Sermons for the Month
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Christians: Prayer
DATE: October 15, 2000
SERVICE: Pentecost XVIII
TEXT: Mark 10:17-18“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
"Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. God bless mommy, daddy, my brother, my sister, my grandma, my friend Alan, my dog Lucky, my teacher Mrs. Friends."
I have no recollection of how or when I learned that prayer as a youth. All I know is that I did not learn it at school and have said it as long as I can remember. Each night my brother Steve and I would kneel down by our beds and recite that prayer before bedtime. It was not something that we had to be reminded to do; it was just something we did every night. The fact that I can still remember it after all these years testifies to the habit of prayer that has been a part of my life from almost the very beginning. I was born and raised in the small town of Baltimore, Ohio, a farming community in southern Ohio. We lived in the country where green pastures and cornfields and the sweet fragrance of manure on the fields was something that was just a normal part of life. When we went out to eat at restaurants, no one thought anything when men in overalls or in suits would bow their heads and fold their hands to offer thanks to the Creator for the food that was on the table. It was just something that was done. Prayer was nothing formal; no one felt embarrassed when praying in public. Prayer was just talking to one of our friends who happened to be in heaven at the time. At church on Sunday, prayer was something generally the pastor did, not because he was better at it but because he was praying for all of us on behalf of all of us. Yet, there were times in the service when he would ask us to shout out the name of someone we wanted included in the prayers of the church. And this was a conservative German Lutheran church. No one questioned the opportunity. We just did it! "God is great. God is food. And we thank him for this food. By his hands we all are fed. Give us Lord our daily bread. AMEN." The regular habit of prayer marks the lives of Christians. For many, prayer is the easiest of all the seven habits of highly effective Christians. It comes as natural as talking to their spouse, their friend or their family. For others, it is the hardest. For those who consider it to be hard, it is because they hold the almighty in such high esteem they are afraid they won't get the words right when they come to him. They may even be afraid don't know the proper language of prayer. If there is only one thing with which you leave this service learning, is that God cares little about how you frame your prayer, only that you talk with him. I remember one time in Sunday School, our teacher asked all of us to write a prayer to hand in. Then she said, "I will pray the best prayer." It turned out to be the one I had written. I was flattered but I wondered to myself, what makes any prayer better than another? Is it the words? Using a lot of "thee's" and "thou's?" Isn't any prayer addressed to God OK? The truth is that, at the heart of the matter, it's the heart that matters. By using language that doesn't really suit us, language that we borrow from someone else, we make it hard to offer prayers of the heart. We tie our heads up with finding the right words, rather than focusing on the real need. Heart expressions expose our deepest emotions and desires. Yes, the Bible tells us that God knows the intentions of our heart. Even so, when we express our hearts, our prayer touches the very heart of God and opens us to God's guidance and healing. "Our Father, who art in heaven. Holy be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation." To pray is something we learn. The disciples asked Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray." They had prayed all their lives and yet something about the quality and quantity of Jesus' praying caused them to see how little they knew about prayer. If their praying was to make any difference on the human scene, there were some things they needed to learn. Perhaps the most astonishing characteristic of Jesus' praying is that when He prayed for others He NEVER concluded by saying "if it be they will." Nor did the apostles or prophets when they were praying for others. They obviously believed that they knew what the will of God was before they prayed the prayer of faith. Many people pray but really don't expect anything to happen. Rather than praying, they are wishing, as in "God, I wish you would help me," or "You'd better keep you fingers crossed and pray." But praying and wishing are complete opposites. Wishing depends on luck. Praying depends on God. Luck is uncertain. God is certain. One thing that is certain about true prayer is that God always answers prayer. Sometimes the answer is "yes" and sometimes the answer is "no." Still other times the answer is "wait." We can also be certain that the One who answers prayer, our loving God, knows our real needs in the way that is best for us, even though that may be very different from what we request. Expectation and answered prayer go together. First, expectation helps us hear God's answer. If we pray but don't expect any answer at all, we might not hear what God has to say because we aren't listening anyway. Second, expectation helps us hear God's answer. If we pray but expect to hear only the answer we want, we might miss the real answer. Maybe you've heard the story of a drowning man who prayed for help. The man struggled desperately in deep water, trying to keep his head above water. He cried out in prayer, "God, help me, help me, help me!" Less than a minute later, a woman in a rowboat came by and offered help. The man said, "No, I'm praying God will help me." One minute later a helicopter flew over and offered a rescue rope. Again the man refused, saying, "No, I'm praying God will help me." Less than a minute later a speedboat pulled up and the driver offered help. Again the man refused. Finally, the man drowned. When he came face to face with God, he demanded to know why God didn't save his life. God responded, "Well, I tried. I sent a rowboat, a helicopter, and a speedboat, but you sent them all away." How often does our lack of expectation in prayer cause us to miss God's answer? The Bible makes a promise: God answers prayer. The Bible says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." We can expect all our prayers to be answered. "Merciful Father, we offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us--our selves, our time, and our possessions, signs of your gracious love. Receive them for the sake of him who offered himself for us, Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN" Prayer is the way a disciples enjoys a good connection with God. Prayer can be private or public, memorized or conversational. Prayer can be silent or out loud, spoken or sung, words or actions, simple or profound. Through prayer God's will is understood and greater clarity is gained for our personal and family journey. Prayer is powerful. Indeed, God's creative, redeeming and healing power is often directed through prayer. Jesus modeled the power and importance of prayer in his life. He provides our inspiration to hold a prayerful attitude toward all moments of life. One of the key ways Jesus showed his love for his Father was by regularly talking to him in prayer. Throughout the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we read how Jesus "went up to a mountain to pray" or "knelt down and prayed" or "continued all night in prayer." When I reread all his prayers to God, I found a revelation. It was in prayer that Jesus gained a clearer sense of who he was (his identity) and what he was to do (his mission). Before he taught or healed, before choosing the Twelve or submitting his will to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed. Whatever the opportunity or challenge, Jesus turned to his Father first and sought the guidance of God. In other words, prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us into disciples. In that regard it is the most important of all the habits. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Jesus. Prayer places us in the presence of God. For the people of the Bible, prayer was no little habit tacked onto the periphery of their lives--it was their lives. It transformed their lives. Martin Luther himself daily prayed the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles' Creed. He found that the busier he was, the more time he needed prayer, and he acknowledged days on which he was so busy, he could not get by without spending three hours in prayer! It took that long for the day's anxieties to drain away so that he could be in the presence of God. In his daily practice of prayer, Luther stood in a long tradition of prayer that had spiritual union with God as its goal. But Luther altered and refocused the practice toward service in the world. While much mystical prayer led to contemplation and sought ascent to God, Luther directed prayer to being sent into the world. Not contemplation, but temptation and suffering were the final concern of prayer: in the world "by the devil's assaults you will be taught to seek and to love God's word" Luther was quoted as saying. Having a steady rendezvous with the Word sustains the Christian in the world; engagement with the world drives Christians back to the Jesus. The daily discipline of prayer nurtures Christian disciples for service in the world. In 1973, on the occasion of my ordination, my sister Sue gave me a book of prayers by Michael Quoist. It has been one of my favorite books for many years. One of his prayers is titled "Lord, Why did you Tell me to Love?" I would like to close with this prayer. Lord, why did you tell me to love all persons, my sisters and brothers? I have tried, but I come back to you, frightened. Lord, I was so peaceful at home; I was so comfortably settled. It was well furnished, and I felt cozy. I was alone; I was at peace. Sheltered from the wind and the rain, kept clean. I would have stayed unsullied in my ivory tower. But, Lord, you have discovered a breach in my defenses. You have forced me to open my door. Like a squall of rain in the face, the cry of humanity has awakened me; Like a gale of wind a friendship has shaken me, Stealing in like a shaft of light, your grace has disturbed me. Rashly enough, I left my door ajar. Now, Lord I am lost! Outside, men were lying in wait for me. I did not know they were so hear; in this house, in this street, in this office; my neighbor, my colleague, my friend. As soon as I started to open the door I saw them, with outstretched hands, anxious eyes, longing hearts, like beggars on church steps. The first came in, Lord. There was, after all, a bit of space in my heart. I welcomed them. I would have cared for them and fondled them, my very own little lambs, my little flock. You would have been pleased, Lord; I would have served and honored you in a proper, respectable way. Until then, it was sensible. But the next ones, Lord, the others--I had not seen them; they were hidden behind the first ones. There were more of them. They were wretched; they overpowered me without warning. We had to crowd in; I had to find room for them. Now they have come from all over in successive waves, pushing one another, jostling one another. They have come from all over town, from all parts of the country, of the world, numberless, inexhaustible. They don't come alone any longer but in groups, bound one to another. They come bending under heavy loads; loads of injustice, of resentment and hate, of suffering and sin. They drag the world behind them, with everything rusted, twisted, badly adjusted. Lord, they hurt me! They are in the way; they are all over; They are too hungry! They are consuming me! I can't do anything any more; as they come in, they push the door, and the door opens wider. Ah, Lord! My door is wide open! I can't stand it any more! It's too much! It's no kind of a life! What about my job? My family? My peace? My liberty? And me? Ah, Lord! I have lost everything; I don't belong to myself any longer; There's no more room for me at home. AND THEN God SAYS: Don't worry, God says, you have gained all. While they came in to you, I, your father, I, your God Slipped in among them.
AMEN
Some ideas for nurturing prayer:
1) Pray a prayer of thanks before meals (even when you go out to eat);
2) Add a chair to the table for Jesus;
3) Decided as a family to take a moment at noon to pray for one another no matter where you are the time;
4) Scan the paper for age-appropriate articles that tell of people or situations you can include in your prayers;
5) As you look forward to the day, prayer for the people with whom you will working or playing;
6) Set up a place in your home for prayer
7) Offer "instant prayers" or brief, spontaneous prayers as you and your family encounter joys and challenges through out the day;
8) Use Luther's Small Catechism as a guide for prayer. Review his meaning of the Lord's Prayer.
9) Make bedtime a time of conversation with God sharing the joys and frustrations of the day;
10) The four types of Prayer -- ACTS
a) Adoration (praise, honoring God)
b) Confession (saying "I'm sorry," that "I can't do it on my own")
c) Thanksgiving (saying thanks, counting blessings, allowing God's perspective to shape life)
d) Supplication (asking for, praying for others)
AMEN