Faith Practices: Pray Deeply
A sermon brought forth from Mark 1:35 and Matthew 6:5-13 preached on August 7, 2022
We overcomplicate prayer. We give ourselves such a hard time about it. Is prayer something we become accomplished in? Is it a skill or a specialty? Those questions are nonsense. Prayer isn’t a skill, it’s a habit. We don’t become accomplished in it; through prayer, something is accomplished in us.
Prayer is much more a basic function than we make it out to be. I want to compare prayer with breathing. God wants us to pray like we breathe. No one talks about skilled breathers. No one ever says of another, “Wow, she’s such a good breather.” No. We don’t become good breathers; we breathe. Breathing resuscitates and restores us. When we breathe our insides expand and oxygen revitalizes our system, and we are refreshed and strengthened. Prayer is like that.
We don’t set out to become good pray-ers, we pray. When we pray like we breathe, we start from the inside out. Prayer expands us, revitalizes us, refreshes us, and cleanses us in the presence of God. When we pray, we say Yes to God.
Before Jesus launched into the Lord’s Prayer, he prefaced it, saying,
“And when you pray do not keep on babbling like actors (the word ‘hypocrite’ means ‘actor’), for they think they’ll be heard because of their many words. Do this instead.”
Prayer has little to do with coming up with the right words. It’s not performance. God doesn’t want lip service. He sees right through that. If we spend our time in prayer trying to come up with the right words, we’re not praying, we’re performing. Prayer is an invitation to speak the truth of our souls to the God who loves us in the deepest parts of who we are. The goal of prayer is to be with God in truth in that place, and to know Him and become known by Him there.
But when we pray, we often send in our place the nice Christian version of ourselves. That person needs to be polite in God’s presence and have it all together. We think that’s what God wants. But God does want a portrayal of us; God wants us. Prayer’s purpose is to become real in God's presence. Shields down. If you want a better prayer life, try honesty.
Author and faith leader, Kyle Stroebel, writes,
“If you want a boring prayer life, spend it trying to be good rather than being honest.” 1
Another author, John Coe, adds more to this, saying,
“Prayer is not a place to be good, it’s a place to be honest. It’s not a place to perform, it’s a place to be present. Prayer is not a place to be right, it’s a place to be known. It’s not a place to prove your worth, it’s a place to receive worth and offer yourself in truth.” 2
More than anything, God wants us close and real.
If we want to put words to prayer, the Lord’s Prayer helps us do that. It’s simple and sparse, which is the best way to give ourselves to the reality of God. The Lord’s Prayer is a conditioning prayer. Jesus gave it so that we might place ourselves in front of the God who loves us, and, in that place, be introduced to a way that is truer than we’re used to. There’s a big difference between our preferences and God’s desires for us. We so often confuse the two. God wants to recondition our hearts.
When it comes to short scripture verses, most people go with, “Jesus wept,” but I go with Mark 1:35. It’s a better bit of scripture to memorize anyway. There’s an invitation in it.
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Mark is in his first chapter. He wants us to know from the get-go that Jesus found a way to spend meaningful time with His Father. That’s a good piece of intel, but Mark isn’t simply telling us what Jesus did. Mark wants us to find a way to do that, too. Finding time to sit within prayer is not easy. It wasn’t for Jesus, either. Most of His moments were filled with satisfying other people’s needs. Prayer for Jesus was His home and haven. In prayer, Jesus was found. In prayer, God finds us. If Jesus was diligent in seeking time with God, how much more must we be?
Here’s your invitation into the spiritual discipline of prayer for this week. First thing’s first: get alone with God. It’s in solitude and silence that we can experience a place of authenticity within. Intend to be with God as He really is and as you really are. Invite God to meet you in that place. In silence, we give up control and allow God to be God.
Breath deeply. Breath and prayer go together so well because breathing does physically what prayer is meant to spiritually: fill us with life. If you have a hard time praying, talk to God about that. That conversation is prayer, too. When we don’t know what to say or do in prayer, we often descend into self-talk. Pay attention to that. Notice yourself doing that, and when you find that you’re talking to yourself, pause, be kind to yourself, and ask God to invite you back into prayer.
Have conversations with God about how hard it is for you to stay in prayer. Rather than turning against ourselves in prayer, we can let our tendency to wander into self-talk become an opening to a more authentic conversation with God. Ask for His help with that. God is eager to help. Then, our inability to pray becomes an opportunity to be honest with God. Intend to be with God as He really is and as you really are. That can expose how little we want to rely upon God, but God wants to be let in on all of us, especially the parts of us that fall short.
If your mind wanders, talk to God about that, but don’t dismiss a wandering mind. A wandering mind in prayer isn’t a failure, but an opportunity to become aware of what’s important to us. A wandering mind is a gift because what we think about reveals the truth about ourselves to ourselves. What our minds constantly go back to will show us the treasures of our hearts. We need to invite God into those very moments. Then we can pray, “God, my mind is wandering over to these things. Become more important to me than them.”
And those times when prayer seems like a failed experiment? God is there. We are too. And that means we’re holding space with God. My word of encouragement is, never let that stop you. When you have a hard time praying or don’t know where to start, pray other people’s words. Reach for the Psalms. It’s still the Church’s finest prayer book. Find a resource that can help guide you closer to God. Speak to someone on the Prayer Ministry or ask your staff. We can help with that.
There was a father who decided to install a staircase in his backyard. He picked out the stones he wanted. Some weighed around 100 pounds and others around 200. It took all his strength to move each one into position. His five-year-old daughter came out and begged to help. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. The father suggested she help by taking two giant steps back and sing him a song to encourage him along in his work. She said no. She wanted to help.
So, whenever it would not endanger her, he let her place her hands on the rocks as he pushed them into place. All this made the project go much slower than the father had anticipated. He could have built the steps in much less time without her help. But when it was all finished, the father and daughter cheered as they looked at what they had accomplished together. He could see the pride on his daughter’s face.
That night at dinner, the daughter announced to everyone there, “Me and daddy made steps!” Her father was the first to agree.
All praises to the One who made it all and finds it beautiful! Alleluia! Amen.
Kyle Strobel and John Coe, When Prayer Becomes Real, Baker Books, 2021.
Strobel and Coe, 2021