What is so Special about Prayer?

What is Prayer?

We discuss prayer a lot. We tell people we will pray for them. We pray as a group and we stress the importance of prayer time as an individual. We have very structured prayers that are traditional and very intimate prayers that once they get started can seem like a faucet has been turned on with emotional expression just pouring out. As prevalent as prayer is sometimes we just have a basic question that one may be embarrassed to ask. How should we pray?

To understand prayer and how to pray we must learn what prayer tells us about God and ourselves and our relationship to God. Often times we may see prayers that begin with “Blessed are you Lord our God King of the Universe...” and we may also hear or read prayers that begin with “Heavenly Father...”. So which is it? Are we talking to our Heavenly Father or to our King? Well both.

To understand prayer and how to pray we must learn what it tells us about God and us and our relationship to God. 1st often times we may see prayers that begin with “Blessed are you Lord our God King of the Universe...” and we may also hear or read prayers that begin with “Heavenly Father...”. So which is it? Are we talking to our Heavenly Father or our King? Well both.

In the western mind we may focus on the Heavenly Father. It is no surprise we where founded on the principals that a monarchy is evil and no one should have that much power. Naturally we stressed that our loving God was our Heavenly Father. As is common in the west we tend to take things to far and we have turned the role of Heavenly Father in to kindly old grandpa. We want to treat this role as an older figure who we crawl into their lap and put our arms around our their neck, and tell them all the bad things that are happening to us, and that none of it is our fault it is just everyone else is stupid and can we some candy and maybe some money and thank you good bye I am going back to doing what I was doing when I got hurt. This is not what our Heavenly Father is. He is not the father we had nor the father we think we wanted, he is the perfect Father better than we can ever imagine. As such he deserves the respect of that perfect Father. Like a perfect Father he does come to us when we are in need. Like a perfect Father he gently and lovingly corrects us, disciplines us, and builds us in to his good children.

What we in the west miss out on though is not remembering the he is also our King. Sure intellectually we may understand he is the King of Kings, but if we are honest we think of that in the same way as we think of distant lands. They exist and we learn about them but it really does not affect us. It is dangerous for us to think in this manner about the King of Kings he is our King very real and very near. We must honor him as our King.

Honoring God as our King is done in many ways and a little different than when we honor God as our Heavenly Father. We do not approach our King as we do our Father. If our Father deserves respect how much more so does our King? Understand God is not a King as we have seen human kings of the earth. He is the Perfect King. He is a King that loves his people and truly does what is perfect. His laws are perfect, his ordinances or perfect, his teachings are perfect, his judgments are perfect, and he is above all things. He is not a human King he is the God King This is set apart from earthly kings. Like a perfect King he wields the scepter and brings justice to his kingdom, and wields the rod and brings righteous rulings.

What does that mean we are? We are the royal children of our Heavenly Father the King of the Universe. We are his children. We have to start acting like it. We have to start talking like it. We have to start being the role we have been given. This is who we are and our relationship with our King.

So if God is our Heavenly Father and our King how do we approach him? Will it depends on the time? When can a child hug their father and sit in their lap and ask for things? Any time the want right? Well what about when their father is driving a vehicle? What about when their father is at work? What if their father was in court? Some may say they would do so even then. That might be dangerous and their might be consequences. Let us turn it around and look at it the other way. If you father was the King would you call him Majesty every time you saw him? Would you bow at his every presence? Would you rise at every entrance? What about in private? what if you are hurt? What if he surprised you playfully? So their would be times when one should approach God as their Heavenly Father and Times when one should approach him as their King. He is always both but we are allowed and expected to approach him differently at different times though always with love and honor.

So what does this have to do with prayer? It has everything to do with prayer. “How do we pray” is answered by the who we are talking too. Yeshua’s was asked about praying and in 2 places we have his answers recorded. In we have this example of prayer given.

5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the congregations and on the corners of the streets, to be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward.

6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sees in secret shall reward you openly.

7 “And when praying, do not keep on babbling like the gentiles. For they think that they shall be heard for their many words.

8 “Therefore do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Is Yeshua saying we cannot pray in public? What about in an assembly such as this? In fact we should be secret and pray discretely only… right? If one reads the entire passage the warning is about doing our deeds to be seen by men. It has nothing to do with public prayer it has everything to do with inappropriate use of prayer as a mechanism for self glorification. In we an example of Yeshua praying in public. When Yeshua fed the four thousand men and their families he did what… gave thanks and broke the bread. They then distributed the bread and it was most likely even prayed over again when it was distributed to the smaller groups as was the custom.

So first our prayer should be sincere. This is regardless of if we are praying to God as our Heavenly Father or our King we should be sincere and direct.

We also have other examples of how to approach our God King.

When we look at the Traditions of the sages and how they would pray we have this entry from the Berakhot Tractate 4:5

[A] One who was riding on an ass should dismount [to recite the Prayer].

[B] If he cannot dismount he should turn [to face towards Jerusalem].

[C] And if he cannot turn, he should direct his thoughts to the chamber of the Holy of Holies [in the Temple of Jerusalem].

The general gist of this is when praying in particular the Amidah stop what one is doing and face where the throne of our King was and pray.

We know that in the book of Acts several times it is mentioned the Disciples are praying in the temple. They would have been standing then and they would have been keeping this tradition. When one is praying to their King they should be standing as is due the respect of the King. We also have multiple records in Acts of the disciples praying the prayers from the temple. These would have been the formal prayers such as the Amidah. So when praying to God as our King we should stand be respectful and sincere. We can participate in the prayers with a group or silently to ourselves. There should be focus and nothing else on our mind accept that which we are praying about.

We know that in the book of Acts several times it is mentioned the Disciples are praying in the temple. They would have been standing then. When one is praying to their King they should be standing as is due the respect of the King. When one is praying to their Heavenly Father they can recline or sit they are with their Heavenly Father.

What about when we are talking to our Heavenly Father? These are the prayers we are most familiar with. These are those prayers that are passionate and filled with emotion. These are the prayers that are in private and honestly it makes since as we are the most vulnerable then. This is not to say that the other prayers are not emotional or that we cannot be passionate about them it is only to see these are most often emotional. We have a heart breaking of example of this as well in 36 Then יהושׁע came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the taught ones, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

37 And He took with Him Kěpha and the two sons of Zaḇdai, and He began to be grieved and deeply distressed.

38 Then He said to them, “My being is exceedingly grieved, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”

39 And going forward a little, He fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I desire, but as You desire.”

Here we have Yeshua on his face pleading with his Father. He is respectful he honors his father he is also emotional and pleading. This is in private and is not the traditional prayers we typically see.

So then how are we to approach our Heavenly Father the King of the Universe? When we are gathered together in a service, there will be times as if we are approaching the throne of our King let us be respectful and join together in traditional prayers that help us to focus and build each other. When we are talking to our Heavenly Father and seeking his pleasure and assistance we can do so as a child seeking their Heavenly Father. We can just poor out our hearts and emotionally appeal to our Heavenly Father There is room for both and they are both purposeful we should participate in both as we have both a Heavenly Father and God King.