"Teach Us to Pray"

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1-4), Jesus responded with what we know as the Lord's Prayer. The fact that the disciples requested a model for praying shows us that we don't have to feel guilty when we don't understand prayer and need help with it. We seem to think we should know instinctively about praying, but from their question we see that even the disciples -- who were with Jesus every day, witnessing his life and seeing how he prayed -- still needed help with praying.

Second, their question shows us the common human tendency to want to "do" the spiritual life correctly, to know the "right" way. Jesus responds to their deep hunger to know God and feel connected to God. But with the very first words of the prayer he signals a basic truth: prayer and the spiritual life are not about rules but about relationship -- always relationship. Jesus does this often when someone asks for rules, as in saying that all the commandments are about loving God and neighbor. (See Matthew 22:34-39.)

Jesus tells us to begin our praying with, "Our Father who art in heaven." That first word reminds us that we are not alone, that we are linked through God to one another as one family. The spiritual journey is a communal journey. As we come close to God, we are drawn into closer relationship with one another. And by telling us to call God "father," Jesus moves us from images of a remote God to an image of God as one who is with us constantly, one whose likeness we bear at the deepest levels of our being.

Then we are to pray, "Holy is your name," acknowledging God's holiness. This may seem a contradiction, to acknowledge that we are family and then immediately to acknowledge God's holiness (in contrast to our lack of it). But "holy is your name" reminds us that the basic posture of prayer is awe -- awe that grows from seeing God's greatness and yet knowing that one who is so holy yearns for relationship with us. That is why we pray: to deepen the relationship. This is the essence of prayer: being with God as we are and naming God as God is. This encounter changes us, degree by degree, and allows us to experience freedom. (See 2 Corinthians 3:18.)

Several meditations in this issue invite us to explore prayer. You may want to re-read the meditations for March 1, 4, 8, 22, and April 7 and 15 before answering the reflection questions below. (These meditations appeared in the March/April 2002 issue. Look these up by entering the date in the "Previous Devotionals" section of the devotional home page.)

Questions for Reflection:

Are you fearful of or reluctant to approach God? What images deepen your feeling of closeness to God and help you to want to draw closer?

What "rules" or expectations about prayer interfere with your praying? What rules or structures are helpful to you?

Think about God as your father. How is God's nature evident in you? How does seeing this family likeness change your ideas of yourself?

In what ways would you like to deepen your relationship with God? What are your resources for doing that?

What do the opening phrases of the Lord's Prayer mean to you?

"Thy Kingdom Come ..."

The model for prayer that Jesus offered begins, "Our Father," acknowledging our close relationship with God. Then the prayer moves to petition: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10, KJV). These fourteen simple words call for a radical reordering of the world and, more personally, our lives and priorities.

"Thy kingdom come" asks that the world be transformed into a place where God reigns, where things are done by God's standards. Think about what that would mean for your life and your town. We know that our ways are not God's ways nor our thoughts, God's thoughts. (See Isaiah 55:8.) In Mary's song quoted in Luke 1:46-55, Mary praises God as one who lifts up the lowly and scatters the proud, who feeds the hungry and sends the rich away empty. This reverses the usual human order where those who have the gold make the rules; when we pray the Lord's Prayer, this reversal is what we ask for. We ask for all of the cosmos to bend toward God, for "the kingdoms of this world [to] become the kingdoms of our Lord," as John's vision proclaims (Revelation 11:15, KJV).

But the prayer does not leave us considering a lofty ideal. Like most of Jesus' teachings, this one is, finally, infinitely personal. When we pray for God's will to be done "in earth as it is in heaven," we do well to remember that we are made of earth. When we ask for God's will to be done "in earth," we invite God into the earth that is us, into the matter of our lives. This opens the door for God to change us at the deepest levels of our being so that we come to will what God wills.

But how do we move from praying the words to living them? Facing daily decisions, we can stop to ask, Will this make the world more like God wants it to be? Will it bring justice and peace? Will it cause others to know more deeply that they are loved by God? Then we embody our prayer by opening ourselves to receive grace to choose God's way and allow God to work through us.

Several meditations in this issue discuss how we do God's will and allow God to shape us. You may want to re-read the meditations for May 18, 22, and 28 and June 6, 7, 12, 21, 24, and 25 as preparation for the reflection questions below. (These meditations appeared in the May/June 2002 issue. Look these up by entering the date in the "Previous Devotionals" section of the devotional home page.)

Questions for Reflection:

Pick up a newspaper or listen to a newscast today and note the major stories. Do they reflect what you believe God wants for the world? Pray about each of the situations and persons mentioned in the news.

What keeps you from praying, "Thy will be done"? Do you fear what God's will for you may be? If you can pray this readily, how are you able to do so without fear?

What do you understand God's will for the world in general to be? How is this different than God's will for your individual life?

What is your area of continuing struggle in doing God's will? How has the struggle changed for you with the passing of time?

How does your community need to change to be more what God wants? What can you do to bring this part of the kingdom closer to reality?

"Give Us This Day"

O God, bless me today. Give me what I need." Can you pray that? Many of us find it difficult if not impossible to pray for ourselves. But in telling us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread," the Lord's Prayer shows that we are to ask God for the things we need to sustain physical life. Though Jesus said rightly that we do not live by bread alone (Luke 4:4), he also made it clear that we are to look to God for the literal bread we need. Jesus shows us that God is concerned with the details of our lives.

"Give us this day our daily bread" reminds us also that like the Hebrews gathering manna each day in the wilderness, we cannot store up what we need from God. Yesterday's experience with God was for yesterday; today we must come to God again for this day's nourishment, reassurance, direction, and challenge. God sustains us one day at a time.

Praying for specifics can raise questions, of course. Sometimes when we pray, what we ask for is not given. People around the world go hungry in spite of praying for food; loved ones die even when we ask God to heal them. Not always receiving what we ask for does not, however, mean that we stop asking. Asking is a sign of our trust in God. Our relationship with God does not depend on the benefits the relationship offers. We pray, leaving outcomes to God.

But the prayer that Jesus gave us also does not say, "Give me today my daily bread." It says, "Give us today our daily bread." We are bound together with all God's children, and God's provision for us is to be shared. There is enough food on the planet to feed everyone; there is enough energy to keep all of us warm; there is enough wealth to supply everyone's basic needs -- if we share our abundance. In these words about daily needs we can hear Jesus again calling us to a new way of living. What comes to us can be the answer to others' prayers -- if we are willing to open our hearts, our wallets, and our hands. As we allow God's love to flow through us, the needs of God's children can be met.

Several meditations in this issue address praying and using our God-given resources to help meet the needs around us. You may want to read the meditations for July 6, 20, 23, 29 and August 1, 8, 10, 12, 17, and 20 again as preparation for answering the reflection questions below. (These meditations appeared in the July/August 2002 issue. Look these up by entering the date in the "Previous Devotionals" section of the devotional home page.)

Questions for Reflection:

When was the last time you asked God for something specific for yourself or someone else? Did you receive what you prayed for? How did you feel about asking?

Whom do you know among God's children who is in need of food, clothing, medical care or other necessities? How can you share your abundance to meet these needs?

How do you feel when you consider the idea that what God gives us does not belong to us exclusively? What claim do you think God has on your resources and possessions?

When has God met a need for you through someone in your community of faith? For whose help do you want to thank God today?

What did you receive from God's hand yesterday? What do you need from God today?

"Forgive Us Our Sins ..."

In the model prayer that we call the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught us to begin praying by naming our relationship with and our dependence on God. We are to acknowledge God's holiness and ask God to meet our needs. But then the prayer begins to meddle. It directs us to consider our own sins and to mend our relations with others, telling us to pray, "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us."

Forgiveness often does not come easily. We may berate ourselves endlessly for our failures, unable to forgive ourselves even after we have asked God to forgive us. And many of us find it difficult to forgive others. We so enjoy a good grudge! After all, if someone hurts us, we naturally want them to suffer for their actions. But Jesus said that if we do not forgive others, we cannot experience God's forgiveness ourselves. (See Matthew 6:14-15.)

Some are reluctant to forgive because doing so seems to discount the seriousness of the wrongs that others do; actually, forgiving says the opposite. Forgiving requires first acknowledging that an act is wrong. If it were not, forgiveness would not be needed. When we forgive, we are saying, "What you did was wrong, but I release you from its penalty." We also release ourselves when we forgive those who have harmed us. If we do not forgive, we remain bound to the one who has wronged us. Only by forgiving can we put the past behind us. Nursing hurts from the past takes energy, and forgiving frees us to use that energy to live fully and abundantly in the present. If Paul had not forgiven himself for what he had done to Christians, I doubt that he could have written as eloquently of God's grace as he did. If Joseph had not forgiven his brothers for selling him into slavery, I doubt that he could have performed well in the pharaoh's court and become powerful and able to help his family as he did later.

Forgiveness is the door to freedom, and Jesus reminds us to make forgiving and being forgiven a matter of prayer. Several meditations in this issue touch on hurting and forgiving. You may want to read again the meditations for September 11, 15, and 25 and October 6, 12, 13, 20, and 27 as preparation for reflecting on the questions below. (These meditations appeared in the September/October 2002 issue. Look these up by entering the date in the "Previous Devotionals" section of the devotional home page.)

Questions for Reflection:

Do you find it easier to forgive yourself when you feel that you have failed God or to forgive others when they fail you or hurt you? Why do you think you are as you are in this regard?

What is the most serious sin or action you have had to forgive another person for? What was your process for forgiving? How long did it take?

When was the last time you asked someone to forgive you? If you have never asked anyone for forgiveness, why not?

When have you been able to be gracious to someone who asked your forgiveness? When have you struggled to be gracious when someone asked forgiveness? What caused the difference in your responses?

Who has embodied for you God's gracious forgiveness? What words, attitudes, or actions of that person do you want to make a part of your manner in forgiving?

"The Moment of Choice"

The Apostle Paul wrote, "In my flesh, I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. . . . Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me . . . ?" (Romans 7:18-19, 24, NRSV) This plea echoes words from the Lord's Prayer, "Do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one."

We know, as James 1:13 tells us, that God does not "lead us" into temptation, and so this prayer is not a plea for God to refrain from doing that. This prayer asks God to rescue us from ourselves, from all that pulls us away from God. Jesus' teaching here shows us again that he understood what it is to be human. He understood that we want to do what is right -- but we also want to do what is wrong. He reminds us to make this conflict a matter for prayer, just as in other parts of the Lord's Prayer we offer praise and bring to God our concerns about daily needs. In teaching his followers to pray about their struggles, Jesus showed that God wants us to ask for help in the areas where we struggle and sometimes fail. The same God who supplies our "daily bread" offers strength to change direction when we go where we know in our hearts we shouldn't be.

Once when I was struggling to change a behavior and praying for help, I found myself facing the situation that always challenged me. As I walked toward the physical spot where I knew I would encounter the test, I heard the Holy Spirit say in my heart, "This is the moment of choice." And I realized I could choose to do what I had always done -- or I could choose this time to do what I felt God wanted. Since then I have come to realize that in every instance of temptation we come to a "moment of choice." And turning to Christ, who "in every respect has been tested as we are" (Hebrews 4:15, NRSV), helps us to remember God's way and then to choose it.

You may want to read again the meditations for January 12, 15, 19, 20, and 24 and February 3, 7, 10, 13, 17, 20, and 25 as preparation for answering the reflection questions below. They may help you consider when and why you struggle to do what God asks. (These meditations appeared in the January/February 2003 issue. Look these up by entering the date in the "Previous Devotionals" section of the devotional home page.)

Questions for Reflection:

In what situations do you often find yourself struggling between your desires and what you believe God asks? At those times, what helps you to choose God's way?

Read the newspaper or listen to news reports for stories of persons who have done things harmful to themselves or others. How can you pray for these matters? Can you find a way to let them know that you are praying for them?

Consider the last few days. When have you done things that you regretted or wished you could redo differently? What do you want to say to God about those actions?

In times when you are tempted, what can you do to remind yourself to pause and turn to God before acting? What words from scripture could you recall to help you?

What does the Bible story about Jesus' temptation (Matthew 4:1-11) say to you about temptation? What help does it offer when you think about your own temptations?