| (Today is the civil holiday of Mother's
Day. I do not disparage it. Christ's church and Christians
have a great stake in godly parenthood. But because of intense commercialism
-- perhaps even rivaling Christmas -- I choose not to speak on the subject
on this day and to risk your disapproval. But phone up your mama
today and tell her you love her and pray for her.)
Instead of speaking about mother I would like to speak about God and
about the principles of prayer to God that the Lord gives us in "Matthew
6: 8-13." We need to frequently encourage one another and to help
one another in our personal prayer life. One of the great advantages
of our practice of congregational leading of the prayers on Sunday is that
your participation is an encouragement in the daily prayers of the rest
of us.
Everybody who is 40 or older probably was taught this paragraph as a
canned prayer while they were youths or even toddlers and it was always
in the King James text -- even after more modern translations came out.
The only exception was that Methodists and Presbyterians prayed the king
James accurate "forgive us our trespasses." And Baptists were more
daring and prayed "forgive us our debts," which is certainly the better
translation. It is a part of American culture. I wonder how
many of you were taught this?
And in days gone by, it was mumbled by people whenever they needed some
religion. It was prayed at Boy Scout meetings, Alcoholics Anonymous meetings;
and was uttered by people on operating tables just before they were zapped
and by whole congregations of huge churches after the main, pastoral prayer
-- usually introduced with "we pray this in the name of the One who taught
us to pray..." Many has been the inexperienced young preacher who
was called upon to pray at a civic function or a banquet, a baseball game
or a political rally and he inadvertently began his prayer with "Our Father
who art in heaven..." and suddenly found himself the leader of a great
roar of thousands of pray-ers commandeering his prayer.
But even today when it is not used so much, it is important that we think
about it from time to time.
I. IF I MAY SAY SO REVERENTLY, THE USE OF THESE VERSES AS A CANNED PRAYER
IS NOT THEIR BEST USE.
1. Even the concluding phrase in the K.J.V. which makes the
paragraph into a complete prayer, ending in a dramatic crescendo, is universally
thought to be a late medieval addition (probably, first added just so it
could be used for canned liturgical prayer and then finding its way
into hand copies of the text.) It is not found in any of the old
manuscripts and was found in the collection of codex's and manuscripts
called the "received text." Since then, we have found wonderful texts
from the 300's and 400's A.D. which are behind all of the modern translations.
2. And it is so general if it is thought to be a canned prayer. -- The
very things that makes it an excellent outline of categories for prayer
-- that very thing does not enable the pray-er to pray very much. And its
cadence (especially in the beautiful King James translation) loans its
usage to mindless recitation with no thought on the part of the pray-er
about what he is praying. But, of course, it is never wrong to pray
the words of Scripture unless they don't reflect what's in your heart.
However, I have no doubt that the Lord did not intend this to be regularly
used as a canned prayer.
3. But it is especially useful as an outline to remind the Christian
the type of things he ought to pray for, perhaps even sometimes praying
a phrase at a time and then expanding on that phrase:
"Our Father" -- O the grace in that wonderful salutation!
The gospel enables us to address the absolutely holy, First Person of the
Trinity as "our father!
"Hallowed be thy name" -- a Hebrewism for "thy person." Here is
much to pray about: thanking the Father for the wonderful privilege of
being a son of God; expanding upon the idea of the holiness of God.
"Thy kingdom come" -- so much to pray for! Not only for this church
and for home and foreign missions you're connected to, but for God's kingdom
to come more and more in your life.
"Give us this day our daily bread" -- our daily needs, that have so
outstripped the needs of the ancients for enough food to eat -- so much
so that food is actually a minor need and we find ourselves praying under
this rubric for wherewithal to pay our Georgia Natural Gas bill and funds
to keep our car running and funds to pay the city and county our taxes.
The forgiveness of sins--not just in general but specifically. "Forgive
us our debts." Do you do this when you pray? Pause and consider
wherein you have need for forgiveness. And that forgiveness -- for
the true Christian -- is always in the light of God's justification that
has made you a child of God; For as the prayer begins "Our Father," not
our Judge. It is parental forgiveness based upon previous judicial
forgiveness, granted when you first came to Christ.
Temptation: "Lead us not into temptation," calling to mind growth in
grace that minimizes sin. Deliverance from the evil of turning away
from our God but also from evil of all sorts; not necessarily just moral
evil but sickness, financial difficulties, loss of Christian witness in
the community, and family problems that would diminish one's stature in
the larger community.
As I say, this will help us to pray when we are spiritually lethargic and
ought to teach us to pray over the long run so that we don't just continue
pray like a two-year-old for 40 or 60 years of our life.
III. AND THEN THIS OUTLINE IS MOST VALUABLE FOR PRINCIPLES ABOUT PRAYER
WHICH IT OFFERS.
1. Some of the principles are:
Approaching God with awe. "Hallowed by thy name" (i.e. "thy person").
He is high and lifted up. Yet he is "our Father" and not a distant
and terrifying Deity. This approachability is because of his fatherhood,
which is a result of his justification of his child through the atonement
of Christ.
There is a balance here that many of our fellow evangelicals fail to
find. You don't treat the almighty, holy God like a fishing buddy
or his presence like a barbecue for an old college friend. And yet,
you should not approach him with a sense of terror. As Hebrews says:
"We come boldly into the presence of the Majesty on High" because we come
through the blood -- the atonement -- of our dear Lord Jesus Christ.
He is high and lifted up but he has come close to you through the work
of your Savior. Both things are true.
How does this square with careless use of the members of the Trinity in
bumper sticker slogans and other similar uses, with God as a cartoon character?
And what about the blasphemous use of "golly" and "gosh?" "Lord." as a
thoughtless exclamation and "holy" this and "holy" that? How does
it square with "hollowed by thy name?" And what about the careless
and reckless use of the sacred name and attributes in pop religious songs
and clichés? There was a gas station attendant featured in
the paper yesterday who has painted slogans all over his 15 year-old Ford
and has a banner across the back urging the public: "Don't pick your nose;
Pick Jesus." What about religious people frequently and carelessly
using the sacred name in ordinary conversation? This is a principle;
"Hallowed (is his) name."
2. Another principle is that God is the main subject of prayer.
It is not primary a grocery list for things that you want for yourself.
It is about God and his glory. This may disappoint you, but its time
to get over it. God is the main subject of prayer: his holiness,
his glory, his will, his kingdom. Prayer and worship are indistinguishable.
Worship is thanking the deity; the listing of the virtues of; admiring
and complimenting of the deity and confessing dependence upon him.
It is giving your joyful agreement that he is the mighty God who is merciful
to all who call upon him. Do you worship the Triune God in your personal
prayers?
It will help you a great deal if you master the historic hymnody of
the church so you can go into his presence and have something to say.
The hymns of the church are the lexicon of the worship of God whether or
not the individual is able to sing them or merely use their words.
And here is the place to use those wonderful Psalms of worship and praise:
Praise ye the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary!
Praise him in the firmament of his power; Praise him for his mighty acts!
Praise him according to his excellent greatness!
O God, my God; How excellent is thy name in all the earth.
To thee I lift my eyes O thou enthroned in the heavens! Behold
as the eyes of a servant look to the hand of his master so my eyes look
unto thee O God.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie
down in green pastures; he restores my soul; he leads me in the paths of
righteousness for his name's sake.
And some of the wonderful doxologies and praise portions of the Book of
Revelation are useful:
Blessing and honor and glory and power
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever, Amen.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom
and might and honor and glory and blessing.
Worthy art thou our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power;
For thou didst create all things and by thy will they were created.
3. And then there is the principle of prayer for the Kingdom of God.
"Thy kingdom come." Notice that it comes later in order than the
sheer worship of God. We do pray for God's mercy on the world around us
but we focus on his kingdom. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven." It isn't just a prayer that everybody
will be happy and enjoy a happy life and have a new SUV and a vacation
in Mexico. It is really centered in the glory of God worked out in
the present time and especially in the coming eschatological time.
Even here the glory and pleasure of God is the priority.
4. And we see where our needy souls and lives come in also. We
are encouraged to pray for ourselves. But in the proper order.
We find our true blessing in his glory. Often we act like spoiled
children and God has mercy upon us anyway -- "Like as a Father pities his
children so the Lord pities them that are his." But, hopefully, we
eventually grow out of our stage of childishness into mature spiritual-adulthood
and see our blessing and glory in his blessing and glory. Our prayers
are the place to begin to bring it to pass.
Personal prayer is perhaps the hardest discipline of the Christian life
to improve. On another occasion -- in Luke 11 -- the disciples asked
the Lord's help with their prayers. Let us ask as they asked the
Lord: "Lord, teach us to pray!" May he do so, making relevant
these principles of prayer to our personal situations. And may he
send the Holy Spirit to aid us in applying them more and more to our prayers
as individuals. |
