Prayer. We all know we should do it. We all know we should do it, but do we know what it is? Do we know how to do it? DO WE do it? That’s the dreaded question, isn’t it. How much praying should I be doing, and what does a prayerful life look like practically speaking?
Let’s start here, what IS Prayer?
As one of the greatest modern Catechisms of the late 20th Century reads;
Prayer is the response of faith to the free promise of salvation
Prayer – at its core, as an idea and as a concept, is the exercising of faith. What do I mean by that? I mean, is that in prayer what we’re doing is bringing back to God His person and work and promises for us in faith that He will make good on them. And while many of the other definitions of prayer are right in part; such as talking with God, asking God for things, spending time with God, moving our hearts toward heaven, and so on, if they fail to mention that all of this is for the sake of, and by the way of act, use, or application of our faith in the person of God, and His Work and Promises for us then we fail to understand prayer.
What does that look like? Well, it can look like a lot of things, and it can look like nothing at all. Because prayer, the exercising of faith, isn’t about the words you speak, but about the faith in your heart. Sometimes that comes out verbally in spoken prayer. Other times it comes out as song in Psalms or Hymns or Spiritual songs. Other times its contemplative, or mental, or meditative. But in every way it comes to us and in all the things that help it along IT ITSELF, is faith. It is the highest form of worship. And worship, effects the world around us. It renews hearts and it changes lives. It transforms sinners and it wages war upon Satan and sin itself. It’s a weapon in the cosmic fight and a tool in the spiritual battle. James 4:7-8 Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.Maybe that doesn’t sound like something that’s all that relevant to your lives. But I promise you, that the devil is always attacking us, not only spiritually, but holistically. He attacks us through sin, through sickness, through sadness, and through death just as He’s always done. Just as God is the giver of all that is good, so Satan is the doer of all that is wrong. We take Satan’s evil work in the world for granted, as a thing that will happen for sure no matter what. And rightly so. But what we often miss, is that prayer asks for nothing more than what GOD has promised will happen for sure no matter what. As we take for granted that Satan will work evil in our lives, God has GIVEN for granted that He will work good out of all things in the end.
That God’s name be hallowed, that God forgives our sins, that He gives us our daily bread, that He leads us not into temptation but delivers us from evil. These things aren’t our ideas about how God can serve us today, but things that God has promised to give us every day. These things come to us even without our prayers (as we confess in the small Catechism), they’re fixed and unchangeable parts of God’s nature, person, work, and promise. In prayer we respond to what the Satan’s work with God’s work, and we respond to Satan’s promise to do us evil with God’s promise to work all things for our good. We respond to the attacks of Satan with the faith that God will work good out of all of Satan’s evil, that we believe that God will overthrow, overcome, and out-do all that Satan has done in this world. 1 Peter 5:8-9 Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith. You resist the devils attempts to take your under by holding fast the unchangeable promises of God’s person and work for you. THAT is what prayer is. The words that we speak and the thoughts in our heads and the songs that we sing, whether just created off the cuff, read from the psalms, sung for the hymnal, or in the liturgy, are prayed in faith and by faith, not by our mouths or our brains but our hearts. But without faith they’re useless sounds, in fact without faith they’re annoying sounds, an offense to God.
But, you might ask, IF that’s what prayer is, then what does prayer look like? How do we DO prayer? What does that look like in someones life in the practical sense? That was specifically what Jesus’ disciples were asking Him here. See, in the western Christianity in 2022, we take for granted the idea of free form extemporaneous prayers that we say off the cuff to God. But that’s very much a new thing. Of course those prayers were said but until very recently, but until very recently that was never the bulk of the church’s prayer life. That wasn’t what the church’s prayers looked like. Rather, if you looked at the shape of the church’s prayer life across history even back into the time of Israel’s worship, you would see a lot of psalms, and scriptural prayers, canticles, and songs being spoken and sung. You would see certain times of day, certain ways of saying them. The church, and Israel before it, were accustomed to a specific rhythm of prayer. A specific liturgy for their every day life AND for communal gathers (and the two were often synonymous with one another for most of history btw). And so as they asked, “Lord teach us to pray” they were really and truly saying, what psalms should be sung, what words recited, and when, and how?
Yet what Jesus delivered wasn’t a list of psalms or times of day or a fasting schedule, but a radically new prayer. A new way of approaching God, a new way of living life with God. And this is what He spoke,
When you pray, say this,
that is to say, God spoke to us what He wants us to speak to Him. Jesus didn’t say, when you pray something LIKE this. But here God commands us not only to pray, and not only to pray in this FORM and in this WAY, but to pray THIS PRAYER. Not only this prayer, as we’re commanded to also sing the Psalms, and Scriptures other songs, that this prayer is commanded to be prayed by all Christians. And indeed, it has been. It is in every Christian Liturgy, in every Sunday and weekday service. In our Baptisms, our confirmations, our first communions, our ordinations, and our weddings and our funerals. It’s in our homes and our Christian schools, and from the earliest days according to the tradition of the apostles it was prayed 3 times a day by the majority of the church. And so if we are to say, what does prayer look like, in a practical sense, what should I pray for, how should I pray, I’ve no idea what to say, then let them pray this prayer, being sure that the prayer that God commanded us to pray will be more fitting and more pleasing to Him than anything that we could ever design for His Worship or our needs ourselves.
The prayer, not included in full in our NIVs, though the full text is in Luke 11 in other bibles, shows us the form, shape, content, and essence of prayer.
We begin this way
Our Father, (or Father, as it reads in the NIV)
[2] With these words God wants to entice us, so that we come to believe he is truly our Father and we are truly his children, in order that we may ask him boldly and with complete confidence, just as loving children ask their loving father
In prayer, we are invited to call God Father. Not merely as creatures of the creator, but as His children, adopted in and through the Son by the Gospel. Our prayer doesn’t make God our Father, but receives, believes, and confesses that He has made Himself our Father by adopting us in His only Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Here (and everywhere) we see the beginning of the shape and essence of prayer forming already even before anything is ASKED. This prayer, and all true prayers, presupposes the good news and the grace of God and approaches them in faith. So we begin this prayer addressing our FATHER, not to make Him our Father by the power of our prayers as if they were magic spells but in the faith that He has made Himself our Father by the Gospel of Christ. And not only is He MY Father, but OUR Father. And so this prayer, whether prayed alone or together in community is addressed not to my Father, but to OUR Father. Not only when we say this publicly, but at all times. To always remember that while prayer is PERSONAL, it is NEVER individual even while we’re alone. But as we pray we, even when alone, we pray together with the church, on behalf of the church, as the church, and for the church, both on earth and in heaven.
[3] The First Petition63
Hallowed be your name
It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, but we ask in this prayer that it may also become holy in and among us.
[5] How does this come about?
Whenever the Word of God is taught clearly and purely and we, as God’s children, also live holy lives according to it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven! However, whoever teaches and lives otherwise than the Word of God teaches profanes the name of God among us. Preserve us from this, heavenly Father!
Again, we see the nature of prayer displayed in this text and in our Catechism. Our prayers don’t make God’s name holy. We don’t make God’s name holy. God’s name is by nature Holy. His Holiness is what makes Him holy. HE is what makes Him Holy. What happens in and from our prayer isn’t the DOING of this, but the believing of this, and the proclaiming of this. This prayer asks nothing more of God than for Him to be who He already is by nature and who He has promised to be.
[6] The Second Petition
Your kingdom come.
In fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us.
[8] How does this come about?
Whenever our heavenly Father gives us his Holy Spirit, so that through his grace we believe his Holy Word and live godly lives here in time and hereafter in eternity.
God’s kingdom doesn’t come by our prayer, but it comes through Word and Sacrament, where He gives us the Holy Spirit, who gives us the faith to believe, and the love in which we live toward others. The kingdom of God isn’t something we wait for, and its not something we call down from heaven by our prayers, but it’s something that God has promised to give us, indeed that He produces it in us through Word and Sacrament. Our prayer receives this and our prayer believes this. And the third petition, while not included in our NIV, is alike unto the same.
[9] The Third Petition
May your will come about on earth as in heaven.
In fact, God’s good and gracious will comes about without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come about in and among us.
[11] How does this come about?
Whenever God breaks and hinders every evil scheme and will—as are present in the will of the devil, the world, and our flesh—that would not allow us to hallow God’s name and would prevent the coming of his kingdom, and instead whenever God strengthens us and keeps us steadfast in his Word and in faith until the end of our lives. This is his gracious and good will.
[12] The Fourth Petition
Give us each day our Daily Bread
In fact, God gives daily bread without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we ask in this prayer that God cause us to recognize what our daily bread is and to receive it with thanksgiving.
[14] What then does “daily bread” mean? Answer:
Everything included in the necessities and nourishment for our bodies, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, farm, fields, livestock, money, property, an upright69 spouse, upright children, upright members of the household, upright and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, decency, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.
Daily bread is all that we need. Not limited to that which is material, or needful for the body but all that’s needful for the whole person. Actual bread? Yes. But more than that, as we saw last week, you worry about many things and you’re anxious about many things but ultimately ONE THING is needful, and that is the bread from heaven, not bread like your fathers ate (that bread which they ate and died) but the true bread from Heaven, the flesh of Christ Jesus as He says in John 6, which if you eat you will never taste death, but will live forever, for as He Himself says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. It’s for this reason actually that the “Our Father” is placed where it’s placed in the liturgy. Does anybody know where it’s placed? Does anybody remember where in the liturgy we say it? Right after the consecration of the bread and wine, and right before the administration of Communion. Give us our daily bread, give us this heavenly bread. Give us this nourishing flesh, and this vivifying blood, that we may eat and drink that ONE THING needful. And so we do, and so He gives.
And if He’ll give you this bread, the eternal bread, His own flesh, how much more will He give you earthly bread. As He says, 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. And so here also we see the true form and shape of prayer as faith. For as we confess in the small Catechism, God gives daily bread even without our prayer EVEN TO THE UNGODLY. He gives to all. He gives to the birds and He gives to the beasts. He gives to the Christian and to the Muslim, to the upstanding citizen and to the mass murderer. He gives to all. Yet in this prayer we bring back His promise to Him, exercising our faith in it, and believing that it’s true. Not in order to tell Him that He should give us our Daily bread as though He hasn’t thought of doing so. But bringing to Him His very nature and promise to Him in faith, recognizing from whom all good things come, giving thanks for all good things given, and looking toward that heavenly and greater bread, knowing, trusting, and believing that all other things will be given to us as well. And every day He does this. And in fact, every day He gives us more than we need. He gives us daily bread, not to make sure that we don’t have enough to begin storing and stockpiling, keeping us always living from paycheck to paycheck, but He grants more than we need. But we pray for the bread which is daily because our need is constant and daily, in physical matters as well as spiritual matters. But in this prayer, we pray that God be just what He is by His very own nature and promise, always meeting our constant need with His constant gifts.
[15] The Fifth Petition
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
We ask in this prayer that our heavenly Father would not regard our sins nor deny these petitions on their account, for we are worthy of nothing for which we ask, nor have we earned it. Instead we ask that God would give us all things by grace, for we daily sin much and indeed deserve only punishment. So, on the other hand, we, too, truly want to forgive heartily and to do good gladly to those who sin against us.
Here we see an echo of the latter verses to come in this reading. IF we, so full of sin and evil forgive others, then how much more will God forgive us. But it’s more than just relying on His greater-than nature, but upon His promise also. For this asks for nothing other than the gospel promise be true, as God said that it was. There is nothing more clearly promised to us than that in the death of Christ and by His blood our sins have been washed away and forgiven. Is it yet clear what prayer is? Does this alert God to what He’s forgotten to do? Does this God give a new idea of our needs? Or does this merely grasp what He has first promised us even before we thought to ask for it. And so, having been made the unchangeable promise of the forgiveness of sins in the gospel of Christ administered in Word and Sacrament so we pray in faith, “Lord, as you have promised, forgive us our sins,” as we forgive those who sin against us.
And lead us not into temptation.
It is true that God tempts no one, but we ask in this prayer that God would preserve and keep us, so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice, and that, although we may be attacked by them, we may finally prevail and gain the victory.
In this petition we also see prayer for what it is. As James 1:13 proclaims that God tempts nobody. In this petition, as in all godly prayers, we ask that God do nothing more than be Himself.
Perhaps now it’s clear what prayer is.
But perhaps for some of you it still isn’t. Perhaps some of you are instead wondering, “but what of those texts which speak of the persistence in prayer, what of Luke 18:1-8 with the persistent widow, what of even the text today in V. 5-8 with the friend at midnight? Don’t these texts say that if we aren’t persistent in our prayer we wont get what we ask for?” Absolutely not, and here is why. Look with me again at our text.
The friend and the widow in Luke 18 ask persistently, but what is the point of both of these texts? As the text here says, even sinners and evil people will answer if you only just ask persistently. So how much more should we come to God in the faith that He’ll hear us and answer the prayers that we bring to Him, knowing that He commanded that we pray these prayers, and that He likewise promised to hear these prayers. Knock and it shall be opened, not because you knocked, not because you kept knocking, not because of how sincerely you knocked, but because of God’s command and promise. First that you are to knock, and second that God will open to you when you knock.
And what of the father who’s son asks for a fish and an egg. Do you give him a snake and a scorpion? Or what he asked for, which you know he needs? If then being evil sinners we know to give our children what they ask for and what they need ever before and even without their asking, how much more then does God know all of our needs even before we ask them and even better than we can ask them? So just as you would ask your parents for a gift as a little child, how much more then should we be comfortable and willing to ask of God what He has commanded us to ask for and what He has promised to give us even without our prayer?
But perhaps you’re still not convinced, perhaps you’re wonder, what then of “you have not because you ask not?” (From James 4:2-3, the context of which is people who desire sinful things they shouldn’t have, who, knowing that they shouldn’t have it, and don’t have the right motives for getting it, know that God won’t give it to them, so they lie, cheat, steal, and kill to get it instead.) But with this scripture out of the way, a good question itself, is not the concept to ask for what we wouldn’t have? Is it not that by asking for it we get what we asked for? Well, let me answer that this way.
Do you pray for what isn’t promised? If so, do you think that you’re wiser than God? Knowing more about what you need than He already knows? Does He not Himself say in this very text that we just looked at that He knows us and our needs better than we know them ourselves? That He knows all of our needs even before we ask them? That HE, is the good giver, the giver of all that’s good and the creator of all creation? Who then do we think that we are to suggest to Him how to create, or how to give, we who are evil and sinful and barely know ourselves? On the other hand, let me ask this, do you pray for what’s promised? Then it comes to you not by your prayer but by God’s promise. Indeed it comes to you even without your prayer, lest God’s promises be turned into lies.
And so what of this all? What do we teach of prayer? What is the POWER of prayer? Does prayer change anything? Well. I one sense, prayer isn’t so much about changing our circumstances, or God’s mind, or God’s plans, so much as it grasps in faith the unchangeable reality of God’s person, work, and promises FOR US. And that, rather than having a divine genie that grants all of our wishes if we ask hard enough, long enough, or sincerely enough, is good news. And yet, in the same way, being nothing more than faith in God’s unchangeable person, work, and promises, prayer changes everything. It raises us to life from death, it reinvigorates our souls, and it puts our sins to death. It is the living of the baptismal life, the hand that receives God’s gifts, it is the shield of faith, That Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6 with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And that, that changes everything.
So as we go about our lives, as we are attacked by Satan in body and soul, let us hold firm and fast in the faith of God’s unchanging person, work, and promise for us. That all of Satan’s flaming arrows be caught by the shield of prayer, and destroyed and overturned by the work of God for us in Christ Jesus, all by the power of His Holy Spirit.
