Prayer 101: Gurus, Pictures & Habits?

Prayer...so easy and yet so hard... I believe that prayer is the most important of all the spiritual assignments. There is no relationship of Christian faith without prayer. Prayer is our primary mode of communication with the God who loves us and wants us to finish well. The assignment of prayer should be easy enough--after all most of us were taught how to pray at an early age. Do you remember this prayer…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? Do you remember learning the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples—Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hollowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever?

During the in-between-time of learning those two common prayers we can sometime pick up some bad habits and pictures of prayer. Habits like HOLY HUDDLE PRAYER—prayer that not of this world in a bad way. Holy Huddle Prayer folks only use the AUTHORIZED King James language and angelic words. It’s a prayer time so beautiful and so holy that the angels in heaven bend near the earth to play their harps of gold. The second bad habit and picture we can pick up is COSMIC SANTA CALUS PRAYER—a prayer method that consist of figuratively standing in line to sit on God’s lap and get a picture taken so one can ask for a whole bunch of stuff. The picture is that of A GIANT VENDING MACHINE—you say a prayer, pull the lever and get whatever you want. The third bad prayer habit and picture is the SPIRITUAL-HIT & MISS PRAYER. It’s the prayer of a spiritually flabby Christian that hopes that a little cardio training here and there will get them get back in shape. They head to the local spiritual fitness center and do a little prayer workout and feel better—that is until they realize that hit and miss prayer with its starts and stop is way to hard to sustain and they just give up. The picture is of an UNUSED TREADMILL that takes up space in the basement—the perfect image of broken promises and yesterday’s dreams.

I think we need some new prayer habits and pictures. I’ve been fortunate enough to have some great prayer gurus in my life. Somewhere between my Now I lay me down to sleep… & …Our Father Who Art in Heaven prayers God allowed some mentors—some prayer gurus if you will, into my life to help me trade some bad habits and pictures for some good ones. I’ve learned three lessons from my prayer gurus that have helped me form some new habits and pictures for prayer.

My 1st Prayer Guru Mr. Andy My 6th grade Sunday school teacher: taught me that prayer is a conversation with a Father who loves me.

He likened prayer to a conversation between a dad and his son at the kitchen table. Doesn’t sound very profound. In fact it's ordinary and that's the point. The Kitchen table is not like the fancy dinning room table that I could never go near when I was a kid—because it had the fine china that was rarely used. You know, the fine china that eventually gets passed down to the next generation s they can hardly use it too. The kitchen table at our house is where life is lived. It’s the art table…the bill paying table…the homework table and the all-purpose everything place. The kitchen table is so important that it has changed the design of most houses because most families hang out at the kitchen table. Our prayer should be comfortable, messy, warm and inviting like that kitchen table. Mr. Andy taught me that God loves me and no matter what my relationship was with my human father there was a heavenly dad that wanted to communicate with me—one who loves it when I pulled up a seat at the kitchen table just to talk. There is no need for Holy Huddle Prayers at the kitchen table. You can just be yourself—you can just share what on your heart and then listen to the wisdom of the ONE who care for and loves you. You can swap your holy huddle harp for the God of the kitchen table.

My 2nd Prayer Guru Russell Metcalfe my college pastor: taught me that the Lord’s Prayer is not just a one-way communiqué of my needs but rather a pattern for communicating with the Creator of the universe who wants to be in an intimate relationship with me.

Pastor Metcalfe changed my view of the Lord’s Prayer from a rote recited prayer to a pattern for real communication with God. He taught me that the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, once properly prayed can move us beyond a God-relationship based upon shopping list grabs and the give-me—give-me’s.

The reality is that allot of people treat God and prayer like Santa Claus and a Christmas list. You know a prayer relationship where you go to the mall, pay for a picture, sit on a lap and then do the big ask. The Santa Claus prayer relationship is based upon your performance so if you’ve been a good little boy or girl you get your wish. A more mature picture might be that of a vending machine. Your prayer is like money—you put your money in the machine (God) and then you select your desired treat and there’s hell to pay if you don’t get what you paid for. The Lord’s prayer moves us beyond a vending machine relationship of prayer and into the realization that God knows what we need before we ask.

Let me give you another picture of prayer. The picture is that of a shelter—a place that covers the whole of our lives. The shelter calls us out of the weather of life and into the protection of the God who never fails. The Lords prayer presents a pattern that gives God his proper place in our world, our reverence and our lives. The phrase--Our Father in Heaven, holy be your name help us to acknowledge God’s transcendence, holiness and sovereignty. Your kingdom come your will be done as in heaven so on earth, says, God, before we do the big ask we know that you do all things well so we submit our wants to your wisdom and will. The next three phrases give us, forgive us and lead us reminds us that we can bring God our NEEDS, FAILURES, and VULNERABILITIES. God knows us better then we know ourselves. God knows we need some basic things to survive. He knows we are human and that we blow it and need do-over’s and forgiveness. God also knows that without his protection and leadership we are vulnerable to the enemy of our souls plan to steal, kill and destroy. Our new prayer picture--the shelter invites us to come out of the weather and to depend on the God who is the Great I Am to meet our needs, direct or way and forgive our failures. So we can swap out our vending machines picture of prayer for the God who is a shelter in the time of storm.

My 3rd Prayer Guru Mark Sanford, my college chaplain: taught me that an hour of prayer can change the world.

He introduced a small group of pastoral ministry guys and I to a book entitled: Prayer the Hour that Changes the World. He challenged us to move beyond a hit and miss spiritual life of inconsistent prayer into a life reflective of the Apostle Paul’s admonition to pray without ceasing. He challenged me to include an hour of focused prayer in my daily spiritual exercise regime in order to keep spiritually fit. In an age of little self-discipline Mark challenged our little small group to go deep by becoming men of prayer.

Mark knew that a hit and miss, start and stop prayer life becomes the stuff of dusty treadmills hidden in the backs of the closets. When prayer is just another fix that makes us feel good for a little while we miss the opportunity of a lifetime and then return tour old treadmill inconsistent ways until the next fix. We were created for a consistent life of relational prayer with our Creator. Once we embrace a 24/7 lifestyle of prayer the dusty outdated hit and miss treadmill prayer life will no longer due.

So what the picture for this consistent prayer life? A good pair of walking or running shoes—you know, the kinds that are comfortable because they’ve been broken in. They’re the shoes that help you keep going when you feel like giving in and giving up on prayer. They’re the shoes that you put on everyday because they fit just right. So we trade our hit and miss treadmill prayer life in for a prayer life that fits like a comfortable pair of running shoes and we run the race set before us keeping our eyes fixed on the One who has already crossed the finish line before us.

I love new pictures. Why? Because new pictures mean were still trying and haven’t given up. So go ahead trade your harp, vending machine and treadmill prayer life for the closeness of the kitchen table, the safety and security of a shelter in the time of storm and a pair of comfortable shoes that will keep you praying until he comes. GOT ANY NEW PRAYER PICTURES? -Jfhey2