Prayer

Someone once told me prayer is a bit like riding a bike, they didn’t tell me what it was that made them so alike, but they assured me this statement was true. The thing is, and this is just between you and me, I can’t ride a bike. Its not that I don’t want to, I would love to be able to cycle everywhere instead of walking, but no one ever taught me. This got me thinking though, maybe the same can be said for prayer, we all assume everyone can pray but if no one shows us how then how do we learn to do it?

The disciples, according to Lukes gospel saw the way Jesus prayed and the importance it had in his life and they wanted to be able to do the same so they went to him and said “teach us to pray” and he did, and we now use the prayer he taught them as a religious act which often loses all meaning and becomes more about the words than anything else. Jesus didn’t teach them a single prayer so that they can say the same thing over and over; he was giving them what today we would call a prayer guide for dummies.

We saw in the drama the dangers of using the Lords prayer too often, it becomes so religious that we forget to think about what we are praying and don’t give time to listen to God for a response, and in today’s world we hear lots about how prayer isn’t just about words and that we can pray using symbols or images as well. But this leave a question, if Jesus gave the Lords prayer as a step by step instruction manual about prayer then how do we use it in a meaningful way without losing our ability to be ourselves.

The answers simple, we use it the way it was meant, to show us what areas we must cover when we talk to God.

Our Father in Heaven… The first thing Jesus says is direct it to God. He doesn’t say sit down eyes closed hands together, he says send your prayers up to the man upstairs. When I was a child my favourite joke to do on a Sunday around our dinner table was, when asked to say Grace to whisper a really short prayer and then loudly shout Amen. Someone was then always bound to say, “I couldn’t hear you!” and the response was the funniest line you will ever hear coming from my lips “I wasn’t talking to you was I!”.

There’s an episode of the Simpson’s where things are going wrong for Homer and he simply cries out something like “God, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed will one of you help me”, sometimes our prayers can seem a bit like that and people can rightly ask who exactly were you talking to. Jesus said the most important thing about prayer is who it is directed to, God in Heaven.

Reveal who you are… A simple statement, which in my view is better stated as simply, “We want to see you and get to know you more!”

When you talk to friends the main reason you talk to them is because you want to get to know them even more. God should be no different, we should be praying to him, not because we have to but because we want to get to know him even more. It’s a choice not a duty!

I believe this is something that is often forgotten in prayer, we spend so much time talking about ourselves and our own problems that we forget to say to God “I want to know you more” Jesus was saying prayer must be about asking God to help you discover who he is.

Set the World right, do what’s best – as above below!… Pray for Gods will on Earth.

As Christians we believe that when God created Earth he created a perfect place and mankind have damaged it. Jesus says we should be asking God to help us get it back to the way he wanted it, in other words pray for Gods will to be done in every situation in the world and make Earth more like Heaven.

Keep us alive with 3 square meals… Pray for what you need, he doesn’t say “fill our stomachs up until we are stuffed full”, or “make me the richest man on earth,” he says, ask for what you need to stay alive. Do you need that new car, that PS3, that winning lottery tickets you keep asking for?

Doing this means that we are more likely to get the reply of Yes or not yet from God rather than no, as we will be asking for our needs rather than our wants, and God has promised to always provide what we need when we ask for it – of course, we do have to remember that he knows what we need and when we need it and so might not always give us the answer that we want.

Keep us forgiven and forgiving…. The hardest thing to do is forgive, but as we saw in the drama it’s worth it, especially as by doing it we are helping God to reveal himself to other people. Jesus doesn’t say this is easy but that’s exactly why its in this prayer saying forgive us for what we do wrong Lord and help us to forgive others too!

Keep us safe from ourselves and the devil…. The saying goes we are our own worst enemy and it is based on truth as through our lives we make so many stupid decisions and sometimes when we have to choose between doing something that is right or wrong the devil pops onto our shoulder in cartoon form and convinces us that we should do what we shouldn’t do. So Jesus says to ask God to keep you safe, or to help you make the right decisions not the wrong ones.

You’re in charge…. Use prayer to give God control of your lives. We know God wants the best for us, that he knows what’s best for us overall – so what better way to ensure his will is done in our lives than to give it all to him?

You’re ablaze in beauty… Tell God how great he is, we all like to hear good things about ourselves but this isn’t about boosting Gods ego its about praising God because he is so great and because he is letting you come to him and getting to know him. So Jesus is saying don’t just talk about yourself, talk about him too.

There’s one more important thing, which comes out in our first reading, the need to be consistent and persevere. If we keep taking the same concerns to God over and over again, in the way the persistent widow did, we are showing God we truly care about it and that it is a need not just something we want one day and not the next.

Of course it isn’t just about repeating the same prayers over and over in order to get God to change his mind. Its about “crying out to him day and night”, praying to him 24/7.

No where in any of this does it say prayers have to be said, or sung, or drawn, or anything else. People use many different ways to illustrate their prayers that we could talk about them all day. The thing is many of us possibly are not used to praying in any styles other than words and so we may feel put off by the idea of praying in new ways.

Prayer is an expression to God, and we all express ourselves in different ways and so the ways that we feel comfortable praying is naturally different. I once spoke to a lady who had been a Christian all her life and confided in me that she felt that prayer was something she never understood or got anything out off as it felt like she was not good with words and so always felt ashamed as she believed that prayer was so important that it should be all these big words and sound poetic etc. All this changed when someone asked her what ways she expresses her feelings etc and she replied by painting. To cut a long story short, this person suggested to her that instead of trying to find the words to express her prayers she just paints them. She decided to give it a try and from that day onwards said for the first time she felt that prayers were truly something special and was truly her communicating with God, and God communicating back.

I am not saying we should all stop talking and start painting but I am challenging everyone to remember the Lords prayer and remember that its not important what you do, where you do it, or how you do it, but what is important is: -

That it’s directed to God
Asks for God to be revealed
Asks for Gods will on earth to be done
Asks for what we need
Says sorry and asks for help in forgiven others
Asks for help to stay safe
Gives control to God
And finally worships God in all his Beauty.

If these things are at the heart of what you are doing then you are praying the way Jesus taught us, and when we do that things happen.