The Discipline of Dedicated Prayer

Today we will conclude our "Firm Foundation" series. Since the beginning of January, we have studied four different disciplines: Daily Studies, Developing Disciples, Devoted Giving, and Dutiful Service. This morning, we'll cover our fifth discipline.

As I said when we began this series, we did not intend to unpack an exhaustive list of every discipline found in the godly Christian's life. Still, we set out to study 5 core disciplines that together form a firm foundation for a life lived in obedience to God's Word. We may be finishing the series, but I pray that none of us concludes that we've finished the study. These disciplines will take the rest of our earthly lives to embrace, develop, and perfect in our walk with Christ.

Today we are wrapping up our series by examining the discipline of Dedicated Prayer. As Christians, we understand that prayer is essential. I trust that each believer here this morning would agree that prayer is both a powerful tool and a commanded practice.

While we know that it's a vital aspect of our daily walk, we can sometimes become so wrapped up in our routines, patterns, and schedules that while we are praying, we aren't offering dedicated prayers to our Heavenly Father.

Out of curiosity, how many have heard the phrase "White Line Fever?" What about "Highway Hypnosis?" For those unfamiliar, both phrases refer to the same phenomenon: in a technical sense, it is an altered mental state in which a person can drive a car, truck, or other automobile great distances, responding to external events in the expected, safe, and correct manner with no recollection of having consciously done so. (Weiten, Wayne (2003). Psychology Themes and Variations (6th ed.). Belmont, California: Wadsworth/Thomas Learning. p. 200.)

Psychologists explain that Highway Hypnosis is a form of Automaticity, which is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit. (John A Bargh. "The Four Horsemen of Automaticity: Awareness, Intention, Efficiency, and Control in Social Cognition" (PDF). New York University.)

My point in sharing these things is not to engage in a psychology lesson; instead, I think that just as with driving, sometimes, it can be so easy to get wrapped up in the cares of this life and allow our minds to wander, even while we're spending time talking to the Lord. If we are to engage in dedicated prayer, however, we need to ensure that our prayers do not become mundane sequences of standard or routine practice that no longer take any thought or effort. Prayer should involve the whole of our person: our intellect, emotion, and will - and shouldn't be so ordinary that we can't remember if or even what we've prayed for.

If you were invited to the Oval Office to speak to the President of the United States or Buckingham Palace to talk to the King of England, do you think you'd remember what you said? Shouldn't our bold presence in the throne room of the Creator of Heaven and Earth matter more to us?

The apostle Luke records in the 11th chapter of his Gospel that when the disciples observed Jesus praying, they asked Him to teach them to pray as He did. They saw His dedication to prayer, which was His fellowship with His Father, and they asked if He might lead them to pray just as John the Baptist to taught his followers. Christ's response in Luke's Gospel is a shorter version of what we find in Matthew 6, during the Sermon on the Mount.

**CHANGE SLIDE**- Scriptures

So, let's turn our attention to our passage of study as we learn from the model prayer Jesus taught to His disciples. Again, we're looking at Matthew 6:7-13

Matthew 6:7–13 ESV

7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “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 this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

**CHANGE SLIDE** - "And when you pray..."

"And when you pray..."

In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus was teaching His disciples when He explained that when they prayed, they could not be like the hypocrites who make pretentious displays with their public prayers. It's not that Christ prohibited all public prayer; instead, Jesus was teaching true dedication to prayer, in which there is an internal motivation to honor and draw near to the Father, not simply to be noticed by others.

He told them that when they prayed, they should go into a secret room and pray to the Father in secret. Again, presenting yourself, in humble prayer, to the One who sees, even in secret places, matters most.

Then, as we read where we picked up the passage for today, Jesus said to his disciples, "And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words."

Jesus was speaking against the pagans who would mindlessly reiterate the names of their gods and other phrases for no purpose other than to sound pious. One commentary explains, "Jesus is prohibiting mindless, mechanical repetition, not the earnest repetition that flows from the imploring heart."

The Father knows our needs before we even think to ask for anything. Empty phrases spoken to the King of Kings are pointless, but James 5:16 reminds us, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Prayer is commanded and expected. Jesus used the phrase "When you pray" three times just before giving His disciples a model prayer. That said, in the dedicated prayer life of a disciple of Christ, there is no place for highway hypnosis or automaticity, nor is there any justification for pretentious displays of outward piety.

In teaching His disciples to pray as He did, He gave them what we've come to call the "Lord's Prayer," and contained within are six critical petitions. The first three deal with God's majesty, power, and superiority, while the last three correspond to personal needs in the context of living in community with one another.

With most of our remaining time this morning, let's look at each of them as they form the kind of dedicated prayer to which we've been called.

**CHANGE SLIDE**- Pray for God's name to be Holy.

Pray for God's Name to be Holy.

Knowing that Jesus was teaching against vain repetition, clearly, He was not instructing us to pray His exact words. Continuing on the theme of "When you pray," Jesus instructed His disciples to pray like the example He showed them.

When Jesus addressed the Father and reinforced the truth of where He resides, He offered the first petition: "Hallowed be your name." Another way to say this is, "Father, let your name be made and kept holy. The dedicated prayer warrior and disciple of Christ desires that Our Father in Heaven be treated by all with the utmost honor and set apart from all others as holy. We know He is far superior to anyone or anything on Earth, and we should seek to keep His name Holy in our own lives while desiring to see others come to know Him as their sovereign Lord.

Without providing commentary, Jesus quickly moved through to each petition, with the next requesting God's Kingdom to come.

**CHANGE SLIDE**- Pray for God's Kingdom to come.

Pray for God's Kingdom to come.

If the discipline of dedicated prayer marks us, we must pray for God's Kingdom to be present, even now. Those who love God and are called according to His purpose should desire, pray, and work for the presence of God's Kingdom in this age.

When we talk about the Kingdom being present, we mean to say that we desire to see Christ reigning in the hearts and lives of believers individually and in his bride, the church, corporately. In increasing ways over time, the church, the body of Christ, should reflect his love, obey his laws, honor him, do good for all people, and proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.

Mature faith does not lead to prayers for the Lord to delay His return and the physical coming of His Kingdom until "this thing or that" can be accomplished. Instead, the growing believer increasingly seeks the advancement of the Kingdom and the arrival of the day when every knee will bow, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Jesus then gave a third petition in this model prayer.

**CHANGE SLIDE**- Pray for God's Will to be accomplished.

Pray for God's Will to be accomplished.

Regarding the request for God's will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, many commentators agree that Jesus was referring to God's revealed will.

The revealed desire of God is for His creation to engage only in conduct that is pleasing to Him, as instructed through the Holy Scriptures. When we pray, Jesus wants us to insist that God's will is experienced on Earth as in Heaven. The apostle Paul wrote concerning God's will in Ephesians 5:15-17, saying:

Ephesians 5:15–17 ESV

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

We've been commanded to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, and Scripture gives general principles to aid the believer in this work. This means that we are to take the written word of God and wisely live in good and pleasing ways to the Lord. It does not mean that the will of God is some secret thing we need to unlock. Deuteronomy 39 reminds us that not everything that is true of God has been revealed. The secret things belong to the Lord.

Because the secret things belong to God, there is a clear need to trust, obey, and show humility before God in how we live and pray. What God has revealed is for the sake of obedience, and we should pray for His will to be done.

From here, there is a turn toward personal petitions. We will spend less time on these. I wanted to emphasize the first three petitions, knowing that we understand the need to make petitions on our own behalf. We need to be intentional about praying about God's glory, holiness, and desires to be revealed, exemplified, and obeyed in our lives. Now, there is a place for personal petitions; therefore, Jesus instructed His disciples to pray for their daily bread.

**CHANGE SLIDE**- Pray for daily needs to be met.

Pray for daily needs to be met.

In asking the Father for our daily bread, we ask Him to supply all our physical needs. Later in Matthew 6, Jesus reminds His followers that God loves them more than He does the birds, and we shouldn't have anxiety over what tomorrow will bring. We should have faith that God will provide, and as we pray for daily needs to be met, we exercise that faith.

Jesus then indicated that we should also pray for forgiveness.

**CHANGE SLIDE**- Pray for forgiveness

Pray for forgiveness.

Praying to be forgiven of our debts is not referring to forgiveness unto salvation, nor is it asking to be let out of any debt we've racked up. So what does Jesus mean here?

Jesus had taught, as did the Apostles after He left to be with the Father, that although we may have forgiveness of the final penalty of our sins, we can still hinder our relationship with God through our sinful behavior. Therefore, we should repent when we sin and ask God to forgive us and help us grow in our sanctification. When we do, we know that, as 1 John 1:9 says, "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

There is a caveat here, though. We are asking God to forgive us as we've forgiven others. This means that if we ask for God's forgiveness, we must also make sure we forgive others. The dedicated prayer warrior who understands God's amazing grace and knows they've received forgiveness should be so grateful to God that they also eagerly forgive those who sinned against them.

Jesus concluded the model prayer with a final petition.

**CHANGE SLIDE**- Pray for guidance and deliverance.

Pray for guidance and deliverance.

The words "give us, forgive us, lead us, and deliver us" indicate that praying like this is not primarily for the individual but for the entire community of believers. We should pray that God guides us to avoid any circumstances or situations that would bring temptation to sin.

The word "evil" in "Deliver us from evil" could also mean "the evil one." The best safeguard against sin and temptation is to turn to and trust God and depend on his direction.

James says that we should count it all joy when we face various trials and tribulations because we know that God is doing something in us, but he never says that we should pray to be led into those tests or trials. If the Lord sees fit to test your faith, then so be it, but we should earnestly pray for one another to receive guidance and deliverance in our daily walk.

If we love Christ, and Christ loves the Church, then we, too, should love the Church. One way to love the Church, that is, the Bride of Christ, well is to build the discipline of dedicated prayer, not just for ourselves, but to be able to enter into the throne room of God on behalf of our brothers and sisters.

**CHANGE SLIDE**- Title Slide

One writer offers wise insight into this model prayer:

We have to go a long way into this prayer before we find any attention or concern given to us. The attention at the beginning of these petitions is on the exaltation of God and His concerns. In the initial phrases of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus fixes our gaze not on ourselves but on God."

As disciples dedicated to prayer, we need to keep the proper focus. Praying for personal needs and circumstances is not wrong, but we must devote ourselves to prayer on behalf of others, especially those of the household of faith.

Whether we pray through the Lord's model prayer or something else altogether, the important thing is that we have the discipline of dedicated prayer.