Bible Speaks by Rev. L. Althouse 

 

Jan. 4, 2015

Background Scripture: Luke 11:1-13

Devotional Reading: Psalms 103:11-13

In New Testament times, it was customary for religious teachers to teach their disciples how to pray. The disciples of Jesus noted John the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray (Lk. 11:1).

In many churches today people are urged to pray, but not taught how. Looking back over my own ministry, it occurs to me that I, like many clergy, have been delinquent in guiding people in that vital practice. Christians often assume prayer is a technique and they are rueful they have not been taught a method of prayer that meets their needs.

There are many activities in life that can be successfully met by responding with the right methods: riding a bicycle, swimming, making a bed, preparing food, building shelter, playing a game of golf and the like. Yet, although many seek it and some profess to have it, an effective and satisfying prayer life is not really finding “the right way to pray.”

We don’t all have to use the same body positions, words or preparations. Regulated breathing is helpful for some, kneeling for others, incense may enhance the mood to pray – but not for everyone or even most.

Jesus might have answered their request by saying: “Prayer is not a method, but a relationship. If you get the relationship right, your prayer life will be right.” But instead of saying this, Jesus simply answered with a simple, yet powerful, framework of his relationship with God: “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name.’”

The power is not in the words we use but in the realities those words suggest. We are not addressing a disinterested, oblivious power, but One who can best be thought of and responded to as a loving parent. This is a difference between an “it” and a living being. We say the words of the Lord’s prayer so we can gain access to the holy, personal, family-like Lord of the Universe.

A friend of God

So many people feel dissatisfied with their prayer life, or lack of one, because they have not entered into a familial relationship with God. There is a kind of paradox in the opening of this prayer, because Jesus is in fact saying: “Father, how holy (‘other’) you are.”

Wilson and Kathleen Althouse were my loving parents. But they were also my closest friends. Still, being my “friends” in no way diminished their roles as my parents. I hope I always strove to honor them as my father and mother.

And this, I think, is an analogy for our prayer relationship with God: He is our friend, but that does not diminish His status as our holy, heavenly God. So how and how often we relate to God usually determines the quality of our prayer life.

When you pray to God, what is your relationship? Do you try to speak to a distant, unimaginable Cosmic Reality to whom you cannot really relate? Are you reporting to a Divine Parole Officer, or standing before a Fearsome Judge waiting to pronounce sentence upon you?

Is your God an angry, disapproving Deity, the strict Principal in the school of life?

In short: With whom are you relating and speaking? Is it impossible for you to think of your Creator-Sustainer-Judge as also your Father/Friend?

In Luke 10, just prior to when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus had referred to God as “Father” five times. (10:21,22). In Matthew, Jesus refers to God as “Father” 42 times; in Mark 5, Luke 15 and in John 51 times. Thus the concept of God as Father is a recurring theme in the four gospels.

In his book The Meaning of Prayer, Harry Emerson Fosdick says: “When Christ sets as our ideal the childlike qualities of sincerity and humility, he is not asking us to be childish … Childishness in prayer is chiefly evidenced in an overwhelming desire to beg things from God, and a corresponding failure to desire above all else the friendship of God himself.”

So the way we think of and relate to God affects the nature and quality of our prayers.

“The man who misses the deep meanings of prayer has not so much refused an obligation; he has robbed himself of life’s supreme privilege – friendship with God.”

Holy relationship

Perhaps our disappointment with prayer is the result not of not knowing how to pray, but having little or no relationship with Him. None of us are lacking in the ability and opportunity to live “a cumulative life of friendship with God.”

Such a life, says Fosdick, is the difference between making prayer a “habitual attitude, and not simply as an occasional act.”

The occasional prayer is usually one of “give me” instead of “make me.”

In the 19th century George Matheson wrote: “Whether thou comest in sunshine or in rain, I would take thee into my heart joyfully. Thou art thyself more than the sunshine; thou art thyself compensation for the rain. It is thee and not thy gifts I crave.”

That is easy to read aloud, but can we say it in the depths of our being: “It is you, Lord, not your gifts that I need and want?” This is why Jesus prayed: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

You may have noticed the Lord’s Prayer in Luke is shorter than in Matthew 6:9-13. Luke omits “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The wording is more sparse, but the purpose of the prayer is the same.

Prayer should not be a pious form, but a vital transaction.

Thus, “prayer is necessary to make God not merely an idea held in the mind but a Presence recognized in the life.” So – is He?

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Those with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.