Author: Don Guthrie

“Forgive us our trespasses.” Real prayer can be painful.  Like an argument with your spouse that moves gradually toward the conclusion that you owe him/her an apology,  one of the ingredients of a quality relationship with God is the confession of sin.  We need to admit wrong, for our own good.   Prayer, after all, is the currency of relationship.  Repressed issues don’t go away.  They get worse.  So even when I am unaware of my selfishness or stubbornness (I often am),  the bible teaches me to to pray, “Search me, O God. . .see if there is any offensive way in me”  (Psalm 139)  “Jesus warned his disciples not to pray like hypocrites. . .instead, they should go into a closet. . .(a place) that fosters complete honesty with God” (Yancey)  Get alone!  Get honest!  These are the Lord’s instructions to those of us who want a quality relationship with Him.

“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10) is a real challenge in a modern age that conspires against it.  Mystery, awareness of a spiritual world, even a few moments of quiet do not come naturally in our hectic, buzzing world.  Before prayer becomes “something I say”, it must first be many “things I don’t say”.   Fear.  Resentment.  Ambition.  As I grow quiet before the Lord, I realize that none of them are the things I really want to say to the Lord.  As I wait before Him, better words come.  Praise.  Peace.  Gratitude.  Requests for His help–coupled with the faith to believe that He will answer.   Maybe I am unique in this, but when I am still, my words change.  I am praying for you today.  I am asking God to give you a few moments to be still.

Even with the words of Christ, we must be reminded that prayer is always more than words.   Philip Yancey points to the fact that the important thing is not what I say, but what I see.  “Prayer has become for me much more than a shopping list of requests to present to God.  It has become a realignment of everything. . .In prayer I shift the view away from my own selfishness. . .I gaze at the stars and recall what role (small) I play in a universe beyond my comprehension.  Prayer is the act of seeing reality from God’s point of view.” (Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?)  Today as you pray, will you focus on the Lord and learn a new perspective on yourself and your needs?  Like Job, will you embrace a big God and your own smallness?  Look up, dear friend!  Let what you see shape what you say!

It is a statement I hear often.  Last week, Brad Livingston reported the experience of being “prayed for by so many” before, during and after Julie’s surgery.  They felt, (his words) a supernatural peace.  A hospital worker noticed it.  She told them she could feel the peace in Julie’s hospital room.  Every faith has some form of prayer.  Remote tribes, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Jews.  It is a deep intuition of the human heart that God desires and deserves to be spoken to.  He is ” a very present help in time of trouble”.  Thank you, dear friend, for your commitment to this year long prayer experience.  Please do not let the daily discipline become a mere repetition of words.  “Those who CALL on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  There is power here–for us and for others.

“Now on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread”  (Acts 20:7)  The scripture does not command  Christians to set aside one day a year to celebrate the Resurrection (Easter).  The biblical model is to gather on the first day of every week for this purpose.  What a subtle and powerful shift of thinking this is!  Rather than meet on the 7th day in commemoration of creation, we meet on the 1st day in celebration of the new creation!  Rather than resting from our labors we find our “rest” in Christ and look foward to the adventures ahead with Christ as our risen leader!  In a few hours, the people and pastors of FBC will gather with just such enthusiasm.  Our prayers and our songs will be lifted to the Lord with the confidence that He will revive us and send us back into the world in victorious service.  Today is the first day of a new week.  It can be the first day of a new life.

“When they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it, and bread.”  (John 21:9)  One of the resurrections stories tells of Christ fixing breakfast for the disciples!  What a beautiful thought.  Cosmic power and concern for practical things.  The fourth petition of the Lord’s prayer (give us this day our daily bread) teaches us to speak to the Lord re. our practical needs, because He cares.  It is a prayer of trust. “Every good gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).  It also assumes responsible effort.  “Bring some of the fish which you have now caught” (John 21:10), says the Lord as a reminder that one of the ways He will answer our prayer for bread is by blessing our efforts.  Take courage, dear friend.  The Lord is near.  He cares about our needs.  Ask!  Obey!  Trust!

“Be doers of the word, not merely hearers.”  (James 1:22)  The great design of God in His word is to make us doers of His will.  What we DO is our witness to others.  “They will see your good works and glorify your Father”  (Matthew 5:16)  What we DO is proof to God of our genuine love.  “He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me.”  (John 14:21)  The third petition of the Lord’s prayer asks “Thy will be DONE”.  Nothing will ever bless your life more than the doing of God’s will.  Nothing will make you more like Christ. One act of obedience is better than a thousand pledges of our love for God.   Friend, today as you pray, will you ask God to help you discern and DO His will?

Does God govern your life?  Are your attitudes and actions set by a vital, powerful, daily encounter with the LIVING Lord?  The second petition of the Lord’s prayer asks for God’s kingdom to come.  We ask for God’s government of our lives to become more and more obvious with every passing day.  This coming Sunday, we will study John 20.  It tells of one of the appearances of Christ after His resurrection.  We will think together about His words, “As the Father has sent me, so send I you”.  Question: Is your life a conscious reflection of the purpose of God?  If Christ came to seek and to save the lost, doesn’t He send us into the world for the same purpose?  Love for Christ requires us to  embrace this goal.  It is what we mean when we pray “thy Kingdom come”.  I am praying with you today.  I will look for you on Sunday.

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as LORD and believe in your heart that God RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, you will be saved”.  (Romans 10:9)  Apart from the resurrection, “Jesus is Lord” is an empty declaration.  If He is not alive, Jesus CANNOT be our Lord.  If He is alive He MUST be our Lord.  The second petition of the Lord’s prayer is “Thy KINGDOM come”.  It reminds us that Jesus is a King and  that we are His loyal and grateful subjects.  “The Kingdom of God is. . .righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”.  (Romans 14:17)  As the grace of God increases in our hearts, so these Kingdom signs should grow more and more pronounced with each passing day. His Kingdom is not enforced with armies.  It comes in the soul conquered by the Spirit of God.  When we confess Him as Lord, we should pray for lives that show it.

“He leads ME in the paths of righteousness for HIS OWN NAME’S SAKE”. (Psalm 23)  The first petition of the Lord’s prayer is that all men  may hallow God’s name.  It is an evangelistic prayer.  It is, also, a prayer for ourselves through whom lost people are to come to know God’s name and nature.  We are part of God’s equation!  A dead church cannot preach a living Christ.  A sinful church cannot preach a holy God.  “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. . .Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master” (2 Timothy 2:19,21)  As you speak to the Lord today about your lost friends, will you ask Him to teach you a life of righteousness?  He will use you to draw others to himself.