Practically Praying: What IS Prayer?
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
12 January 2003

The subject of the service today is “What IS prayer?” and it’s the first in a series of 8 services, requested by the Church Life Team, who are concerned to encourage us all to establish, maintain and develop prayer as a natural part of our lives.

PRACTICALLY PRAYING
In what was practically a “trailer” for the series last Sunday morning I explained to you that I chose the title “PRACTICALLY PRAYING” for two reasons:

First, because many people aren’t far from discovering, the pleasure relief, encouragement and satisfaction of including GOD in their lives by prayer. As I put it last week - I think that many are standing on the edge of the pool, when it comes to prayer, looking at the water, perhaps admiring some whose accomplished strokes are carrying them along, and wondering or wanting to jump in and start swimming - they are PRACTICALLY praying.

And the second reason I’ve given this series the title PRACTICALLY PRAYING is that I want this to be a “How to...” series - on that is positive and practical. I agree with a comment Rick Warrren makes about preaching in his book “The Purpose Driven Church” (which, by the way is one of the “set books” in the Church without Walls Strategy Group’s investigations into the shape of church life in the 21st century) - in it one of the things he says is that “people need fewer ‘ought to’ sermons and more ‘how to’ sermons.”:

‘When I go to a doctor, I don’t just want to hear what’s wrong with me; I want him or her to give me some specific steps to getting better....”

This doesn’t mean the series will ignore Christian theology and doctrine - what the Bible has to say about prayer will be central to our thinking. The theology and doctrine will provide the foundation but our focus will be on the PRACTICE of prayer.

PRAYER MEANS MANY THINGS
We begin - as we must - at the beginning with the question WHAT IS PRAYER? The question may be seems to insult the intelligence of those who pray - surely we all know what prayer is? But ask around and you will soon discover that there are practically as many ideas of prayer as there are people who pray:

To one it is rest - a serene, perpetual, constant and unvarying trust in God; to another it is conflict - the heart of the spiritual battle. To one it is words; to another, silence. To one, it belongs within the confined of the inner self; to a second within the confines of the church; to a third its part and place is the real world of our everyday lives - in its struggles and successes, its pains and pleasures - the agony and ecstasy of our topsy-turvy living.

Today we are going to explore what prayer is by thinking, in turn, about prayer as relationship, prayer as conflict and prayer as rest. Take prayer as relationship first:

1. PRAYER AS RELATIONSHIP
PRAYER at its simplest is accepting, entering into and enjoying the RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD that Jesus makes possible for us....when Jesus described himself as “the door” He didn’t mean that he was made of wood! In Jesus’ day many “doors” - ways of entry - had no doors!! By calling himself the door he means He is the “way of entry” into the Father’s presence.

PRAYER at its simplest, is accepting, entering into and enjoying the RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD that Jesus makes possible for us:

i) Accepting it means recognising that it’s offered and that it’s “for me” - it isn’t just for the religious or the good - it’s for everyone and it’s for every one - you and you and you - for each of us as well as for all of us.

ii) Entering into it means walking through the open door and taking advantage of the “free access” that Jesus gives to God. It is responding to Jesus’ invitation “Come...!!”

iii) Enjoying it is discovering, through time, that no relationship matters more.

PRAYER at its simplest, is accepting, entering into and enjoying the RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD that Jesus makes possible for us!!

That’s really what this sermon series is about - prayer is a gift from God to His children - this series isn’t just about unwrapping the gift or looking at it, it’s about plugging it in and switching it on - discovering it as a gift that’s useful and enjoyable at the same time!!

Through Jesus God has given us a way to come to Him - a RELATIONSHIP with Himself.

ADDRESSING GOD AS “Abba”
Jesus often shocked the religious leaders of His day. One of the the things he did was to use a completely NEW word to speak to God - a word that is at once personal, intimate and affectionate. That word was “abba” Usually in our Bibles the translators retain it in its anglicised form “Abba” - but that obscures rather than reveals its meaning.

The closest English equivalent would be not just “daddy” but “dada” - the half formed word of the child learning to speak addressing a parent. . This would have shocked the Jewish leaders of his day to whom the name of God was unutterable holy!!

But the Bible (in Romans 8 and Galatians 4) tells us that once we are Christians - once we have been reborn into God’s family, we, too, are able to address God in the same way:
“The Spirit himself testifies with out spirit that we are Gods children... and by Him we cry ‘Abba!”

Prayer is sharing the personal, intimate, affectionate relationship with God that Jesus has!! It is being as familiar with God as the Divine Son himself. Wow!!

It is very helpful to begin by thinking of prayer as a RELATIONSHIP because a relationship is a two-way thing - if you like, an exchange - it’s more than conversation, it’s communing - in silence as well as speech.

LISTENING TO GOD
It’s a two way thing - discovering prayer is as much a matter of learning to “listen” to God as learning to speak to Him.

I came across a very helpful comment about this in Sheila Cassidy’s book “Prayer for Pilgrims” -sadly now out of print (if you ever see it second hand in a charity shop or anywhere buy it! - it’ll repay you a hundredfold the few pence it may cost you).. Sheila Cassidy says this:

“When we speak of ‘listening to God’ we are talking about a listening of the spirit, a tuning of our inmost being to hear the word of God. By the word of God I mean not only the actual written words of Scripture but God’s voice in everything.....God speaks to us not only in the Bible but through the events in our lives, the people we meet, through history, through nature - through everything.!”

Sometimes God may shout at us but more often - as with lovers - he whispers! Sometimes God may shout at us in such a way that we can’t fail to hear. This happened when God spoke to Saul of Tarsus in an encounter so violent that it knocked Paul from his horse and blinded him for three days.

More often those in tune with God find, like Elijah, that he speaks very quietly.

“Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord” Elijah hear a voice say to him. “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks...but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake cam a fire but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire cam a still, small voice - (NIV) a gentle whisper.”
Prayer’s about LISTENING TO GOD as well as SPEAKING to Him. Learning to “tune in” in nature, in others and in Scripture.

LISTENING IN A NOISY WORLD
This art of listening is something most of us need to rediscover in our noisy world. The Bible has something in its teaching to “be still” or to “be silent” and know God. Today most of us are strangers to the friendly and companionable silence of spending time with God, as with a Lover.

I’m afraid I have to confess that one of the things that one of the things that most often irritate me and provoked my anger is the constant “beat” or “thud” that generally comes from the open windows of a “souped up” banger driving along the road -(!) bouf, bouf, bouf, bouf!! - you know the kind of thing I mean?

But it’s not just that - you get it everywhere - on the programme links on TV, in department stores and everywhere you go - musack, noise.. Living in this kind of sound soaked world we unconsciously lose the ability to HEAR acutely - to listen with the spirit and not just hear with the ear!!

Today silence most often provoked insecurity and fear - we need to rediscover the art of enjoying the friendly and companionable silence of spending time with god, as with a Lover.

MAKING THE EFFORT
This won’t just happen automatically, nor are we likely to drift into it - it is most likely to happen if we make the effort:

* go for a walk with God, as with a friend - seek out some country place of beauty where the birds sing, the air is fresh, walk through the woods, along the sand, over the hills with GOD for company - listen to his voice in nature’s song and begin to share your heart with Him.

Make a regular appointment to go for a walk with Him - early in the morning before it’s day or even late at night when the stars are out - it will soon become an oasis of calm in a turbulent world - a time or refreshment in your weary, worriesome world.

* seek out some quiet place and, with an open Bible, quietly invite God to speak to you through the pages of His inspired word.

Or you can combine these two approaches by taking a verse or a story form scripture to meditate upon as you walk....

WHEN MARRIAGES GO WRONG
Often today, when both partners in a relationship or marriage are working - and perhaps even more so if they have children, life’s just so busy and so stressful - it all rush and hurry and noise and pressure - that the one-to-one relationship of husband and wife suffers.

Did you read the report last week about children suffering because with Sky TV and so many programmes to watch and parents becoming as “hooked up” to TV as their children, there’s not much conversation any more - the typical parent’s conversation with his children is a grunt!

When people’s relationship reach that stage, they need to “rediscover” eachother” Many of us are in that position with God - we need rediscover Him.

And sometimes couples who don;t communicate because they work long hours and spend life exhausted are encouraged specifically to go away together, not to DO, but to BE - just to spend time together.

If your relationship with God is a neglected one - if God has become a stranger to you, and you a stranger to God, find a space, make a space in your day to spend with Him, go for a walk with your God and Maker and discover Him as your Friend!!

PRAYER is not first and foremost words and speaking. To say that it’s conversation is nearer the mark. But it’s more than that too - it’s the maintenance, cultivation and enjoyment of God’s “gifted relationship” with Himself. I called it “gifted” by the way because it isn’t earned by what we do or bought with human effort. But rather it is freely given us in Jesus Christ because of what He has done.

In human society we communicate and relate in many different ways - not just by talking and listening but by reading and writing, by doing but also, sometimes, just by being. I remember that in the Sick Kids after a baby or child died, often the most important communication was in the silence of a sympathetic presence.

Prayer is not just words and speaking - it is the meeting point of heaven and earth in a sudden shaft of sunlight, the sweetness of birdsong, the beauties of nature of the breaking of a winter’s dawn. It is the kiss of God and my answering smile.

“The Spirit himself testifies with out spirit that we are Gods children... and by Him we cry ‘Abba!”

To realise that PRAYER is to do not only with our relationship as creatures to our Creator, but as children to a Father teaches us several other important lessons about prayer.....

PRAYER IS NOT SAYING PRAYERS
The first one is this, that we’re not just talking about SAYING PRAYERS. To be sure, collections of prayers have a certain value:
* they can allow us to listen to and, as it were, allow us to participate in (and echo) the prayers of the
saints of the past.
* they direct our hearts and minds to appropriate ares of concern for intercession, for thanksgiving
and confession.
But a parrot can repeat a collect and even a Christian can read prayers constantly and say prayers daily yet never really pray!!

Be aware of the value of collections of prayers, then, but be even more aware of their limitations and dangers. By all means use them if they help you really to pray. But at all costs avoid them if they inhibit or obstruct rather than enable a personal relationship with God.

Prayer is MORE than saying prayers!! Spurgeon used to tell the story of a conversation he had with a man of seventy. “Do you pray?” Spurgeon has asked him. “Ah yes,” the man replied, and he went on to tell Spurgeon that he had always prayed. It was:

“Pray, God, bless mother and God bless father and make me a good boy!”

God may honour the innocent simplicity of someone who know no better but the point is that most of us ought to know better!!

PRAYER IS MORE THAN SAYING PRAYERS
Prayer is more than saying prayers.

Just as a child in a healthy family with loving parents doesn’t write out in a prepared fashion or in the form of an ecclesiastical collect what he/she is going to say but comes naturally and expectantly - sometimes with tears, sometimes in silence and sometimes with the stumbling uncertainty of childish word - so we, too, can come,

No special language is needed - indeed no language is needed at all! It is not the movement of the lips but the engagement of heart that counts. True prayer is always “heart to heart”

The stumbling broken prayers of the person who is desperate and the ungrammatical prayers of the most uneducated are pure gold while the most articulate prayer full of polished phrases may, in comparison be so much dross!!

Prayer has no secret language beyond sincerity, its beauty is in simplicity.

The idea that prayer requires a special language or tone is a dangerous myth. During my period as a Chaplain at the Sick Kids I remember one day while I was praying in the Chapel being interrupted by a young father. His life had been far from stable - he had overcome a drugs problem. He had been “inside” -in prison more than once - and made a mess of his life.
But now his youngest - his only child was ill, seriously ill, and it looked like he might die.

“I need to know how to pray!” he said, with tears in his eyes and despair reflected in every fibre of his being. He wanted to pray - he was desperate to pray, but he couldn’t! He felt he didn’t know HOW.

I had to tell him that prayers was just coming to God as you are, telling it like it is in whatever language you choose and pouring out your heart to Him. And he did. And, you know, his son was spared!!

PRAYER IS DYNAMIC
Because PRAYER is picture in the Bible as a children’s relationship with a Parent we know something else about prayer and it’s this - PRAYER isn’t mechanical, it’s dynamic.

Some people treat God like a slot machine - insert a prayer, pull the box open and get what you want.

To do this is to discount and therefore insult the PERSONALITY of God. God doesn’t want us to treat him like a machine but as the Person He is!!

Our relationship with Him is intended to be a GROWING relationship. Our friendships with other Christians may get stronger or weaker as their circumstances, and ours, change. But our relationship with God is expected to grow stronger with the years.

The prayer of the old man Spurgeon spoke to -“Pray, God, bless mother and God bless father and make me a good boy!” - may have been appropriate for a Victorian seven-year old, but not for a seventy year old!!

When the Bible tells us (2Pe 3:18) to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” it is inviting us not to stand still but to go on spiritually and to grow strong spiritually - to advance not only in our understanding but in our personal knowledge of the Living God.

Some people treat God like a slot machine - insert a prayer, pull the box open and get what you want. But prayer isn’t like that!! It isn't mechanical, it’s dynamic. It’s personal - a one to one, not “head to head” but “heart to heart” with God.

In Scotland’s evangelical presbyterian past, in Christian circles, people used to describe a godly person - well-versed in Scripture and walking closely with their God and Saviour as “far ben with the Lord.”

It is this to which He invites and calls us still - to an ever deeper and ever fuller union and communion with Himself.

And if this seems far beyond you - not on but many steps too far, don’t worry. Remember that “the longest journey begins with the first step.”

And in the matter of prayer the first step, though simple, is by far the most important one - it is responding to the voice of Jesus, echoing across the centuries and down the years, whispering “heart to heart” -