How do we pray and Why?

Every Sunday during children church, I would ask my students if they had any prayer requests. I noticed that in the beginning they were a bit nervous, and I would encourage others and give them ideas on what they could ask prayer for. I began to start “prayer time” explaining to the children that prayer was simply talking to God. And when we do prayer request is not only telling God but trusting that He will not only listen but that He will work on it. God not only listens but He cares. Then as the months went by the children began to bring their own request. Sometimes they will have 2 or 3. I started to see their faith in God through their prayers. I will have them pray for the other children’s prayers request.

I remember one Sunday I felt led to share them about one time when my mom prayed for healing for me, as a baby and how God answered her prayers, and I was healed. A couple of Sundays after I had one little girl, Charlotte, wanting to share something with the rest of the children. She shared that she went to the beach and had a bad sun burned on her chin. And she said “And Ms. Cindy I did what you said and prayed to God that it wouldn’t hurt. It stopped hurting! ... (she stopped and continue) I want to pray that this scab won’t leave a scar.” I saw and her the faith hat little girl had. The following Sunday she came, and she showed all of us her chin and said, “Ms. Cindy, the scab left no scar.” I was impressed by her faith and God’s faithfulness. I saw how bad the sunburned was and she had not scar and it even helped increase my faith. To that day children were encouraged to share their answered prayers.

I pray that if anything those children can remember the importance of prayer. I learned that

Purpose of the series of “The Why behind What” is to learn why as Christians we do the things we do. Today I felt led to preach about prayer. If you can go with me to Matthew 6:5-13

“Prayer

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘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 today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation,[a] but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’”

Like I have mentioned before Jesus was known to call people out and be outspoken. He had seen how the pharisees and the teachers would go in fornt of everyone and showcase themselves as holier than everyone else becaue of the long and lengthy prayers they would do. When one prays, it is very important to know that God not only hears what you are saying but He sees/feels your heart. Jesus knew that those prayers were not sincere they were not coming from the heart. And Jesus teaching his followers and his disciples was teaching them what not to do. And He used the Pharisees as an example.

He knows you heart and knows the desire of it. For Him it is more than words but it is with what ttitufe and pisture you come with. In my favorite spalms 51 David says, “a contrite and broken heart you oh God will not despise” You see God is sentitive to the voice of His children. I have heard people in church say to not stop coming to God with our complains like if we were just using prayer to whine anbout things. The time of prayer is when you are allowed to come just as you are. Even if it Broken, tired, exhausted, worried, sad, mad, disspointed, doubting. There is something about coming to the father broken and giving it all to Him. How does one surrender all those emotions, how Ive done it and how ive seen my spirtial mentors do it it simply twllin ghimi exactly what is in your heart. Being honest not fearing that what you will say mught make Him mad or offend Him. Take joy that God knows your heart He sees it and knows that you are simply venting to yor Father to your Creator. He will not use it against you.

Before Jesus gave the examples to the disciples as to how prayer should look like. You misyt know a couple of things. Out of the 4 gospels, to reminds are matthew, mark, luke and John. Only Luke and Matthew have the Lord’s prayer. The author of Matthew, wanted to warn his readers of 2 type of prayers that were popular during Jesus’ time and unfortunately said a lot by our current time. There are, the inauthentic prayers: flashy prayers that seek public approval and the wordy, repetitious, prayers common in the Greco-Roman world. That is why the author of the book of Matthew dimed it necessary to include this portion in his gospel.

Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray at the same time calling out the pharisees and the hypocrites. As believers I hope we understand that we are taught to pray to the Father not to bound us or add to our checking list of what to do as achitstians. But it is to have this communictuion with God. Jesus had to die on the cross so that instead of us having to go to a high priest and telling him our concerns. We can go straight to the Father in the name of Jesus becaue it was through Jesus thorugh His blood that broke the wall that adam and eve had built when they tooka bite of that forbidden fruit. Jesus knew the power and the importance of prayer and it seemed that He had enough of how the pharisses were using it as means of protecting their religious status.

I remember as a child, the following verse stuck with me 6 “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” I was a ncild so I told myself that when I pray I was going to do it in my room and in my room only. I owuldnt tell others about my prayer life becaue I would feel that I was braggind. If I would share I would feel guilty and feel like my preayer did not count. That mindset did affect the way that I saw God becaue I felt controlled. I felt that he would watch me closely if I shared my prayeing life and if I did He would call me out like Jesus did to the pharisees. And it wasn’t only in prayer but it was when I would give money to homeless or even helping people out. At the same time I learned to do all those kind gestures for God. That is a way that I show that I love Him and that I care for those that He cares. However, God did help me see verse 6 in a healthy way. You see not to sound repetive but all the rituals the Jews would do would be get honor and pats in the back. The pharisses would go out of their way to prove to others how holy they were. They would recite the commandments by heart to prove that they knew a lot about God. So that insitanly made them holy and those that were gentiles (not jewish) would see them in place them in a higher place so Jesus wanted to make sure they knew that meant nothing to the Father. God heard the prayers” of the pharisess” but he saw the reasons behind those prayers. They were not sincere. God saw that. This is when I adopted “God knows my heart” Becaue if I were to share about my prayer life He knew that I was doing it to gloyfy Him and to show How good He is. Not to showcase that I pray. Or to show how Christian I am. At the ened of the end we btohers ansdisters are pray to communicater with the Father.

Knowing all that let us look at the lord’s prayer.

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘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 today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation,[a] but deliver us from the evil one.[b]’”

I wil not go into detail but “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the gory forefver amen” was added later by the church. To make the long explanation short it was added as the exhortation/praise to God.

The prayers starts with “our Father” This is way of caliming that we are not orpahns we indeed have a father in heaven. God wants that realtinship. He years for a father and dather/ father and son realtinship. Now I want to be caeufel in explaining this because I am aware that our human brains relate “Father” to the earhlty father figure. To what we know a father to be. Some of us had a great father. I was forutnat enough to have a father that cared for me and protected my innocence as much as I can. And some of us probably do not have great memories or an exmapkle of what a good Father is. So I want to explain that the type of Father that God is does not compare to what an earthly Father is. This type of Father is constant, trustworthy, reliable, just, caring, powerful HE IS OUR CREATOR. He is notthink like out earthly Fathers and I want to tell you I think He is ok if people refer to Him as Friend, companion or Love. He is not demanding you to call Him Father. However, I have faith that He will show you His paternal side and you will know what a true loving Father is.

There is nothing we can hide from our creator. But He is gentle so He awaits to hear from you. For you to come…Yes sometimes He gently tugs our heart to go and talk to Him.There have been several occasions where I say “God you know what im thinking. I do not need to say tell you.” He knows what s weighting on me. However, there is something about starting “Father and continue with whats on your heaert” There is a sense that I am not alone in this. I am given Hope. I know that my caring heavenly Father has taken my worries. It is by faith of course. But we will not have the faith over night it is through getting to know who God is that we will learn to trust Him. How can you trust someone that you do not know?

So the prayer begins with stating who God is to us. Then the prayer continues with affirming God’s Holiness. “Hallowed” means to make Holy. God’s name is holy we are proclaiming that truth. Sometimes our prayers mainly consists of petitions. And from the sotry that I shared ealier about my students, I believe that it is ok for us to do that and we are called to bring our petision to the Farther, as we will see later in the prayer. However, noticed that is not how the prayers starts or what is all about. When I pray I like to spend time stating who God is. He knows but I do sense freedom when I proclaim it.

We are not only proclaiming His Holiness but also His almightiness. Not only does He have the power to do His will in heaven but also here on Earth. We say this part efery Sunday but do we ankwoeldege the validity of it. I encourage all of us this week to remember this part of the prayer when we are concern when we are worried or afraid. God has the control of heaven and Earth. He is the one who put order in the sky we need to believe that He can put order in our lives. Whichever way He sees fit. It might not look how tou want it to be. It is about trusting in Him.

The rest of the prayers consists of petitions. “Give us our daily bread” “Forgive us our debts” the first petition is for our human needs. God cares for our needs He does not see them to small or measly. Not only is He our Father but He is our provider and our Healer…This week we got two automated called about two people from our church asking for prayer request. I never been in a church that does that. I can sense that this church believes in the power of prayer. You know that our petitions go to the Father and trusting in Him.

The second dpettion is for our soul for our spirit. Asking for forgiveness. Though that we are admitting our flesh and sinful side but aknwlsoledging that only God has the power to forgive. And not only that but we are able to be forgiven. Sometimes we carry the same sin over and over not realizing that we have been forgiven. We can let it go and not carry the weight of that sin or the shame… This also lead sus to the part “as we forgive our debtors” We have been forgiven and we have been set free form our guilty. Just as our Holy father has done it we are led by Jesus to do it too. Remember He included that part of the prayer for a reason. Before I move on I do need to say I know it is not eady to forgive. And it it a process so continue the process of healing and the process of forgiving. God knows your heart and knows the pain and the reason why is difficult to forgive. You continue to trust in Him. You are in the right path

Prayer is an address to God expressing praise and thanksgiving or making requests for oneself or interceding on behalf of others. It is not meant to be a chant or something repetitive. With that said I am not putting down prayers that the universal church recites. There are some scripts that the church recited and what we call liturgy. Liturgy has been written by ancient priests and fathers of the church. lIke our own John Wesley. Nothing wrong with it. It is when begin to use them as the only form of communication with God that they begin to lose meaning and one forgets the power those lines entail. When they simply become words. That is when I think that we need to say prayers from the heart. That come from us.

Before I end my sermon I want to share something that happened Last Sunday as I was walking Jackie to his car I noticed that there was a gray car driving arounf our parling lot. I noticed him and we made eye contact, I asked him if I could help hinm with anyting and he said that he needed to pray but the sanctuary was closed. I invited him in and brought him here to the sanctuary. I left him ny himself. As I was saying goodbye to both Jackie and his eife, the guy started heading out the door. I asdked him if he wanted dot talk. With tears in his eyes he shared what was in his heart. I have to be honest I was not expecting this encounter and was careful in what I was going to say. But I nknew that nothing that I could say will heal his heart and I remembered “a contrite broken heart” God will not turn His back on. SO all I could think of was to pray for Him. We styed in silence for a while and he got up wiped his tears. Said thank you and left. I only trust that God heard our prayers. There are a lot of broken people outside these walls. I am sure of that becaeu I am sure that there are broken people here today. But take heart that it is in our brokenness that God meets us too. In our joys, our grieves, our pains. There is no occasion that God cannot meet us. We simply have to go to Him in posture of prayer and open up our hearts to Him who sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for our sins, for our illness, for our chains, for our hearts. But most importantly so that we can spend eternal life with Him. Let us pray…