When You Pray
Montreal/Cornwall
September 11, 2004
Keeping ourselves going is a major pursuit of our lives, and in the quest of that we eat, and drink. We sleep. We visit people. We do a number of activities. For us, as Christians, we pray. This is a fundamental activity for our keeping ourselves going in our lives.
Jesus assumed praying for our lives. When he taught fundamental truths to his disciples, he said to them, “And when you pray….”, which expression declares this as a normal activity for the life of the Christian disciple, then or now.
So, we pray! We can understand that, and practice that, and we do pray. Jesus instructed that we’d pray to our Father in heaven, so we do that…or, at least, attempt to do that.
The author of the book of Hebrews made an interesting comment about this process:
Heb.11.6- if we come to God, we have to believe that he is and that he is actively involved in our lives. This is fundamental. What we understand, or know, in this regard, deeply affects what we do when we pray. How we perceive God to be will affect how we pray, what words we’ll use when we pray, what seriousness we tie to praying, and what we’ll admit or discuss in praying. This is fundamental. The knowing and the believing about active and caring involvement in our lives is important.
Jesus left us with two great commandments, and the first has to do with our relationship with God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Matt.22.37- we’re to love God with all. That’s a lot, of course. ‘All’ doesn’t leave much room for anything left over. This is the first great commandment. In the OT, the people were told how to do this, so they never had to deal with ‘all’ like we do- they really couldn’t love God, or serve God, with ‘all’ as we’re called to do or are able to do. However, what God told them is helpful and instructive to us; it’s a bit of ‘all’, but not all of ‘all’, as we can understand, or be capable of now in the era of the new relationship with God available through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.
Exodus 20- the ancient nation was given the centre of their legal system. It included the Ten Commandments. Two of the commandments had to do with their not misrepresenting God. There was a commandment about images- v.4-6. Israel was forbidden certain things. They were to be incredibly careful about how they imaged God. They had to be careful in this regard, because God was/is so much greater than anything that can be used to image or represent him. This was an area they had to be so very careful in. So do we need to be careful how we imagine God to be. Then they had a commandment that forbade any wrong use of God- v.7. They had to be careful how they spoke about God, so they didn’t take God too lightly. They had to be careful not to image God, to others or themselves, inappropriately, by what they said about God or how they spoke about God. Sadly, this is not what we see being followed today, even among Christians- there is not, often, adequate care taken about using God’s name, Jesus’ name, and the words applying to the ‘holy’. However, for the ancients, this care was vital, even as not having images of God was important to them.
When it comes to God’s being, it’s important that we draw understanding of God from scripture alone. We, as many Christian churches, highly value scripture. Scripture forms the basis for what we understand about God. It’s interesting that Jesus is called ‘the Word’, and that we have such an abundance of ‘word’ from which to draw what we know about God. This is appropriate. Experiences may supplement scripture, or may enhance what we learn through scripture, but won’t be different from scripture. We’re told that God gives us all we need for life and godliness, and he does much of this through what we learn from scripture.
We come to God through prayer, and in doing so, we must think, accurately, of the One we come to in that praying. We come to God through worship, and in doing so, we must think accurately of the One we come to worship. We must believe that He is and that He is actively involved in our lives. This is fundamental. If we aren’t certain of this, at our core, we miss the basic assurance with which we are meant to live, and upon which faith and hope are founded. It is vital to properly ‘image’ God, therefore, as a Christian individual or as a Christian church.
So, how does scripture ‘image’ God? What can be in our minds when we come before God in prayer and worship? What kinds of ideas need we to carry into our private, and public, times of prayer. “When you pray” will lead us toward what kind of God? To believe that ‘he is’ will have us taking what kinds of ideas to our places of prayer?
Psa.29- the book of Psalms gives us a rich treasury of images and ideas to assist us in our coming to God in prayer. David was called a godly man, and God highly esteemed him. David, as the principal author of the Psalms, gives us immeasurably more than we can understand in a lifetime. We see, through his writings, a panorama of possible human emotions and understandings, and how he was able to interact with God surrounding these. We see David up, and we see David in the depths of despair and doubt. We see David celebrating and rejoicing, and we see David calling out from tears and deepest hurt. In this particular Psalm, we can follow David as he instructs us, through his example, in how to view God. David was one with the Spirit, and one, in the former dispensation, who was in a heart-to-heart relationship with God.
v. 1- we’re told to give to God, or to ascribe to God. This means that we’re to consider God with these particular values. We’re to look up to him. This is hard for us, really. First of all, we can’t see God. Secondly, we don’t like to look up to anyone but ourselves- this is the common human battle, and is a human foible that we have to fight, as anyone. We are to give to God glory and strength. We’re to understand that he has some qualities that we don’t really have; these are part of his eternal being.
v. 2- again, there’s glory to be given, because of his name. He is God- unimpeachable God- without flaw God. We’re to come to him in worship, understanding our need to come appropriately, and to recognize the environment into which we come in worship. The ‘beauty of holiness’ refers to the realm in which He lives, and where He invites us to, and knowing this urges us toward certain attitudes when we come to Him.
v.3-4- we hear of the voice of God. We honour God within this reality.
v.5- I had a literal representation of this, on a smaller scale, in our backyard on Thursday about 1 p.m. as the wind and rain knocked down part of our apple tree. I’ve leaned on it, and it hasn’t fallen, but God ‘leaned’ on it and down it came.
v.6- we’ve seen pictures or videos of the way lightning splinters wood- it’s an amazing process, which you and I are incapable of. The God we must know is and is involved in our lives is the one who does this.
v.8-9- the voice of God.
v.10-11- the incredible God that we worship.
When we come to Him, we have to think of him in this way. We need to recognize his transcendence. We have to recognize his superiority, even though we don’t want to recognize that in anyone. We have to think ‘up’ of Him. It’s important not to bring him to our level. He is not just like us/me, for instance. We have to be careful, actually, about how we think of him or sing of him- whether it is of Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. Not one of the trinity ever was or ever is ‘just like us’. Each of them is so much more than any of us or all of us, at any time. Consequently, when we come to God, we need to come in awe and with reverence. A few weeks back, it occurred to me that we had lost our sense of awe in the presence of God; I noticed this in a worship gathering, with talking and lack of focus going on after the service began- we were not still before God or respectful toward God. We must be, in the quietness of our prayer room, at home, or in this place.
How about what we read in:
Psa.50.7-15. Then, see what God says to those who are not his, in verses 16-21- those who are ‘away from God’ allow themselves to think that God is just like them, or that Jesus is just like them, with an obvious inference that God has weaknesses like them. That is not the case.
What does Jesus say, in giving disciples an image of God, to whom they prayed?
Matt.6- ‘Our Father’- gives us an insight, too. We can dwell on this, and might on another occasion, but let’s combine this with some instruction to us, given by Paul.
Eph.6.1,2,3- honour is the dominant word. This is with regard to our physical fathers and mothers- our physical parents. This is the dominant word or emotion or idea to bring into our interactions with parents. How much more is it required and necessary in our relationship with God. How much more honour do we need to bring when we come to God, consequently? In Col.3.20, the word used is ‘obey’, which is a less popular word, even, than ‘honour’. However, both are necessary, in our relationship with God.
Where does this bring us, then, in our consideration of prayer and the fundamental need to understand something about the existence and being of the one we come to, and the reality of his involvement in our lives? It brings us to the great need not to make God out to be just almost human. He is not. It is a common desire, in our effort to ‘humanize’ God, and so that we don’t think of him like Christians did in the 1600s, where God was portrayed as the great avenger, ready, and eager, to send people to hell. We know that God is not like that. Hell is not God’s finest creation, but is a necessary part of creation; hell is not even for people, principally, although there may be some who end up in that condition (Matt.25.41). However, neither is he simply the non-offensive neighbour.
Conclusion
We must pray. When we do, we must not fail to appreciate how awesome God is. We have to come to him with awe and deep respect. It’s good for us to recognize that he is not inaccessible. He wants us to be near. But he does not want us to be disrespectful. In fact, it’s better to err on the side of being overly respectful, if anything, than being overly familiar.
