A Year-Long Exploration of the Sermon on the Mount: Week 27

Chapter 27 – When You Pray

 

Prayer is an important of our Christian life. Jesus calls on us to always be in prayer. It can be hard to know how to pray. We are so worried about saying the right things, or not asking for too much, or knowing what to ask for in the first place! And sometimes talking about praying can bring mixed emotions. How often have you heard “thoughts and prayers” over the last several years? While the phrase has lost its meaning, praying is one of the things that we, as Christians, can do always and often, and we trust that praying has an effect on the world.

 

There are several points that catch my attention in this chapter about prayer. One of them has to do with thinking that we ought not bother to pray because we don’t know the right way to do so. Daniel Doriani says that our words don’t need to be good enough, they just need to be. He says, “The problem in prayer is not that God is too busy for us, but that we feel too busy for him.” (p. 170) How often have you said to yourself, “I’ll pray later because I don’t have time now”? Our lives are busy, but you don’t need a lot of time for prayer. Walking to the bus? Pray! Driving in your car? Pray? And the prayer doesn’t need to be long. It could be a single word: help! God is never to busy to hear what you have to say. You shouldn’t be so busy that you can’t take a moment to speak to God.

 

Karl Barth tells us that no matter how we pray, make sure our heart is in it. Without heart, the prayer is meaningless. He also says that “prayer uttered in a language that we do not understand or which the congregation at prayer does not understand is a mockery to God…for the heart cannot be in it.” (p. 169) A previous bishop of mine always introduced the Lord’s Prayer by saying, “Now, in the language and words with which you are most comfortable, let us say together the Lord’s Prayer.” It’s such a small thing, but inviting people to pray in their own language allows them to connect to the prayer not only with they tongue, but also with their whole heart.

 

Finally, Mother Teresa reminds us that after you’ve spoken with God, remember to listen for a response. She says, “Listen in silence, because if your heart is full of other things, you cannot hear the voice of God. But when you have listened to the voice of God in the stillness of your heart, then your heart is filled with God.” (p. 173)

 

If prayer is about God, and not about us, how might this change the way you pray?

(Reflection question from p .347)