5-18-08 When You Pray

You and I need to communicate. We were created to communicate. Without phone calls and conversations, without regular communications we go a bit crazy. There have been studies on this subject. If people are kept in solitary confinement for very long, they lose the ability to talk and relate with other people and they become very depressed. They go a little bit nuts. A part of them dies when they don’t get to talk and listen to others.

Anybody ever see the Tom Hanks movie Castaway? Tom is on this deserted island for years and he goes a little bit crazy because there’s no one to talk to – no animals and no people, and the only way that he stays even a little bit sane is by making a human face out of a volleyball and he talks to it, like it’s his friend. He even names his friend Wilson after the athletics manufacturer Tom had this insatiable desire to talk and be with someone even if the person was imaginary.

Imagine with me for a moment what your life would be like if you couldn’t speak? Imagine what your life and mine would be like if nobody else could speak to us? We were created to speak to others and if we’re not able, then a part of the inside of us dies.

When we don’t talk to God, a part of us dies too. We get a little primitive. We become very selfish – very “Me’ oriented. In the same way that we were created to talk, we were created to pray. We were created to talk to God. We were created to talk not only to each other, but to God, and when we don’t there’s a part of us that suffers, a part of us that dries up. There’s a part of us that dies or maybe is never fully developed when we don’t pray, or when we don’t pray often enough.

I run for several reasons, but one of them is not because I like to run. Running is work. It’s hard, and therefore sometimes I just choose not to do it. But then when my pants get too tight or when I start feeling sort of sluggish and lethargic, I decide that I can’t put it off any longer and I set out to run. If I haven’t run for a week, I can’t believe how hard it is. I mean, I could have run three miles a week ago, but now, after not running only a week, I can only run a mile and a half instead of three. What happened? Why can’t I run as far? I degenerated! I lost what I had. And not only that, It kills me to do that mile and a half. I think I’m going to die. It’s awful! My body fights me all the way, but I push on and persevere.

When we don’t pray or when we stop praying it’s hard to get started for the first time or to start again! Sometimes it’s just awful, but the more that we practice, the easier it gets. Prayer, just like running. It takes conditioning; it takes discipline and perseverance. It takes diligence. It’s hard work,

Does anyone, here, besides me, have trouble praying? So let’s work on this together? Jesus’ disciples have noticed that he prays a lot and maybe they’re having trouble praying too, and so the disciples ask Jesus how to pray and Jesus says this about prayer, he says:

“And when you pray” Matthew 6:5 (NIV). Jesus just assumes that we’ll be praying. His command is to love God with all that we are, and so he doesn’t command us to pray, he just assumes that we’re going to pray, if our intention is to love God. God is spirit and we are created in his image and so we have this spiritual part of us – the part of us that loves and the part of us that feels joy, and the part of us that is kind or patient – these are the parts of us that are spiritual. The only way that we can be truly develop and mature and really become the us that God created us to be is by praying. And if we are followers of Jesus, we are to do as Jesus did and Jesus prayed.

I mean, Jesus, he’s the Son of God, right? And he’s only got three years to help people to understand who he is and what God is doing and develop and carry out a plan to reveal God’s kingdom and God’s plan and how to correct all the misunderstandings about who he is and who we are and what we’re supposed to do and be. Jesus only had three years to get all this done, but every time we turn around in the gospels, Jesus is praying.

Jesus says, hey, the stuff that I say is what I heard the Father say, and the stuff that I do is what I’ve seen the Father doing. How does he know these things? It’s because he’s been spending time with God. He’s been praying. He’s been communing and connecting with the Father – with God.

When Jesus says, “When you pray“, he is basically saying, if you’re going to follow me, if you’re going to be a Christian, if you’re going to be a child of God, then you’re going to need to pray, because that’s how you were made. That’s how you were created. That is who you are. You are a person who was created in the image of God, so that you could commune with him – you could connect with him. Jesus continues and he says:

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.

What Jesus is saying is when you pray in front of other people, don’t drone on and on and on, and you’ve heard them – they use this certain kind of language and this certain voice – you know the type don’t you. And Jesus says, “don’t do that” Just talk to me, just talk to God, don’t put on show. Don’t be someone different than who you are with everyone else around. Just be you. There is this tendency in us that wants to impress other folks when we pray. Jesus goes on and says:

I tell you the truth, these people who are trying to impress other people, they have received their reward in full.

Those people who people think, Wow, that was a prayer, they must be close to God because they just go on and on and on and they sound so holy and use all this language. Jesus says, that’s their reward – People’s admiration – that’s all they get, because God says, I’m not going to listen or answer their prayer because there intention, oftentimes, is not to commune with God so much as it is to sound real religious to get praise from others, and not only that it keeps everybody who can’t pray like that from praying because it’s intimidating. People say, “I can’t pray like that, and so they don’t”. Jesus says don’t do that.

He wants us to speak from our heart. This is just between you and God even if there’s other people listening.

I’ve made it a habit to listening to other people’s prayers and in my job I hear a lot of people pray and when I hear some people pray, I think to myself, Who is this? This isn’t the same person that I was just talking to – they’ve become someone else. They use different language and they use a different voice.

When you pray, just be you! Talk the way that you normally talk. I hear people who read the King James version of the Bible, you know, the one that was written in the 1600’s and when they pray, they use all the “Thees and Thy’s and Thou’s”, but you never hear those words in their vocabulary any other time. Use the same language and the same voice as you normally use when you talk with other people, and if you don’t normally hog the conversation with someone else going on and on and on, then don’t do that with God and if you do do that with other people then come see me and I’ll set you up with a counselor. Jesus continues:

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Jesus is making a point here to say that when we pray, we need to take some special quiet time just between God and you or God and me, where there are no distractions, and where it’s quiet, where we can really connect and really commune with one another.

My wife and I talk and connect all day every day. We call each other to ask each other questions and Shannon regularly calls me from work to remind me to do this or to do that – to remember to pick up the kids from school or to go to a dentist appointment. And Shannon and I talk at home. We talk while we make supper together or when she makes supper and I’m helping one of our kids with homework. We get distracted by the phone ringing and a neighbor coming over.

There’s even other times when we need some time away from our kids and so we go out to dinner or run some errands and primarily we’re not distracted, but we’re still having to drive and respond to a waiter, or make decisions. This is our life. But then there are other times, when we go upstairs and close the bedroom door and we tell our kids – it’s mom and dad time. WE don’t want to be bothered for a while. We’re not taking phone calls and we’re not answering questions. We don’t want any other distractions. It’s just us and we share and we commune and we connect.

Jesus says, “When you pray, go into your room and close the door. This kind of prayer is a special kind of prayer in which you put aside all the other distractions and you commune and you connect with God.

So is it wrong to pray other places. Do I always have to pray in a room with the door closed? No! It’s a really good idea to talk to God throughout your day just like I talk to my wife and other people throughout the day. Paul calls us to pray without ceasing, to pray all the time, to be constantly aware of God.

I’m trying to do that and it’s really hard. I’m not doing so well, but I keep trying. Throughout our day, though we are busy on the outside, remember, we are called to not hurry on the inside. I can Thank God for the beauty all around me or for keeping me safe after a car narrowly missed me and our kids or for wisdom as I deal with this person or this problem in my life. It’s a great idea to pray to God all the time, but Jesus says, it’s really important to regularly go into your room and close the door. Carve out some special time where you and God can get close. You can pray in other places, but the key is that we are not distracted.

Jesus continues teaching his disciples:

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Did you notice a theme that’s running though these last three statements? Each of the last three statements begins, “When you pray“. It’s so important!!!

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans.

What this means is good news. God doesn’t have a word meter. He’s not like some teacher that I had in college who would count the number of words in your essay and if I didn’t have enough, he would mark me down or worse yet, not even accept my paper.

Jesus points out something really important here. God already knows what we need before we ask him, so I shouldn’t get hung up on the words or the lists, just tell God what’s on your heart. Commune with him. Connect with him. Don’t worry about what you say, but concentrate on how you feel. Where are you at? Confused? Tired? Worried? Fearful? Joyful? Angry? Tell God!

The thing that moves God more than any other thing is when you go in and close your door and you say, Father, Daddy, Lord, “I love you”. I want to be like you! I want to follow you! I want to make you proud! I want up there to come down here and I want to participate with you in making that to happen. Help me understand who I am. I keep getting all confused and I keep doing things and saying things that I know aren’t from you and God, I just want to stop, but I can’t. Will you help me?

I was trying to get a run in before Hope got home from school a few weeks back and I was just coming up the last hill when I saw the bus stop and let Hope off and I had really wanted to be there when she got off the bus, but I just missed it and she was about three quarters of the way up our really long driveway when I got to the road in front of our, so she’s more than a football field a way from me when I yelled, “Hope!!” She didn’t hear me and so I cupped my hands and yelled again, “Hope”. She turned around and saw me and I waved with a big wave over my head and she waved with a big wave back, and then she did something that I really wanted her to do, but I wasn’t holding my breath.

She turned around and walked halfway down the same driveway that she had just walked down and she walked back to talk to me. It touched my heart so deeply. She wanted to be with me, her dad, and even though it took some work for her to come all that way to me, she did what it took to talk with me an share her day with me. I got a hug. I got to talk to her. I got to commune and connect with her because she made some effort.

God is calling out your name and mine everyday and he’s waving wildly to catch our eye. It takes effort to turn around and go to God and commune and connect with him, but Oh, when it happens it’s so great for God and it’s really great for us. Our reward is not the favor of other people. Our reward is spending time with the one who created us. Our reward is spending time with the One who knows us better than we know our self. Just think of it. We get to spend time with the one who created us, and not only that, he created all the heavens and the earth and he is so big and so great and I, we get to spend time with him and it warms his heart and blesses him so richly.

When we pray. We are called to go in and close the door and spend time with the only one who can transform your life and mine. We get to spend time with the one who holds the blueprint of heaven in his hand. We get to spend time with the only one who can take your hurts and mine and heal them and restore you to the wonderful and unique person that God created you to be. Our reward in praying is not the admiration of other people. Our reward is spending time with the creator of the universe who made you and loves you and for some crazy reason, his greatest reward is just spending time with you.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve walked with God and they talked with God. They shared their days with each other. That’s what you and I were created for. We were created for deep communion and connection with God. We don’t pray to get God up to speed with where we are. God already knows where we’re at and what we need.

I’m out kids father, and I already know all their needs. I even know needs that they don’t know that they have. When my kids come to me, do I want them to tell me all the things that they need every time? No! When my kids come to me, I want to spend great time with them connecting at the heart level. I want to spend time with my kids in a way that they know that I love them and I want to just be with them

We pray to get on the same page with God. We pray to get close to him. We pray so that we begin to remember who he is and what his plan is. We pray to remember that God’s plan is for up there to come down here; for heaven to come to earth. We pray to remember that God is our Creator, our Lord, our Redeemer, our Father in heaven and that his will is to bring up there down here. His will is to bring things back to the way that they were in the beginning, and we pray to remind ourselves what a great God, God is.

When you’re struggling with tough days, or tough weeks or tough years, it’s important to keep the vision ever before you – up there coming down here. We’re called to partner with God to bring heaven to earth, to fight against evil and to fight for what’s good.

The greatest commandment is to love God with all of our hearts and with all of our souls and with all of our minds and with all of our strength – to love God with all that we are. We were created to talk to one another, but we were also created to talk to God, and when we don’t talk to God or others, a bit of us dries up; a bit of us dies.

Where are you at in your prayer life? Are you praying at all? Maybe just a little bit? Maybe sporadic? Martin Luther, the great protestant reformer once said, if I don’t have time to pray, I immediately stop every thing and pray for an hour, because if I don’t pray, then the devil wins the day. Apart from God we can do nothing, but with God we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Life Link:

What part of your personality is God changing right now?

Summary of message/The question

Do you have trouble praying? Do you think others have trouble praying? Why do you think praying is so hard? What could make it better?

Martin Luther, the great protestant reformer once said, if I don’t have time to pray, I immediately stop every thing and pray for an hour, because if I don’t pray, then the devil wins the day. Do you agree or disagree with Luther’s statement? Why? How could you relate Luther’s philosophy of prayer to your life?

Jesus taught his disciples to go into their room and close the door and pray, then he tells them that God will reward them for this action. How do you think God rewards us when we spend quite time with him in prayer?

God already knows what we need before we ask him. What is praying all about then?