Abide in Christ: The Dependent Life

Introduction

“He tells of Ethelfrith, the pagan Saxon king of Northumbria, who had invaded Wales and was about to give battle. The Welsh were Christians, and as Ethelfrith was observing the army of his opponents spread out before him, he noticed a host of unarmed men. When he asked who they were, he was told that they were the Christian monks of Bangor, praying for the success of their army. Ethelfrith immediately realized the seriousness of the situation. “Attack them first,” he ordered.”

I think we often understand this idea but what I am wrestling with is then why don’t I pray?

Part of it is discipline for sure

Part of it is “motivation” - why should I pray?

Our prayers tend to be about God and what we can get from him or get him to do.

It’s as though we believe that we just walk through life with God in tow and he is there to just help us when we need

2. But prayer is actually for our sake, to move our understanding from mind to heart to action.

In other words it’s to continually center our life around God

What changes most in prayer is suppose to be us.

If we don’t believe we need to be changed or that our reality is our life centered around God then we won’t pray

So the Lord’s prayer is meant to direct us to reflect on this and to teach us to pray in away that changes who we are and what we do.

Matthew 6:5-18

Jesus starts by dealing with some of the motivations of his day for prayer and fasting

I. Prayer from Identity

A. God’s - Father, heaven, hallowed

We will only begin to be able to pray “correctly” when we understand this first

Who we think God is, will determine how and what we pray for

B. Our’s

Children - belong, valued, loved, dependent

our value and love of and for others will come when we understand and believe this

To pray “our Father” - we are one with Jesus in the Father

- should cause us to reflect on the greatness and yet the closeness of God

the father who every “good and perfect gift” comes from

We are not going to feel/experience being a child of God if we are not seeking to be one

We do this by cultivating the habit of prayer

Also this challenges what our identity is in

As Identity is what gives us our purpose or meaning

II. Prayer Towards God’s Purpose

But whose purpose are we trying to fufill

When we understand who we are praying to and who we are because of that we then will desire or should desire what they desire

Your kingdom come…” - is praying towards God’s purpose of restoration

Again this should cause us to ponder...

What purpose are we pursuing with our lives.

“If you want to understand your own behavior, you must understand that all sin against God is grounded in a refusal to believe that God is more dedicated to our good, and more aware of what that is, than we are. We distrust God because we assume he is not truly for us, that if we give him complete control we will be miserable. Adam and Eve did not say, ‘Let’s be evil. Let’s ruin our own lives and everyone else’s too!’ Rather they thought, ‘We just want to be happy. But his commands don’t look like they’ll give us the things we need to thrive. We’ll have to take things into our own hands—we can’t trust him.’” Tim Keller

And so we are to ask for our daily bread

III. Prayer in Trust

When Jesus was tempted in his hunger to turn stone into bread Jesus quoted from the Hebrew Bible “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

We often use language of I need in place of what we want

Maybe we use of the language of If I had…then I would be.... comfortable, safe, happy...

But the Lord teaches us when we pray, this prayer...

I. We are saying I will lay aside who I think I am or want to be to live under who I am in Christ

II. I will lay aside my agenda and purposes of my former identity to seek God’s agenda as his child

III. says I trust God as my Father to provide for me what I truly need

In a culture of excess it is hard to believe we need to pray this but we do

This sets us free from finding our identity and purpose in the wrong things

Should cause us to ask how can I use what I have for God’s purposes, His kingdom (generosity)

Also thanksgiving (prayers of), which the authors of Scripture often call us to pray, change our heart towards the things that we have.

IV. Prayer to Restore

In all honesty we don’t live up to this though do we.

This keeps us from becoming centered around God

confession/forgiveness - is the means to be restored

The more we understand our dependence on God the more we will pursue this in our prayers

Prayer brings us before the one who has and can forgive sins but who asks us to do the same

We can’t expect to experience the forgivness of God if we don’t forgive others because we are dishonoring the one who has forgiven us and disobeying him

Jesus parable of the unforgiving servant - Matthew 18:21-35

Matthew 18:35 ESV

So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

And so our ability to live in harmony with others comes as we keep our lives centered on God, asking for his forgiveness.

V. Prayer of Protection

And so we have to realize that this not only unnatural for us and our hearts tend towards selfish independence but there is a battle going on against us abiding in Christ

That following Christ, abiding in the Father is not easy.

There are tests, temptations and hardships that can easily pull us away.

And there is an enemy who like us to fall

Actually our restoration through forgiveness and our forgiveness of others is a huge entry point for Satan.

This is not a battle we can fight on our own

Ephesians 6:10–13 ESV

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Ephesians 6:18 ESV

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Conclusion - Dependence

Tools to pray with:

Pray the Scriptures - The Lord’s prayer, The Psalms

Pray from your meditation

Acts

Tabernacle Prayer

It may not be enough to just do it in the morning or evening, we need to create patterns through our day to continue to grow in our dependence.