Christian Counter-Culture: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (John Stott) Part 9

Now we hit on the Lord's Prayer, which my long-ago Catholic friends got me calling the Our Father. There's comparisons again to nonbelievers/pagans and hypocrites, and the discussion is enlightening.

I'm reminded of the year I spent in my early twenties, exploring prayer. I felt like I didn't know how to pray properly, and I read books and tried different ways of praying. I found some things that helped me feel like I was more on top of this thing, and a bunch of things that were just weird for me. A number of years later, I learned how to really listen for God and I began to be open to receiving pictures from Him.

Prayer is important. It is how we communicate with God. We're told to "pray without ceasing" and if nothing else I have learned that it doesn't matter exactly how we pray as long as we do it. Talk to God, share your struggles and your needs. Sure, He knows them already, but if we don't come to Him with them and then wait for His response, we aren't truly in relationship with Him.

It's also important to remember, as you read through this section, that we're talking about individual prayer, not corporate prayer. So this is the prayer you do in private, not the prayer you do at church services or during Bible study or small group time. I think that keeping to simpler words is helpful for corporate prayer, since it makes it easier for everyone to understand what's being said, but also corporate prayer often involves recited prayers that we have memorised. I don't think the information here is applicable in the same way to corporate prayer, but I can write a post about what I think about corporate prayer vs personal prayer if people are interested.

On to the Our Father. 

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"When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

"Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your Kingdom come.

Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us to the time of trial,

but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 6.7-15 (NRSV)

Notes from my HarperCollins Study Bible

• Long-winded prayers are not it.
• 3 God-petitions, 4 human-petitions.
• Father = familial intimacy, respect, obedience.
• Hallowed = honoured as holy.
• "Your will be done" probably an addition by Matthew.
• Bread in the Morning for the rest of the day or for tomorrow.
• Debts = what is owed.
• The time of trial = persecution.
• "Rescue us..." another addition.
• Trespasses = ethical transgressions.

A Christian's prayer: not mechanical but thoughtful.

• Vain repetition = meaningless, mechanical utterance.
• Hypocrisy = misuse of prayer's purpose (glorifying self instead of God).
• Verbosity = misuse of prayer's nature (recitation instead of real and personal approach).
• Prayer ought to be meaningful communication with God.

Christian righteousness is greater (because inward), Christian love broader (because inclusive of enemies), and Christian prayer deeper (because sincere and thoughtful). (p. 143)

The pagan way of prayer.

• battalogeō is not used anywhere else, but theories tie it to Battus, a Cyrenic King who stuttered, and to onomatopoeia or barbarians' speech, so it can be translated as "babble".
• Repetition is not automatically bad; Jesus repeats Himself!
• Perseverance and importunity (annoying persistence) are also good.
• It is verbosity, particularly thoughtless words, that is not okay.
• True meditation involves the conscious use of the mind, not shutting it off.
• Jesus forbids any prayer that involves the lips and not the mind.
• Prayer's value is not in quantity of words or time spent.
• Prayer isn't for God, it's for us. It refocuses us on Him and reminds us of His Truths.

The Christian way of prayer.

• Sincere and thoughtful.
• True communion with God.
• The Our Father is BOTH a prayer to use and a model to base our prayers on.
• God is personal.
• God is loving.
• God is powerful.
• Recall who God is before you pray.
• Two parts: the glory of God, then the needs of man. Echoes the Ten Commandments.
• Christian priorities.
• God's name, kingdom, and will.
• Our humble dependence on His grace.

Daily bread.

• Physical needs.
• Live a day at a time.

Forgiveness.

• Debt = sin.
• We have to forgive that we may be forgiven.
• True penitence brings a forgiving spirit, and God forgives the penitent.
• Our offenses are much greater to God than the offenses of others to us.

Temptation deliverance.

• God does not tempt us with evil. He does rescue us from evil.
• Temptation and trial are good for us.

Count it All Joy (Scott Wesley Brown).

• The prayer is more about overcoming temptation than it is avoiding same.
• The devil is too strong for us and we are too weak to stand up against him, but God will rescue us if we ask.
• All of our needs are covered by this prayer.

Physical.	Creation.	➘
Spiritual.	Atonement.	➙    Trinity.
Moral.	Holy Spirit.	➚

Real, Christian prayer.

• Could be used hypocritically or mechanically, but if we mean it... well.
• Hypocrite = selfish.
  Christian = obsessed with God.
• Heathen = mindless, meaningless.
  Christian = humble thoughtfulness.
• Christian prayer is God-centred and intelligent.
• We come thoughtfully, humbly, truthfully, like little children.
• Tragic mistake = false image of God.
• Truth = God is our Father, who loves us tenderly, who sees us in the secret place, who knows us and our needs before we ask, who acts on our behalf.

If we thus allow Scripture to fashion our image of God, if we recall His character and practise His presence, we shall never pray with hypocrisy but always with integrity, never mechanically but always thoughtfully, like the children of God that we are. (p.152)

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There are many types of prayer, but all of them are important. If I had to set some guidelines for prayer, I would go with the following:

1. Mean what you say and say what you mean.
2. Being open to God's guidance doesn't mean being open to literally anything that pops into your head; test everything with scripture. Remember that the heart and the flesh are really good at wanting wrong things, and the mind is likewise good at letting itself be deceived by what the heart and the flesh want.
3. Ask for what you want but mean it when you say "Your will be done" because sometimes the answer will be "no" and sometimes it will be "not yet"; we don't always just get whatever we ask for, because what we want isn't always what's best for us.
4. Try to have time for listening prayer every day. This is your deep conversation time, when you really nurture your relationship.
5. Drop little prayers constantly throughout your day. Think of them as quick text messages you send to let God know you're thinking of Him or need something in the moment.
6. If coming up with your own words is too hard, pre-written prayers are absolutely fine to use in your personal prayer time. But really think about the words as you say them, and mean them with your whole heart.
7. God doesn't need us to use fancy words when we come to Him in prayer. Sometimes we won't have the words we feel we need to express ourselves to Him fully. Music can help with this, but also remember that when we don't have words the Spirit does. You can always say "God, I don't know the words to say right now, but I know you know what I want to tell you."

Peace & Blessings.