Thursday, July 5, 2018

Lord, Teach Us to Pray - (Pt. 1) -July 5, 2018


I do not think I have ever met a person who was completely satisfied with his/her prayer life.  There seems to always be room for improvement.  Our prayer lives are, at a minimum, revealing concerning our ongoing walk with God.  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said “There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life.”

          Jesus’ disciples were unsure and confused when it came to prayer, especially in light of the fact Jesus had just told them how not to pray in Mat. 6:5-8. In Luke’s parallel account (Luke 11:1) we read “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”  In response to this request, Jesus gives the words to the most famous prayer ever given.  It is called “The Lord’s Prayer,” “The Model Prayer,” or sometimes “The Disciples’ Prayer” since it was given originally to the disciples.  The full prayer is found in Mat. 6:9-13.

          One might ask why the disciples needed to be taught how to pray.  All people should already know how to pray – right?  Not necessarily.  There is more to it than simply bowing the head, folding the hands, and saying words.  The actual words that are said are important, but even more important than the words themselves are the deep spiritual truths which underlie the words spoken.  These are truths that are never to be forgotten when we pray.  The Lord’s Prayer has, at its foundation, the character of God and our proper relationship with Him as His creatures.

          Many have asked the question “Is the Lord’s Prayer simply to be recited ‘as is’ or is it merely a framework?”  Jesus was teaching His disciples essentially to “Pray like this,” not necessarily to “Pray these exact words.”  Andrew Murray, the voluminous writer on the subject of prayer said “It is a form of prayer that becomes the model and inspiration for all other prayer, and yet always draws us back to itself as the deepest utterance of our souls before God.”

          The first words of the prayer are “Our Father in Heaven.”  God is to be addressed not merely as “God” but as “Our Father.”  Very simply, we see a closeness to God like a father and child, not some distant far-away impersonal being.  It is an amazing privilege to have this level of access.  The very first thing Jesus taught them is “You have access to God like a child has access to a parent.”  No Old Testament Jew ever addressed God in such terms.  God was much more distant to them.  Only two words into the model prayer and Jesus has already said something revolutionary and earth-shattering to any adherent of Judaism!

          The phrase “Our Father” is a term of tender affection.  It is translated basically as “Abba” or “Father.”  It means, in its most literal terms, “Daddy.”  Jesus could have used the normal word for father “Pater” but instead used the Aramaic word “Abba.” Which is much more personal and affectionate.  “Abba” was the address of a small child to his father.  When a child was weaned, it learned to say “Abba” and “Imma” (daddy and mother).  To the Jewish mind a prayer addressing God as “daddy” would not only be improper, it would have been sacrilegious, irreverent, and just plain wrong to the highest degree.  Consider for a moment if you were to meet with the President of the United States, how would you address him?  You would probably say something like “Mr. President,” “Sir,” “President Trump,” or “Mr. Trump.”  You would not call him by his first name, nor a nickname, and certainly not “daddy.”  But, if you were one of his own children you would walk right into the oval office and address this man, the President of the United States and leader of the free world, as “daddy.”  What Jesus was teaching was mind-blowing to the Jews.  He was saying to believers that you have the high and distinguished privilege of calling the God of the whole universe, creator of all things, sovereign over everything, as “daddy.”

          God indeed cares for us like a daddy would.  We find this sort of affectionate language in Scripture.  We read in Hosea 11:3-4, 8 of the love and care of a father for his children when it says “I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms; but they did not know that I healed them.  I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.  I stopped and fed them . . . My heart churns within me; My sympathy is stirred.”  The point being made here is that if God is your Father, He will take care of you.  Later in Matthew 6 Jesus asked His disciples rhetorically “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more that clothing?” (Mat. 6:25)  In 6:21-32 He says “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”  (Mat. 6:31-32)

          Christians are not on the outside looking in.  We are on the inside.  We are the children of the living God!  Paul wrote to the Ephesian church in Eph. 5:1 “Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly beloved children.”  Not as slaves, employees, subjects, strangers, foreigners, or unloved people, rather as “beloved children!”

          God is our Father who resides in Heaven.  Heaven is not as distant as we may think, yet it is far removed from the sin of the earthly realm.  For believers, all access to Heaven is available to us and God is the supplier.  When I was younger I had a friend whose dad worked for Frito Lay.  He got all kinds of snacks that the packages had been slightly damaged, barely out of their freshness dates, etc. On their kitchen counter were stands like you might see in a concession stand with rows of chips and snack cakes clipped to it.  I was immediately envious that he had something in his home I wished I had in mine!  In our home we kept our limited variety of Little Debbie cakes seemingly hidden away in the cabinet as though they were restricted (and basically were).  But my friend appeared to have all-you-could-eat chips and snack cakes at his fingertips 24/7!  To a boy of about 13 or 14 that seemed like a dream too good to be true, but there it was before my hungry eyes!  My friend had these things for one reason.  He had access!  Because of his dad’s job with Frito Lay he could enjoy an unlimited supply of goodies.  Our Father in Heaven has given us blessings to the degree that He, by comparison, makes snack cakes look like mud pies!  Ephesians 1:3 tells us that “God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places.”  “Heaven” is ‘ouranos meaning “vaulted expanse of the sky with all things visible in it.”

          God is “transcendent.”  He “transcends” everything and everyone.  He is holy and righteous, set apart from all which is unholy.  The traditional tall ceiling in churches are not just for beauty but to signify the transcendence of God.  The transcendent  God of the universe is in Heaven and on His throne and we can come boldly and confidently to Him any time we want to and say “daddy.”  In such a simple phrase as “Our Father Who is in Heaven” there is a rich portion of theology.

 

In Christ,

 

Dr. Allen Raynor, Pastor

 

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