When You Pray

Day 15

When You Pray

 

What a strange paradox it is that the more we human beings strive towards self actualisation and a sense of personal self worth, the more it eludes our grasp. The more we fight to make ourselves feel valuable, the emptier our identity rattles. 

There is a strange connection between human arrogance and a lack of self worth; projections of loud confidence so often mask deep feelings of inadequacy.  Pretensions are fuelled by feeling like we need to pretend. They are a false face covering a life of insecurity.

This is not the quality of life that God created His children for. So on this hillside Jesus helps His hearers understand…

‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.’ 

Matthew 6:5-8

The word ‘Hypocrite’ Jesus uses here came from the greek word (hupŏkritēs) meaning an actor or stage-player. Jesus is challenging His Kingdom family (all of us) to be authentic and completely open before God. 

Authenticity and humility spring from a deep contentedness. When we are content and confident in our relationships we no longer fight to ‘prove our worth’ or ‘hustle’ for recognition. We have nothing to prove.

I remember moments in my life as a parent hearing my children’s shrill and earnest voices calling, “Look at Me mummy” “Look what I am doing” “Look mummy, look at me”, these moments delivering to my consciousness the painful realisation that their calls came from a fear that I wasn’t looking, wasn’t seeing, wasn’t noticing and worse… wasn’t caring. Because in those human moments of distraction and busyness I probably wasn’t. I am a very human parent. Much like all human parents. 

It is not a mistake that as Jesus teaches against hypocrisy and using spiritual practices to prop up frail human egos He mentions the Father-ship of God with rapidly increasing succession. 

He mentions “Your Father” three times in this passage alone, and ten times in these passages challenging us about religious hypocrisy around the spiritual practices of giving, fasting and prayer. Altogether in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus calls God our Father sixteen times.

A child, confident in its parent’s love and attunement can relax and enjoy its place in the world. It doesn’t feel the need to fight for attention, fight to be heard or strain to be seen. 

We are not orphans, we are now a part of a large Kingdom family and Jesus on this hillside this day has been describing what our family culture looks like. We don’t look like insecure hypocrites scrambling to prop up our frail sense of self worth with loud prayers ‘standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others’.

We are seen. We are Heard. Whether our human parents ever see us or not, our Heavenly Father saw us before we were born, as David’s song describes… 

‘You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,’

even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand –
when I awake, I am still with you.

Psalm 139:1-18

We are with Him. God is with us.  The most important attribute of our family is that we are close to our Father. Confident in our relationship with Him and confident that He hears us, even before we begin to pray. 

‘But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.’ 

Matthew 6:5-8

A child trusts their parents and simply has to look like they need help and the parent is right there with them. A child knows that it doesn’t need fancy formal words to induce the parents concern, the parent is already attuned to it deeply. Lovingly. Present. 

With these hues of parental concern and care Jesus paints this picture of our relationship with our heavenly Father. Prayer is never a performance. Always an intimate relationship. We don’t need to use long words or religious jargon to convince God to hear us and respond. He’s already watching over us. Deeply attuned to our needs, fears, desires and struggles. We are seen. We are heard. By Our Father who is in Heaven. Our audience of one. 

Take a moment in the quiet now, ‘go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen’. Draw close in the quiet with Him and Him alone. Talk to Him of everything that sits on your heart. 

Our family is a close knit one. So draw close. He’s listening. And He, ’your Father knows what you need before you ask him.’

 

 

 

 

Journaling the Journey

Three times these passages mention ‘your father’ and describes Him as He who is unseen, who sees and who knows. 

What kind of relationship does He want with you?

Your Father knows what you need before you ask. 

What do you need to ask Him for?

 

Todays Mountainside photograph was taken in the Scottish Highlands, UK.