Praying to the Father

Matthew 7:9-14
"Pray then like this:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

This sequence comes to us in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7.  It is Jesus' direct teaching on prayer.  As we start another week, I have a simple request for devotional homework.  Every day this week, as we wake up in the morning, let us commit to praying this prayer as the start to our day.  In this way we will be, in the most literal sense, devoting ourselves to God as He has commanded.

No Substitute for Speaking Prayers

Prayer is powerful.  It is the way we communicate to and with God that has been prescribed to us in Holy Scripture.  Consider that: Jesus Himself prayed!  Jesus prayed constantly.  Prayer is how we bring our requests to God.

Again, it is quite simple.  In truth there is not much to it.  Pretty much all you need is a heart of faith, honesty, reverence, quiet, and time.  However, there is one more element that I submit is a necessity of prayer: speaking out loud.

For some who think that those 'silent' prayers are just as effective and powerful as the spoken ones, this may seem like an altogether controversial or provocative thought but, again, I submit that prayer is as much a vocal activity as it is a spiritual one.

After some analysis, there seem to be no instances of 'silent' prayer in the Scriptures.  It seems that prayer is always, it turns out, a spoken-spiritual activity.  Space may not permit for an exhaustive look at why this is so, suffice to say that God intends us to speak our prayers to Him.

Let us not forget this.  Prayer is an essential part of the Christian life.  Because of this that it is so important that we learn how to do it.  Remembering what it is goes a long way to understanding how we should it.  Jesus' words of instruction are also quite useful: Matthew 6:9-13.

Praying Persistently

Think of this all-too familiar scene:

A parent is pushing the grocery cart as fast as they can through the store, navigating it like a needle and thread, sewing through the aisles and getting just the essentials so as not to be there any longer than needed.  The reason for their frantic but focused speed is because they have a loud, obnoxious child at their heels, incessantly begging for a piece of candy.  

With every expert weave of the cart and stop to dump product into the basket, the child makes the same whimpered plea, "Mommy! Please, just one!"  On and on the battle rages, the mother determined not to give in to her child and the child knowing that if he plays this game long enough he'll wear her down and get the candy.  By the time the mother and child get to the register, the kid is eating the aforementioned candy and the mother is harried and hoarse from yelling under her breath.  Persistence pays off.

There are two passages of Scripture that speak directly to the necessity of persistance in prayer (Matt. 7:7-11; Luke 18:1-8).  In the first, taken from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that believers ask, seek, and know so as to see, find, and gain admittance.  The primary purpose is the pursuit of God's presence but it is also a matter of perseverance in prayer.

God does not simply want us to come to Him like a vending machine: fifteen minutes of prayer for a trinket, an hour for a new car.  Instead, we are to ask Him, to seek after Him, and to knock on His door with the persistent tenacity of a loan shark.  There is a progression to the pursuit of God and we should be aware that God does not ever grow weary of our pleas for His grace and provision.  In fact He encourages that we ask in His name and remain like a branch to His vine (John 14:12-14, 15:1-17).

The other relavant passage in this regard is Luke 18:1-8, recounts the Parable of the Persistent Widow. In it, Jesus paints a picture of the value of persistent prayer and the need for consistency in pursuing God to provide for us.  God desires for us to come to Him for our provisions, for our desires, and for our cares.  But to do so in persistence.  Therefore, let us come to God like the child wanting candy in the grocery store, knowing that He does not grow weary of our badgering.  Praise be to God that He cares for us and wishes for us to come to Him for every need with a perseverance that is powerful!