Good morning Sunrise!
Who in knows what this is? It’s my old Droid.
I know most of you know the capabilities of the Motorola Droid, but let’s just name some of the apps it has or can have:
GPS/Maps, Lattitude, Flashlight, Fandango, Keyring,...
Now, I just called it my “old Doid.” Why do you suppose I would call it that? No, I haven’t upgraded at all. As a matter of fact, I have downgraded. (Hold up new phone). I no longer use a smartphone, rather I have decided to go back to using a one of average intelligence. Why? Because I found myself getting so caught up with all of the other stuff, I forgot that the primary purpose is for communication, keeping me connected with others. Most all of the power it was using, it was using for stuff that wasn’t its primary mission.
I don’t know about you, but it struck me as being symbolic of my life. I sometimes find myself spending so much time with all the other stuff I get involved in, that I actually forget what my primary purpose is – staying connected with God. Even as a pastor, I can get so caught up with the business of the Church, I can forget the mission of the Church or even forget God.
This is precisely why I have chosen this new series, that we begin this morning, as a reminder of what it means not only to be related with Sunrise and The United Methodist Church, but more importantly, what it means to be in a meaningful relationship with Jesus. So, over the next several weeks, we are going to be establishing and re-establishing some Holy ConneXions.
Today, we’ll start off with connecting and reconnecting with God through Prayer. If I were to ask the question, “What is Prayer?” would anyone be able to give an exhaustive answer to it? It would probably be rather difficult because it is a term that is as subjective as it is objective. We each have our own understanding and experience with it.
I thought it might be a good thing just to go to the dictionary and see how it defines it. Here is what I got:
Prayer
noun: A solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.
Hummh. Well?? Maybe. It seems kind of right…but at the same time…at least for me, there is just something lacking in that definition. So, let’s just make a little mental note of that as we dig a little further.
Let me ask some of the medical professionals a question. When a patient comes into your office or exam room, what is one of your first priorities?
- Assess their condition
- How? Through their signs and symptoms
Over the years, I have come to find that a person’s prayer life and the prayers themselves serve as signs and symptoms of your spiritual health. For instance, someone who rarely, if ever, prays – what do you think the state of their spiritual health would be? It is natural to think that someone who has a very relaxed or nonexistent prayer life would not be spiritually fit. But at the same time, the kind of prayers that a person offers up may also reveal spiritual malaise. Check this out:
Coffee With Jesus from Jeff Yearout on Vimeo.
So what was the problem? The guy was taking these concerns to Jesus, which is a good thing – that’s what we are suppose to do, right? Somehow, it just seemed that his prayer was ingenuous, doesn’t it?
Maybe, we can get a better idea of what the problem with it is by looking at a bit of scripture. As you read the Bible, you come to find out that it has a lot to say about prayer. It doesn’t take long to also discover that it seems to be God’s preferred method of communication. Yet, for all the passages in scripture that is found, people still struggle with having a good understanding of what prayer is. As a matter of fact, our scripture passage focuses on this quandary. One day, some of Jesus closest followers came up to him and said, “Jesus, teach us how to pray.” That sounds rather odd, doesn’t it? I mean these are the people that Jesus hand-picked to be his followers and here they were not even grasping the basic function of being Godly men. But Jesus, didn’t seem to be angry with them or even discouraged. Instead, he taught them, as we see in Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 6:9-13
9 "This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. '
For quite some time now, many scholars look at this passage, from which we derive the prayer we know as The LORD’S Prayer as the model for followers of Jesus to use. I’m not sure that Jesus really meant it to be the prescribed formula for prayer, but if it helps someone begin to be intentional about their frequency and quality of their prayer life, then I am all for it. If you want to use it as a model for your prayers, let me offer you a simple way to recall the elements:
P.R.A.Y.
P = Praise
R = Repent
A = Ask
Y = Yield
Thinking through this process, I also believe we can begin to see with what I was struggling about in the dictionary’s definition and also with the guy’s coffee conversation – they only really covered one or maybe two of the elements – Ask and to a certain degree, Praise.
The problem which arises is that both of these tend to elevate “me” rather than God. Our Ask is normally about what we want instead of maybe what God wants. To this extent, this subjugates God as our little genie in a bottle. Likewise, to think of as Praise is really just telling God Thank You for the good things in our lives, which, if you think about it, also centers around…me.
Authentic prayer though, is not just about “me” but is a real interaction between God and me. As a matter of fact, John Wesley viewed as a means of grace – a device in which the Creator of the Universe reminds me of the depth of that great love poured out for us. So to just treat prayer as an airing of our woes, without giving time for God to respond, cheats us out of hearing our Lord whisper to us, “Be still and know I am God. I love you.” And that, my friends, is something I need to hear.
Pauley Perrette: Acting on Faith (UMTV) from United Methodist Communications on Vimeo.
As we finish up today, I want to put a bit of this into practice this week. First, if you have a normal prayer routine, stop and examine it – make sure that it is more than just you talking and asking.
Also, try to incorporate prayer in some other form this week, such as:
- Breath Prayers – short prayers that are said quickly and concisely
- Journaling – writing out your prayers
- Prayer Walk – spending time walking with God
- Pray Scripture – try using the Psalms
- Pray over Calendar/Schedule – praying for some Godly priorities
- Pray the News – bathe the news stories with prayer
- Prayer Partnering – sharing and caring
Try using one or more of these as catalysts for a time of holy connexion with God.
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