants you to go to your prayer room. He wants you to do these things, and he's waiting for you to talk to him. And he's waiting to speak back to you.
So with that, I want to pray for you today. God, I want to pray for all the men that happen to catch this program today. And that God, that you would stir in their heart, a desire to communicate with you. Beginning with right now. God, by maybe setting a tactic in place that helps them to engage more deeply. And I pray to God for their motivation. The way that they ask the things that you already know, that they need to ask you for. And that God, you would move in their life. And I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, who can answer all prayers. Amen.
