1Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ 2He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.
Perseverance in Prayer
5And he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” 7And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.” 8I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. 9So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
The disciples of Jesus do not know how to pray as they ought. “Lord, teach us to pray.”
It may also suggest a deeper concern: “Does God hear our prayers? Does God answer them?”
A recent survey conducted by the Barna poll that tells us that in the United States of America, almost 82% of the nation prays once a week. OK. But in the same poll, about 1/3 of the nation prays once a day. Hmm.
When one believes, one prays. Faith and prayer go hand in hand. Prayer is seeing God at the center of our lives. Prayers is not about keeping God at the edges of our lives, or calling on God only when the bombs are dropping or when crises hit our lives. Praying with God is taking God’s hand, praying from the heart, trusting that God is your loving Parent with you each and every day of your life, each and every hour of your life. Prayer and trust go together.
A while back, I was in the backyard barbequing while Karen’s grandchild James, 6-years was hanging nearby from the tree, his feet wrapped around a limb and his body hanging down. “Grampa,” he said. That was a shock. “Grampa, are you praying?” “No, I’m barbequing.” “Well my dad says you pray all the time.”
I thought about that story as an invitation for us all to pray constantly, pray without ceasing, asking God from the heart. We have so many ritualized prayers, even in our worship together, but do we pray and grasp that God is there to hear all our prayers? Or are we afraid to ask?
Abraham was afraid to ask. He prayed to God for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, a city of great wickedness. But he never asks boldly. He’s afraid that God will destroy as is just. If there are fifty righteous God, would you spare the city? Then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then 10. And Abraham stops at 10. Yet even for this meager asking, God says God will grant the plea. Abraham should have been more bold, to pray for the 4 who would leave the city, and even one of them looked back and was destroyed.
Are we afraid to ask? Jesus tells his stories to help us see that God is seeking to grant to those who seek God. Not the selfish prayers for a car or a new house or a million dollars. But the prayers that seek to tune our wills to God’s, to seek what Jesus brings and to cherish this above all else.
So the man who is interrupted in the middle of the night, even if he would grumble, would because of the persistence grant the prayer. [As a pastor, I do sometimes get called in the middle of the night, and I answer.] God, our heavenly Father, gives us so much more.
Or a parent will not intentionally seek to give their child the wrong thing, though there are many [too many] cases of abuse. Still, there are corrections for such things in life. If parents, who are evil, give their children gifts, how much more does our heavenly Father who is good give us the Holy Spirit!
We can be bold to ask. But how to pray? We pray with heart, and we pray with a hand that seeks the Father’s hand (not just the gifts), and we pray in harmony with the will of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ.
Jesus authorizes you to pray. He authorizes you to pray to God as a loving parent. It got Jesus into big hot water with his critics, because those critics who were themselves so distant from God (even though they prayed regularly) did not believe we should be intimate with God. God, however, in Jesus’ name, in Jesus’ authority, invites us to such intimacy. And that means praying as a child of God as Jesus is a child of God. Hallowed be God’s name in our lives. May we be regarded as God’s holy children.
God’s will to be done. CS Lewis once said, “there are two kinds of people in the end. Those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘Thy will be done.’ People,” CS Lewis said, “go to hell because they choose it.” God offers his joy and peace as his greatest gifts of his will. Do you want it, first and foremost and above all else? Or do you want it only on your own terms, why you really pursue a hell of your own choosing, making other people’s lives a living hell in the process. God’s will, God’s rule of love for all. That’s what Jesus prayed. That’s what Jesus lived for us.
Daily Bread. Do we see that anything we have is a gift from God, and a gift (my heart breaks in this) that many, way too many, are without. Jesus fed thousands on the hillside from what he had to bring to God for blessing. Do we see what meager amounts of money or gifts we have are intended for a purpose of blessing the multitudes, not worrying about whether we will have enough for tomorrow?
Forgiveness. A four-year old once misheard, or did she, the words of the Lord’s Prayer on forgiveness of trespasses as forgiveness of trash buckets. “Forgive us our trash buckets as we forgive those who trash our buckets.” Forgiveness for all. That’s what Jesus prayed. That’s what Jesus lived for us.
Saving us from the time of trial. Do we trust that God will be there for us in the midst of the trials and tribulations we suffer in life? You don’t have to look for them. They will come to you. Jesus endured the time of trial. Even though it killed him, he still won. Faith is like that.
Your heavenly Father sees what you need, Jesus says. He sees you in life each day, and gives you all so much, so that you can give what you have for others. It means a reversal of self-seeking life that offers up prayers, a life that leaves us clueless and empty, and taking up a new life of offering up prayers for the kinds of things for which Jesus lived and died and rose again.
“Abba, we have not prayed as we ought. We have put our own things and life first and you second, and the neighbors in a distant third. We have sought to offer prayers this way and wonder why you do not answer. But in penance for this sinful behavior, we come with open and empty hands and hearts. Fill them with your love and mercy, as Jesus prays and gives and lives for us.”
Ask, seek, knock. Don’t be surprised that doors are opening.