Going Deep and Getting Close
1 Thess 5:16-18
16 Always be joyful. 17 Pray continually, 18 and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.
Paul writes to Christians in Thessalonica and encourages them to "pray without ceasing". This kind of prayer is less about words than it is about connectedness - the kind of communication that is in the little things - the knowing glance between husband and wife, the raised eyebrow between a father and son, the wink of a grandpa to a grandchild. This is the prayer and connection God wants with his kids - me and you.
Prayer is the life
“If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly.”
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, May 26
"We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life."
So why does prayer seem like an optional accessory item? Prayer seems like a six speaker stereo system in our car when we should regard it as important to our life as the oil in the crankcase or the coolant in the radiator. Why is that?
Prayer has been ritualized, spiritualized and mystified to the point that only the religious medicine men can officiate in its practice.
We’re going change that for you this morning. To get into the deep and close relationship of communication with God you must start in the shallows. The deepest ocean has a shallow shoreline – and that is where you get into the water.
The problem is that for many, prayer has been ritualized to the point where it is meaningless spiritual babble.
Prayer – Ritualized, Spiritualized, and Mystified
Sincere Pray-ers
Perfunctory Pray-ers
Meticulous Pray-ers
Three basic attitudes characterized the people who offered formalized prayers. Those Jews who had sincere hearts used the time of prayer to worship and glorify God. Some approached it indifferently, perfunctorily mumbling their way through the words as quickly as possible. Others, like the scribes and Pharisees, recited the prayers meticulously, making sure to enunciate every word and syllable perfectly.
Ritual Prayers
Shema
A composite of selected phrases from Deut. 6:4–9; 11:13–21; and Num. 15:37–41
Shemonēh ˒esray
“The Eighteen”
The most common formalized prayers were the Shema (a composite of selected phrases from Deut. 6:4–9; 11:13–21; and Num. 15:37–41) and the Shemonēh ˒esray (“The Eighteen”), which incorporated eighteen prayers for various occasions. Both prayers were to be offered every day, regardless of where the people were or what they were doing.
Faithful Jews even prayed all eighteen prayers of the Shemonēh ˒esray each morning, afternoon, and evening.
The Jews developed prayers for every object and occasion, including light, darkness, fire, rain, the new moon, travel, good news, and bad news. I’m sure their original intent was to bring every aspect of their lives into God’s presence, but they undermined that noble goal by compartmentalizing the prayers.
The wording and forms of prayer were set, and they were then simply read or repeated from memory. Prayers easily became a routine, semiconscious religious exercise, able to be recited without any mental or passionate involvement by the individual.
By limiting prayer to specific times and occasions, the Jews turned prayer into a habit that focused on a prescribed topic or situation, not on genuine desire or need.
Today we see the same behavior with The Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles Creed as well as other prayers. They can be prayed sincerely and they can be mumbled or precisely articulated without any life in them at all.
Kind of like how we turn prayer at mealtime, bedtime, or the one before the congregation on Sunday morning into a prescription or a habit that can easily lose any real meaning.
Long Prayers
Mark 12:40
“…They cheat widows and steal their houses and then try to make themselves look good by saying long prayers. They will receive a greater punishment.”
The religious leaders esteemed long prayers, believing that a prayer’s sanctity and effectiveness were in direct proportion to its length. Jesus warned of the scribes who, “for appearance’s sake offer long prayers” (Mark 12:40).
Jesus spoke of this in Mark 12:40 when he described the religious prayers of the Pharisees.
God is not impressed with many words! While a long prayer is not necessarily insincere, it does lend itself to dangerous tendencies like pretense, repetition, and rote. We are subject to the same temptations today, all too often confusing verbosity with meaning and length with sincerity.
Repetitive Prayers
Matthew 6:7
And when you pray, don’t be like those people who don’t know God. They continue saying things that mean nothing, thinking that God will hear them because of their many words.
One of the Jews’ worst faults was adopting the pagan religions’ practice of meaningless repetition, just as the prophets of Baal in their contest with Elijah “called on the name of Baal from morning until noon,” even raving “until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice” (1 Kings 18:26, 29). Hour after hour they repeated the same phrase, trying by the quantity of their words and the intensity with which they were spoken to make their god hear and respond.
Hypocritical Prayers
Matthew 6:5
“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites. They love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners and pray so people will see them. I tell you the truth, they already have their full reward.
While the other faults are not necessarily wrong in themselves, having simply been carried to extremes and used in meaningless ways, the desire to use prayer as an opportunity to parade one’s spirituality before men is intrinsically evil because it both originates in and is intended to satisfy pride. As we noted earlier in this chapter, the motive of sinful self-glory is the ultimate perversion of prayer. It robs prayer of its primary purpose—to glorify God (John 14:13).
Authentic Prayers
1 Thess 5:16-18
16 Always be joyful. 17 Pray continually, 18 and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.
Pray continually
90 διαλείπτως (adialeiptōs): adv.; ≡ Str 89—LN 68.55 continuously, constantly, unceasingly (Ro 1:9; 1Th 1:2; 2:13; 5:17+)
I think of praying at all times as living in continual God-consciousness, where everything we see and experience becomes a kind of prayer, lived in deep awareness of and surrender to our Heavenly Father. It is something I share with my Best Friend—something I instantly communicate with God. To obey this exhortation means that, when we are tempted, we hold the temptation before God and ask for His help. When we experience something good and beautiful, we immediately thank the Lord for it. When we see evil around us, we ask God to make it right and to allow us to help accomplish that, if it is according to His will. When we meet someone who does not know Christ, we pray for God to draw that person to Himself and to use us to be a faithful witness. When we encounter trouble, we turn to God as our Deliverer.
Pray Continually
“Like the old knights, always in warfare, not always on their steeds dashing forward with their lances… but always wearing their weapons where they could readily reach them…”
Spurgeon
Famous nineteenth-century preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon offers this vivid picture of what praying at all times means:
“Like the old knights, always in warfare, not always on their steeds dashing forward with their lances… but always wearing their weapons where they could readily reach them…”
Those grim warriors often slept in their armour. They understood that they were in a battle and they must be always ready.
When England was waiting for the invasion fleet of the Spanish Armada several centuries ago they prepared to sound the alarm by building bonfires – not ablaze – but with the wood piled and ready.
“Pray without ceasing” does not mean we must always be mumbling prayers. The word means “constantly recurring,” not continuously occurring. We are to “keep the receiver off the hook” and be in touch with God so that our praying is part of a long conversation that is not broken.
Pray at every opportunity during the day. When you see a person upset in the line at the checkout – pray for them and for the person at the cash register.
When you think of your kids – pray for them. en you read the paper and hear about the soldiers in Iraq – pray for them. When your boss is in a bad mood – pray. Pray at every opportunity.
Pray Confidentially
Matthew 6:6
When you pray, you should go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you.
The True Audience: God In contrast to the hypocritical practice of the day Jesus says to go into a private place.
Notice that the Lord gives no prescribed time or occasion for prayer. All He says is, “When you pray,” thus giving us great latitude to pray at all times.
Pray Confidently
Luke 11:9
9 So I tell you, ask, and God will give to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you.
Seek Knock, ask. Too many prayers are like boys’ runaway knocks, given, and then the giver is away before the door can be opened.
God wants to give you all you need. Jesus in the next couple of verses asks what father when his son asks for bread would give him a stone?
Our Father God wants to help us with life.
Pray Candidly
“We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow.”
Oswald Chambers
God does not hear words; He sees hearts
Don’t try to be profound and spiritual. Pray honestly and candidly. God knows how you feel already!
"Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound.
Eating three meals, a warm home, a good job are not needs beneath our God. Jesus walked this earth. He ate many meals with his friends. He worked as a carpenter. He was one of us. He understands.
Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God.
We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person—God became a baby."
God does not hear words; He sees hearts
KFC Eleven herbs and spices - all secret - make Kentucky Fried Chicken "finger-licking" good.
In Fried Green Tomatoes the secret was in the sauce. Everyone that’s anyone with a great recipe has a secret to keep.
The secret of a great prayer life is – praying…
