Praying from Myself
Seeking authenticity in our communication with God.
Luke 18:1-17 | Philippians 1:9-11 | Gospels during Lent: None (go worship with the Church or catch up)
One of the most difficult things about prayer is that so many of us seek to practice it based upon the example of others. This is not, of course, sinful or wrong. The vast majority of human expression and output is built upon imitating others. Paul himself calls the Christian to do this very thing when he says, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ.”
But prayer is a particular phenomenon in which we tend to just begin talking in well-worn cliches and phrases, losing the heart of what prayer should be (the intentional and free expression of myself/ourselves to God). Sometimes, owning our words in prayer is effortless - the words fit what we want to express perfectly. But too much of the time, our words are empty repetitions.1
Jesus’ encouragement toward prayer never invokes the right form or lexicon (set of words). Rather, he emphasizes intent, heart, and pattern (like the Lord’s Prayer).
If you haven’t before, maybe during this season of Lent you’d try to write out a prayer that simply comes from your own vocabulary and hits at what you’re really feeling. Don’t think too much about the beauty or symmetry of your words, just write it out without too much thought. When we talk to God from our heart with our own words, we find we are actually “good” at praying because in our prayer, God seeks nothing more than who we actually are.
Paul’s prayer for the Philippians is one of the best anywhere. Don’t miss it.
Luke 18:1-17
Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray continuously and not to be discouraged. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him, asking, ‘Give me justice in this case against my adversary.’ For a while he refused but finally said to himself, I don’t fear God or respect people, but I will give this widow justice because she keeps bothering me. Otherwise, there will be no end to her coming here and embarrassing me.” The Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. Won’t God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Human One comes, will he find faithfulness on earth?”
Jesus told this parable to certain people who had convinced themselves that they were righteous and who looked on everyone else with disgust: “Two people went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself with these words, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else—crooks, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I receive.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn’t even lift his eyes to look toward heaven. Rather, he struck his chest and said, ‘God, show mercy to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this person went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”
People were bringing babies to Jesus so that he would bless them. When the disciples saw this, they scolded them. Then Jesus called them to him and said, “Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children. I assure you that whoever doesn’t welcome God’s kingdom like a child will never enter it.”
Philippians 1:9-11
This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight. I pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ. I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.
Prayer
God,
Today we gather to worship, to give you praise from the fullness of our heart to yours. As we worship, receive us, fill us, and then send us: In our gathering, let our worship in huddled sanctuaries throughout the world truly shape our lives in ways that - in our scattering, we’d be true to you through the rest of the week.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
This is not to say that written prayers are useless. Too many people assume that if it’s pre-written, it’s empty of personal or corporate intentionality. Wrong. Taking the time to write out our prayers can lead to more intentionality, ownership, and authenticity than that which we generally call extemporaneous prayer.
Further, the written prayers of those who’ve gone before us often have a way of giving us words to more genuinely express what we’re feeling, whether it’s the psalms, the church fathers & mothers, any number of prayer books, or this very daily devotional.