A Proper Response

As I sit and ponder the sudden events that have radically altered our lives in the last week, I am reminded of this passage in the Revelation: “For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine . . .  and in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste” (18:8, 17 ESV). I am not suggesting that this is being fulfilled now. I don’t know, but it is eerily applicable to this hour. The “her” of the verse refers to “the great prostitute who is seated on many waters . . . the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:1, 18 ESV). This city, the identity of which has been the object of much speculation, certainly reflects our modern culture: “She glorified herself and lived in luxury . . . and in her heart she says, I sit as a queen” (18:7 ESV). Ah, but overnight nothing but uncertainty. 

One would think this plague would drive people to God. Sadly, we see apparently little concern for that, possibly due to the godless evolutionary views of our origin. Instead, lots of prideful bravado touts our strengths as Americans who can deal with anything and overcome. Oh, that God would open the eyes of the prideful to humble themselves and recognize their need for Him. Trials and hard providences should humble people.  

We are in such a plague as described in the Old Testament  and used by God to awaken His people. Churches are closed and trivial measures replace congregational worship on the Lord’s day. We have met the challenge with online streamed services, online giving (of course), and frivolous memes suggesting that now might be a good time to read your Bible, reach out to others, and “be the church” (whatever that means). The Lord has done this to awaken His sleeping church. “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:13). His people must leave the realm of darkness and walk in the light that they may glorify Him. 

Jeremiah exhorts: “Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness. But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive” (Jeremiah 13:16, 17). Where is brokenness over sin and the idolatries that have distracted believers, disrupted churches, and destroyed her power and influence over the culture? Where is repentance, pleadings after God in the night seasons with fasting and humbling before His awful majesty? On the positive side, however, Jesus promises: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32 ESV).

How Do We Pray? “Hallowed Be Your Name” (Matthew 6:9-13; Luke 11:1-4)

Praying is very difficult for most Christians; therefore, on two occasions Jesus gave a model prayer for the disciples to use as a template. This model prayer is made up of seven petitions, two groups of three and four respectively. The first three relate to the cause of God and His kingdom; the last four relate to the prayers’ daily concerns. The model teaches that one’s primary duty in praying is to die to self by giving the Lord the preeminence in all things. We cannot pray aright unless the glory of God is dominant in all our desires. Too many prayers are, rather, selfish concerns aimed at making one’s own life more comfortable.

We should be warned that when prayer becomes a stubborn insistence on one’s own way, God might answer such a foolish and selfish prayer but send judgment also. This He did with Israel: “He gave them what they asked but sent a wasting disease among them” (Psalm 106:15). Israel’s prayer gave no thought to the glory of God. Thus, we are instructed to cherish a deep sense of the ineffable (indescribable) holiness of God, and all our prayers should reflect a longing for honor of His holy name.

We must never ask God to bestow anything on us that would contradict His holiness. This fact is understood in the very first petition: “Hallowed be your name.” Hallowed is an old Middle English word that means “to set apart as being sacred.” It expresses the desire for God’s matchless name to be reverenced, adored, and glorified. The Greek word translated here is a passive imperative—a command to let something be. In other words, we are commanded to let God cause His name to be held in the utmost respect and honor and that His fame will spread abroad and be magnified. The use of the word name points to His reputation among men. “They that know your name [that is, your glorious reputation] will put their trust in you” (Psalm 9:10). The divine name puts before us all that God has revealed to us concerning Himself as in such names and titles as the Almighty, the Lord of hosts, Jehovah, our Father, and any other designation in which He has disclosed Himself to us. “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name” (Psalm 96:8).

The Puritan, Thomas Manton, wrote: “In this petition the glory of God is both desired and promised on our part; for every prayer is both an expression of a desire and also an implicit vow or solemn obligation that we take upon ourselves to prosecute [to act on] what we ask. Prayer is a preaching to ourselves in God’s hearing: we speak to God to warn ourselves, not for His information, but for our edification.” We mock God if we address Him in pious words but have no intention of striving with our might to live in harmony with all that His holy name implies. 

How Do You Pray? (Part 3)

In our preparation to explore again the model prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, we must be reminded that prayer is not twisting God’s arm—talking Him into something that He might not otherwise have considered. Also, prayer is not an attempt to change His mind. Neither must we think that in order to get a hearing we must be “good” by trying to clean up and get “worthy.” We must be holy, but that is God’s work, not ours.

Others seek to secure the aid of those thought to be spiritually more acceptable to God, particularly “saints” who have passed and have immediate access to God, to put a good word in for them. Sadly, these concepts of prayer are unbiblical and pagan.

The Bible teaches that prayer is communicating with God. Some do not pray because they are self-sufficient and see no reason to communicate with Him. However, we are not sufficient of ourselves; thus, we are completely at His mercy. We need Him. As Paul said, “God, who made the world and everything in it [needs nothing, but] gives to all life, breath, and all things . . . So [all] should seek the Lord . . . and find Him . . . for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:24-28). Prayer is feeling after God by one who knows he is a beggar and prays as an expression of that dependency. John the Baptist reminds us, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven” (John 3:27).

Biblical praying is childlike reverence and trust in God as a Father. The Lord is loving, accepting, providing wise attendance over His children as a wise parent thoughtfully regards the needs and wants of His children.

Since Jesus made it clear that “your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8), why, then, should we pray? It is because God commands us to do so. “In this manner, therefore, pray [an imperative]” (Matthew 6:9). “Pray [an imperative] without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Jesus is our great example. “[He, the God-man] often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed” (Luke 5:16).

Finally, we need to be reminded also of the value of our prayers, particularly as we approach the end of the age. Upon the revealing of the worthiness of the Lamb to open the seven-sealed scroll, Revelation 5 records the worship of the throne attendants: these “fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (v. 8). Our prayers are a great part of the worship of Heaven.

Again, the opening of the seventh seal reveals that the prayers of the saints will be involved in the judgment to fall on the world of the ungodly as Jesus subjects His enemies to the footstool of His feet (Revelation 8:1–5).

How Do You Pray? (Part 2)

Jesus warned the disciples to avoid two kinds of wrong praying. He first addressed the Jewish hypocrites who prayed not so much to be heard by Yahweh as to impress those who watched them pray (Matthew 6:5, 6). We covered that kind of praying last week. The second kind of praying to avoid was that of the Gentile pagans. These sought to get their gods’ attention by prayers uttered with many and oft-repeated empty phrases (Matthew 6:7, 8).

The fact that Jesus mentioned Gentiles in the Sermon on the Mount strongly argues that the kingdom of God was not exclusively for the Jews as is taught in dispensational theology. By introducing this warning, the Lord was not simply telling Jewish kingdom citizens not to pray like pagans. Gentiles would also be equal citizens in the kingdom, and they would likely be tempted to retain pagan practices in their Christian praying, which they were warned not to do.

Tragically, the prayer life of many Christians is more like that of the pagans than true followers of Jesus. They associate prayer with repeating certain phrases again and again without necessarily understanding. Pagan prayers are mantras (chants) offered by pagans with the hope that repeated phases would change their circumstances. Prayer wheels and prayers written on papers left on altars or sacred sites are thought to help attract the attention of the deity to one’s request. Pagans also believe their gods can be bullied into acting for them if pestered sufficiently.

True prayer is simply talking to God the Father in the authority of Jesus by the aid of the Spirit. Sadly, however, professing Christians often pray using paganesque mantras such as “Hail Marys” and such which are an abomination to God. Such mindless repetition often characterizes the saying of “grace” at meals, rattling off a few memorized words in a mere formal act. No real awareness is given to the fact that such thoughtless prayers are disrespectful of the King of the universe. Neither is such impertinent praying confined to mealtime. Mantras are often used in church to open or close the service or in prayer meetings.

The Lord’s Prayer, as recorded in verses 9–13, is abused in pagan fashion, being memorized and recited without the least conscious awareness of what is spoken, or of the Lord being addressed. We are not suggesting that one shouldn’t memorize the Lord’s Prayer but that it must not be prayed as a mere recitation of empty words.

Jesus argued that prayer does not inform the Father of one’s needs because the Father knows what is needed before He is asked. Rather, praying is seeking the Lord Himself and His will in a manner of humble surrender and submission, recognizing one’s utter poverty and dependence on God, who out of goodness and care provides abundantly.