Have You Given Up On Prayer?

The idea that we can change the world because God is in us can sound a little scary if we're serious about. It's a lot to take in if we really mean it. We are connected to God and that connectedness is prayer. As a pastor, I probably hear more questions about prayer than just about any other subject. The two most frequently asked questions: why should we pray and how should we pray?

Jesus gave his disciples a model prayer when they requested him to teach them how to pray. You and I often say these words as our own prayer. Jesus also gave them a model for prayer, sort of a "thumb-nail" sketch of the content and attitude of prayer. When you pray, these words can serve as a guide. They are probably very familiar to you. It seems a little obvious, but the prayer reminds us that, when you pray, pray to God. God is intimate and holy, our divine and heavenly parent. To hallow God's name means that we keep a reverent attitude with regard to the ultimate reality the name God represents.

The request your kingdom come is a plea for God's ways and will to become the reality of this world and of our lives. Give us daily bread points to being aware of the needs in us and around us, and have the ability to distinguish needs from wants. Forgiveness is a two-way street. Being forgiven by God doesn't depend on our forgiving others because we can't earn God's love. Our forgiving others, however, indicates awareness of having been forgiven - that there is in us a core of grace. And regarding the time of trial or temptation, God don't bring us there. Keep us from falling away. Give us the ability to hang on and hang in, to find ways to believe and trust.

Beyond this, then, how should we pray? Do you notice something curious in Jesus' prayer? Almost every statement is imperative, like a command. Hallowed be your name! Kingdom, come! Give daily bread! Forgive our sin! Don't bring us to trial! It's almost as though we are ordering God!

The Lord's Prayer seems to contain statements that give God instructions. Theologian Walter Wink suggests that God commands us to command God, orders us to insist on these things. How can we order God? This idea only really makes sense when we remember that ours is not the first voice in prayer. Our prayer is a response to the movement of the Spirit who urges us to be urgent in prayer. Our role is central because our passion and commitment are crucial. Our faithfulness in prayer is irreplaceable.

How does this work? One of the ways prayer works is by changing us. Our openness to the Spirit connection and the faithfulness with which we pray affects our approach to living. Prayer opens spaces within our lives for God to act and God acts along the lines of our prayer. Another way prayer works is in our partnership with God. We are partners with God. Naturally, God is the senior partner whose vision and will are determinative for us. God works with and through each person according to our unique giftedness, our unique focus, and our willingness to pray.

We live in a world full of need - for healing, for justice, for meaning, for truth, for food and medicine, for inclusion and for love. As we allow ourselves to become aware of these overwhelming needs, they move through our minds and hearts. They are impossible for us to fix. All we can do is send them all to God in prayer. And we let them go, trusting God to be God. And God sends back to each of us the particular dimension of need and possibility that exactly corresponds to our unique identity and giftedness - the need that's got our name on it.

There are risks in prayer. This risk factor goes up as our prayers get more specific. Each of us will have to answer for ourselves how specific we are willing to be in prayer. I am finding the willingness to be very concrete and specific in my praying is bringing a new intensity to my prayer life. Prayer is not a magical grab bag for wishes. Sometimes I wish it were. Sometimes the things we pray for don't happen. Sometimes I understand why and sometimes I don't. I believe that prayer is a mystical connection through which God is changing the world. There is power and understanding that is not ours.

How we pray, our ability and talent in prayer, is not a factor in prayer's effectiveness. It doesn't really matter whether or not we use the right words or that we're good enough or spiritual enough. What is vital is that we do pray. Any amount of faith that we bring to prayer is enough for God to use. God's nature, God's power, and God's faithfulness are all that matters in whatever space we open.

What about those other images Jesus used? There was the friend at midnight who doesn't want to help you. With persistence on your part, he will help, but God is more faithful. So be persistent in prayer. Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking and doors will open. When a child asks for food, some may give snakes or scorpions, but God is much more faithful. God always gives the Holy Spirit. The Spirit always brings healing and wholeness. It's not our ability or piety that makes prayer effective, but rather our willingness to pray. What really matters is God being God-like.

Why, then, should we pray? Prayer is the power of a connectedness with God that can change the world. Prayer affects the life of the one who prays. Your prayer opens a space in your life for the Spirit to move to transform the world, to transform individual lives, and to transform you and me. We help bring the Kingdom of God from invisible to visible reality. It happens little by little through individual people of faith.

The Christian faith tradition out of which I come believes that God respects human initiative and the free exercise of human will. This means that God acts only when we open the space. Praying, then, is inseparable from doing and doing is inseparable from praying. The results of praying are growth and transformation. For individuals, praying brings transformation and spiritual growth. For humanity, prayer brings social transformation and reform.

Prayer is life beyond our understanding. It is a mystical connection. Prayer is action, a mystical channel through which God touches and transforms the world. When you pray, first listen and then speak in words that reveal themselves through the open channel of your life. The Spirit moves through you and into you and there is prayer. God's kingdom comes in you and through you, and prayer continues, and God's will is done.