ON PRAYER
PRAYER: FISHES SWIM, BIRDS FLY, CHRISTIANS PRAY
Clement 4
The Lord's Prayer
The ABBA prayer is rooted in relationship
Our Father is astounding
The word used here is the Aramaic word for papa or daddy, reserved for the most intimate of relationships
OT God was a distant, law giving God
You couldn't even say the name, you could only say YHWH
No word for koinonia in the OT.
We always remain at a certain distance from God in the OT, never his equal never enjoying a communion, a koinonia with God.
It became only possible through Jesus Christ.
When Jesus called God his dad it was utterly incredible to those who followed him. That you could possibly call God something so intimate as dad.
It turned everything upside down.
Why did they want to know how to pray?
Because they witnessed Jesus constantly going off on his own , calling God his father over 100 times and of himself as the Son 22 times in the Gospels.
Jesus knew what sort of relationship he had. He always used abba; except on the cross
And this relationship, he came to give us.
When you pray, pray like this, addressing God as your dad with all the implications that has for how you pray
The opening of community and the gift of koinonia
You can come into my family
I give you all the rights of sons and daughters
Prayer like this is the gift of relationship to God in a scandalous way.
How can you possibly know a deity INTIMATELY?
Yet this is what the world is invited to share.
And so when I close my eyes and I connect to my spirit,
I invite a connection to the Spirit of God and thus to an eternal, mystical relationship
I can barely comprehend.
Yet through this I can call God Father and relate to Jesus as friend
And to the Holy spirit as helper and guide.
This is why God hates empty religion, form, stuff that's superficial.
Going through the motions, coming to church and saying and doing all the right things,
Looking good on the outside but inside there is sewer full of crap
And the heart is far, far away.
How we disappoint the Maker of the universe who is just longing for our company.
Michelangelo's painting God and Adam on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel is one repersentation of this.
God is close.
His hand comes within a hair's breadth of the man. It seems to say that God is closer than we think, he's here now, today, accessible to all who will but lift a finger.
1. Real prayer is from the heart
2. Prayer is a lot about listening and learning to be with God
The abba prayer is one the spirit puts in our hearts.
Romans 8 When we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
Prayer is simple.
Prayer is also difficult. A point of wrestling.
The cartoon character Waldo is a picture of this.
He is on every page of the Where's Waldo books, but he can be difficult to find.
In the same way even though God is present on every page of our lives, He's often not easy to spot.
Some of my prayer life is deliberate…journaling, 10 things I am thankful for, intercession, but much of it is spontaneous.
In the first instance it is a relationship.
It should come more and more from the heart as well as the mind.
To pray without ceasing is to be constantly in this environment,
In spirit interacting, self referencing to Jesus, the spirit, being led.
Prayer when I'm walking, going to sleep, being with others, on a lonely mountain peak
So much of our prayer relationship though can be stuck in
- 1. feeling guilty
- 2. asking, stress prayers
- 3. mind stuff
No real relationship occurs in this.
No easy way but spiritual discipline and time.
I want to encourage you to listening and to more of the meditation side of prayer
For it's here that depth begins to form.
There is so much more to enjoy than you know.
In meditation we are not trying to think about God, but to be with Him.
To be brought into the presence of the Father.
To experience relationship not just a head understanding.
In silence we begin to apprehend God,
We become aware of his presence
In my experience this is something so deep I can hardly bear it I need to grow into it.
It takes time and persistence,
Because the mind is a tree full of monkeys, all swinging from branch to branch in an
incessant riot of chatter and movement. 19 th c Indian mystic.
Prayer is not trying to shout it down, but bring all of it to stillness and silence and concentration.
Be still and know that I am God.
Don't babble like the heathen… your father knows your needs.
Rather be with Him.
Prayer is being filled with the spirit more and more, learning to soar in perfect unison with the wind currents, to mount up with wings as of eagles.