United Church of God

Men Ought Always to Pray

You are here

Men Ought Always to Pray

Downloads
MP3 Audio (17.78 MB)

Downloads

Men Ought Always to Pray

MP3 Audio (17.78 MB)
×

Incense is symbolic of prayer. Incense makes you feel pleasant; prayer should make you feel pleasant as well.

Transcript

[Frank Dunkle] Have you ever walked into a house where someone’s baking bread? What’s the first thing you notice? Ah, that wonderful aroma. If you don’t know anybody that bakes homemade bread anymore, it’s not that much different than if you walk into a Subway shop at the right time. There are certain smells that just affect a person in a way nothing else really can. Different people like different things. I think that bread is one that most people like.

This time of year, I love going out in the woods. It’s funny, I’m not even a hunter, but I love going out in the woods and just experiencing that smell. Certain things, it seems like they can do something that other senses don’t. Maybe it’s because smell is the one thing you can’t get on a screen. You can’t put it in a movie, on TV...

Scientists have discovered that scent is closely linked to memories. It can bring back memories of something pretty far distant. That has happened with me. I realized that sometimes I would smell a certain beach smell and I would start getting sort of a happy, nostalgic feeling. That happened to me more than once, and I had to stop and say, “Where is this coming from?” I analyzed and I realized that this particular beach smelled a lot like the one I experienced going to the Feast of Tabernacles at Hampton Rhodes quite a few years ago before they switched to Norfolk. I thought it’s taking me back to that very happy experience as a young teenager.

Before you wonder how long this guy’s going to keep going on talking about different smells, let me explain why I thought this was important. Scripture makes an important analogy to aroma or smell as something that’s very important to God. If you will, turn with me to Revelation chapter 8 and verse 3. I’m breaking into a thought, but it mentions an angel.

Revelation 8:3Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar –this is in Heaven. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

The book of Revelation uses a great deal of symbolism, and in some places, it helps us to understand symbols that are used elsewhere in the bible. For example, it’s in Revelation that we begin to understand that the two witnesses, who they are as they were symbolized back in the book of Zachariah by two olive trees. I wonder, are we learning here in Revelation 8 that incense that was used in worship of God is symbolic of prayer? I think so, and that, perhaps, is why King David wrote, and actually, rather than turn there I’ll just make note of it: In Psalm 141:2 where King David, who was inspired by God’s Holy Spirit said,

Psalm 141:2Let my prayer be before you as incense.

Let my prayer be as incense. I thought I should put a disclaimer in here because, if any of you are near the same age as me, you might have had a similar experience as I did in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Here in America, there was this sort of temporary fad of people burning incense. It seemed it was mostly people who were in to the occult, drugs, or heavy metal rock and roll, or maybe all three at the same time. I smelled some of that incense, matter of fact, I don’t know if it’s nationwide or everywhere, up in Columbus there’s a chain store called Waterbeds and Stuff. I think they did sell waterbeds, but they were known for selling other stuff. You could never go near one of those without the smell of incense. But it was always incense that, to me, did not smell good. It just, this acrid smelling stuff that, it gave me a bad thought of what incense would be.

So this idea of incense being representative of prayer didn’t really help me all that much until later I realized that not all incense smells like that. I’ve never become a fan of incense, but it occurred to me if I want to get the idea of what prayer would mean to God, and why He said, “I want you to burn incense to represent it.” I thought, “I’ve got to find something that I do like the smell of.” The baking bread is a good one, but I discovered one even better some months ago. I was working downstairs and I came up and I didn’t know ahead of time, but Sue was baking cupcakes. As soon as I came upstairs, I knew it because, oh, that’s even better than bread. That smell just filled the house. It was just this pleasant, wonderful thing. And not just once, I’d go back downstairs, come up a while later and I would have forgotten, and said, ‘Oh, this is still wonderful.’ It just lingered for a good while.

In Luke 18:1, again, I’m breaking into a thought, I’ll just mention this, because Christ is going to introduce a parable, but He introduces is by saying:

Luke 18:1Men ought always to pray and not lose heart

As I said, I’ll save discussion of the parable itself for another time, but I want to focus on the encouragement from Jesus Christ. That men ought always to pray. It’s an encouragement because prayer is for our good. It’s worth noting that I believe God enjoys it too. That’s why He wanted it symbolized by some pleasant experience, like perhaps burning incense, perhaps like baking cupcakes. I hadn’t thought of it before, I wonder if in the ancient tabernacle, if they had had cupcakes back then, instead of the priest bringing in incense, well maybe not… but…

What attitude and approach does God want us to have concerning prayer? We instinctively realize there are different types of prayer for different occasions. As I began studying in preparation for this message, I gained some greater insight into some part of this that I hadn’t realized before, partly just by looking at the words. Understanding that different words…, there are different meanings behind the original language. In our English, the word ‘pray’ can have more than one meaning. We don’t use it for more than one thing that much anymore.

If you turn to Genesis 12, you’ll see. Genesis 12:13 there’s an example. It’s going to read differently depending on what translation of the bible you’re using. Genesis 12 and I want to read verse 13. I’m breaking into a thought. This is early on after God had called Abraham -he was still going by the name Abram at this time- and his wife out of Mesopotamia, He said ‘Go to this strange land where I’m going to send you’ and He has these great promises, but there’s a famine in the land so they go down to Egypt. Abram is getting a little worried at this point, so he tells Sara:

Genesis 12:13Please say that you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that I may live

Now, I just read right through that in the New King James where it says ‘please’. If any of you have the original 1611 King James is says: Say, I pray thee, you are my sister.

I pray. The Hebrew word that was translated 400 years ago as ‘pray’ is now translated ‘please’. It’s a very simple one: transliterated into English it’s na. Which makes me tempted to break into another song, but we’re not going to do the ‘na na’ song. The meaning of that Hebrew na means to beseech, to ask earnestly, it could even mean to say please. Asking earnestly is certainly something we can and should do in our prayers to God, but we can see here that type of communication is not limited only to God. Abram prayed to Sara, in a sense he asked her earnestly to do something.

There’s a very similar word in the Greek, it’s erotao. I’ve got it transliterated as e-r-o-t-a-o. If this were class, I’d write that on the board and no one would be able to read it because of my handwriting, so I’ll spell it for you. It’s used in Luke 14:18 as, again, part of a parable. Perhaps I’ll summarize it because I’ve still got my New King James. This is the parable where Christ discusses the wealthy man putting on a marriage supper, and sending invitations to a wedding supper for his son, but people start making excuses.

Luke 14:18The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. I pray you to have me excused

I pray to have me excused. The New King James just simply says: ‘I ask you to excuse me.’

I grew up reading the King James bible, so the idea of pray in this sense didn’t surprise me any, as a matter of fact, it seems natural. I think it stood out to me how unusual it was when I was reading about World War II and Winston Churchill. Winston Churchill was a master of the English language: good at speaking, good at writing. One of the things I learned in studying about his life was that he developed this unusual practice when he was running the country during the war. He would send these brief messages to those over different departments that were often called ‘Winston’s prayers’ because of the way he would write them.

He might send a note to the First Lord of the Admiralty -that’s what they call the guy in charge of the navy –that would say ‘Pray, send me the current list of shipping available in the channel.’ Or he might send a note to the Secretary of Air Defense that says ‘Pray, have all the fighter squadrons ready for attack by this Thursday.’ Winston’s prayers. It was a unique different way of saying ‘please’, but because it was so unusual, it got their attention more. I would have thought getting a note from the Prime Minister would get your attention anyway.

You might wonder, ‘OK, we understand that, but why focus on this meaning for pray if almost nobody uses it that way anymore?’ All the newer translations use ‘please’ or some similar word. The reason I’m mentioning it is I was fascinated doing a little word study when I use the concordance to look for all the words where pray is mentioned and in the Old Testament, I found that it is almost always translated from that word, na, meaning please, a request, beseeching. I think, and I’m actually fairly certain, that’s not what Christ meant when He said, ‘Men ought always to pray and not lose heart’.

There’s a different word for that. The Greek erotao would mean please, earnestly beseech, but what Christ was talking about is the Greek proseuchomai. Here’s where I need the board because spelling this would be a challenge, but if you want the transliteration it’s p-r-o-s-e-u-c-h-o-m-a-i. I even wrote down the Strong’s number if you want that. It’s Strong’s number 4336.

There’s a Hebrew equivalent: palai (p-a-l-a-i). It means ‘to pray’, obviously that’s why it’s translated to the word pray many times, but it means more than just asking earnestly. It can mean to make supplication, but more importantly than that, it includes a sense of worship. It’s praying with worship, with wanting to make communication with God. This word is never used for addressing another person like Abraham is telling Sara ‘Please say I’m your brother’. This palai is always used talking to God, it’s wanting to make a connection with God. You’ll see it’s used in Psalm 32:6. This is a brief passage, but I want to read this Psalm 32:6 where it says:

Psalm 32:6For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You

I’ll stop there. Everyone who is godly will pray to You. That’s that Hebrew word palai. It’s translated pray. It was translated into the English pray both 400 years ago and in all the modern translations. It’s similarly used in Psalm 5, just back a few pages: Psalm 5 beginning in verse 2.

Psalm 5:2Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray.

Not, ‘make a solemn request’, but beseech and worship and supplicate.

Psalm 5:3My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Eternal; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.

This is the picture of prayer that is intended of wanting to connect with God early on. I don’t get the feeling that David was talking about this as far as making a request and saying please. That appears a lot in the bible used by many people. And David would do that as well, but we see here, he is talking about something much deeper. Something that I think would be more pleasing to God, not that the other isn’t. What’s interesting is, I wanted to make this distinction because the other word was used by a lot of people. Only a few people in the Old Testament used the word for the close connection with God, and David made that type of prayer, so did Job, Samuel, and Nehemiah and others.

I think this difference between how one group of people looks to and communicates to God and how others did, might be represented or understood if we think of the first time that God came down and spoke to the Israelites, when He gave the ten commandments. If you want to turn toward Exodus 20, I want to actually look and read some of what happened afterwards.

I can describe what happened beforehand. We’re very familiar with the story. God had worked great miracles: humbling the nation of Egypt; bringing the children out; fed them miraculously; provided water out of a rock; then had Moses tell them, ‘In three days, God’s going to come down and talk to you’, and He proposes a covenant: ‘If you’ll obey My voice, I’ll make you a special people.’ So He did. God came down in a cloud and fire and thunder and lightning and the mountains shaking and the people are shaking too, because they’re so scared. Later, Moses was right to say, ‘I tremble exceedingly’, and God thundered with a loud voice speaking the Ten Commandments, and the people listened, and what was their reaction? We can see that in chapter 20 beginning in verse 18. After the end of tenth commandment:

Exodus 20:18All the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.

Exodus 20:19Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but don’t let God speak to us, lest we die.”

We can’t take this anymore. Moses, you go talk to God and come back and tell us what He has to say and that’ll be enough for us. And God was alright with this. I think He kind of expected that. I think this story in many ways demonstrates mankind’s relationship with God, for most of human history. For thousands of years, man has stood afar off, while just a few chosen people could come and parley with God, have that closer relationship. We want to be among those few. I believe we are among those few, that’s why you’re in this room today.

Let’s see another representation of this, before we look to the New Testament for some explanation. Just a few pages over in chapter 34 of Exodus, we’ll note something else that happened when Moses spent considerable time talking to God. He was up there on Mount Sinai for forty days, came down, had to deal with a little business with a golden calf, then went back up for forty more days, and here in chapter 34 in verse 29:

Exodus 34:29Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand when he came down from the mountain), Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.

So, he’s glowing.

Exodus 34:30So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

I imagine that’s pretty scary stuff. So Moses called and said it’s ok, come on over and so they came and talked to him. Afterward, all the children of Israel came near, he spoke.

Exodus 34:34But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded.

When they saw the face of Moses, that the skin of his face shone, he would put the veil back on until he went back in to talk to God. With that in mind, let’s turn to the New Testament, to 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, beginning in verse 12, because Paul is going to refer to this very event or occurrence and relate it to people today in the modern era.

2 Corinthians 3:12Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech-

We use great boldness of speech in speaking with each other, but we can also think about great boldness in speaking to God.

2 Corinthians 3:13Unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.

2 Corinthians 3:14 their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains, unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ

2 Corinthians 3:15But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.

That is, on those who weren’t called by God, who don’t have His Spirit opening their minds.

2 Corinthians 3:17Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

2 Corinthians 3:18 -  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Using what happened with Moses’ face to make an analogy shows that people in general in this world don’t have easy access to God, because without the Holy Spirit they don’t really know God. Even though many might want to, they might pray, but for them, it’s more of a formal procedure with a barrier symbolized by a veil. They might want to, but they’re approaching God more with what we might call the erotao than the proseuchomai. I’m going to watch out; I’m going to confuse myself with these Greek words!

Think of not only the veil of course that Moses wore, Paul referred to that, but remember the veil that separated the holy of holies from the holy place in the temple. Formal ritual worship was given to the people of the Old Testament, to the nation of Israel, because without God’s spirit, they needed a symbol of what was going to come. But Christ said that the Father seeks people to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. He didn’t ask us to come and sacrifice animals or to burn incense. He wants us to worship in Spirit and in truth. Animal sacrifices in the Old Testament symbolized Christ’s sacrifice, and from what we’ve seen the burning of incense symbolized the prayer that God wants; the type of prayer that He wants: A true, open communication, something that’s very pleasant for Him and for us.

That’s one thing that struck me, I never even realized it until I was writing this sermon, but if you look through all that instruction for the temple worship and the tabernacle and the Old Testament, there is not a word that says anything about prayer. God didn’t teach the nation Israel of how to pray. That doesn’t mean none of them ever prayed, but we see a difference, the disciples would come to Jesus Christ and say, ‘Teach us how to pray.’ For those in the Old Testament, there was a veil separating them.

If you’ll turn over to Hebrews Chapter 9, we’ll see some of that.

Hebrews 9:1Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.

Hebrews 9:2For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary; -sometimes called the Holy place

Hebrews 9:3and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, -sometimes called the Holy of Holies

Let’s drop down to verse 6

Hebrews 9:6Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.

So the Holy Place, the priests went in every day.

Hebrews 9:7But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance;

That one time of a year that he went in there was on the Day of Atonement, which you might have heard that on probably a number of Day of Atonement services. What Paul doesn’t mention here that is described in Leviticus 16, was that one day of the year, the high priest came in not only with blood but also with incense. I’m not going to turn there, but it’s in Leviticus 16:11-14.

Continuing on here in verse 8:

Hebrews 9:8the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

Meaning, the way to have a close relationship with God the Father was not open, not until Christ was crucified. It was symbolic for the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices were offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to conscious. Let’s look at verse 11:

Hebrews 9:11But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Hebrews 9:12Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Christ’s sacrifice greatly changed things. I’m not telling you something you haven’t heard, but it’s worth us thinking about that. His sacrifice made it possible to remove that division between God and man. Before, most of mankind stood afar off, like the children of Israel who heard God speak the Ten Commandments, and a few people approached God, as Moses did. When Christ was crucified, the division was removed. That happened in reality but also symbolically in the temple, as it says in verse 10 of Matthew 27 [Matthew 27:10]. Right at the moment that Christ gave up the ghost, as it says in the Old Testament, He breathed His last and the veil in the temple was ripped in half from top to bottom, symbolizing that there was an end of that division. From that time there was no more need for animal sacrifice, but also that ended the need for burning incense as part of worship.

From the time that God’s Holy Spirit became available, people could have the kind of worship that the incense represented, close communication with God in prayer, as said in Greek: proseuchomai. I think that’s a big part of why Jesus gave certain instruction to the disciples. It’s in John 16 beginning in verse 26. This is part of His long talk with them on that last Passover evening that He spent with them before His crucifixion, and He talked to them quite a bit about the Father, and of course we know without yet having the Spirit they were kind of confused, they didn’t quite get it all but they would later. Starting in verse 26 of chapter 16, He says:

John 16:26In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you;

John 16:27for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.

This is referring back to John 14:13. I’m not going to turn there but Jesus said:

John 14:13Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified...

But it’s interesting here, in verse 26 of chapter 16 where He says, ‘In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say that I will pray to the Father for you’ He used the other word, the erotao. I think what’s happening is He used that word because it means the more formal communication without the close relationship, and I think Jesus was saying it’s not going to be that way. You don’t have to come to me and I’ll go to Him for you. The Father Himself loves you. He wants you to come talk to Him. Forget this eroteo, well I shouldn’t say forget this, because asking the Father please is something I do very often, I’m sure all of us do, but we want to also have that open conversation and discussion. The Father Himself loves you. That was true of the twelve, then eleven disciples, and it’s true for everyone in this room. The Father loves each and every one of us and wants us to come pray to Him, establish a real communication. That’s something very important.

Let’s turn back to Matthew chapter 6, if you will. Matthew 6 beginning in verse 5. This is but some of Christ’s instruction on prayer.

Matthew 6:8Therefore, do not be like them –and the ‘them’ is the hypocrites who make long prayers with lots of repetition thinking they’ll be heard for many words. Don’t be like them.- For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.

One of the things we might stop and ask is, if He knows what we need before we ask, why does He keep insisting we come and talk to Him? He already knows. Well with that is because He does want us to come and talk. He wants us to share our thoughts and feelings- build that relationship. Just like we would with our mate, our husband or wife, our good friends, those of us who have children… I might know what Connor [his son] needs, I might know what he needs more than he knows what he needs because he’ll tell me what he wants, but I still want him to come and talk to me. I want to understand what’s going on in that little head, come on and share with me. Hopefully we’re thinking on a higher level than that when we come to the Father, but He does want us to come and talk.

I’ll have to confess I stopped there before going through what we call the model prayer. When I first started working on this I thought I probably would. If I wanted to give a sermon on prayer, I would talk about these various elements: Praise God; pray for His kingdom to come; pray for God’s will to be done; ask for Him to supply our needs, your needs, my needs; ask for protection from Satan. This certainly is a model to follow. It’s the model to follow, and covering this in sermons is never going to get outworn or out of style. But the focus I followed in preparing this made me want to talk a little more about a different attitude and approach that we can use when we talk to God.

As we’ve seen for most of human history, a relatively small number of people got to come and really talk to God, because only a small number had His Holy Spirit. One of those was King David. David provided a valuable means for us to learn about having a relationship with God, and the Psalms of course, there’s probably many of his prayers that are written down, and his earnest talking and he shows that praying for other people, praying for protection, sometimes praying to God, ‘Get those bad guys! Let them have it!’. We don’t follow that one very often, but it’s interesting to see almost every kind of way you can pray is described there.

Without going to those, I want to look at a particular incident in David’s life that I find enlightening in showing us how we pray to God in a certain circumstance. It’s found in 2 Samuel chapter 7, so if you’ll turn with me 2 Samuel. This is well after David has finally been established on the throne. He’s ruling over a united kingdom, things are going well, and he’s noticed he’d like to make some changes in the formal national worship of God.

2 Samuel 7:1It came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around,

2 Samuel 7:2The king said to Nathan the prophet, ‘See now, -look here, I’m dwelling in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside a tent curtains’.

Nathan realizes what he’s getting at. He’s saying, ‘Hey, it’s time to build a building, a temple, for God.’ And Nathan realizes how much God has blessed David

2 Samuel 7:3Then Nathan said to the king, ‘Go do all that’s in your heart, for the eternal is with you.’

So Nathan jumps to the conclusion since God has been blessing everything David does, certainly He’s going to bless this, too, but now God gives an answer Himself that’s a little surprising and different. Now, He doesn’t speak directly to David. He’ll work through Nathan and send the message back.

2 Samuel 7:4But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying,

2 Samuel 7:5“Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Would you build a house for Me to dwell in?

2 Samuel 7:6For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle.

2 Samuel 7:7Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not build Me a house of cedar?’

It’s interesting.  I think God is starting to model some of this communication. This isn’t some formal pronouncement like He did when He came on Mount Sinai saying, ‘I’m the Lord God who brought you out of Egypt, now therefore, thou shall have no other gods…’ [Exodus 20:2-3]. Here He’s saying, ‘What are you talking about? I don’t need a house!’ He sort of speaks in a fairly conversational tone. Going on:

2 Samuel 7:8Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.

Remember where you’re from.

2 Samuel 7:9And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth.

2 Samuel 7:10Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously,

Now, let me drop down to verse 12 because He lets something be known:

2 Samuel 7:12when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers,-basically, David you’re not going to live forever. When that time comes to end your life here-  I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. This is referring to King Solomon.

2 Samuel 7:13He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

It’s interesting, forever. That’s a long time. We know that God would fulfill this promise, and it’s also elaborated in other places to make it very clear. This isn’t just hyperbole or exaggeration. God’s saying, ‘OK let’s move beyond talking about a physical building. I’m promising I’m going to establish your dynasty. I believe it’s in Jeremiah where it says The house of David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne ruling over the people of Israel [Jeremiah 33:17]. And God would fulfill that promise. When the kingdom split, He maintained the descendants of David on the throne in Judah.  Our understanding of prophesy says that when Judah fell, God provided a way for the daughters of Zedekiah to link up with a royal family and continue. If our understanding is correct, they’re represented today in the house of Windsor, sitting on the throne in England.

Most of us are familiar with this incident and realize what a great and glorious promise this was. David’s talking about putting up a building and God then makes a promise of a dynasty for thousands of generations. Maybe David’s reaction won’t surprise us. I’ve always been a little fascinated by it. Back in 2 Samuel 7:18, because in verse 17 it says

2 Samuel 7:17According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. –So David hears it as though it’s from God.

2 Samuel 7:18Then King David went in a sat before the Lord; and he said: “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?

2 Samuel 7:19And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord God?

Think about what David did. He’s not kneeling before his bed going, “Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name…” And I’m not meaning to make fun of that. That’s not wrong, but David went to the tabernacle and sat. He wasn’t even on his knees. I don’t think he was being disrespectful. I think it showed his comfort level. He had a relationship with God. He went and sat down with God and said, “Wow, what are you talking about? This is amazing.” He had questions for God. He pointed out, “This isn’t what I was expecting.” He goes on in verse 20

2 Samuel 7:20Now what more can David say to You? For You, Lord God, know Your servant.

2 Samuel 7:21For your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them

He goes on to say ‘Go ahead and do it.’ And he continues and he praises God. He gives Him glory. He thanks Him. I wouldn’t say the substance of this prayer is something we would model. We won’t ever have the opportunity. I don’t think God is ever going to promise us something like this. He’s promising us eternal life. That alone is pretty amazing, but I think it’s ok to look at this as a model for an approach in certain circumstances, to talk to God comfortably as a Father, respectfully, not being flippant, but less formal than the model prayer might sometimes suggest.

There’s an example, I do want to turn to the Psalms on this occasion. It’s one we’re familiar with: Psalm 8, sort of to show a different approach to God, not necessarily following a model or a framework, but talking to God and sort of sharing thoughts and feelings. Psalm 8, I’m going to begin in verse 3. Remember, this was probably a prayer that was written down:

Psalm 8:3When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained,

Psalm 8:4What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?

Psalm 8:5For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honor.

Psalm 8:6You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,

Psalm 8:7All sheep and oxen – Even the beasts of the field,

Psalm 8:8 – The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.

Psalm 8:9O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

I’m guessing some of you have sometimes felt relaxed enough with God to pray in somewhat in this manner. It might involve telling God things that you know that He knows, but sharing how you’re thinking about those things. If you’ve gone out on a clear night when you can see the heavens, you might say, “Wow, God, that’s just amazing!” And I’ll talk through some of the things, and maybe share some of my thoughts, hopes, and dreams. Of course, inevitably I end up talking about some of the difficulties or challenges. I found sometimes as I’m talking through some of these things, a problem I thought was insurmountable sometimes it becomes clear the way to progress in it. I like to think that God is communicating back. I’d be scared if He’s talking to me in a voice, because I don’t think He’s doing that much these days, if at all. But I think He might interact with my thoughts and lead me to that solution because I’m communicating and talking.

One of the things that’s brought this to my attention, I’m not sure if I practiced it as much beforehand, but working at summer camp –and I’ve shared this with counselors- how I would make it a practice to try to get up early and go pray. Getting away from the young men in the dorm, I wouldn’t get away from them in my thoughts, I would pray about them. The idea is you want to pray for your campers, but you don’t want to say ‘Oh, pray for Billy, and Tommy, and Joey…” But I would spend some time discussing each one of them with God, and maybe talk ‘Oh this fella is doing so well at this, and wow, I’m so thankful…!” And sometimes just saying ‘thank you’ or sometimes, ‘here’s a challenge he’s facing, would You help me work on this?’ or ‘Show me how I can help.’ It’s funny, as I would work my way through, it was easy to spend 30 or 40 minutes, I’d run out of time because of sharing these things. It helped me draw closer to them.

I’d say not only in a camp setting. There are times that you have these things that you discuss. It’s hard to ever get down on someone very much when you’re praying for them like that. You’re rooting for them and you feel like God is working with you in it. Sometimes I’ll pray in a somewhat conversational style and –by the way, saying ‘me’, I’m not saying, “I’ve got this prayer thing down. I’m perfect at it. All of you follow my example.” Not at all! I’m looking to David’s example and trying to emulate that and that of others in the bible. Talking to God, ‘Here’s what I’m thinking. Am I right about this? Did I make a mistake?” Sometimes not only saying “thank you” for a blessing, but telling Him how you felt. I’ve had times where I said, “Wow! This wasn’t the way I asked for it, but this is so much better. Man, I really appreciate how that worked out!” Wanting to share with others. As I said, it’s not hard to fill a lot of time when you start doing it that way.

It’s not always, maybe there are times that it’s not going as well, I’m trying to portray it perfect, you know, you’ve got David wanting to build God a temple and God says, “I’m going to do something even greater for you.” And David says, “Wow! That’s great!”. There are sometimes when you’re not sure. You may even be a little disappointed with God. I’m thinking of a particular example in Jeremiah’s life. I’ve turned to this fairly often, but if you’ll go with me to Jeremiah chapter 12, we’ll see, this one has always stood out to me as a way that we might pray sometimes, but then again we also have to be ready for the response that we might get. This is an example, and the book of Jeremiah shows us more than any other place in the bible of someone being completely honest and open with God, and sometimes in an inappropriate way, and sometimes I think God would let him know it’s an inappropriate way, but other times I’m amazed at God’s patience, where He would say, “OK, I’m not going to listen to that, but let’s put you in the right place and take care of things.

In chapter 12 verse 1 Jeremiah says:

Jeremiah 12:1Righteous are You, O Lord, when I please with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. –Sort of, ‘God, You are great, You are always right, but can we talk about what is going on here?!”- Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?

Jeremiah 12:2You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth but far from their mind.

He says, “God, these people are wicked and yet they’re prospering.

Jeremiah 12:3But You, O Lord, know me; You have seen me, and you have tested my heart toward You. –Basically he’s saying, ‘Look, I’m trying to do the right thing and I’m not prospering like those bad guys over there. Jeremiah gets maybe a little over the line. We’re to pray for our enemies and love those that persecute us, not pray this. Because he says:- Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, And prepare them for the day of slaughter.

Basically, let them have it, Lord! Jeremiah felt comfortable. I think we can look at that as an example. “God, I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m waiting for this blessing that you promised. Your word says You’re going to do whatever we ask in Jesus Christ’ name, so I’ve been asking. When’s that going to happen??” I’ve done that. Sometimes you have to expect the answer, a little bit later, we see in verse 5, God gives him an answer.

Jeremiah 12:5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?

He’s sort of saying, “Yeah, yeah, I hear you, but it hasn’t even gotten started yet. Jeremiah, if you’re folding under pressure now, you’ve got to toughen up!” I wonder if God said that sometimes to me, just not quite so I could hear it that way. But the nice thing: we need to pray to God in a worshipful tone, respectful, and don’t worry about hurting God’s feelings. He’s got very broad shoulders. We should never insult Him. We should always worship and honor God, but I can tell Him, “I don’t understand what’s going on here. Please help me to understand.”

That reminds me of something else, back a page or two in chapter 10 in verse 23, where he says:

Jeremiah 10:23O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

Sort of to say, “God, I know that I don’t know how to do this… I realize my inadequacies.

Jeremiah 10:24O Lord, correct me, but –it’s a good thing to remember that but- with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.

In other words, I’ve prayed a number of times, “God please help me to see myself the way you see me, but not all at once! Please help me to learn this lesson.” Actually, I was discussing this with someone recently, we talked about how sometimes when you’re going through a trial you’re thinking, “He’s letting me go through this because there’s a lesson…” “God, please help me to learn this lesson!” Well, the trial might get a lot worse. Someone reminded me, sometimes you might say, “Please help me to learn, but in a merciful way.” “God, I can only take so much.”

I can understand, dealing with a little child. It’s amazing how much I’ve learned about my relationship with God by having a relationship with a toddler. And I know He’s way more ahead of me and above me, than I am above my son, but still I see some of that relationship where Connor, sometimes we’ll be punishing him and he’ll say, “Why are you yelling at me all the time?” “Well, we’re not yelling at you, we’re trying to get you to open up your eyes and get the point!” I’ll bet that has happened with God. I might say, “God, why am I suffering? Why am I not getting these blessings?” And He might say, “Frank, look right there!” So I ask, “please, mercifully, show me what it is I’m missing. Help me to get it because I’m falling a little bit short.”

God does appreciate that open approach. He wants us to do what Jesus said, “Men ought always to pray” always, to pray, that’s proseuchomai, and not lose heart. Don’t lose heart and give up. Even as I said with my son, I might be getting a little discouraged, or I feel like I’m not getting through. I still want him to come to me. I’d rather him gripe and complain or always be asking me for things than give me the silent treatment. And how many of you have that with a friend? Well, I say with Sue, the silent treatment is the one thing I don’t ever want. Luckily that’s not something I’ve ever had a problem with, she’s very… (audience laughter) That came across the way I did not mean that! (laughter) What I meant is she’ll communicate. She won’t hold it in. She’ll be honest, and that’s good. I need that. I think she’s smart enough to realize I need that. And God the Father is smart enough to realize what we need. He’s willing to listen to us. Anyway, you don’t need me to keep going on and on about this, but I wanted to share, as I said, I think this is a nifty thing I discovered.

We do want to note the model prayer, and note this way of praying, and always be respectful. Don’t lose sight of that. If you get too comfortable that might not be so good. Remember what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes: Remember God is in heaven and you’re on earth. He said, Therefore let your words be few. [Ecclesiastes 5:2] I’m not telling us let our words be few in that sense, but God is in heaven so don’t be flippant. Don’t relax too much. Remember your place, but also remember that God in heaven is our Father. He’s a loving God. He wants us to pray.

I started off talking about how aromas can be so powerful in our minds with the idea that prayer is to be that way. I think God made incense a big part of worship for Israel because without God’s spirit they never really could pray the way He wants us to pray, but He wanted to give them a symbol to at least give them an idea of how much it meant to them. And thus, because we’re past that in a sense because of God’s Holy Spirit, we don’t need incense to worship God, but we do need to pray. Men ought always to pray and not lose heart. Often it will be, with a formal prayer, we’ll appeal to God and follow a specific format, especially when it’s difficult. You’ve been there, “OK I know I need to pray but I don’t feel like it or I’m too embarrassed”. That model can be very useful, or even sometimes reading some of David’s prayers and making them your own, but it’s good for us also to relax, to think of going to our Father, to think of David walking in and sitting down and saying, “Wow, God! I didn’t know it was going to be like this!”

Open up and talk to God as our Father, our Shepherd, the one who has been waiting for us to come and tell Him about our day, tell Him about our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams, our fears and concerns. When we do this, our prayer will be like a pleasant aroma in God’s mind.

Comments

  • Kelly Irvin
    This was a breath of fresh air on the matter of prayer. I was encouraged and inspired.
  • Join the conversation!

    Log in or register to post comments