“God’s People Open Heaven Through Prayer”
July 28, 2013
The 10th Sunday of the Christian Season of Ordinary Time/Kingdomtide/Time of the Church
Genesis 18: 20 - 33/Psalm 138/Colossians 2: 6 - 15/Luke 11: 1 - 13
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
Last Sunday, our lessons focused on priorities. How that we set the priority in our lives according to what we feel is important or valuable; that which we want to achieve, that which we love, and that which gains our attention the most. Hopefully, we learn that it was a relationship with God, listening to Him early in the morning for direction in our lives for the day, knowing that communication with Him in the morning sets a course and direction; sets the tempo for the day; sets the attitude we have toward what we would face that day.
Today’s lessons, especially the gospel, deal with prayer. Jesus, in His life on earth, spent considerable time in prayer. Scriptures do not give much detail about His prayer life except that He would separate Himself from the things around Him. He would go to the mountain, to a higher place to spend time, especially in the evening, with God, His Father.
We, perhaps, as a people, have lost sight of what prayer is all about. Maybe, we have never known what prayer is all about. For many, prayer is asking for what we need and want. Therefore, the time that we spend in prayer is very self-centered, very much focused on, “What I want,” or “What I think I need in my life.” It ends up being more of an order toward God rather than a building of a relationship or a communion with Him.
The disciples saw that the time that Christ spent in prayer was a very powerful thing that affected His life. It brought to Him direction, power, and security. Because of that prayer time, very obviously, He had very little that would intimidate Him. He built His relationship with His Father. The disciples went to Christ after He came back from prayer and said, "Jesus, teach us how to pray. Show us the secret of how You gain Your strength." It was obviously a respect for what was taking place at that time Jesus spent with God, His Father, in prayer.
Prayer is communication with the Father. We need that communication with Him in order that in our lives, we might know what He has set, what His directions are for us. Jesus taught His disciples and He teaches us how to pray. Not just asking for our wants and our needs, but seeking to know God’s purpose, plan, and will for our lives. Knowing that if we can find that will, that purpose, then, we know that we will find life that will be successful and will be filled with excitement and victory.
St. Augustine says that when you pray to God, whether in psalm or in a song, the words spoken by your lips should also be alive in your hearts. How many times prayers come forth from our lips but our hearts are not engaged? Our hearts are not affected by those words. Sometimes, we sing songs and the songs are very powerful words, but when we finish the song, we go right on living as we lived before. We are not affected many times by what we say. Many times, it is so easy to speak, so easy to bring forth words of what we want or what other people want to hear us say.
Prayer is different from this. Prayer is communication with God. It is seeking God’s presence in our lives. It is knowing that He is with us; understanding that He will never fail us or forsake us. It is asking God, “What do you want for us?” The prayer says, "Thy will be done." Not our will.
Many times in our prayer, we are asking for our will. We want God to do things our way. We don’t understand the plan that God has set for us. We don't understand life itself. We don’t comprehend the life, the ability, and the potential that God has put within our lives; so we seek Him to do our will. It is almost like we are the master and He is the servant and the slave.
Real prayer leads us to know the will of God. It leads us to know His plan, His purpose. Real prayer is built on a relationship. In the story of Luke, it goes beyond the prayer to the parable of the one who was awakened at the night by a friend. He won’t get up because of the need but he got up because of friendship. Friendship is something that is developed over a period of time. It is not something that just happens because we pushed a button on a machine, now, we have a friend. That is not a friend; that is façade; not real.
Friendship requires face to face communication. It requires time together. It requires knowing each other. This comes by spending time in prayer with God. Prayer draws us out of ourselves and it brings us toward God who desires good for us. Many times, we don’t understand that God’s plan is good. Sometimes, we think because we have made mistakes, we are going to have to suffer for the consequences. Those consequences can turn to good with God and with God's provision.
I have heard it said, and in fact, I have said it myself that when a mistake is made, the consequences are always there. I do not deny that, but can't God turn those consequences into something of a blessing? An example of this, perhaps, is a young lady who outside of marriage finds herself pregnant. She prays and confesses to God and God forgives her. From what I have heard and from what I have thought, consequences are still there. She is still pregnant. But is it not true that once that life is brought forth, the life becomes a joy to the mother? That life causes the mother to begin to realize her potentials and causes her to realize the joy of companionship and the joy of having given of herself in such a way that life has been brought forth? That which we might consider a curse becomes a blessing.
A relationship is built which becomes strong. That which we might have considered as a curse is that which we are pleased with because God heals the consequences. He brings joy into our lives. What we need in a relationship with God, He shows us. He helps; He guides us. He helps us with our relationships with others.
One of the problems we face is prayers that we have memorized. They tend to become rote, just a habit. We say them out of memory but we do not engage our hearts in the words that we speak. The thoughts that come forth, we don't pay attention to. We just go on living the way we live before even though we said that we prayed.
One of those prayers that is habitually spoken is what we can The Lord's Prayer. The prayer in itself, given by Christ, was given to set a pattern for us in prayer. It was to put meaning to what we pray. It shows us the lack of self-centeredness in the prayer. The prayer starts with the words, “Our Father.” One source that I was looking at said, “Dare we pray this prayer?” It was confronting us with the ease by which we say, “Our Father.”
We say, “Our Father,” but we don’t mean Father at all. We pay little attention to God. We pay little attention to His Word. We pay little attention to the life that He has prepared for us, yet we call Him, “Father.” We do not recognize and understand that He is the Giver of life. Can we not comprehend that He is the Provider? He has given to us everything. Do we comprehend His creation, the purpose of His creation? Do we acknowledge, “Our Father?” It is not, “My Father,” but it is, “Our Father.”
This is why in the praying of this prayer in the liturgy we hold hands. It is not an individual thing, but a corporate thing that He has done. He saved the whole world. As He becomes our Father, we become brothers to each other. It brings us into a relationship, not only with Him, but it brings us into relationship with all because He is our Father. He sets the course and the direction. Tremendous responsibility is brought out in this relationship of Father.
We are challenged in life to realize the relationship that Christ had with His Father. Christ is an example for us. Amazingly in the world we live in today, for some reason, respect for fatherhood has diminished tremendously. I was reading a report that in the United States, one out of three children do not have a father that is living at home. One third of the children do not have a father.
Just a few years ago, it was one out of ten. Fatherhood has lost its respect. Something has happened. We see our sitcoms mocking the male, putting him down in his ability. We hear this not only in sitcoms but in articles written that in many areas of life, the fathers are put down. He is not given the respect any longer that God intended the father to have.
Could it be the reason that in humanity we have lost respect for the father is because we have lost respect for our Father God? We no longer listen to Him. We no longer put Him in that place in our lives where He is valuable and important, where He has input into how we handle life and how we live out our daily activities. Do we see Him as the Protector, the Provider? Do we see Him as One who nurtures us? Or is He just One that we come into emergency? “Hey Dad, I need money. Hey Dad, I need help. Hey Dad, do this for me. Do that for me.” No relationship.
John 1:12 says, “If you believe in Me, you will become children of God.” This is not something that we have created, but it is God who has set the course and the direction in our lives. I believed this but I couldn’t really pinpoint it to the Scriptures as being truth. In Galatians 4:5-6, I found what I was looking for. “Christ, born of a woman…that He might redeem…that we might receive adoption as sons. God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” He has made us His children. He has adopted us into His family, into His household, into a relationship with Him, making us His children.
Do we respond? This doesn’t limit what happens. It says, “Here is what God has done. He has put the Spirit of His Son in our hearts.” Do we recognize this? Do we acknowledge it? Do we bring it before Him? John 1:13 says, “We are born by the will of God.” Roman 8:15 says, “You have received the spirit of adoption.”
We find ourselves in this relationship with the Father, and yet when we pray the prayer and we say, “Our Father,” our hearts are not normally attached with the words that we speak. The words come forth empty out of our lips. Habitual thoughts; habitual actions; rote only, but no meaning behind it. And then we wonder why our prayers are not answered. Why do we go to Him with petitions that seemingly never find a solution? Does it not say, “Ask, and you shall receive? Seek and you shall find?” Yes, it does, but it also shows that it is based on friendship and relationship; that which is built over a period of time.
Matthew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” Do we see this? It is more than just the words. It is the obedience. It is the heart relationship. It is the understanding of that building of that need of someone to be close to.
Fatherhood is a responsibility that has immense impact upon the lives of children. God designed a plan. Do we, as fathers, as humanity, have this respect that God has given to us? Fathers were given the spiritual head of the household. He is the instructor of the ways of God. Do we sense this? Do we understand this?
Just these first two words of this prayer are such an impact upon us in our lives today, in the society in which we live. We pay very, very little attention to our Father God. We do not give Him place in our lives. We do not put Him first in the beginning of our day. We do not ask Him what His will is for our lives.
The prayer says, “Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come." Not my kingdom. We are praying for what He has set forth and desired to come into reality in our lives. We set our course and direction and we think we can accomplish it; we can cause it to take place. In many times in life, we find failure and defeat because they are not what God has set for our lives. The Giver of life is He. The Provider of all things – this is Him. He is the Protector of our being. He is our Nurturer.
Do we grasp this meaning? Do we see Him in such a place in our lives? Or do we just casually address Him when we have need? We pray, “God, please cause the traffic to clear up. Please, God, stop the clock so that I won't be late for office. Please, God, I have a pain, heal me!” We ask, but where is the relationship? Where is the respect of faith that we would put into all that He is?
This prayer is the pattern for life. The first part of the prayer acknowledges God. His name is holy, sacred, and yet, how many times do we hear people using His Name in a curse? Using it so casually without respect, reverence, without honor? His Name is holy; it is sacred; it is to be revered and to be honored.
We pray, “That His kingdom would come.” Not the kingdom of this or that government, this country or another, but His kingdom come. Do we want His kingdom among us? We pray, "Thy will be done." It is not, “My will.” Many times we are disappointed because what He does when we pray is something contrary to what we think is right. He brings His will into our lives.
The second part of this prayer talks about the temporal life, asking for daily bread. This is not just the natural bread, but it is spiritual bread. After all Christ said, “I am the Bread of life.” Do we have that Bread? Do we seek that Bread?
We ask for forgiveness of our sin, and then we realize, it is dependent upon our forgiving of others. If we are not forgiving, then we are not forgiven. It is when we are forgiven that we can forgive others. Otherwise, it is emptiness that has no real meaning. He says, "Keep us from temptation and deliver us from evil."
These are things the things that He desires for us. They are not really that which we seek. We seek for the things which He has already given to us. May we first begin by beginning to have respect, honor, and glory for Him. When we say or sing The Lord’s Prayer, may it impact our whole being. May we recognize out of our hearts what we are doing and what we are saying. May we realize that if we built this relationship with God, that prayer He will answer. He will answer that prayer. Maybe, we will not be included in it if we haven’t built that relationship, but that prayer He gave because that is the will of God. That is what God will provide. That is what God will bring into life.
May we awaken and may our words begin to be filled with meaning. May we not just easily say things in agreement with others or in emptiness with others. May our words have meaning behind them and may they bring forth life, peace, and joy, in Christ.
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