What Is Prayer?

February 19, 2006

          The simple catechism answer to that question is this: Prayer is speaking to God in words and thoughts. This is not just our idea of what prayer is; it’s God’s Word. What book of the bible is often referred to as “A book of prayer”? (elicit answers from kids/congregation)

          The book of Psalms: The Psalmist says in Psalm 19:14; 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. From this single verse, we can see a simple little pattern for prayer. It comes from the heart of the Psalmist. He recognizes that there are words acceptable in God’s sight. Don’t you wonder what those words might be? Even the inner thoughts of the Psalmist are known to God, those thoughts being the meditation of the heart that he desires be acceptable in God’s sight. Even they speak to God. And who is this God to whom the Psalmist speaks? It is the Lord, the Rock and the Redeemer of the Psalmist. So from this verse we see that prayer is …

SPEAKING TO GOD IN WORDS AND THOUGHTS

I.      Speaking to God in words. So what words might there be that God finds acceptable? Consider the words that roll off our lips in a normal day. How are we to know what is acceptable or not?

A.  I suppose we could put together a list of all the words from all the languages of the world, and sort through them to determine what is good or bad. But wouldn’t that be like us picking words that we think God should find acceptable? And wouldn’t that be the same as telling God that He should like what we choose? That isn’t quite what the Psalmist seems to have in mind, is it? So, what words then are acceptable in God’s sight? Where might we go to find them?

B.   In this regard, I like to use an old Latin phrase that Luther considered important for anyone who would be a student of God, a “theologian.” Now I know you all are not going to become theologians. However, as Disciples of Christ, you are by the very definition of the word “disciple,” an understudy of Jesus. So, I think the Latin phrase is appropriate for you to consider regarding what words are acceptable in God’s sight. The phrase goes like this: oratio, meditatio, tentatio, faciunt theologum. Some words more familiar to us that are derived from these Latin words are oratory (the making of speech); meditation (reflection, thought, consideration); and tension (stress, strain, pressure).

C.   What Luther was saying is that prayer, meditation, and tension (affliction) develop (make) the theologian. But Luther had in mind not just speaking, as if to another person. No, he was thinking about God’s word when he used “oratio”. That is where we find the words acceptable to God. How do we know that? It is because they come from God himself. These words are powerful words that work to make us Holy and without blame in God’s sight. Jesus, in His High Priestly Prayer asks His Father on behalf of the disciples to: "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth." (John 17:17, ESV) To sanctify means to set apart for a holy purpose, or simply, to make holy. I suspect that God the Father hears very clearly this prayer of His Son Jesus, and answers it.

          The point is this: our choice of words is not what makes our words or prayers acceptable in God’s sight. Quite to the contrary, it is His Word working in us that makes us, and our words, acceptable. So, the more contact we have with the written Word of God, the more we learn to trust it, and the one who gave it, namely God. Isn’t that marvelous!? I can’t help it. It just makes me want to say, “I love it when a plan of God’s comes together!” I just love it! Don’t you? Well, that takes us to the second part of Luther’s phrase “meditatio” and the second part of our outline …  

II.   Speaking to God in thoughts. Remember, we are talking about prayer: what it is. It is speaking to God in words and thoughts. So now we take up the meditation aspect of prayer.

A.  In this regard, I want to take into account the words of the Psalmist, only this time, from Psalm 1:1-2. "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2, ESV) The word law is not to be taken as some kind of legal thing, but as a living thing. The Torah of God is not a list of duties, but a way of life for God’s people. This is what the person who is blessed thinks about as a matter of living out life. Blessed is the man who ponders these things. Blessed because he is able to think on the things of God, spiritual things. The wicked person cannot do that. St. Paul, the apostle says it this way: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14, ESV)

B.   The point is this: the meditation Luther and the psalmist speak of is not a transcendental, or yoga kind of thing where one contemplates life and the world apart from God’s Word, or simply seeks to relax. Instead, it is the pondering in ones heart and mind of God’s Word. Think about this. How is it that our prayers could ever go unanswered when the relationship between God, the Word, and our human flesh are so close as to be called ONE? Again, in the High Priestly Prayer Jesus speaks on our behalf: "“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me." (John 17:20-23, ESV)

C.   “Oratio, meditatio, tentatio faciunt theologum”. We will not go into the tension (affliction) part of this phrase today. Suffice it to say for now that this is what suffering with Christ that St. Paul speaks of is all about. In fact, we are so close with our Savior that His suffering has become our suffering, and our suffering His. No wonder His yoke is easy and His burden light. Today, our focus is on prayer. So, now let me ask all of you, “What is prayer?” Prayer is speaking to God in words and thoughts.

          In a day when prayer is such a generic thing people say they do, it is good for us to consider what it is from God’s perspective. In fact, that is exactly what prayer is, speaking to God in words and thoughts from His perspective. May we all realize how richly bless-ed it is to be able to pray like the Psalmist, and as Jesus taught. It is an eternal blessing to be so close to God. Amen.