Friday, June 30, 2023

Persistently Bold Prayer | Practicing Jesus' Faithful Way



God is eager to give Himself to us. + John F. Smed, Disruptive Prayer


Luke 11:1 Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 Jesus said to them, “Whenever you pray, say, Father, Your name be honored as holy. Your Kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us. And do not bring us into temptation.” 5 Jesus also said to them: “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don’t have anything to offer him.’ 7 Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s shamelessly bold persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

 When Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray, He assures those who do pray that God will give them the Holy Spirit: "How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

The central answer to our prayer is God. 

Jesus taught, "Ask and you shall receive" after the Our Father | Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1-13). When we pray using Jesus' guide to prayer, God's first answer is the gift of Himself, His Holy Spirit. As we pray, He increases our capacity for the gift of Himself and expands our hearts with a growing love for others. + John F. Smed, Disruptive Prayer

" ... I began, haltingly but really, to give up my confidence in any human adequacy and my own abilities. I tried to rely more exclusively on 'prayers and the supply of the Spirit' (Phil. 1:19 Miller) for the power to serve Christ effectively. Increasingly I saw myself as a desperately needy person, like the man who goes to his friend at midnight and says, 'I have nothing' (Luke 11:6). Before this, my problem in praying was that I had something – namely, reliance on myself, my training, my study, and my work. But the man at midnight has no bread for himself or for others. In his total need he forgets all sense of dignity. The standard translations of Luke 11:8 speak of the man's 'persistence,' but that is hardly what the original language indicates. A better translation would be 'shamelessly persistent' or even 'shamelessly pushy.' Once I began to pray boldly like this man in my hunger for God and His help, He began to impart to me in a new way the presence of the Holy Spirit. 
And that is the whole point of Luke 11:1-13 that compares bread and food to the Holy Spirit after the Lord's Prayer. God promises in Luke 11:13: 'If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!' What came home to me with power is the centrality of the Spirit's working for all of the Christian life and service. In my need I came to appreciate what Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck stresses in his excellent essay 'The Gift of the Spirit' in Our Reasonable Faith. He says that all the promises of Scripture – for protection, healthy, daily physical bread, etc. – find their root in the one supreme promise: the commitment of the risen Christ to impart the Holy Spirit as the power source for the Church in answer to prayer.  
In practice this meant for me that I began to pray for the Spirit's presence to be with almost everything I did. I especially began to pray with 'shameless boldness' for His working in our corporate prayer times (i.e. Sabbath gatherings, City Group prayer meetings, SLT meetings, DNAs, etc.). I also prayed for each person who was likely to come, for anyone who had a part in leading the prayer meeting, and for my own leadership during the prayer time. I asked God to give us His Spirit that we would know how to pray, that our hearts would be surrendered to His missionary will, and that we would leave the prayer meeting freed of guilt and fear and ready to witness fearlessly for Christ. In brief, my plea, based on the promise of the Spirit given in Luke 11:13, was for Him to meet with us and change us into a community of faith working through love. Frequently I asked the Father to visit us with His Spirit to equip us with three things:  
1. His self-forgetting love for others, 
2. His wisdom for praying specifically and intelligently, 
3. His boldness for prayer and risk-taking witness. ... " 
+ pgs 96-97, "The Praying Local Church" from Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by Jack Miller

 North African St. Augustine said it best, "Prayer increases our capacity for God's gift of Himself." Our hearts expand until we share Christ's own passion for His Church and His sacrificial love for a lost world. 

 We become what we pray. ... With the Our Father | Lord's Prayer, God lifts us and our prayers from the narrow confines of present urgencies to the majestic vision of the world reborn through answered prayer (Isaiah 66:9). 

The King's Strategy for Prayer by John F. Smed


"Our Father in heaven" | Increasing our capacity for God (less focus on self)

 As we pray our Father in heaven, God answers, and it brings childlike love and trust to our soul. We begin to treat all people as created equal, having one God as their Creator. We are praying against tribalism, nationalism, and racism. Because God is the Redeemer Father of all believers, we become passionate for the unity of the Church. We call every believer in Christ brother or sister, and we gladly pray for them.

 "Hallowed be your name" | Giving reverence to God (banishing idols, not needing to make a name for myself)

 When we pray Hallowed be Your name, we gain a humble sense of awe at God's holiness. We are renewed in reverence and become jealous for His name to be honored and His fame to spread throughout the world. With this fuller vision of God, we experience new depths of repentance and new fillings of joy. We focus our resolve on proclaiming the fame and glory of God to those who do not know Him (Psalm 96).

 "Your Kingdom come" | Rejoicing in Jesus' name and announcing the Good News of His Kingdom (instead of building my kingdom or merely blessing my plans)

 As we call out from the heart Your Kingdom come, we rejoice in Christ's rule and reign, and we are captured by the majesty of His mission. As we go deep in prayer, Jesus gives us His heart for those who do not know Him. Our prayers are filled with zeal for His mission: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). As we pray, we move from being spectators to becoming participants in His mission. “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. ... 'Receive the Holy Spirit'" (John 20:21-22). As we pray, His purpose becomes ours: many people repent and come to Christ and renewal in the Church and renewal for our towns and cities follow (Zechariah 12:10-13:2).

 "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" | God's will becoming ours including mercy and justice (from relieving just our struggles to relieving the world's struggles)

 When we pray Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, a miracle happens within. God's will moves into our hearts. From within, we strive to accept His will, no matter how difficult things get. We learn to approve God's will as good and right and just; we resolve to act on His will in loving obedience. As we faithfully pray Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we feel our souls burn with God's love of righteousness and justice: "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8). We move from being overwhelmed by the injustice of the world to becoming agents of its renewal. Our Kingdom prayers bring justice and mercy to realization. We become God's answer to our own prayers. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ ... If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted ... you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in (Isaiah 58:9-12).

 "Give us this day our daily bread" | receiving contentment, simplicity, generosity (releasing worry for present urgencies)

 As we request of God to give us this day our daily bread, we trust in firm assurance that we will have enough supernatural and natural resources for ourselves and plenty to care for the poor and needy. Our hearts become generous, and our needs modest. We are filled with the Spirit of wisdom, revelation, and thanksgiving. We learn from Him contentment and generosity. We don't just talk about helping others in need, we start doing it, giving our time and releasing our resources and opening our homes to the poor, displaced, disabled, immigrant, or otherwise outcast.

 "Forgive us our trespasses, debts, sins as we forgive others'" | releasing grudges and debts against others (stopping quarrels and conflict avoidance)

 When we humbly pray forgive us as we forgive others, we are asking God to impart His Spirit and grant redemptive community. God gives us a deep inner peace as we accept and enjoy His forgiveness. Whether in the Church or in the world, we begin to treat others with humility and grace. As we bow in humble repentance, asking God to forgive us, He makes us agents of reconciliation.

 "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one" | receiving guidance and power in spiritual advance (overcoming challenges and defeat)

 When we pray lead us not into temptation, God fortifies our soul against the incessant temptations of the world and the devil. We do not pray about spiritual warfare. Prayer itself is spiritual warfare. We are not overwhelmed or fearful because Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and indeed He did. At the cross, He dealt the death-blow to the evil one. We join others praying against the predatory and immoral actions of those who deceive others, who use all manner of schemes to exploit people, from dishonest marketing to human trafficking. We cultivate godliness.


Read previous posts on the Our Father | Lord's Prayer:

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