On the heels of our District Assembly, I will be spending the summer and fall unpacking the report I gave. If you’re like me, even if you enjoyed the report, it has already slipped from your memory! As a reminder, I landed on four areas of emphasis I’d like us to practice if we hope to reverse the declining trends of the Church of the Nazarene in the United States and Canada.
Those four components were: prayer, discipleship, the gospel, and being missional churches.
I’m going to begin with prayer as it meshes nicely with the “Praying to Pentecost” of the USA/Canada region, and the call to prayer for General Assembly from the global Church of the Nazarene.
Note: Pastors, to offer some extra value to you, if you’ll keep track of these emails, you’ll have a nice little outline for a sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer by the time June comes to an end. You can preach it at your church! Here we go.
The common phrase, “barely scratching the surface,” implies that we are only experiencing a tiny portion of something – that there is much more beneath the surface. For most of us, if we are painfully honest, our prayer lives are just “scratching the surface.” That’s not a criticism. I include myself in that assessment. These thoughts emerge from a personal desire to grow in my prayer life. As a pastor I discovered that the people who faithfully attended our church struggled in the arena of prayer as well. In fact, I don’t think I know anyone who would say, “I’m good. I don’t think I need a bit of help in my praying.”
Most of us have had some prayer training, but it was a while ago. Remember, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” Read that again. What were we thinking teaching our kids that one? Well intentioned, I’m sure, but a bit dark, yes?
How about, “God is great. God is good. And we thank him for this food.” That’s pretty solid. God is great and so good, and God does provide all that we need.
One of my favorites that our nieces used to pray is this one:
I thank the brown cow for the chocolate milk.
I thank the pig (oink, oink) for the bacon and ham.
I thank the chicken for the eggs and the eggs for the chicken.
Thank you, God, for our daily bread, Amen!
There’s really nothing wrong with those prayers. They are a great place to begin with our kids. The problem is that about the time we outgrow these prayers, most intentional instruction on praying stops. I guess we trust that we’ll sort of pick it up as we mature.
So, for most of us and our parishioners, here is the dilemma.
- We know we should pray
- We feel kind of guilty about our “under-achieving” prayer life
- But we don’t really know where to begin.
- For that matter once we begin, we don’t really know where to end. After all, when is “enough” prayer?
We tuck the notion of prayer into the file in our brain marked, “Too Complicated,” and muddle through our lives without much prayer.
Like you, I’ve tried it all, I guess. I have stacks of half-used journals. I have a computer full of prayer requests. My history, maybe yours too, is spotted with resolutions to pray more, pray better, get up earlier, and so on. What is a good Christ-follower to do?
While acknowledging that there are hundreds of approaches to daily prayer, don’t ignore the most direct source for learning to pray. In the New Testament, specifically in the gospel of Matthew and then again in Luke, we have a direct question from Jesus’ closest friends and his very direct response.
Luke highlights this question, and Matthew places it right in the center of Jesus’ most important sermon, the Sermon on the Mount.
The question: “Lord, teach us to pray…”
The answer: “When you pray, say…”
(Matthew 6: 9-13, Luke 11: 1-4)
For what it’s worth, here is what I tried in my own life: I began afresh, praying the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray. For many years, my devotional life has looked like this:
Read Scripture (OT/NT, Gospel, Letter), pray The Lord’s Prayer, pray over the requests I have.
It has become a routine but has never gotten stale.
It has become a habit, but never an empty habit.
It has become a means of grace, beyond my wildest imagination.
It has become the most formational, depth-inspiring spiritual journey of my life.
It has anchored me amid storms.
challenged my apathy,
fueled my creativity,
rescued my soul,
moved me to worship,
and guided my life.
In the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, I have found traction for my daily spiritual growth.
Next week we’ll begin to dig into the prayer in earnest, but until then, give it a try. You already know the prayer. Consider it an outline for what you want to say to God and what God may want to say to you.
If we hope to do the work of God in our lives and through our churches, we must recommit to praying as Jesus taught us. God bless you as you begin this journey.
In Our Prayers
- Ed Simons, Chillicothe First- recovering from surgery
- Caleb Dupler, Zanesville First – continuing to battle cancer
- Mark and Janice Maddux – Trying to find a home in Pickerington in a difficult housing market
- Mark and Beth Clingan – Transitioning to Georgia
- Open Churches: Belpre, Zanesville Northside, Wellston
