Meeting with God in Prayer
Series: Meeting with God in Prayer
May 3, 2020
Big Idea: To help us capture the most essential principles and pattern for meeting with God in prayer. This includes what Jesus said about getting real and showing up...and then drawing broadly from the Lords Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13)…developing 4 parts that form the Acrostic for PRAY; being Praise, Restore, Ask, and Yield.
Intro
Well...I want to add my personal welcome to each of you....both to this time together...and to our home where we are located today.
As you can see, we’re moving our location for sharing God’s Word...to our homes.
It’s the place I was now able to visit my wife at her workplace...then one of our college children...then another...and finally our high school son...all within the span of 3 rooms and 5 minutes.
And though we’re in our different living spaces...we are all living in the midst of a pandemic... in which much of our common life ... our shared life...has been stopped.
If you’re anything like me... the “new normal” doesn’t feel very normal yet.
And the unsettledness and uncertainty is still hard.
But I also sense that there is something of a “time out” in our lives ...an opportunity to connect to what matters most.
I’ve noticed many of us have reached out and connected with people that we may not have connected with for a long time...but we realize how significant they are with the whole of our lives. When we aren’t just engaging whoever is currently physically at hand... we can find ourselves getting in touch with some deeper reference points in our lives.
We need to let that take us further... to the ultimate relationship... God.
This is what those closest to Jesus began to see in him.
On more than one occasion we are told how they arose in the morning and found he had gone to some place to meet with God the Father in prayer.
And they began to realize that all of what flowed from Jesus…flowed from this connection to the Father in heaven….it flowed from prayer.
So they asked him this [1]:
“Lord, teach us to pray.” – Luke 11:1
They had been taught to pray all their lives. The had learned the common prayers of their community. They likely stopped and gave thanks at every meal. But what they saw in Jesus was different...it wasn’t merely a form of religion ... it was a relationship.
And they realize that this relationship was unlike any other.
They had families... workmates...in fact some among them were brothers and some workmates... as good of friends as anyone could hope for.
And of course, in his earthly nature, Jesus too had family and friends.
But they realize that he was living out of a connection that transcended all other connections... a relationship that transcended all other relationships.
For he was meeting with God...the source of our existence.
The only one who can tell us who we are... that isn’t defined by what we do,
The only who has known us from before we took our breath... who can know us after our last.
The only one who is not bound by physical time and space... he is always here.
So they ask… Lord, teach US to pray. Teach us how to actually have a relationship with God.
And Jesus responds.
Matthew 6:5
"… 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.
The first thing Jesus says is that we need to get real.
"…when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites…” - Matthew 6:5
Hypocrites…. the Greek work used, is that which reflects the actor.
The hypocrite is 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.
Matthew 6:5
"…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.
Jesus isn’t challenging a place for public prayer per se, but rather the very essence of performing.
The formality of the Jewish religion included that of praying while standing with hands stretched out, palms opened and heads bowed, 3 times each day, at 9 a.m., Noon and 3 p.m., WHEREVER ONE WAS. [2]
It was easy for a man to be sure that they would find themselves at a busy part of the marketplace or the top step of the synagogue and there, offer lengthy and demonstrative prayers as a sign of piety.
Jesus makes clear the how much is defined by this one choice…whether to seek the approval of others or God.
“I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” Matthew 6:5
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.
If the audience you want to impress is that of other people…then that is what you will get…. and ALL you will get.
We will just be actors among actors… never able to escape the false selves we have formed.
While we don’t have quite the cultural setting for such a performance ...we can all become performers when we choose to put on a false self.
As Brennan Manning describes all too well…
“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! [3]
As he describes... we all can become imposters...we 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.
The false self can fear that there is nothing else there... at least nothing that can be loved.
And that false self will be “antsy in prayer.”
To be in the presence of the one who see us beneath the character we play... is uncomfortable.
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.
So the first thing that Jesus teaches us is this...
1. Get Real
Jesus knows that apart from God...we are naked and ashamed... and always in some form of hiding. But he has come to meet us by the grace he provides... and in receiving him we receive the Father’s acceptance,,, and love...and blessing. [4]
Jesus says meeting with God in prayer begins when we stop hiding from God... stop acting... stop focusing on being acceptable to others...and choose God as our audience.
This is the choice between religion and relationship.
And towards that end he continues...
Matthew 6:6
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.”
“Go into your room and close the door.”
The second thing Jesus makes clear is this...
2. Show up
If you are going to meet... you have to show up.
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 saws “God sees what is done in secret...and WILL reward us.”
Jesus seems to presume 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 us to close the door and center ourselves as spiritually endowed beings?
I know that for some it can seem hard to settle down...to sense or hear God.
Showing up does involve intention and effort.
“Go into your room and close the door.”
Prayer involves setting apart time and space.
Jesus had to rise and get away from others. It involved a real time and a real place.
While it’s very true that we can pray anywhere and always....there is no substitute for actually meeting with God.
I want to give you an opportunity to consider:
When and where can you most naturally create a daily time to meet with God?
While most people seek a time in the morning... and may have plenty of quiet space...I know that some may have circumstances that require some creative ways to find time and space alone.
As we set apart time and space, we may wonder...
WHAT is such a time of prayer to involve? What do we say?
Well Jesus continued and guides us.
It’s at this point that he shares a PATTERN for prayer.
He now offers an example of what the heart of such prayer might express...that which has become commonly referred to as ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’
Matthew 6:9-13 (ESV)
Pray then like this: “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 this day 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 evil.
While this prayer has often been read aloud together through the centuries…and is so fitting as a communal prayer… I believe that Jesus shared these words not as a ritual to be recited...but as a pattern for shaping the central matters of relating with God…matters of the soul. He was sharing a PATTERN for prayer. [5]
And this prayer captures the essence of what prayer is. Prayer is centering and aligning our lives in God.
I want to share 4 main elements… given in the form of an acrostic.
Let me be clear that I’m not suggesting this as any type of formula. It is simply a way to think of four core parts of what relating to God can involve.
… drawn in part from the themes of Christ’s prayer.
The first element that is essential for connecting with God…is
Praise (Recognize the reality of who God is)
Praise refers to every way in which we might acknowledge the truth of God’s goodness and greatness.
Intimacy begins with the recognition of another as other…as distinct from ourselves…and honoring that difference.
So it is with our ultimate Creator and Father.
Jesus begins..
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
Jesus declared that indeed we were created to know God as our Father… those who were created bearing His image.
“in heaven”… He is not limited the way our earthly fathers are. He reigns in the eternal greatness…transcends all the powers of this created world.
“Hallowed be your name”…your name is holy.
Referring to one’s name…means referring to one’s nature…one’s essence… (reflected a bit in the way we might say someone “made a name for themselves’).
He is declaring that the nature of God is holy…which means set apart…distinct.
Every other element of relating to God flows from the realization of who He is. Our recognition of Him, and who He is in relationship to our lives allows the flow of our relationship, putting into perspective all that may follow in our prayer.
Our Father is in heaven. This is where prayer must begin.
This is the hardest and easiest element of prayer.
It’s the hardest because most of us have a hard time getting out of our own orbit… breaking out of our own gravitational pull. We tend to relate to ourselves as the center… the subject… and God as the object…the one which we direct...and control…with our words and our wills.
It takes effort to break out of our gravitational pull. And that is where the power of praise and thanksgiving serves us well.
But it’s also easy once we start…because there is so much to acknowledge when we choose to. There is no limit here. To reflect upon God’s goodness…His mercy…His justice… all that he declares to be good and right…it changes us.
After recognizing who God is, we naturally come to the second element that can form our prayer.
Restore (Confess whatever is out of alignment with God’s heart and will)
Having recognized God and who He is to be in our lives, it is natural to admit where our relationship is out of alignment.
Confession is an opportunity to come out from the "hiddeness" where shame alienates us from God.
In his example of prayer…Jesus includes:
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Meeting with Good is always a meeting of mercy.
Here’s a basic truth: You are only as close to someone as you are current with them. If something has arisen between us... we need to restore the relationship by choosing to acknowledge what is not right...and that is what confession is.
We need to confess whatever is out of alignment with God’s heart and will
After we've recognized who God is and we have aligned ourselves with his will through the restoration process we can then ...
Ask (Bring your needs to God)
If we have acknowledged who He is… in Praise…and acknowledged our position of humility… then seeking our needs is not just acceptable…it’s exactly what He desires.
In fact…we are fundamentally dependent on God for life…and acknowledging that is a way of honoring Him.
Such dependency is quite different from the nature of demanding.
Demanding something presumes we deserve it.
Dependency presumes only our need.
That is what we hear in what Christ gives us in his words…
“Give us today our daily bread.”
The point of the prayer is not for us to get what we want, but to receive what we need. [6]
The final core element of prayer we could refer to as a call to:
Yield (Listen and respond to God’s leading)
In traffic signs, the yellow yield sign means stop and give the right of way to the others.
Similarly, Jesus speaks of seeking God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done... and that we would seek him to LEAD us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
God wants to lead us.
And so prayer includes waiting on what the Spirit of God may communicate to your spirit. The Spirit of God may speak to us as a voice to our inner being (spirit) or speak to us through Scripture or Scriptural truth.
Listening and responding...this is what it means to yield.
Closing:
So these are four elements that can help shape our time set apart with God.
Praise (Recognize the reality of who God is)
Restore (Confess whatever is out of alignment with God’s heart and will)
Ask (Bring your needs to God)
Yield (Listen and respond to God’s leading)
In each of the next four weeks...we are going to develop these four qualities that help shape how we can meet with God in prayer.
But today we can begin by the joining in the desire to learn to pray...to meet with God in prayer.
During this time of being more physically disconnected from others... we have an opportunity to become more connected to God.
This week... meet with God for 15 to 30 minutes...every morning of possible.
Do so as one learning to get real and show up.
Don’t be surprised that you will likely face distractions... even resistance.
These are part of what keeps us from being present with God. But as settle down... Jesus said “your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
It is there
Fear will find love.
Panic will find peace.
PRAY: So let me lead us now in a prayer as we prepare for this week ahead.
Responsive song: God with Us (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sukbtENMUnw)
Notes:
1. In the Gospel accounts of both Matthew and Luke, we are told of Jesus teaching about what living life in the reality of God’s Kingdom involves…and including prayer. Luke includes the disciple’s initial request: “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Bob Deffinbaugh notes...”In Luke’s account, a certain unnamed disciple sees the Lord’s practice as a pattern, one which each disciple should follow, and thus the Lord is asked to teach the disciples to pray as well. The prayer life which characterizes our Lord will, in the Book of Acts, characterize the disciples as well. Luke is paving the way, laying the foundation for that constant communion with God in prayer.
The disciple asked Jesus to teach them to pray because he knew that this was an area of ignorance and inexperience. I do not know of anywhere in the gospels where the disciples were characterized as men of prayer. Jesus’ prayer life was, even in the garden of Gethsemane, something which He practiced alone, without the help (at least for very long) of the disciples. The petition of this one disciple was an open admission that prayer was not only needed, but was a deficiency in his life and in the lives of his fellows.
Once again, the disciples reveal a child-like quality in which our Lord delighted, and for which He praised the Father (cf. Luke 10:21). The scribes and Pharisees, the wise and learned, were too smart, at least too proud, to admit their need to ask Jesus anything, other than to show where His authority came from, and thus they learned nothing from Him. A child has no reluctance to admit that they don’t know something, and thus they hound adults with their questions. The ability to learn begins with the ability to admit one’s ignorance and to express one’s desire to learn.
While the one disciple asked Jesus to teach, he asked Him to teach the disciples as a group (“teach us to pray … ”), rather than to teach him as an individual. The coming of the kingdom of God, the provision of daily needs, and the forgiveness of sins are something for which all saints can pray together, daily.”
2. Among the Jews, though prayers were always appropriate, there were set times for prayer, when the pious were expected to attend to their devotions. Thus, there were morning, afternoon, and evening prayers (Ps. 55:17; Dan. 6:10; Acts 3:1). According to Josephus (Antiquities XIV.65) sacrifices, including prayers, were offered in the temple “twice a day, in the early morning and at the ninth hour.” - Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 9: Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew. New Testament Commentary (322). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.
From M. Hunt: The first hour of prayer: 9AM is the first hour of prayer [see Acts 2:15] when the Temple gates opened. The Hebrew is "Shacharit"(morning)The second hour of prayer: Noon is the second hour of prayer [Acts 3:1; 10:9]. The Hebrew is "Minchah" (gift-offering) The third hour of prayer: 3PM is the third hour of prayer [Acts 3:1; 10:9] The Hebrew is "Ma'ariv" (evening; our afternoon is the Jewish evening). This hour of prayer was known as the "hour of confession." The next day began at sundown, or about 6PM.
For more information on the three hours of prayer see the Talmud: Mishnah Berakhot and The Jewish New Testament Commentary, page 228.
3. Brennan Manning, "Abba's Child", p. 39-40. The more complete quote:
“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 specializes in treacherous disguise. He is the lazy part of self, resisting the effort, asceticism, and discipline that intimacy with God requires. He inspires rationalizations, such as, "My work is my prayer; I'm too busy; prayer should be spontaneous so I just pray when I am moved by the Spirit." The false self's lame excuses allow us to maintain the status quo.
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."
Obviously, the impostor is antsy in prayer. The false self is frustrated because he never hears God's voice. He cannot, since God sees no one there. Prayer is death to every identity that does not come from God.
4. We can come out from the shame... for Jesus sees our true condition. It is what had been revealed long ago in the Book of Genesis. In those first chapters where we are told of trying to be like God…. And becoming separated from him. The result is depicted as that of those first human lives trying to hide from God….and sowing fig leaves to cover their nakedness. For apart from God we are naked and ashamed. Jesus sees that there can be religious fig leaves. We can try and cover ourselves with religious activity that is actually just an outer form which tries to cover us up.
5. The intention of this being a pattern more than a script can be noted in how Jesus began stating what could be translated ‘pray LIKE this’…or ‘in his manner.’ It suggests that he intended for this to capture how prayer can shape life centered in God.
Regarding the “Lord’s Prayer”, Samuel Zwemer once wrote,
It contains “every possible desire of the praying heart; it contains a whole world of spiritual requirements, and combines in simple language every divine promise, every … aspiration for the good of others.”
Andrew Murray said that…
The Lord’s Prayer is “a form of prayer that becomes the model and inspiration for all other prayer, and yet always draws us back to itself as the deepest utterance of our souls before God.” [5]
Regarding how “The Prayer That Has It All” Ray Pritchard notes further:
“God is in this prayer. We are in this prayer. The past is in this prayer. The present is in this prayer. The future is in this prayer. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in this prayer. Everything is here. Let me share a simple outline for the Lord’s Prayer. The first half of the prayer talks about God-his name, his kingdom, his will. The second half of this prayer talks about man-give us, forgive us, lead us. So God and man form the two great subjects of this prayer.
Look now at the second half of the prayer. You’ve got the past-Forgive us our debts. You’ve got the present-Give us today. You’ve got the future-Lead us not into temptation.”
6. Over the years I have reflected on the difference between need and want. So much of what goes on in the name of love between people...is more about need than love. They are not opposites. Need for another is part of our bonds. Need is NOT a bad thing...but if we become attached to the provision more than the person… we begin to reduce the person to an object of provision. I wonder how much more true that may be of God?
Naturally we want God because of our need for Him. It's a wise sense...but is it the whole sense?
God told Abraham, “I am your exceedingly great reward”. - Gen. 15:1
7. Regarding reward, N.T. Wright notes:
“Jesus also assumes that there is benefit to be had from doing these things. Many people imagine that he is asking us to do everything with no thought of reward, and are then rather shocked when he repeats, three times, his belief that our heavenly father will repay us (verses 4, 6, 18). Clearly, Jesus is not so bothered about the notion of disinterested behaviour, or ‘altruism’, as we sometimes are. In fact, what he says is far more realistic. If we struggle to clear our hearts of any desire to do something, so that we are acting from totally pure motives, we will always find a little corner of desire somewhere—even the desire to behave altruistically! Then, instead of looking away from ourselves and towards God, we find ourselves focusing back on ourselves again, wanting to please not God but our own ideal of lofty, disinterested action.
Jesus, instead, wants us to be so eager to love and please God that we will do everything we should do for his eyes alone. Other eyes will be watching from time to time, and it’s very easy, particularly for clergy and others who are involved professionally with leading worship, to ‘perform’ for them rather than for God alone.”
Wright, T. (2004). Matthew for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1-15 (55). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
