Day Nine: Our Best Example

His friends were always trying to catch a glimpse of how the dusty-sandaled, calloused man who looked so much like one of them, was able to perform miracles with just a word. Fully human and yet fully God, he baffled their finite ability to comprehend it all. Jesus, who was with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world, knelt down in the smelly, dirty earth and breathed out prayers to God. It was when his friends asked him exactly how to pray that we received our essential example of what to include when we communicate with the Almighty.  This is what He said (I will use the MSG version since most of us have memorized it in the KJV. Doesn't occasionally reading a less popular version make familiar Scripture stand out a little more?):

 

"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

 

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
    Yes. Yes. Yes.

 

In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part."     Matthew 6:7-15

 

Jesus knew what we'd require--to approach the Father with honour, to request what we need, to finish with praise and a big yes and amen! Of course, with so many other prayers in the Psalms and elsewhere in God's Word, we know we are permitted to gush our desperate cries for help, question our trials in angst, wonder over unanswered queries, and worship in adoration.

 

Think about your prayer style. Do you think you should consider a change? Perhaps not. But, I encourage you (me too!) to examine how you pray and ask the Lord to help focus a blurry area a little sharper for you. I want my prayers to resemble Jesus'. Perhaps it will make a difference in the answer!  

Day Two: What Is Prayer?

“Why must people kneel down to pray?

If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do.

I'd go out into a great big field all alone

or in the deep, deep woods

and I'd look up into the sky—up—up—up—into

that lovely blue sky

that looks as if there was no end to its blueness.

And then I'd just feel a prayer.” 

L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

I was about nine when I watched the lady fall to the floor--in front of everyone, at the altar of the church. The crowd of emphatic pray-ers that surrounded her didn't even seem alarmed. Big Usher Bill slid off his beige polyester jacket and laid it over her dress that had risen just above her knees. It was my first time witnessing someone slain in the Spirit. I thought about how different the whole thing was compared to Mama's tiny church. When people prayed, there seemed to be a quiet reverence--or a hesitancy to enter into the moment. I couldn't tell.  I loved sleeping over at her house on a Saturday night and going to the morning service with her and Grampie. My young mind absorbed every scene, every detail of the contrasts between congregations. I wasn't sure if it was a style thing or if there was a right and wrong way to pray.

As a teenager, I longed for Friday nights when my peers would gather arm in arm and pray aloud for one another. Our youth group shone as a stark disparity between school and church. At that time I desired real and strong prayer experience. Life was tough for kids my age and the soft-spoken prayers of the less charismatic denominations no longer held value for me. God must only be close when He can be felt, I thought.
 

However, it wasn't until I was much older that I began to understand that prayer is simply communication between a person and their Creator.  I always knew that, of course, but truly grasping it freed me from judging others and also freed me to pray anytime, anywhere and any way I needed. Anne of Green Gables put it well when she said she would "just feel a prayer". In times of grieving that's all I could do. In other seasons my prayers were wordier and more fluent. The Holy Spirit was teaching me to pray in ways that would touch hurting souls too.

As long as you are connecting with God, through His Son Jesus, you are praying. Jesus was our greatest example as He separated Himself to a quiet place (Matthew 14:23), but also gave us actual words we can use to commune with the Father. (Matthew 6:9-13) He pointed out those Jewish leaders who thought their lofty petitioning was the only right way, but Jesus praised the humility and anguish of a babbling woman as something beautiful. God takes us as we are, no matter where we are and however we can muster the words. Once we understand that wonderful news, we can begin to grow in prayer and become closer to the One who made us, loves us and longs to commune with us.