True Prayer
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PRAYER: FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER
The English word prayer seems to be one of the most misunderstood enigmas within the Body of Christ. Literally hundreds of books have been written on the subject, as evidenced by walking through the prayer sections of most Christian bookstores or by typing in the key word on an Internet search engine[1]. Pastors and laymen alike have studied this phenomenon on prayer for centuries, and some of the most well noted ministers and scholars have issued their dissertations and theses on “How to Pray To Get Results”. All of this research has been compiled and published with the intent to satisfy the longing soul in hopes of getting their petitions favorably answered by a God who, day and night, sits pondering their requests on His throne in His heavenly abode. Or so they might say. But what is prayer really all about?TRUE PRAYER
In order to satisfy the intensity of the above question we would have to start in the beginning of the Bible in Genesis to establish an accurate rendition of what God desires from us, but unfortunately we do not have the adequate space to delve into such a profound mystery. What should be stated, however, is the fact that true prayer has very little to do with getting something that we desire from the Lord. Actually, the direct opposite is true. True prayer is actually the aligning of your will to that of the Father’s (Lk. 22:42). It is the act of submitting a will that is inevitably contradictory toward God in order to fulfill His purpose in our lives (Ge. 6:5). We don’t pray to persuade or manipulate God into moving the earth for us in some form or fashion. Some individuals may think that they can actually accomplish this through their shortsighted worldview, but creating a god that can be controlled or moved through anything man can devise is a form of idolatry (Ex. 20:3,4). They have constructed a god to suit their own desires, which we all must be careful to avoid in our own prayer life. Jesus made this profound statement concerning prayer:
Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. Matthew 18:19-20 NKJV
Jesus, through this simple passage of scripture, was eradicating a huge problem when it comes to maintaining a healthy prayer life. He was eliminating the “gimme” prayer. “God, You have got to gimme this and meet my desire.” When you seek out a second party in prayer you will almost always never run into selfish prayers because the one who is in agreement with you won’t (or shouldn’t) agree with you in selfishness for your own pleasures. Amazingly, most commentators will not mention the simplicity of this element in prayer, nor the fact that it sits so plainly in the scriptures.
RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND PRAYER
It is really quite easy to understand Jesus’ main intentions on the proper modes of prayer, especially when you study the viewpoints that were prevalent regarding prayer during His time on earth and the way the religious leaders were conducting themselves in prayer. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, the main political-religious groups in Israel during Jesus’ earthly ministry, prayed only to be seen by others as an outward symbol of their so called piety, or their self-imputed righteousness (Mk. 12:40; Mt. 6:5). They had no intention of honoring the God who so desired a genuine relationship from His creation through communion in prayer. In fact, to them, insinuating that God could simply be reached on a personal and intimate level was equal to blasphemy. We can see this, as Jesus wasn’t necessarily persecuted for having the multitudes following Him or for His teachings that infer imperfections in the Pharisees’ interpretations of the law. In their own mind, the religious leaders marked Jesus as a lunatic who made Himself equal to a God[2] who was already accurately limited and defined by their own teachings and interpretations of the scriptures. In accordance with their understanding, God was ready to condemn those who disobeyed Him and to bless those who followed His every command, 613 to be exact[3].
Jesus, and all that He represented as the Son of the living God, threatened the entire fabric of their society, or so they thought. The Jewish people understood very little of what God was truly like, and at that time His attributes were only revealed to them through the written law and simple proclamations that were given to them by the prophets, many of whom were killed for the conveyance of their God-inspired message.
Jesus came as the only true representative of a foreign kingdom to a people who had no real idea of who God was, and were at best, confused as to why they were God’s chosen people with no real understanding of what God truly desired. After all, who was more qualified than the Son of God to reveal the essence and attributes of a loving Father in heaven? In reality, Jesus was persecuted for making the claim that what God really wanted was to convey that He is a Father and was waiting to treat the Israelites, and all who would accept His invitation, as sons[4] (Ro. 8:14).
REVEALING THE FATHER
Jesus’ earthly mission, and what led Him to Golgotha[5], was to reconcile individuals to the Father by ultimately bridging the gap that was created through mankind’s sin. He did this through His work on the cross by shedding His own innocent blood to propitiate and expatiate[6] our sins to bring us back into a proper fellowship with our Creator, and to bring an accurate understanding of God as Father. Jesus gave a vivid illustration to this fact when He taught His disciples how to pray:
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the powerand the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV
If you take the opportunity to count the number of appearances of the word Father in the sixth chapter of Matthew, from which comes the Lord’s or Model Prayer, you will immediately notice the emphasis that Jesus is trying to convey to His disciples. The word Father is used twelve times in a chapter that has only thirty-four verses. The indication that Jesus is trying to reveal God as a Father is made evidentially quite clear. Jesus did not come to exalt Himself, but to bring glory and honor to the Father. He knew that the only way to truly satisfy the desires of the Father’s heart was to willingly[7] sacrifice Himself on one of the cruelest instruments of death that any civilization could devise.
Conclusion
According to the late Dr. Lester Sumrall, in his textbook called Prayer, he summarized the fact that Jesus had a keen understanding of God as a Father. In fact, he listed twenty-three elements within the Model Prayer, of which the first was relationship with the Father. Accordingly, These twenty-three elements that are formulated into a successive list hinge on this one concept. Jesus knew full well His position as a Son and taught His disciples this same ideology of sonship in relation to a loving Father.
As some have stated, there is a vast difference between the New and Old Testaments and several authors have indicated some noteworthy points, but the single largest difference is the revelation that Jesus came to bring concerning our relationship with a Father who would send His own Son to die for us to be reconciled in relationship with Him. Our prayer life as continual fellowship with the Father could very will be the most important facet in our walk with God on earth, and understanding our positions as sons will enable us to enjoy all the benefits of this union.
Father, open our spiritual eyes and remove the hardened scales that would keeps us from a genuinely intimate relationship with You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
[1] According to Google (google.com), there are approximately 72,200,000 internet pages on prayer.
[2] In John chapter 5, it states that Jesus not only healed on the Sabbath (supposedly going against the formal interpretation of the law) but also made a claim that made Himself equal to God. This was the greatest sin in the religious leaders’ eyes and what caused them to want to kill Him all the more. (Ref. John 5:18)
[3] Irving Stone, The Chumash, (Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications Ltd., Ó 1998, 2000), p. 407
[4] For those reading who are of the Gender Neutral or Gender Inclusive camp, the word sons refers to both men and women.
[5] Golgotha is typically rendered the “place of the skull”. In Hebrew the word means “skull”. Golgotha was the public execution site for crucifixions, on which Jesus was crucified. Some have said that Golgotha refers to the actual hillside just outside Jerusalem that resembles a carved skull made by natural rock formations.
[6] Propitiation and expiation are two essential terms within the doctrine of the atonement. Propitiation is satisfying the righteous demands of an offended God. Expiation is the covering or removal of sin. We read of the first act of expiation in the book of Genesis (3:20) when God literally covered Adam and Eve to remove their guilt, and to reconcile them to fellowship with their creator.
[7] Many individuals have asked the question of which people group killed Jesus with no real understanding of why He came to this earth. In essence, we all killed Jesus because He took the penalty that was due us on Himself for our sins. Yet, He was not killed by any of us. If any one people group killed Jesus then the reality of freewill is absolutely lost. Jesus had to give up His life willingly; murder and/or killing, is the act of taking someone’s life against his or her will.