28 April - Summing it all up

DAILY BYTE

If people had to use one word to describe you, what would it be? A man once asked his two friends the following question, 'What is the one thing you would like people to say about you at your funeral?'
The first almost immediately replied: 'I would like people to say that I was a good provider.'
The second thought for a bit longer and then said: 'I would like people to say that I was a good family man.'
Both then looked back at the man who had originally asked them the question. 'And what you like people to say about you,' they queried.
To which he replied: 'the only thing I want people to say about me at my funeral is - look, he's moving!'

In the whole of the Bible, in all the books written about God, in all the songs and hymns composed, in all the sermons preached and prayers prayed, what is the one word we could use to describe God? If I could take a stab at it, it would be the word 'love.' Throughout Scripture we learn of the amazing love story between God and humanity. The Hebrew Bible tells stories of how God longed to be in relationship with his people, the Psalms sing of God's faithfulness, and the New Testament affirms how Christ lived out the love of God in tangible ways.

If love is such a deep and profound part of the very nature of God, then it stands to reason that if we cannot grasp the reality of God's love for us, we will struggle to draw closer to him. If we cannot accept with humility and wonder the truth that we are God's beloved children, we will probably find ourselves spiritually stunted - unable to grow past a certain point.

What will it take for you to accept God's love for you? I cannot fully explain to you why God loves us. He loves us just because. God loves us because it is part of his nature to love. We cannot earn or deserve this love. It really doesn't matter how few people in this world may love us, or how totally unlovable we may feel, it doesn't change that fact that God still loves us! We should grasp this truth with both hands and run with it. We should let this love inspire and transform us.

Let me end by asking you the same question I began with - if people had to use one word to describe you, what would it be? Think about this for a while especially in the light of what we have discussed. Does the fact that the creator of the universe has chosen the word 'love' to describe his nature challenge you to change in any way? How would you change if you could accept deep within yourself, that you are God's beloved child?

PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy and Almighty God. You are our creator and our saviour. You are our God and our friend. For this we give thanks. We pray that our hearts would be opened every more deeply to your extravagant love. We pray also that we would be changed and transformed by that same love. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING
John 4:16 (NIV)
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

29 April - God's Heart is 'squeezed'!

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday, we spoke about the love of God. Throughout this week we are going to be reflecting more deeply on that love by looking at a particular story found in the Gospels.

The story of the feeding of the 5000 gives us some wonderful insights into the love of God for all people. Often when we encounter the miracle stories in the Gospels, we find ourselves sidetracked by the 'how' questions. Questions such as: How exactly did Jesus multiply a scarcity of food so that there would be more than enough for all?

While these types of questions have some value at certain times and places, I think that the most valuable question we can bring to this text is not 'how' but 'why'?

For as soon as we bring the question of 'why' to this text we immediately find the very essence of this miracle - that God's love and compassion for a hungry crowd moved him to miraculously feed them.

The story begins with Jesus hearing the news of his cousin's death, John the Baptist. We are told that Jesus immediately seeks to retreat from his ministry. We don't know exactly why he retreated so swiftly, but it was more than likely for a combination of reasons such as grief and the need to rest. So Jesus got on a boat and went to a 'solitary place'.

However, as soon as Jesus set foot in his chosen place of rest, he was swamped by the crowds who had followed him. This is where Jesus' compassion first strikes me. It can be really hard to love those who interrupt your rest!

Often my first reaction to such interruptions is one of irritation and exasperation. Yet Jesus' first reaction was compassion. He looked out at the crowd and saw their tremendous need. The Greek word used to describe Jesus' feelings towards the crowd literally conveys the idea of his heart contracting compulsively with compassion. Jesus' heart was 'squeezed' by love for the crowds.

This is vital for us to remember - if Jesus is the human face of God, then God is not some distant and disinterested being sitting on a throne somewhere. Instead, when God looks upon you as part of the great human crowd, God's heart is 'squeezed' with love for you.

Think about the people in your life that your heart gets 'squeezed' by - then think about how awesome it is that God feels that way, and more, about you!

PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord God, our prayer today is that you would not only open our hearts to the reality of your love, but our minds as well. Help us to grasp the fully extent of your love, help us to be consumed by your compassion. For it is only in receiving your love, that our souls will find the food they truly need. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE
Matthew 14:13-14 (NIV)
When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

30 April - The Healing Power of God's Love

DAILY BYTE

Of all the many human needs, perhaps the greatest is for love.
I remember talking to a psychologist once who told me that at the root of many people's problems is a lack of love. If when we were young and did not receive healthy, giving love from our parents or carers, then the chances are we will walk around the rest of our lives carrying the hurts and scars of those childhood experiences.

Perhaps this has been your experience and one you are still struggling with now?
Remember yesterday's focus reading, that after Jesus' heart was 'squeezed' with compassion for the crowds, he began to heal them (Matthew 14.14). We need to know that God's love can truly heal our wounds!

God's love can give us a deep sense of self-worth that is not tied up in arrogance or selfishness. God's love can give us a hope worth living for even when all else seems lost. God's love will never give up on us and never rest (even if it means we have to be challenged and disciplined) until we become whole again.

As I have been saying to you all week, this is why it is so vitally important to open up your heart, mind and soul to the love of God. If you don't you may forever be spiritually stunted, unable to grow past your wounds and hurts, and unable to grow past the life limitations others have set on you by their unloving actions.
As Jesus reached out in love and healed the crowd, so does God reach out to you. Know that nothing can separate you from the love of God and know that God's love is powerful enough to heal even the very greatest of hurts.

However, such healing does not happen by accident. If you are carrying deep wounds around with you, I would encourage you to seek help. Go to a trusted person who can shepherd you spiritually and point the way for you towards God's extravagant and healing love. Or what about writing down some of your hurtful experiences in the form of a prayer, asking God to heal and help you.

PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord God, we pray for healing. We lift up to you those areas of our lives that have been devastated by unloving and selfish actions. We bring to you those parts of our soul that have been affected by the neglect and abuse of others. We pray that your extravagent love would heal and help us. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Romans 8. 35-39 (MSG)
Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

'They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.'
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing-nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable-absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

01 May - YOU feed them

DAILY BYTE

So Jesus, filled with compassion, ended up spending the whole day in the wilderness with the crowds - healing, teaching and preaching. Near the end of the day, a group of disciples approach Jesus with a concern: "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."

You know how it is often said that you have to read between the lines of what someone is saying to get the true meaning? Well, if I had to read between the lines here, I would imagine the disciples were saying something like: "Look Jesus, it's getting late and we are tired and hungry! So let's chase everyone away!"

And then in my imagination I see the disciples tugging on Jesus' cloak as their voices drop to a conspiratorial whisper: "you see the real problem, Jesus, is that there is barely enough food for just us here. There's not enough for everyone to share. And we are REALLY hungry."

At least that is how it would have been if I was one of the disciples!

However, there on the shores of some distant lake, God's compassion meets human selfishness as it always has from the very beginning.

'You give them something to eat,' Jesus retorts.
The word 'you' is emphatic in the Greek, 'YOU feed them,' Jesus said.

Imagine yourself as one of the disciples at this point, which should be relatively easy to do considering our own innate selfishness is constantly being challenged by God's compassion. Think about all the prayers you might have prayed: 'Lord, won't you please take care of all the starving people in the world?' 'YOU feed them!'
'Lord, won't you please take care of all the little orphans in the world?' 'YOU care for them!'
'Lord, don't you see how many people have to live in shacks, won't you please give them somewhere to sleep?' 'YOU shelter them'.

Hectic stuff to hear I know but this is the thing - God's love finds us, holds us, heals us and then challenges us. God challenges us to love others as he has loved us!

Compassion is more than mere sentimentality and more than just feelings because compassion compels us into action. Michael W. Smith profoundly expressed this truth when he sang: "Love is not really love until you give it away."

In what direction and towards what need do you think God might be challenging you to love? Hearing God's challenge to care for others is quite frankly both scary and intimidating. And yet, it is an essential part of being a disciple of Christ. If we follow Jesus, we will find that he walks us into situations of great human need.

'YOU feed them'.

PRAY AS YOU GO
Holy God, it is so scary and intimidating to hear you call to love. But we know that your will is that we love others as you have loved us. Help us to put aside our selfishness and follow you always - even if that following means we have to love others in extremely challenging ways. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Matthew 14. 15-16 (NIV)
As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."
Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."

02 May - More than enough

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday we discussed how Jesus responded to the disciples asking him to send the crowds away by saying, 'YOU feed them.'

I am going to allow my imagination to go into override again as I picture their reaction to this challenge.
'Now wait a minute Lord,' the disciples may have said. 'Wait just one cotton picking moment. We have with us just 5 loaves and 2 fish! And yet there are 5000 people! There's just not enough for everyone.'

How many times have we reacted in a similar way to God's challenge?
'God, I do not have enough love to do what you ask me to do.' Or 'I do not have enough faith. I don't have enough gifts, or talent, or confidence, or vision, or hope, or courage. I'm too old, too young, too poor and too insignificant. There is so much need out there God that I am overwhelmed by it before I even begin and quite frankly, I have so little to begin with and certainly not enough to share with others!'

God does not remain silent in the face of such protests. God's compassion covers even our inadequacies!

'Bring it here,' Jesus said to the disciples, 'bring your 5 loaves and 2 fish.'

Bring it here God tells us. Bring your little bits of love, bring your small faith, bring your inadequacies and fears, bring your little bits of money and carefully hoarded possessions, bring whatever you lack but just make sure you bring ALL of you.

We have been through a progression with this story in that I first asked you to see yourself as one of the crowds before Jesus - loved! Then I asked you to see yourself as one of Jesus' disciples - challenged! Now I would ask you to see yourself as what Oswald Chamber's describes as 'broken up bread and poured out wine'. To be given in self-sacrificing service to the world.

This is part of our overall destiny. To be given as part of God's amazing love for all. And unless we give our lives in this way, we will find that we will always in fact 'lack' in some way.

There will be something missing from our lives and there will always be a 'smallness' about us.

For we have been created in love, by love and for love and so unless we learn to love then we will always lack. And we will always be searching for our meaning, purpose and significance in life.

But the Good News is that in the hands of Jesus, even our scarcity will prove to be enough. There is in fact more than enough for us, more than enough for our friends, and more than enough even for crowds of strangers. Even enough as 12 baskets left over! For we are all part of God's abundant life and love. And there is MORE THAN ENOUGH of that for all!

PRAY AS YOU GO
Abundantly loving God, we bring to you our scarcity, our lack of love and faith, and we give thanks to you for the way you can multiply these things into abundance. Because of your generosity there is in fact more than enough for all and so teach us to trust in you and to give ourselves to you unselfishly. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Matthew 14. 17-21 (NIV)
"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered.
"Bring them here to me," he said. And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Friday 25 April

DAILY BYTE – WHAT exactly should we pray about?

So we have dealt with the question ‘why’ and the question ‘who’. The last question that we will use to interpret this week’s text is WHAT. And perhaps this is the crux of all our conversation, the biggest of all our questions. WHAT exactly should we pray about?

Well, the simple answer is everything.

Absolutely everything.

We need to be REAL when we pray. The book of Psalms, for example, is filled with prayers that overflow with anger, disappointment, disillusionment, and even with shallow requests. Because prayer is about two hearts meeting, then bring everything that is on your heart to God, bring your anger, disappointment, lack of faith, fears, weaknesses, and yes, even bring your shallow requests.

But bring all these things knowing that the very purpose of prayer is to transform us and teach our hearts what they are really made for. Jesus talks about praying for our needs, like daily bread, but remember that all these prayers come after praying first that God’s will is done above our own. That part of the prayer sets the context for everything else that we pray about afterwards!

We will find that our prayers are changed from being us-centred to being God-centred, and in so doing we are changed from being us-centred to being God-centred. Now of course, when our prayers become God-centred, they still will involve ourselves but will just do so in an entirely different manner. We will have been taught what it is we truly want and need.

The movie, ‘Bruce Almighty,’ tells the story of a man (played by Jim Carrey), who’s life goes terribly wrong. He ends up ranting and railing at God, telling God that he could do a much better job of ‘being God’ if given the chance.

Well, it so happens (only in Hollywood), that God does give Bruce the opportunity to use his God-like powers to try and do better. At first Bruce uses those powers for purely altruistic reasons, but over the course of the movie he changes and begins to try to use his powers for good. When he does so however, Bruce is utterly overwhelmed by the extent of people’s prayers and needs, and so fires off one simple answer to all – yes!

This horribly backfires because some prayers are in direct conflict with needs expressed in other prayers. 5 people pray for one job, and they all receive the answer ‘yes’ but there is still only one job! Pandemonium results and Bruce’s self-righteous vision of utopia crumbles sending him in abject despair to confess his failures to God.

‘There were so many,’ Bruce says, ‘I just gave them all what they wanted.’

God, with a knowing smile, responds, ‘Yeah. But since when does anyone have a clue about what they want.’

Prayer, the act of prayer and engaging in prayer, is a way of teaching us WHAT we really want and WHAT we really need.

Bring everything that is on your heart to God, but do so in a manner that recognises everything will be set in its proper place by God’s Kingdom and God’s ways. This will radically change our hearts and redirect our prayers.

So perhaps there really are only two types of people in this world – those that can pray, and those that really struggle with prayer. And maybe they’re actually the same kind of person. But for all those who really find prayer to be a problem, please know that there is no great secret to prayer, a secret that is available only to the hyper-spiritual among us. No, prayer is just two hearts meeting, ours and God’s.

Prayer is us finding our heart’s true home in the heart of God, and prayer is the key that opens those hearts to one another.

PRAY AS YOU GO
Father, hallowed be your name,
may your kingdom come,
give us each day the kind of bread we need,
and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive all who do us wrong,
and do not bring us to the test.

Thursday 24 April

DAILY BYTE – The important question of WHO?
Today we will be moving onto a second question to interpret this week’s text - the question of WHO.

From beginning to end Jesus reminds us how deeply personal prayer is.

In fact, Jesus makes it clear that the WHO question is the very foundation of prayer. He begins his teaching on prayer in Luke 11. 1-3 with the word ‘Father’ and ends it with the image of a loving parent. We will really struggle to even begin praying and entering God’s heart if we do not believe that heart is loving and kind and deeply concerned with who we are in turn.

It’s like the little boy who got scared one night during a thunderstorm. He yelled out to his dad to come and sit with him. His dad came into his room to see him and said, ‘Don’t be afraid my boy. God is with you.’ To which the little lad replied, ‘I know, but I sure would like someone with skin on!’

Well, in this teaching Jesus ‘puts skin’ on God by reminding us of exactly WHO God is – that God is more loving and kind than even the most loving parents.
The term ‘Father’ had been used before in the Old Testament but the connotation was always that of a ruling Father, someone who was in charge and who gave orders. As far as we know, Jesus’ particular concept of God as a Father is utterly unique in spiritual history. Jesus often used the word ‘Abba’ to address God which is a term of intimate affection, like ‘papa’ or ‘daddy’.
It comes from the earliest babblings of Aramaic children. ‘Abba’, you see, is easy for a little one to pronounce, like ‘Dada’. The Talmud confirms this when it says that when a child is weaned, “ it learns to say ‘abba’ and ‘imma’ ” which means, ‘daddy’ and ‘mommy.’” Of course, since many Jews did not like to even address God by his name, this kind of familiarity might have been shocking to some.
Now this may get a little complicated but it is well worth the telling. Jesus begins with the vocative word for father. It is difficult for English speakers to recognise the power of the vocative because in English it is the exact same word as the nominative. For instance: ‘Father said for me to come,’ uses the same form of the word as in ‘Father, come!’ The form Jesus uses is the latter, ‘Abba,’ it is a call, a cry, a pleading. Father! Only the tone of the voice denotes the pleading in English, like a child crying out at night. Jesus is saying here, ‘Dad! Listen to us! Hear our prayer!’

This is all a reminder to us that prayer is not something abstract and impersonal like the writing of a formal letter to someone. Often we struggle to pray because we labour under the misconception that only beautifully worded prayers filled with words like ‘Thee’ and ‘Thou’ are appropriate. By repeatedly using a phrase like ‘daddy,’ Jesus taught us that in fact, prayer can be deeply personal and therefore quite informal. Remember that informal does not necessarily equate to disrespectful. If you deeply love someone, you may use an informal nickname to describe them but it will always be said with tenderness and respect.

If we want our prayer lives to know depth and substance then we need to hold tightly onto those tender images presented to us by Jesus. The more we recognise just how much and how tenderly God loves us, the easier we will find it to pray.

PRAY AS YOU GO
Dad! Thank-you for the wonderful message Jesus brought of your love and care for us all. Help us to learn that we don’t have to know any fancy words or phrases to be able to pray properly. Help us to have the courage to speak to you like we would anyone else that we love and respect. Help us to learn to pray like Jesus prayed. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Luke 11. 1-2 (NRSV)
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: ’Father!’

Wednesday 23 April

DAILY BYTE – Why bother praying at all?

Another question ‘why’ that people often bring to this topic is to query why we need to bother praying at all when God sometimes seems not to answer our prayers. Jesus says that whatever we ask for in his name will be given to us, and that if we seek we will find and if we knock the door will be opened. Yet clearly, often what we directly ask for is not given to us. At other times it feels as if God is far away from us and that our prayers just disappear into thin air.

The thing is God DOES always answer prayers. It is just sometimes God says ‘no’. And sometimes God says, ‘not yet’ or ‘wait’.

This is where prayer can get so frustrating and difficult. We cannot understand the reason why God would be saying ‘no’ to requests that are heartfelt and genuinely unselfish.

Now the reason why God doesn’t answer some prayers as we expect is not something I can answer for you. I can only point you to the second illustration after the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11. 1-13 where Jesus reminds us that God loves us even more than a good and loving parent loves their children.

If parents truly love their children then they will often say ‘no’ or ‘not yet’ to them - there will be limits to what they give them. Children get so frustrated with their parents over this but only because they cannot see the whole picture.

God may not always open the doors exactly as we would have them opened, but they will be opened.

Sometimes in quite surprising and wonderful ways.

In St. Augustine's ‘Confession’ he talks about how his mother, Monica, a committed Christian, was very concerned that as a young man, he lived a life of wild and irresponsible excess. Augustine was a very gifted, young scholar but soon realise that his home in North Africa did not hold all the opportunities for him that Europe would. He resolved to go to Italy that he might study more fully his chosen discipline of rhetoric. Monica, felt if he ever left her side, he would never come to know Christ.

And so one night she was praying earnestly in a chapel that Augustine not leave her, when in fact, he was already boarding a ship for Italy. He went to Milan, and once he got there he was told that if he wanted to hear rhetoric in its finest form, he ought to go down to the cathedral every Sunday because Bishop Ambrose was recognized as the greatest practitioner of rhetoric in all of Italy at that time.

Well, as it turned out, the young man began to do that and lo and behold, through Ambrose's rhetoric, the wonder of the Gospel began to break in on the consciousness of Augustine. It was through this experience that God eventually brought Augustine to a profound conversion, which led to his becoming one of the great shapers of modern theology. The interesting thing is that Monica had no idea that of all the people in the world, Ambrose was better equipped to bear witness to her son than she herself.

And years later as Augustine looked back on that experience, he said of that night when she was praying so earnestly that he not leave her side, God denied her the form of her request so that God might eventually give her the substance of it.

Perhaps, when we question why our prayers just don’t seem to be answered, all we can do is trust that in God’s heart there is nothing but unambiguous goodness. Trust that the response to our prayers will come from the heart of a heavenly parent who loves us better than we love ourselves and who truly knows what is best for us.

PRAY AS YOU GO
Lord, as difficult as it may be for us when our prayer seem unanswered, help us to always trust in your unambiguous goodness. Help us to trust that you have our best interests at heart. Amen.

FOCUS READING
Luke 11. 9 (NRSV)
So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

Tuesday 22 April

DAILY BYTE – Why do we need to pray?

Yesterday, I mentioned that we would be using questions to interpret this week’s text (Luke 11. 1-13). The first question we will be using is the question WHY. Have you ever wondered why we pray or why we need to pray? If God already knows everything about everything, then why do we need to pray all?

You may well have heard that old saying, ‘Prayer changes things’. Richard Foster changes that saying to read, ‘Prayer changes US’. God’s great desire behind prayer is more about changing us than about changing our circumstances. Of course prayer can radically and powerfully change circumstances; it is just that God’s highest priority is to change us first.

Let’s not forget that the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, (after the opening address of ‘Father’), are the words ‘Hallowed by your name. Your Kingdom come.’ Richard Rohr sums up this part of the prayer by saying that whenever we pray to God ‘your Kingdom come,’ we are also saying ‘and MY Kingdom go’. Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed a prayer that was not answered, ‘Take this cup of suffering from me,’ but immediately after this he prayed, ‘yet not my will, but yours be done’.

E. Stanley Jones explained this concept by using the illustration of throwing out a boat hook from a boat and catching land and then pulling. He then queried that if we did so, would we pull the land to the boat, or would we pull the boat to the land?

In the same way, prayer is not the pulling of God into our will, but rather the aligning of our will to that of God’s. Prayer is not changing God’s mind on matters for Jesus makes it clear in Luke 11. 1-13 that God is already pure love and grace and already has our best interests at heart. No, the deepest and most profound purpose of prayer is that it changes our mind and our hearts.

Prayer is a process where God’s Kingdom comes and our kingdoms go!

Perhaps then the very nature of prayer is that it is MEANT to be a struggle.

Remember how often Jesus taught persistence in prayer (including the story of the friend at midnight). Perhaps it is because the very act of prayer, repeated and persistent prayer, is an absolutely indispensable part of our overall journey of change and transformation.

Prayer enlarges our awareness of God and of the universe. Prayer assumes that there is more to the world than we can experience just through our five senses. Just as blind people often develop a superior sense of hearing, and deaf people a superior sense of touch, so prayer is a way of developing a superior sense of the Spirit within us.

Prayer opens the eyes of our hearts.

In our busy, busy world filled with deadlines and stress, prayer is a way of keeping our spirits from being consumed and drained. Prayer reminds us what is truly important in life. Taking time off to pray is a protest against our society endless rush and busyness because souls can die from a lack of reflection!

Prayer changes us in some quite incredibly and profound ways – and that’s one of the most important reasons WHY we NEED to pray.

PRAY AS YOU GO
O Lord, teach us not only how to pray but also the importance of WHY we need to pray. Help us to be open to way your Spirit will change and transform us even us we open our hearts to you. We do truly pray that your name would be hallowed in our lives. We also pray that your Kingdom WILL come and that our kingdom will go. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE
Luke 11. 2 (NRSV)

He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.’

Monday 21 April

DAILY BYTE – Prayer Problems

It has been said that there are two types of people in this world. Those that think there are two types of people in this world, and those that … don’t.

I must admit to falling into the second of these two camps because when it comes to prayer there really does seem to be two types of people in this world: those for whom prayer is a real source of sustenance and life; and those for whom prayer is just one big struggle.

Many of you, as you read this, would probably identify with the second sentiment: That you find prayer to be hard, confusing and even frustrating at times. We look at the great saints of church history and wonder what they had that we don’t – we wonder what their secret of prayer was.

If you are like this, if you have prayer problems, then please know that you are not alone in your struggles! The author, Trevor Hudson, quotes a needs survey done by one of South Africa’s largest denominations. This survey received 25 000 responses, and significantly, it was found that the greatest spiritual need people expressed was to learn HOW to pray.

And let us not underestimate just how incredibly important prayer is. In his wonderful book, called ‘Prayer,’ Richard Foster says that prayer is the KEY to our home, our real home, the heart of God. That’s a wonderful thought – prayer is the key to God’s heart – the home we were created to live, the place we were shaped for. If that is true, then it is vitally important we learn how to overcome our prayer problems. It is important that we learn how to pray for that is the key to God’s heart.

This struggle to pray is not unique to our contemporary society. In this week’s text, we find the disciples asking Jesus a question that has echoed down through the centuries until it finds voice on our lips as well: ‘Lord, teach us how to pray’. Jesus answered this question (in Luke 11. 1-13), by teaching his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, as well as two other well known stories – that of the persistent friend, and that of the loving parent.

One general thought that I would like to bring out of this teaching is that Jesus makes it implicitly clear that there is NO great secret when it comes to prayer, a secret available only to the more saintly among us. In fact, what we learn from his teaching is that perhaps the whole point of prayer is that it WOULD be something we struggle and wrestle with. Struggle is part of the very essence of prayer!

Now we could spend this week going through Jesus’ teaching point by point, line by line, and there would be much value in that process. But because we seem to have so many questions when it comes to the topic of prayer, I think it would be appropriate to use our questions to interpret this text. We will spend the rest of the week doing exactly that, but for now please spend some time in prayer (see prayer below).

PRAY AS YOU GO
Yes, Lord, I will try to pray, even when I am afraid to face you and myself, even when I keep falling asleep or feel as though I am going around in circles, even when it seems that nothing is happening. Yes, Lord, I will pray - not only with others, not only supported by the rhythms of corporate worship, but also alone with you. I will try not to be afraid. Lord, give me courage and strength. Help me to see myself in the light of your mercy and choose you. Amen” (Henri Nouwen)

FOCUS READING
Luke 11. 1-13 NRSV
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’