Today it is our assignment to examine one for the most important practices in the life of every Christian – that of prayer. Prayer is essential to knowing God and it’s essential for growing spiritually - prayer.
Prayer, for the believer, as I’ve said before, is not an option but it’s an obligation. The action of prayer should not be regarded as that of a passing fancy but rather it should be looked upon as a personal privilege. And prayer, when properly engaged can be deemed powerful and also persuasive.
Prayer is powerful in nature because it reaches upward to heaven in the form of worship; it reaches downward to hell in the form of warfare and it must be carried out into the world in the form of works. Prayer is powerful. But also prayer can be persuasive. The late Dr. E. K. Bailey once said, “Prayer was never designed to change or move the heart or mind of God, but rather it was designed to change and move the heart and the mind of the prayer.” Prayer can be persuasive.
But truth be told, many of us are reluctant to pray. Maybe it’s because we are too embarrassed to pray; maybe it’s because we don’t really know how to pray or maybe it’s because we know at times our hearts aren’t right with God so we don’t pray. Whatever our reasoning may be, the fact of the matter is we need to pray! Why, because prayer is simply the action of us having fellowship with God.
There is/has been much debate as to the proper posture of the one who prays. Pastor Greg Laurie (Sr. Pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship of Riverside, CA) uses a popular illustration to illuminate this point. He says, “There is a story of three ministers who were debating the best posture for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background. One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands. He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second minister suggested that real prayer was best when it was conducted while on your knees. The third minister suggested that they both had it wrong and that the only position worth its weight in salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face.
As these three ministers debated about the various postures of prayer, the telephone repairman couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He blurted out, “I have found out that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I dangled on a line upside down by my heels from a power pole 40 feet in the air!” What’s the point of all this? The important thing is to pray! It doesn’t matter the physical posture of your hands, head or even where your heart is physically. The important thing is to pray!
The bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, “Pray without ceasing. 18In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Don’t neglect prayer. It’s the necessary link in order to acknowledge God as the recipient of His blessings; it’s needful for us in order to retain God’s power and prayer is of the utmost importance in order to reach God’s attention – prayer. Again, prayer is simply the action of us having fellowship with God.
Whenever we need to make clear (or clarify) a characteristic we should practice as Christian individuals, we ought to look to Jesus as our model. The very prayer life of Jesus was one to be admired. Whenever he needed to communicate with his Father, he would still away to a quiet place by himself and pray. Before he did anything, he would have fellowship with his Father. Before he approached anyone, he made sure that was what his Father wanted him to do. Jesus’ (the Son of God’s) prayer life was such an example that he would spend nights and mornings alone (after the son had gone down and sometimes before the sun ever came up) in prayer. Jesus the person who was 100% God while also being 100% man, spent hours upon hours communicating in fellowship with his Father. The disciples apparently noticing the prayer life of Jesus and its effectiveness came to him one day and asked, (in Luke 11:1) “Lord, teach us to pray…”
The response Jesus gave to his disciples request is what we have come to know as “The Lord’s Prayer.” However, when you look at the context in which the passage was given, you’ll find that it’s not the actual prayer of Jesus, but rather it’s a model prayer for his disciples to follow. So instead of it being called “The Lord’s Prayer”, it should be labeled as the “Disciples Prayer.”
For most of us, we have learned this prayer verbatim as children. And as parents, we have taught our children to recite it also. However, this prayer is not a cure-all for all crisis and chaos. It’s not an AK47ish type of big gun prayer that will take care of all our ills or ailments which come into or lives. It’s not a magic potion to be used to wish away the devil when he rises up against us. Rather this prayer is one that shows us to change our focus from that of being outwardly minded to being inwardly content.
Looking at how Jesus teaches his disciples in Matthew 6:9-13, theologians say this prayer can be divided into two sets of three requests. The first set of requests deal with God and His glory. While the other set of requests deal with man and his needs. Notice the order – God first, then us.
Using the modeled prayer as our guide, we want to use the acrostic A-C-T-S to recognize the proper way of us securing fellowship in prayer with God. And the first thing Jesus advised his disciples to do, when fellowshipping with God in prayer, is to set forth,
-Adoration
The first and foremost thing we need to recognize and understand is that we are speaking to God. We’re not talking to the gas station attendant, nor the grocery clerk ringing our groceries, nor are we talking to our gardener ordering them to clean up grass clippings – we are talking to God. God who is the Creator of the universe; the chief architect of the world; the sustainer; the cultivator; the controller of all – God. And we are to adore Him, first of all, because of His person (who He is).
And scripture declares He is,
The self-existent one
Lord of the Heavens
Giver of Strength
Eternal God
The Powerful God
Giver of Wealth
The Covenant Keeping One
The Great I Am that I Am
So not only should He be adored because of His person, but secondly because of his,
a) Parenthood
“Our Father who art in heaven…” Because He is God, His power is unlimited; nothing is unknown and everything is under His control. And because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, he is also our Father via parenthood. In John 20:17, Jesus after his resurrection, turned to Mary Magdalene (who was there at the open tomb) and said to her to go and tell his disciples that he is going to ascend to his Father and their Father and to his God and your God. At that point, Jesus clearly outlines God’s parenthood factor to us. Prior to that happening, no one could ever approach God on their own nor was there unlimited access to Him. Prior to the death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus, no one could go to God without a priest interceding for them.
The priest was the representative and the intercessor. The High Priest was the only individual who was allowed to come into the very presence of God – on the Day of Atonement – and offer animal sacrifices as a symbolic gesture signifying sins being placed on an animal. One animal was killed (by sacrifice) to appease God while the other was let go in the desert and used as a ‘scapegoat’.
Needless to say, Jesus reminds us, because God is also our Father, that we are to approach Him with an air of adoration because of His love and care for us. And if you ever question God’s love and care for you, just reflect back on your life. And I can guarantee that you’ll recognize God somewhere back there. For some of us, we don’t have to look too far (no farther than this morning) to see God’s love and care for us. Because He is Father.
So not only are we to adore God because of His person and because He is Father (parenthood), but thirdly because He is,
b) Perfect
“Hallowed be thy name.” When we begin our prayer by acknowledging God’s greatness because of His person and His love because He is our parent, we realize that He is perfect. If we’ve had any dealings with God, we’ve come to realize He is,
Perfect in all His ways
Principles are forever
Precepts are good for us (may not be good to us)
Purposes are always right towards us
His purposes are right whether we agree with them or not. They are right because He says they are right. Because He is perfect in all His ways.
“Hallowed be thy name.” Hallowed is a word which means holy. Holy is set apart. Holy is free from sin. Holy is set apart for service – holy. It also means we are to attribute to God the holiness that is already His. To make God’s name holy is for us to reverence it, honor it and glorify it. Because He is and consequently His name is perfect!
So not only are we to adore God because of His person, because He is Father (parenthood), and because He is perfect (holy). But we also see, we are to adore Him because His will ought to be our,
c) Pursuit
“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” As Christians, our pursuit in this life is to make sure God’s will is done. Just as Jesus did, so shall we do. Looking again at our model, when confronted with the Calvary experience before him, Jesus while in the Garden of Gethsemane, prayed for the task to be taken away from him. But he ended his prayer saying, not my will be done but your will be done.
And no matter how selfish our prayers can be we need to remember that it’s not our will to be done but God’s will to be complete.
Oftentimes when people ask for prayer, I will pray for their desire (whether it be for healing from sickness, or any other issue, etc.), I’ll always follow it up with ‘Father, may your will be done.’
In doing that we’re not canceling out the petition prayed for but rather we’re acknowledging we don’t have all the answers and are simply accepting if God so chooses to overrule our petition if it is out of accord with His will.
So our pursuit is to ensure His will is done even if it supersedes our will.
So the first step in prayer and fellowship with God deals with us coming to God with an attitude of adoration.
Adoration because of His,
Person
Parenthood
Perfect
His will is to be our Pursuit
But most importantly,
Adoring Him reminds us on who God is – and what we are.
Adoring Him reminds us on how powerful He is – and how weak we are.
Adoring Him reminds us how wise He is – and how ignorant we are.
Adoration keeps us respectful before Him; it allows us to keep our sense of reverence about Him; and it stops us from storming into His presence rattling off our laundry list of requests for Him.
Because He is God!
A stands for Adoration.
