Lord, Teach us to Pray

Lord, Teach us to Pray

(Lk. 11.1-13)

A version of GS008 with updated illustrations.

There are many different types of prayer:

• praise, in which we worship God for who he is;

• thanksgiving, in which we thank God for what he has done;

• confession, in which we ask God to forgive us;

• contemplative prayer, in which we quietly become aware of God's presence; ...and there are many other types of prayer.

But the two types of prayer that we probably all struggle with from time to time, are:

• petition, when we ask God for things for ourselves; and

• intercession, when we ask on behalf of others.

And it is these type of 'asking' prayers that are prominent in our gospel reading this morning.

I suppose the main reason why we struggle with this sort of prayer is because God seems to answer our prayers in very unpredictable ways. Sometimes it seems that God gives us just what we asked for, ...yet at other times he seems to give us just the opposite.

Take for example the Alpha courses that we've been running during the last 3 years.

We always set them up without knowing who will come on them, ...but we pray that God will send the right people.

Usually, about a month before the course is due to start, David will say to me, "How many are booked up for this next one, then?", ...and it's usually about 2 or 3.

But we carry on with the arrangements, and I'm always amazed that on the first evening, we always have a room full!

God has always given us just what we prayed for.

I'm sure that most of us here this morning could think of ways in which God has given us exactly what we asked for ...perhaps in quite ordinary ways, ...or perhaps in quite spectacular ways, ...But either way we were left in no doubt that God has heard our prayer, and has given us what we asked for.

Yet I am sure that most of us could think of other times when we have prayed, and things turned out just the opposite of what we asked for.

Every week, during our intercessions, we pray for people who are ill. That God's healing touch may make them well.

For some, that's exactly what happens, ...but for others, we sometimes see no improvement, ...and some have died.

And what about the bigger things, like the on-going wars in the world. How many millions of prayers have been said for peace? ...and yet the bloodshed has continued.

Hasn't God heard our requests? ...then why hasn't he brought about what we asked for?

(I wish I knew the answer!)

But it's at times like this we realise how much we still have to learn about prayer, ...it's an area where none of can be called experts...

I have some sympathy for the skipper of boat, which crashed into rocks and began to sink.

"Does anyone know how to pray?" he shouted.

"Yes I do", replied a zealous Christian, leaping to his feet.

"Good", said the skipper. "You pray. ...The rest of us will put on life-jackets. We're one short."

...and perhaps we can identify with the disciples in our gospel reading, who saw Jesus praying and afterwards said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray...".

And Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say:

"Father,

hallowed be your name

your kingdom come,

your kingdom come;

give us each day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins,

for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

And lead us not into temptation."

We're so familiar with The Lord's Prayer that we can fail to recognize the impact that the first word probably made on the disciples, ..."Our Father". It's wasn't a term that people normally used when speaking to God, ...but rather a term which children used when speaking to their dad.

I don't know about you, but part of me feels a bit uncomfortable about referring to God as "dad". "Our dad in heaven, hallowed be your name...". It can sound a bit disrespectful referring to the Almighty in such a familiar way.

And it probably sounded just as shocking to the disciples. But that's the very point that Jesus was making. When we pray to God, we are not to think of him primarily as an all-powerful person, (although of course he is that), ...but more as a caring, loving dad.

Prayer, the way that Jesus taught us, is to be understood within the context of a personal relationship with God.

Some people think of God in terms of a distant being, ...who created the world in the first place, but who now doesn't get involved with it. He is just sitting back and watching what happens.

But Jesus taught about God as someone who is actively involved in the world, and who loves to give his children good things.

...But that's not to say that dad's always give us what we ask for.

[God is not like a vending machine.

Now what's the difference between a loving dad and a vending machine?

Well a vending machine gives you everything you ask for.

In goes the money.

Now let's see.

Tea or coffee? ...I'll have coffee.

Black, white, extra white, or extra black? ...I'll have white.

No sugar, sugar, extra sugar, nothing but sugar? ...I'll have sugar.

And then it all comes out ...just as you expected it would.

Down comes the coffee, ...down comes the milk, ...down comes the sugar,

...and finally, ...down comes the cup!

It always happens exactly the same.

But dad's aren't quite like that. They don't always do what their children ask.]

When our daughter, Jennie, was younger, this was something that she particularly struggled with.

I remember one occasion at the church camp, when she couldn't understand why we wouldn't let her wander off by herself, across three fields and through a wood, so that she could play by the river.

And at 7 o'clock that evening, on a trip to the beach when it was quite cold and windy, she couldn't understand why we wouldn't let her put her swimming costume on.

And similarly, God doesn't always do exactly what we ask. And in our gospel reading Jesus goes on to give two parables, which help us to understand how we should react when this happens.

The first parable is verses 5-8, and the thrust of it is this. ...We're to keep on persisting. ...Don't give up.

Imaging a friend arriving unexpectedly in the middle of the night.

Now in Jesus' day people had a solemn obligation to provide hospitality for their guests. ...But you have no food in the house, and the shops are shut, so you go next door to borrow some from your neighbour.

But he's in bed, ...and in those days the whole family would be sleeping close together on a raised platform above the floor. If one person was to get up he might well wake the whole family up, ...so your neighbour tells you to "clear off".

But what else can you do? Your visitor is hungry, and you've got no food.

So you keep on pestering him, and eventually he gets out of bed and gives you what you want.

The point of the parable is not that God is unwilling to grant our requests, (as we shall see later, he longs to give us good things), ...but rather, that we are to be persistent in asking.

Jesus doesn't tell us why we have to be persistent, ...and I don't understand why God doesn't answer some of our prayers sooner. ...But if we are not prepared to be persistent in prayer, perhaps it's because the thing that we are asking for isn't really that important to us?

The sense of what Jesus goes on to say is this:

"Ask, and keep on asking, and it will be given to you;

search, and keep on searching, and you will find;

Knock, and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you."

Jesus doesn't promise his disciples that they will always get what they ask, ...but he assures them that if they persistently ask, seek or knock, then it will not be in vain (Caird, p153).

So Jesus encourages us to keep on persisting, ...but in the second parable he also encourages us to keep on trusting.

Verse 11:

Jesus said, "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion.

You see it is easy to play tricks on little children. You could find a stone which looks like a small loaf of bread, or you could make a snake look just like a fish, or you could roll up scorpion and make it look like an egg, (Nelson Dictionary).]

The point of the parable is that God doesn't play bad jokes on us. And yet when things don't turn out the way that we wanted, it's easy to feel that God has played a bad joke on us, ...or that he has badly let us down.

And it can seem even worse when we've been persistent in prayer, ...but time has now run out, it's now too late, and we didn't receive what we asked for.

At times like this, all we can do is keep on trusting. Trusting that God doesn't play bad jokes on us, and trusting that he must have a good reason for allowing things to happen as they did.

After several years have passed, we can look back at what happened, and sometimes we can realise that it was all for the best after all. ...But sometimes we remain just as confused; and all we can do is keep on trusting that God had a good reason, even though we can't see it.

For our heavenly Father, our loving dad, loves to give good things to his children.

Someone has put it like this:

"...no matter what God may send, his children must persist in the confidence that he knows what he is about. ...It was in that trust that Jesus went to the cross." (Caird, p153)

Do you remember at the Mount of Olives, on the night before he died, Jesus prayed that he wouldn't have to face the agony of what was before him. He prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will be done, but yours be done." (Lk. 22.42)

But God didn't take the cup from him, and Jesus went to the cross trusting that God knew what he was doing.

And so as we continue to ask God for things, let us keep on persisting, and let us keep on trusting that he knows what he is about.

Lord, Teach us to Pray

(Lk. 11.1-13)

A version of GS008 with updated illustrations.

Opening Activity

Well, some of us have been on our Summer holidays already. Marks and Spencer are well into their Summer Sale, so I guess it won’t be long before the Christmas cards are appearing in the shops.

So I thought I’d get in even earlier this year and start making my Christmas present list. Has anyone else got any ideas what they might be asking for this Christmas?

(take some suggestions)

Well, I wonder how many of us will be getting what we asked for this Christmas. Retailers are increasingly aware of the ‘pester power’ factor of children going on and on at their parents until they get what they want – hence, I guess the overload of toy advertising we get on the television from about October half term onwards.

But Jesus also knew something about pester power, and on of his parables told the story of a man who pestered his neighbour for food in the middle of the night, and eventually got what he wanted through sheer persistence.

But Jesus didn’t tell that story as an example of how to be a good neighbour. Instead he wanted to encourage us to be persistent in our prayers. If we really want something from God, we should ask and keep on asking. This won’t always guarantee that God will give us exactly what we ask for, but it will show him just how serious we are about it.

So let’s try and apply a little pester power in our persistent praying, but at the same time perhaps we ought to try spending some time listening to God, so that we can be sure we’re asking for the right sort of things.

Talk

There are many different types of prayer:

• praise, in which we worship God for who he is;

• thanksgiving, in which we thank God for what he has done;

• confession, in which we ask God to forgive us;

• contemplative prayer, in which we quietly become aware of God's presence; ...and there are many other types of prayer.

But the two types of prayer that we probably all struggle with from time to time, are:

• petition, when we ask God for things for ourselves; and

• intercession, when we ask on behalf of others.

And it is these type of 'asking' prayers that are prominent in our gospel reading this morning.

I suppose the main reason why we struggle with this sort of prayer is because God seems to answer our prayers in very unpredictable ways. Sometimes it seems that God gives us just what we asked for, ...yet at other times he seems to give us just the opposite.

Take for example the Alpha courses that we've been running during the last few years. We always set them up without knowing who will come on them, ...but we pray that God will send the right people.

Often, about a month before the course is due to start, there may be very few people booked to come, and we start to wonder if we’re going to be able to go ahead with it. But we carry on with the arrangements, and by the first evening we always seem to have good numbers. God has given us just what we prayed for.

I'm sure that most of us here this morning could think of ways in which God has given us exactly what we asked for ...perhaps in quite ordinary ways, ...or perhaps in quite spectacular ways, ...But either way we were left in no doubt that God has heard our prayer, and had given us what we asked for.

Yet I am sure that most of us could think of other times when we have prayed, and things turned out just the opposite of what we asked for. Every week, during our intercessions, we pray for people who are ill. That God's healing touch may make them well.

For some, that's exactly what happens, (Luke)...but for others, we sometimes see no improvement, ...and some have died. And what about the bigger things, like the on-going wars in the world. How many millions of prayers have been said for peace? ...and yet the bloodshed has continued. Hasn't God heard our requests? ...then why hasn't he brought about what we asked for? (I wish I knew the answer!) But it's at times like this we realise how much we still have to learn about prayer, ...it's an area where none of can be called experts...

I have some sympathy for the skipper of boat, which crashed into rocks and began to sink. “Does anyone know how to pray?" he shouted. "Yes I do", replied a zealous Christian, leaping to his feet.

"Good", said the skipper. "You pray. ...The rest of us will put on life-jackets. We're one short."

...and perhaps we can identify with the disciples in our gospel reading, who saw Jesus praying and afterwards said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray...".

And Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say:

"Father,

hallowed be your name

your kingdom come,

your kingdom come;

give us each day our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins,

for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

And lead us not into temptation."

We're so familiar with The Lord's Prayer that we can fail to recognize the impact that the first word probably made on the disciples, ..."Our Father". It's wasn't a term that people normally used when speaking to God, ...but rather a term which children used when speaking to their dad. I don't know about you, but part of me feels a bit uncomfortable about referring to God as "dad". "Our dad in heaven, hallowed be your name...". It can sound a bit disrespectful referring to the Almighty in such a familiar way.

And it probably sounded just as shocking to the disciples. But that's the very point that Jesus was making. When we pray to God, we are not to think of him primarily as an all-powerful person, (although of course he is that), ...but more as a caring, loving dad.

Prayer, the way that Jesus taught us, is to be understood within the context of a personal relationship with God. Some people think of God in terms of a distant being, ...who created the world in the first place, but who now doesn't get involved with it. He is just sitting back and watching what happens. But Jesus taught about God as someone who is actively involved in the world, and who loves to give his children good things.

...But that's not to say that dad's always give us what we ask for. God is not like a vending machine. Now what's the difference between a loving dad and a vending machine?

Well a vending machine gives you everything you ask for. In goes the money.

Now let's see.

Tea or coffee? ...I'll have coffee.

Black, white, extra white, or extra black? ...I'll have white.

No sugar, sugar, extra sugar, nothing but sugar? ...I'll have sugar.

And then it all comes out ...just as you expected it would. Down comes the coffee, ...down comes the milk, ...down comes the sugar, ...and finally, ...down comes the cup! It always happens exactly the same.

But dad's aren't quite like that. They don't always do what their children ask.

When our daughter, Jennie, was younger, this was something that she particularly struggled with. I remember one occasion when we were camping, when she couldn't understand why we wouldn't let her wander off by herself, across three fields and through a wood, so that she could play by the river.

And at 7 o'clock that evening, on a trip to the beach when it was quite cold and windy, she couldn't understand why we wouldn't let her put her swimming costume on.

And similarly, God doesn't always do exactly what we ask. And in our gospel reading Jesus goes on to give two parables, which help us to understand how we should react when this happens.

The first parable is verses 5-8, and the thrust of it is this. ...We're to keep on persisting. ...Don't give up. Imagine a friend arriving unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Now in Jesus' day people had a solemn obligation to provide hospitality for their guests. ...But you have no food in the house, and the shops are shut, so you go next door to borrow some from your neighbour. But he's in bed, ...and in those days the whole family would be sleeping close together on a raised platform above the floor. If one person was to get up he might well wake the whole family up, ...so your neighbour tells you to "clear off". But what else can you do? Your visitor is hungry, and you've got no food. So you keep on pestering him, and eventually he gets out of bed and gives you what you want.

The point of the parable is not that God is unwilling to grant our requests, (as we shall see later, he longs to give us good things), ...but rather, that we are to be persistent in asking. Jesus doesn't tell us why we have to be persistent, ...and I don't understand why God doesn't answer some of our prayers sooner. ...But if we are not prepared to be persistent in prayer, perhaps it's because the thing that we are asking for isn't really that important to us?

The sense of what Jesus goes on to say is this: "Ask, and keep on asking, and it will be given to you; search, and keep on searching, and you will find; Knock, and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you." Jesus doesn't promise his disciples that they will always get what they ask, ...but he assures them that if they persistently ask, seek or knock, then it will not be in vain (Caird, p153).

So Jesus encourages us to keep on persisting, ...but in the second parable he also encourages us to keep on trusting. Jesus said, "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion.

You see it is easy to play tricks on little children. You could find a stone that looks like a small loaf of bread, or you could make a snake look just like a fish, or you could roll up scorpion and make it look like an egg. The point of the parable is that God doesn't play bad jokes on us. And yet when things don't turn out the way that we wanted, it's easy to feel that God has played a bad joke on us, ...or that he has badly let us down.

And it can seem even worse when we've been persistent in prayer, ...but time has now run out, it's now too late, and we didn't receive what we asked for.

At times like this, all we can do is keep on trusting. Trusting that God doesn't play bad jokes on us, and trusting that he must have a good reason for allowing things to happen as they did.

After several years have passed, we can look back at what happened, and sometimes we can realise that it was all for the best after all. ...But sometimes we remain just as confused; and all we can do is keep on trusting that God had a good reason, even though we can't see it. For our heavenly Father, our loving dad, loves to give good things to his children.

Someone has put it like this: "...no matter what God may send, his children must persist in the confidence that he knows what he is about. ...It was in that trust that Jesus went to the cross." (Caird, p153)

Do you remember at the Mount of Olives, on the night before he died, Jesus prayed that he wouldn't have to face the agony of what was before him. He prayed, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will be done, but yours be done." (Lk. 22.42) But God didn't take the cup from him, and Jesus went to the cross trusting that God knew what he was doing.

And so as we continue to ask God for things, let us keep on persisting, and let us keep on trusting that he knows what he is about.

Prayers

Heavenly Father, as you have taught us, through Jesus, we come to you in prayer.

We pray for all who uphold and teach the Christian faith, for young Christians in schools and universities, for Christians witnessing to their faith at work, for all in danger of persecution. We pray for your strength and courage.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy

hear our prayer

We pray for discernment and wisdom as we strive for international co-operation in managing the world’s resources’ for perseverance as we work towards peace and reconciliation.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy

hear our prayer

We pray for the good sense in our family and community life that knows the difference between generosity and indulgence, between lenience and neglect of responsibility.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy

hear our prayer

We pray for all victims of abuse and tyranny, for all who suffer long-term effects of torture, war or disease; we pray for the grace to forgive, and for healing of body, mind and spirit. And from our prayer list this week, we particularly pray for …..

Silence

Lord, in your mercy

hear our prayer

Father, we thank you for all the gifts you pour out to us each day of our lives; keep us asking, and keep us seeking you.

Merciful Father,

accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.