PartIIprayer

Part II: Prayer: Attitude Counts

I can remember when I was young, long ago when I was a teenager I would be saying the right thing but I would be saying it the wrong way. My mother or Father would say, “Watch your attitude.” Yes, attitude counts. In fact attitude counts for a whole lot. And the attitudes of our prayer life count. We can embrace attitudes the lead us into deeper relationships with God and we can embrace attitudes that shape not only our spiritual lives but also our daily lives.

An Attitude of Honesty

One of the most powerful prayer stories from the Old Testament is the Story of Abraham asking God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of the righteous. Abraham Starts by asking God to spare the cities if there are fifty righteous people. And God says yes, if there are fifty righteous people the cities will be spared. Abraham asks, “What if there are only 45.” Again God says, “Yes.” Abraham works his way down to only 10. Unfortunately there are only four righteous people to be found. These four, the family of Lot, are lead to safety and the cities are destroyed.

I want to focus here on Abraham’s willingness to engage God honestly. Abraham believes God is violating God’s own principles of righteousness and justice by destroying these cities and Abraham stands up boldly to tell God so. Honesty and authenticity are basic qualities of all healthy relationships. (Now I do have to say that where as honesty is a foundation for good relationships that it is not permission to be what we might call brutally or rudely honest. Our honesty with one another sometimes requires diplomacy.)

But our honesty with God does not. God can take it. God invites us to speak in all honesty. If we are honestly moved to offer praise then we should but if we have anger, or doubts or misgivings then we should speak those to God also and we should speak them to God with the boldness of our feelings. Only by being honest with ourselves and with God can we hope to develop, strengthen or heal our relationship.

If we really want to communicate with God we need to communicate what we really feel and really believe.

An Attitude of Intimacy

This attitude is revealed to us in the first word of the Lord’s Prayer. An entire sermon could be preached about the Lord’s Prayer. In fact a whole sermon could be done about each line of the Prayer. But I want to focus on that first word. The word we translate “Our Father.” The word in Greek is Abba. It is a word that would be better left untranslated. It is a word of familiarity or intimacy. It is a word that each family might translate very differently. To some it might be the word Papa, to others Pop, maybe to some of us Dad or Daddy.

Jesus is telling his hearers something radical about how they should pray and about how they should understand their relationship with God. God is not high, lifted up and beyond them. Nor is God far away in the temple in Jerusalem. Nor is God so awesome or fearsome as to be unapproachable. God is close and near as is our Papa. God is loving and gentle as is our Papa. God is offering us a relationship that is closer than first name. It is a relationship of intimacy.

This is a beautiful and powerful place to begin our prayer life. As you pray know that God is near and as loving and as gentle as your Papa.

An Attitude of Silence

I was in seminary when I went away on my first silent retreat. I packed up some books and thought this would be a great time to catch up on all the reading I was behind on. What I didn’t know then and that I do know now is that there is a difference between being quiet and being silent. Being quiet is what we do when we read or sit in church listening to a sermon. But to be silent is quite different.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Ps. 46: 10

This type of silence is about being still in the presence of God. As radical as the intimacy of Abba sounded to the Jews so being still sounds in our day as we are constantly going places and constantly talking on our phones and constantly listening to our I pods. And God challenges us to be still.

Once when Mother Theresa was being interviewed the interviewer asked what do you pray for. Mother Theresa replied, “When I pray I sit and listen.” The interviewer asked, “And what does God say.” Mother Theresa replied, “God sits and listens.” What a beautiful image of Mother Theresa sitting in the silence of God.

I can only claim to know that silence for a few moments at a time but it is a powerful attitude of prayer that calms my whole soul.

An Attitude of Gratitude

One of the areas of prayer that I have been personally focusing on is Gratitude. I find that I am not as grateful as I could be or want to be. In fact the subject of Gratitude came up in the Tuesday Morning Bible circle about six weeks ago as I was first starting to think about this preaching series. So I had been thinking and praying about Gratitude. The next day I had a little windfall of about $15. I thought now that’s a reason to practice gratitude. That very day at noon I went out in my car and the entire electrical system had stopped working. The car would start and run but none of the accessories would work. So I took it to the repair shop. When I paid the bill and picked up the car I thought now where is the gratitude for this. I then thought about the fact that there had been a time in my life when an unforeseen expense like this would have been a crisis. It would have meant that I had to delay paying other bills and in some way find a way to make up this money. Now it might be painful but it was not a crisis. Yes I was grateful.

By focusing on gratitude I learn patience and graciousness. I see blessing that I would otherwise over look. It is a wonderful experience to look at the world with thankfulness and appreciation.

I have talked about the attitudes of honesty, intimacy, silence and gratitude. There are many more attitudes of prayer. I invite you to think about your attitude of Prayer. Is there an attitude you would benefit from focusing on? Is there an attitude that would strengthen you or deepen your relationship with God?