Simple Rhythms: Prayer
Prayer is a foundational practice in our faith that helps us connect with God. Prayer takes on various forms and expressions. We can adore God, confess our shortcomings, show our gratitude, ask for needs, or simply listen to seek his guidance. At its core, prayer is a rhythm that helps us build dependence on God.
INTRO
When I faced a health crisis two years ago, my doctor advised me to lose weight.
Prior to this, I thought that losing weight meant I had to get a gym membership, home exercise equipment, quality workout gear, sweatproof headphones, and wearable tech to tracks my progress.
But when I finally started shedding weight, I realized I made losing weight more complicated than it needed to be.
Losing weight simply came down to this, burning more calories than are taken in from food.
I learned that it wasn’t that complicated.
Sure, it’s complicated because you need to be disciplined, but the formula is pretty simple.
And, similarly, the topic that we’re talking about today is something we can overcomplicate, maybe even overlook.
This morning, we are in the 4th week of our Simple Rhythms series where we talk about practical spiritual exercise that help us connected with Jesus and our focus today is prayer.
Prayer Was Essential to the Early Church
Prayer is one of the most essential and foundational practices in Christianity.
In Acts, you’ll find that prayer is the spiritual exercise the believers depend on to keep them faithful in a tumultuous time.
In Acts 2, after Jesus ascended to heaven, one of the 4 things the first church committed to was praying.
In Acts 5, Peter and John are imprisoned for sharing the gospel.
When they are released, instead of being discouraged, they returned to their faith community and prayed.
Prayer led them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly share the gospel.
In Acts 6, the disciples empowered 7 others with the responsibility to serve the widows and distribute food while they focused on prayer and teaching.
It’s evident that the early church was committed to prayer.
Many of the believers were uneducated, ordinary people.
But their dedication to prayer led them to do some amazing things.
Aaron Damiani provides some context to explain why prayer was so important in his book titled “Earth Filled with Heaven.”
This is what he says,
“Nevertheless, during the early centuries the Christians gave the impression of being confidently powerful. Why? In part because they believed that the struggles they were involved in were above all spiritual… Despite their lack of societal power, early Christians were confident in the power of God delegated to them through united prayer… Prayer enabled them not only to cope with the dangers of day-to-day living but also to do joyfully the risky things that enabled the church to grow— to travel to new places, to touch plague victims, to see enemies as potential brothers…the prayer time was a power center of early Christian worship.”
This might be inspiring, but the truth is, prayer was a normal part of their faith.
It wasn’t anything particularly new for them.
In fact, it was a rhythm flowing from their Jewish background.
How Prayer Became a Christian Practice
Judaism has a long-standing practice of reciting prayers 3 times a day, specifically they would recite the Shema in the morning and evening proclaiming to listen and love God.
They would also recite specific prayers during the Sabbath and major holidays.
Jewish prayer life was structured where people memorized and recited prayers, which influenced the early church to pray 7 times a day.
Today, Christian prayer generally is a lot less structured and more free flowing as a response to rituals being inauthentic.
And because Jesus grew up Jewish, prayer were his everyday rhythms when he was on earth.
But his prayers weren’t empty rituals that he was supposed to do.
Jesus would often retreat and pray.
And when the disciple saw this, they asked him to teach them how to pray, which reveals to us the significance of prayer.
We get a glimpse of this in Luke 10.
The Lord’s Prayer: A Model for Us
A rabbi, the Jewish equivalent of a pastor, instructing his disciples how to pray was pretty normal.
But when Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, he offers them a rhythm to connect with God that are helpful for us today.
This is how Jesus teaches his disciples to pray,
2 “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”
Now, you may recognize this prayer.
This is the Lord’s Prayer, the same prayer we recite during spiritual exercises, but it’s a bit shorter.
The one we use comes from Matthew 6 and both express the importance of prayer, but we’re going to focus on Luke 10 to help us better understand prayer today.
Essentially, the core elements of the Lord’s Prayer are:
Acknowledging God
Daily dependence on God
Forgiveness
and protection
When we pray, Jesus invites us to acknowledge God as Father.
That’s the first element.
This indicates that God is a caring figure who is approachable, that God is close and caring.
Because he is caring, the second element indicates that provides our daily bread, the basic and essential needs necessary for our physically wellbeing.
Not only does he provide food for our physical needs, he also provides the third element, forgiveness. Forgiveness is necessary for us to be right with God and with others.
And the last element is spiritual protection.
When God instructs us to pray, “lead us not into temptation,” we seek his spiritual protection to prevent us from sinning and going against his desires.
The NIV Application Commentary summarizes the Lord’s Prayer like this,
“The prayer as a whole reflects a disciple’s total reliance on God and his care…Thus the prayer bonds the disciple to God, recognizing that the affairs of life are often a matter in which we either walk alone or walk with our hand in his hand. The disciples’ prayer acknowledges that our hand needs to be in his hand.”
And when it comes to prayer, it is something we speak to God, whether audibly or silently.
When we pray, we are communicating with God what we need.
Jesus instructs us to say the Lord’s Prayer to God. Alvin Vandergriend’s devotion “Love to Pray” offers these ideas about prayer as communication.
This is what he says,
“Prayer is the way we get in touch with God and the way we keep in touch with him…[it is] is the conversational part of the most important love relationship in our lives, our love relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit… when people ask me about the time they should spend in prayer, I simply tell them they should spend enough time to build a good relationship.”
Every good and healthy relationship depends on good communication.
Prayer is our way to communicate with God.
It helps us build a trusting and dependent relationship with God who provides us what we need to live out a life reflecting his desires.
And I think we can over complicate it.
In fact, in Matthew 6, where the Lord’s Prayer shows up, Jesus teaches his disciples that people can make prayer complicated by being showy and long, when it doesn’t need to be.
There are simply rhythms that we can build and I want to point out two things to help us.
APPLICATION
First, it starts with frequency.
Prayer is something we do if we believe in Jesus.
It’s not a matter of if we pray, but when we pray.
In both Luke 10 and Matthew 6, Jesus tells us “when you pray.”
And while the early church saw it fit to pray 3 or 7 times, it isn’t so much based on how many times your pray during the day.
In fact, in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Paul encourages the church to “Never stop praying” (NLT).
This doesn’t mean we abandon everything to pray.
Instead, the NIV Quest Study Bible says this,
“Paul wanted Christians to pray regularly and often, but more than that he desired Christians to live prayerfully. Prayer is more than verbalized words. It is the acknowledgment of God’s constant presence and our continuous dependence on him. To pray without ceasing is to recognize that all our actions are done before God and all our conversations include him.”
Discover moments during the day where you can acknowledge God’s presence or acknowledge when you need to depend on him.
Choose the most difficult time of your day to pray.
Choose the easiest time of the day to pray.
Choose a significant time in the day to pray.
Choose an insignificant time in the day to pray.
Pray when you are thankful.
Pray when you are in need.
Pray when you are content.
I find it helpful to set alarms to stop me from what I’m doing to pray.
It helps me build a rhythm.
I set one at 10:02AM, which corresponds to Luke 10:2, which says,
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
So I pray for workers everyday.
I also set an alarm for 1:01PM, which corresponds to the BP campus’ address, 9000 101st Ave N.
When we were in the process of launching it, I wanted to find a rhythm to pray for the leaders and the people who would be a part of the BP campus so whenever my alarm went off, I’d pray not knowing who the community would be.
Today, we have a wonderful community at BP and 1:01PM is still an alarm that goes off to help remind me to pray for the church in general.
Secondly, pray boldly and expectantly.
After Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, he offered 3 illustrations to make this point.
The first involves you going to a friend at midnight to find food for your guest.
Although your friend might complain that it’s late and the kids are in bed, he will eventually get up and give you as much as you need because of your boldness in asking.
We can boldly ask God for what we need.
In the second scenario, Jesus encourages his disciples to ask, seek, and knock.
We don’t need to be shy when we ask God, but we can trust that he is an open door for us.
He will respond.
In the last scenario, Jesus compares our prayer relationship with God to a child asking his father for a fish or an egg for food.
A father, although not perfect, will give his son a fish or an egg instead of a snake or scorpion because he asks. This teaches us that God, who is our good and perfect Father, will give what we need and more when we ask.
So, pray boldly and pray expectantly trusting that he will give you what you desire.
One way to help us pray with the right attitude is to consider our posture.
In Aaron Damiani’s book, “Earth Filled with Heaven” he shares that ancient Christian prayers engaged the body and suggests that praying with our bodies makes sense because “our soul tends to take the same position in which we place our bodies.”
Posture and form are important in many aspects of life.
If we don’t maintain a good posture, it can negatively impact us.
I don’t necessarily think posture makes our prayer better, but it can help us focus when we pray.
Closing Prayer/Exercise
So, as we wrap up this morning, I want to close our time being mindful of our attitudes and bodily postures when we pray.
In a little bit here, I want to invite you to take on a few different postures as we pray to close if you are able to.
I’m going to invite you to pray with your arms raised.
Then, I invite you to pray while kneeling.
And then I invite you to pray bowing.
Let’s start with the first.
The Posture of Standing With Raised Arms
The first posture is standing with raised arms.
An early church pastor named Origen encouraged believers to pray standing, with arms raised in the air and eyes looking upward.
This posture communicated that the believers were standing before the face of God, lifting up their needs to His care, as those who have been joined to Christ.
The hands were reminiscent of Christ’s cross, which they were ready to bear, and His innocence, which they had received by grace.
Standing teaches us to be alert and attentive to the activity of God.
If you are able to, I invite you to stand and with raised arms.
You can look upwards with your eyes open or closed, I’ll leave it up to you and I invite you to say a prayer sharing with Jesus what you need and I’ll conclude our first posture with an Amen.
[Pray]
The posture kneeling
Second, the posture of kneeling is appropriate for the confession of sin.
Kneeling is a humble posture that communicates our need for mercy.
If you are able to, I invite you to kneel where you are and pray the prayer of confession with me.
The prayer will be on screen.
Let’s us pray this prayer together.
Prayer of Confession
Most merciful God,
I confess that I have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what I have done,
and by what I have left undone.
I have not loved you with my whole heart;
I have not loved my neighbors as myself.
I am truly sorry, and I humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on me and forgive me,
so that I may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name.
Amen.
You can go ahead and sit back in your seats.
The Posture of Bowing
Lastly, the posture of bowing is closely related to kneeling, as it communicates deference, humility, and respect before a greater authority.
Bowing can be a slight bend at the neck, or a deeper bow from the waist.
Bowing is a way to recognize the authority of Jesus Christ.
We will all bow at the name of Jesus and confess Him as Lord over heaven and earth at the end of history.
We who confess Him as King may as well begin bowing now so let us bow and pray.
Let’s pray the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6, which declares his authority, his kingdom, power, and glory.
I’ll put it up screen, but if you can do it from memory, pray with me the Lord’s Prayer in our bowing posture.
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven, holy be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today 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 the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever.
Amen.
May you discover a frequency and attitude to help you establish simple rhythms of connecting and conversing with God to help you grow closer to him. Let’s pray.