Praying Faith

Many people these days are stressed, tired, and just want to “escape it all.” One of the stressors contributing to this weariness of life is too much data and information and not enough wisdom to discern how to use it.  It is too much “talking” and not enough “connecting” with others.  Many research studies have concluded that Americans spend more time in media of all sorts than they sleep.   Binge watching programs has become a national pastime. Is it any wonder that our world has “lost touch with reality?”

Even though many “gorge themselves” on fantasy and “super-anything” to escape from their mundane world, it is noteworthy that binge praying has never really caught on though.  Most don’t set aside time to regularly meditate or pray.  Briefly, meditate is to engage in mental contemplation, e.g. “I wonder what

David meant when he was writing the 23rd Psalm.”  

Prayer is earnestly requesting something.  One wonders how many people are earnestly asking God in prayer.  Most, it seems, just recite a wish-list for God in case he desires to fulfill their wishes.  Earnest prayer is “seriously intent” prayer.  Are we seriously intent when we pray?  Are we just “making a list and checking it twice?  How does one even ask anything of the Creator of the universe? The short answer is in faith, a word indicating loyalty, honesty, and truthfulness.  Just ask God honestly, truthfully, and with serious intent. 

Through out the gospel we read that Jesus spent large blocks of his time praying, so why don’t we follow his example?  Jesus demonstrate that faith looks to God to provide what we need.

Today we look at the examples set by Jesus.  Let’s start by looking at Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer:

Luke 11:1-13.   The Lord’s Prayer

11 He was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

2 He said to them, “Whenever you pray, say,  Father, your name be honored as holy.  Your kingdom come.

3 Give us each day our daily bread.

4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us.  And do not bring us into temptation.”

Jesus invites us to pray as an expression of faith and trust.  Prayer is one of Luke’s favorite themes.  Only Luke recorded that Jesus prayed at his baptism, and all night before choosing the twelve.  Only Luke noted that Jesus prayed before he questioned his disciples regarding his identity and that he climbed a mountain to pray at the time of his transfiguration.  Prayer constituted a vital, habitual part of Jesus’s life, thus Luke viewed prayer as an essential and indispensable part of a believer’s life.

The disciples saw Jesus control and command the weather, heal chronic illnesses, send demons running to the far regions, and feed multitudes, but the disciples asked him to teach them one primary skill:  prayer.  They desired to be taught a way to connect and communicate with the highest power in the Cosmos, a skill usually exercised only by priests.

The disciples knew that prayer was the key that unlocked all the other doors of empowered living.  One of them asked Jesus to “teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples. We don’t see in the Bible John’s teaching his disciples how to pray. But he did. And it seems that Jesus had been with his disciples -- some of whom were also John's disciples-- for a while without teaching them how to pray. Somewhere along the line his disciples developed the desire to ask Jesus for something he seemed not to have as yet offered. 

Let’s hop just a little way down a rabbit trail… It is widely presumed that John the Baptist may have been a member of the Essence sect.  Here is an Essene Prayer recorded in the Dead Sea Scrolls:

For without Thee no way is perfect.  And without Thy will nothing is done.

It is Thou who hast taught all knowledge. And all things come to pass by Thy will.

There is none beside Thee to dispute Thy counsel or to understand all Thy holy design, or to contemplate the depth of Thy mysteries And the power of Thy might. 

 

Who can endure Thy glory,  And what is the son of man In the midst of Thy wonderful deeds?  What shall one born of woman be accounted before Thee? Kneaded from the dust, His abode is the nourishment of worms. He is but a shape, but moulded clay, And inclines toward dust.

From  the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran scroll 1QS XI, 17-22

So perhaps there were other Essene prayers that John also taught.  But all that aside, the disciples had seen some of the great miracles that Jesus did and they presumed that it might only because they saw him talking to God so often. They began to realize that a close relationship with God was a good idea. 

From what we can see in the various gospels, it was a combination of these and other reasons that prompted them to ask Jesus. But whatever the reason, they asked Jesus to teach them, and they assumed that the way Jesus  teaches people to pray would be different from the way John taught people to pray. There'd be some crossover and overlap of course. But John who knew only the baptism of water for the repentance from sin, who was a servant in the house of God, and whose mission was to call attention to God’s Messiah and for people to recognize, repent and repair their lifestyles.  John would naturally teach prayer as a servant-minded water-baptizer would do. A stop and clean yourselves up message.

Jesus, on the other hand, baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Where John was a household servant, Jesus was the Son of the Master of the House. The son can tell you how to ask the father for something. The son can tell you to use his father’s name. The son can tell you how to speak to the servants and to those in submission to the Master. The son can tell you how to boldly go to the father, and to boldly command the things that God wills to occur. 

Most Christians know only the Baptism of John (a profession of faith and a water dunking). And many of them say that the baptism of John is the only baptism necessary. While they have God's Holy Spirit working in them because they are saved, they don't know the kingly way of commanding. Jesus was the true High Priest, Prophet, Savior, Lord, and King. 

John was only a prophet and not a high priest, savior, Lord or King. A prophet speaks to people and when they pray, they pray as prophets do. A priest intercedes between God and man. The priestly anointing, the prophetic anointing, and the kingly anointing were all separate anointing of God. 

In Jesus, though, these three anointings are rolled into one. So Jesus prays differently and he has given us access to his same anointing.  This means that we can pray to God for others (the priestly anointing) and we can speak to people and to the spiritual realm about God and God's power in us (prophetic anointing) and we can command in the spiritual realm spirits and demons (the kingly anointing) for all ARE God’s subjects. 

Have you really ever contemplated that you have the opportunity to humbly associate with the ONE who created ALL.  You have the opportunity to share your needs and desires with the ONE.

While the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 expands Christ’s teaching on prayer, here in Luke we can look at a brief examination of it.  

The author of today’s study notes that the Lord’s Prayer is really about releasing.  The bullet points below present Luke’s statement, after which you’ll find the author’s comments in parenthesis.  The comment in italics is a phrasing that I have created that speaks to me.

• “Father, your name be honored as holy” (I release my urge to play God).

Originator of my spiritual life who is within the cosmos, I honor and respect you.

The early church understood this to be a disciple’s prayer.  It was “not for anyone” because one had to recognize themselves as a student of God and have the desire to follow God.  To address God as Father suggests an intimate conversation between persons who love and trust one another. 

 

I just learned this week that the scribes who were the writers of the Bible and other documents of the Hebrew culture, operated in an apprenticeship system.  They would attach themselves to a Master scribe who they would then emulate and seek to become duplicates of.  In this system they were considered to be the children of their Master and literally assumed a family relationship.  

 

When we address God as father it is not a dialogue between equals, but rather a respectful dialogue between the “learned” and the “learning.”  God KNOWS all.  We know relatively little.  A good disciple respectfully approaches his teacher for conversation. 

• “Your kingdom come.” (I release my kingdom to embrace yours).

May I assist in your will being done on Earth as order is carried out in the cosmos.

Many tend to view this as something akin to “God come rule the world” or to hold the “territory of Earth” as the meaning of the “kingdom of God.”  But a kingdom refer’s to one’s reign and not merely to one’s territory.  “Your kingdom come” is referencing the time when our ME can willingly allow God to be king in our lives, AND to the time when WE (humanity) can willingly allow God to be king in our collective lives.  

• “Give us each day our daily bread” (I release the desire to be a self-made provider).

Please meet my needs today and help me remember that only right now is given to me.

The prayer’s focus shifts from the father to his children.  It is a request for the basic necessities of life and calls to mind God’s provision of manna for his people in the wilderness where the Israelites were to gather only enough manna for just that day’s needs.  This encourages us not to worry about the unknown future, but to TRUST God one day at a time.

• “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone in debt to us” (I release forgiveness to those who have wounded me, and I recognize and repent for the wounds I have caused to others and myself).

Please forgive my offenses and help me to forgive others as you forgive me.

We receive God’s forgiveness because of his grace and an attitude of humility and sincerity is required for receiving that forgiveness.  That attitude includes the willingness to forgive others.  Luke used the word sin and the word debt interchangeably to make his meaning clear to Gentile learners.

• “Do not bring us into temptation” (I release my long-held belief that I am more powerful than my sins.  I release my personal possessions, properties, fame, and strength to embrace all that is YOU).

Keep me close and don’t let me experiment with what is not good for me. Free me from overreaching my authority.

This phrase can best be summarized as “keep us from yielding to temptation.”  

But Jesus never intended prayer to be merely a ceremonial recitation, or a ritual performance.  Jesus warned against empty words, formalism, and pridefully showy performance in prayer.  Jesus invites us to pray and trust him with our needs.  As noted at our opening, prayer is earnestly asking of ONE we trust.  In the next verses, we see that we should KEEP asking for our needs because God will answer.

Luke 11:5-10.    Ask, Search, Knock

5 He also said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don’t have anything to offer him.’ 

7 Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s shameless boldness, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 

Faith asks – and keeps asking–trusting that God will answer.  Jesus taught us the power of persistence in prayer.  He weaved a story about a late-night knock at the door of a friend who grumbly refused to come to the door because the family was sleeping.  But the knocker persistently kept knocking because he WAS in real need and it really WAS his friend he was asking.

In Biblical times hospitality was a sacred duty.  Everyone in Israel was expected to observe the etiquette of hospitality.  It would be offensively bad manners for one to NOT be hospitable towards even unexpected travelers. And the knocker in this story had been caught unprepared when unexpected travelers arrived to stay with him.

No one would knock on the door of a 1st century house whose door was already shut unless there was dire need. The householder would open the door in the morning and it remained opened all day.  A shut door was a clear do-not-disturb sign.  Houses were typically one large room and held all family members, and some of the livestock.  So the householder’s initial response was the typical grumble – “leave me alone.”  Because the householder WAS the friend of the one knocking he felt at ease with denying his friend, knowing that they would still be friends afterward.

But what is, perhaps, less noticeable is that the knocker never stopped knocking.  Because they were friends the knocker felt at ease in demanding that his friend pay attention to his needs. Jesus says that because of the friend’s shameless boldness, a word that can also be translated persistence, the homeowner friend will get up and tend to the needs of his friend.  The focus is on the persistency, BUT don’t forget the aspect of friendship.  Why was the knocker persistent?  Because he KNEW his friend.  While the friend might grumble and complain, he knew that he could depend upon his friend.  It was the faith of friends as well as persistency that is taught here.

What would have happened if the knocking friend had given up when told to “go away”?  What happened when he persisted?  What happens when we “give up” when our prayer is not immediately answered?  What will happen when we persist?  

 

The Greek form of the verbs ask, seek and knock indicates continuing action.  “Keep on asking”, “keep on seeking” and “keep on knocking.”  Repeatedly admit your need and depend on the father’s love and goodness.  Jesus’ teaching assumes our prayers will be in accordance with God’s will.  He also presumed our prayers will include our readiness to accept his will if it differed from our desires even as his own prayers did.  Jesus did not mean that every request will be answered the way we want.  Rather, our perseverance will be rewarded with an answer that God in his wisdom and love knows is best for us.

In the next verses we see that we can trust God to answer out of his goodness.

Luke 11:11-13

11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If 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?”

Trust God to answer out of his goodness.  Jesus points out that if imperfect parents provide for their children’s basic needs, how much more can our perfect, loving, Heavenly Father be trusted to meet the genuine needs of his children.  With the use of of the terms father and son Jesus indicated a personal relationship existed between the two individuals involved.  They belong to the same family, just as is a student and his teacher.

Jesus uses a couple of examples.  An eel (fish) and a snake can look similar; but what parent would, when the boy asks for an eel, give him a snake instead?  Or who would give a scorpion to one who asked for an egg.  A desert scorpion has a bit of an egg shape to it when hiding in the sand: “Father can I have an egg?  Sure, there’s one lying in the sand over there.  OUCH! It was a scorpion!”

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts…”. Remembering that the word evil is derived from words indicating harm, he points out that as we are capable of harm but do good, our father, that is only good, will do ONLY good for his children.  Here the word used is the one applied to Satan and can be rendered “the malignant one.”  So “you who are resultant from the malignant one”… Satan set humanity’s path in motion with his deceit of man and woman and humanity is regularly influenced by

Satan.  If such imperfect parents typically meet their children’s needs we can expect our perfect Heavenly Father to provide what we need.

And what we (ALL) need is the Holy Spirit…the third person of the trinity who comes to us and lives with us when we chose to live by God‘s direction rather than our own.  The Holy Spirit helps us to cultivate Christian character, comforts us in sorrow, and gives us spiritual gifts by which we can serve God through his church.  

The point is, faith looks to Good God as one looks to a trusted friend, trust that the all good God will provide for our needs when we utilize a praying faith.  And as with a trusted friend be faithful, persistent, and earnestly serious in your prayer.  

Make it real and be friends with God.