Simple Prayer

Ephesians 6:18-20, With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Matthew 21:22 And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

James 1:5-8 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.  For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

                Prayer is our life line to God.  I remember as a new father when my son started to learn to walk he chaffed at being in the stroller when we went to the mall or somewhere else that had a lot of neat things to see.  It soon became clear that I would lose track of him if I allowed him to wander as he wished.  So being a new dad and not having a clue how to deal with this I went to Walmart and looked for a solution.  I soon found a leash contraption that I could strap to my child and hold the other end.  This allowed him to have some freedom and for me to still have some control.  Even now I shudder a little bit when I think that I “leashed” my child; but for whatever reason it worked for us for that time.  It did not work well with my next three children. 

                Say what you want to about the “leashing” of children it has clear and obvious analogies to our own Christian lives.  That leash or tether that we have trough the Holy Spirit is the ability to be in constant contact with the creator of the universe.  That is a powerful concept!  Just a cursory reading in the New Testament on the subject of prayer brings this out in a clear and crazy way.  Most Christians have a poor and in some cases a distorted view of prayer.  Some think that there is some heavenly switchboard that is constantly receiving calls and that there is a hierarchy or a priority system.  For instance a little girl praying for ice cream after a dinner out with family is somehow a lower priority then the boy in Haiti that is starving and is praying that today will be the day that he eats.  We can easily prioritize these two prayers but the crazy part is that God does not.  He listens to both prayers and answers both in His way and according to His will.  Both prayers are important to Him and He takes both requests seriously.

                Now I may have used a simplistic example but you can see that when Jesus says; “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” (Mathew 16:19)  He means it!  He even repeated this later in the same gospel Matthew 18:18.  Prayer changes things because He has called us to be His image bearers here on earth.  We are chosen to be His agents of change in this dark and dying world.  We bear the words of life from His lips and when we pray for anything He listens.

                In light of this I began to look for examples of prayer in the Old and New Testaments and there are a lot of examples.  The funny thing is that aside from the prayers of Jesus, nearly every other prayer is short simple and to the point.  Look at some of them; (Some I have taken poetic license with)

• ·         Adam – We were hiding because we were naked…
• ·         Cain – I don’t know where my brother is…
• ·         Noah – You want me to build what…
• ·         Abraham – You want me to go where…
• ·         Isaac – You want me to marry some woman I have never met…
• ·         Jacob – How many kids…
• ·         Moses – What name shall I use when I go to the people…
• ·         Joshua – How do I take down the city of Jericho? – No really I need a battle plan…
• ·         Elijah – Lord, deal this my enemies… (and the fire fell)
• ·         Elisha – (to his servant in a moment of crisis) Lord, open this man’s eyes…
• ·         Isaiah – Here am I send me…
• ·         Jerimiah – I am too young they will not listen to me…
• ·         Mary – How can this be since I am a virgin…
• ·         Joseph – O.K. Lord I will Marry Mary no questions asked the child is yours…
• ·         John the Baptist – Behold the Lamb of God…
• ·         Peter – You are the Christ the son of the Living God…
• ·         A desperate father with a son afflicted with a strange disease – Lord I believe, please help my unbelief…
• ·         James and John – We want to be your right hand men in the coming kingdom…

And on and on the list can go.  Some of the names and “prayers” are paraphrased or comedic but the point is that God loves when we talk to Him and He loves short simple prayers.  Sometimes just a simple recognition that He is God and in control like what Thomas said when confronted with the risen Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” 

Paul teaches in Romans 8: 26-27; “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”  In short even when we don’t know what to say He still hears our heart cry and is there for us.  So when thinking on prayer…KEEP IT SIMPLE!