Prayer - Life Changing

Oftentimes my prayers to God are quick, empty, and powerless; they do nothing to change my relationship with God. A few lines may be offered to God in a haze, when it’s the end of the day, and I am drunk with fatigue.

Today at church, I learned that prayer is a spiritual experience that should change us – that should shift our perspective, reiterate and solidify what we are working towards within the Lord, and set us on a path of living a godly life, of enacting his will over our lives. Wow! Prayer should do all that? But does uttering a few lines to God requesting what we need in our lives and the lives of our loved ones or expressing a few phrases of gratitude to our Lord truly leave us changed, altered, broken away from this world, fervent and fierce to live the way God would will us to?

Today, Pastor John discussed Matthew 6:7-15, the passage that is commonly known as “The Lord’s Prayer” and he brought forth many enlightening pointers to this all too well known passage. 

Who have you allowed God to become in your mind? Pastor John had to remind me today that when we pray we are to ask God that his name be “kept holy” (verse 9). God has blessed us in such a way that all of us can freely enjoy a personal relationship with Him, but does your relationship with him ever become too personal? When I say “too personal,” I am trying to suggest that maybe to some of us he has simply become a friend, somebody you acknowledge daily, but not someone who you remember to revere and respect at all times. In this sense your engagement with him becomes casual, basic, commonplace…whatever! You acknowledge him as Lord of your life, you may say…but do you really? If your time spent with the Lord is squished into corners of your day, then I would say that he’s not really Lord of your life.

When we pray to keep the Lord holy, we declare his holiness (his righteousness, in opposed to our sinfulness, his heavenliness, in opposed to our earthliness, the fact that he is set apart, spiritually above us and our understanding) in our lives, in our hearts, in the way we  treat others, in what we prioritize. When we truly think and meditate on these words during prayer, we are changed. Our prioritizes are set straight. We pray for God’s name to be holy within us.

2.     Pastor John then goes on to tell us what to ask for when we pray. In verse 10, we are asking for God’s glory and rule in our hearts and lives, and our submission to him. In verses 11 -13, we ask for daily physical needs, forgiveness, and the strength to resist evil. In essence, we are meditating, reaffirming, and reminding ourselves that it is God who should be Lord over our lives, not us. We practice our faith by declaring through prayer that it is God who provides for us daily, that his grace is sufficient for us for the day.  Lastly we are reminded that we are sinners, that we require forgiveness, and that it is only God who can forgive these sins.  We are called to keep account of our sin, to be aware of it, and repent from it. This humility should allow us to forgive others. We are aware that we should keep away from evil things that corrupt the world, whether that be thoughts, people, ideas, etc.

Importantly prayer is a form of worship, a way to glorify God that enables us to align ourselves with God’s will. It should not be passive, but instead active. Our hearts should be opened through prayer as we  become “invested” in God’s will and become evermore  the  people who  live out this will in our hearts, lives, and in the world.