Lord’s Prayer

Teach us to pray: Our Father in Heaven…

Study from July 11: Robin Stelzer

Overview

It is probably true that we spend more time thinking and talking about the need to pray than we actually do praying. When it comes to prayer, many of us are the kings and queens of procrastination and denial. It is this fact that made a section of Pastor Robin’s message so profoundly true: Linda McQueen’s comment that ‘prayer is not something we do; it is something we stop doing. We stop denying God access to our hearts…’

In this message, Pastor Robin took the famous passage from Luke 11 on what has become known as “The Lord’s Prayer.’ In his message, Robin acknowledged the difficulties that Christians have in spending time in prayer and also the many techniques, tricks and devices that we have invented to help us have an easier time with prayer which Bill Hybels describes as a ‘fundamentally alien activity.’ Robin’s message was organised into two parts: the first part dealt with the sense of failure to pray and the reasons for that failure and the second part look at the Lord’s prayer as the model of prayer.

Reading: Luke 11: 1-11

As you read, notice that the reading is also divided into two sections. The first section deals with Jesus’ response to the disciples’ request to ‘teach them to pray.’ The second section is the short parable about prayer. The other version of this reading can be found in Matthew 6:9-13.

Exploring the Reading

It is interesting that the disciples asked Jesus to ‘teach them’ to pray. What was it that led them to ask?  Was it that Jesus clearly had a gift for prayer that they did not have? Was it that Jesus’ use and habit of prayer seemed obviously different from the ways in which they had been taught? Perhaps the disciples were tired of failing at prayer too. Maybe it was that as fisherman they felt that they couldn’t find the time or the place to pray.

Reflect:

1. If you struggle to pray regularly, what is the main reason for this?

• A sense that you don’t have the time
• A sense of futility
• Previous disappointments with prayer
• Fear of failure

1. How would define your negative experiences of prayer?

• You felt like you were talking to yourself
• You felt that you were talking to nobody
• you received no answer to your prayer

1. What would you say the main purpose of prayer is?

• To take our needs to God
• To listen to what He might be saying to us
• To pray for others’ needs

Going further – The Lord’s Prayer

It is interesting that in this instance of being asked to teach them to pray, it is the Lord’s Prayer that is provided. Work through each line of the prayer and consider how the line can be applied to your life.  This can be done individually and then it would be good to share your reactions with another person or the group as a whole.

The prayer	The aspects	The Application
Our Father in heaven,                                      . Hallowed be your name                                    Your Kingdom come, your will be done,on earth as in heaven Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours. Now and for ever. Amen	A statement of relationship A description of God’s holiness God’s kingdom is different from our world Moves us away from our desires Be content with simple living based on need We need to acknowledge our failings and repent of them – repent means to return to God’s way Temptations are those things that remove God from our hearts and minds and make us focus on pleasing ourselves and others This is acknowledging that everything we have is a gift from God and that His point of view is very different from our finite and subjective one.	Does it describe your relationship – father to child? How are we aware of God’s holiness? How can we live our lives in God’s kingdom instead of thinking that we rule it? Where do we need to let God’s will rule in our lives currently? Ask for How can we simply our busy and cluttered lives? What are our sins/failings/ things that take us away from God’s way? What are our recurring temptations – the things that drive us away from a spiritual focus and God centre? Surrender the idea that we are in charge of our life and surrender our need to control and have power. This is an essential part of Christian living.

The Lord’s prayer then is not just a prayer but a framework for a life built on prayer. All of the aspects that we think of as prayer are contained within it. Use it this week as a way of connecting with God.

Devotion: Worship and Humility

Rationale:

As Christians we know that we are to worship. For many young people, though, worship remains a nebulous and underdeveloped concept. In this devotion, we seek to understand the link between worship and humility, seeing worship as a kind of kenosis:  emptying out our assumptions and habits only to be refilled with God’s spirit.

Objectives: Members are to

• Develop an understanding of the nature of worship
• Identify the link between humility and worship
• Identify and develop some habits they could use to enter into more meaningful worship
• Through this develop a habit of hearing God’s voice and feeling His spirit move within them

Utilising Habits of Mind

• Thinking about thinking (metacognition)
• Remaining open to continuous learning

The following resources are dependent on the forum in which the devotion is delivered  

         i.            Video clips of The Beatles in concert, focus on the audience. Take care if using this resource – do not drift  into condemnation of idols as that is not the focus of the devotion.    

       ii.            Geoff Bullock’s song “I Surrender”

      iii.           Bible Readings listed below 

Most of us have been to a concert in which the audience is required to scream and shout at the band, to hang on their every word and to laugh at every joke. Many people are able to give themselves over to that experience very easily and we often measure the success of a concert or performance by the extent to which we were able to lose ourselves in the experience of it.

1. Think of a time in which you have ‘lost yourself’ in a musical or artistic experience. (Some members might  be able to connect the experience to film or to sport.) How did you feel prior to the experience and how did you feel after it?

Phase 2

In our time, many churches work very hard in attempt to replicate the experience of ‘taking in a show’. Hence, churches aim for high quality musicianship,   polished and witty speakers who are able to present their material smoothly and incorporate audio-visual material. This is not a bad thing. However, sometimes this leads to the people feeling that they need do nothing to make the worship meaningful.  If this is so, this is a misunderstanding of worship. ‘Worship’ needs to be understood primarily as a verb (something we do) rather than a noun (an event we attend). If we look at many scripture passages, we will see that worship is used to describe our relationship with God: through our worship we properly define our position towards God.  Consider the well-known excerpt from Psalm 99: ‘Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstool. He is holy.’   

       ii.            Look at some of the references in listed to see what is written about worship.

1. Psalm 5: 7
2. 1 Chronicles 16: 29
3. Psalm 34: 3
4. Psalm 95: 6
5. Hebrews 12: 28

Phase 3: How then do we worship ‘acceptably’?  What are some of the things we could do to help us ‘enter into worship’ without even worrying about the standard of music and preaching?

You could compile a big list but a key concept to think about is humility. Humility or ‘being humble’ is out of fashion in our time. Our culture does not really understand it. We tend to see it either as false modesty or as developing an unhealthy self-image. Actually, humility is really an act of ‘letting go’ or emptying out (kenosis).  When we come to worship, we need to prepare ourselves for it by letting go of our worldly baggage, listening only to God’s voice, quietening the noise of the world, of our own will. After we ‘empty out’ we seek to ‘fill up’ with God’s spirit.  

Application: Next time you are to attend church for worship, try to arrive 10 minutes early. Find a place on your own, avoid conversation and take some time to pray. Be as prepared as you can. A very simple way of preparing for worship is to say the Lord’s Prayer quietly and slowly.

If you have access, you could listen to or sing Geoff Bullock’s song “I Surrender.” It has an excellent description of spiritual humility: ‘everything I am and ever hope to be – I surrender to you.’

Devotion: Prayer – What is it and how do you do it?

Rationale:

Learning to pray and incorporating it into our lives is probably the most powerful thing we can do to grow as Christians. It takes time and commitment to learn to pray.

Objectives: Group Members are to

1. feel encouraged to pray 
2. develop a habit of prayer and persisting in prayer
3. develop an understanding of what prayer is – developing a relationship and connection with God/Jesus/Holy Spirit/the sacred  
4. distinguish between healthy and unhealthy attitudes to prayer

Utilising Habits of Mind:

• persisting
• responding with wonderment and awe

Activity 1

• If somebody asked you to spend time in prayer, how would you feel? 
• What things would you pray about? Your list could consist of the following:
• People whom you are worried about,  people who you have some difficulty with, something that you have done wrong and wish that you could undo, an issue that is much on your mind. Do try to include some things that you are thankful for

Activity 2

You can do this part on your own or with some other person or even two other people

• Reflect on your prayer list (if in a group you should share some (not all) of your prayer list. If sharing, choose a some things for which you like assistance in prayer)
• try to organise an order for your list. It is useful to think about (1) things you are thankful for (2) people whom you are worried about (3) things/events you are wanting/needing/hoping for
• Once this is done, you can simply begin. You don’t need to speak any differently than you usually do, just try to use language that is respectful.
• Work your way through your list. If in a group or pair, give each person time to pray, but be sensitive to the fact that some people do not like to pray out loud and that is fine.
• Try to spend some time in silence.  This gives us an opportunity to gain a sense of what God might be saying or revealing to us.

Once you have finished praying, reflect on how you feel. Quite often people feel better, unburdened through the act of praying. If we can form a habit of praying in this way, we find that we will feel less worried, and more able to deal with life’s surprises.  This is because as the writer CS Lewis once wrote, prayer might not change God, it certainly changes us. Persist in prayer

Extension Activity

You might want to look at Luke 22: 39-46 for Jesus prayer in Gethsemane and/or in John 17 for Jesus’ prayer for his disciples.

Devotion: Who Is God?

Rationale 

 Developing a healthy, growing faith requires knowledge of and relationship to God. Yet this simple word is a source of trouble to many and is a cause of dispute at a personal and global level. If we can define and expand our ideas about God then we can grow spiritually and develop an understanding of others. 

Objectives: Group members are to

• identify, describe and clarify what ‘God’ as a word means to them
• develop a wider notion of God
• grow spiritually
• identify possible blockages

Utilising  Habits of Mind:

• Thinking Flexibly
• Listening with Understanding and Empathy
• Thinking interdependently

Part One

1. What does the word ‘God’ mean to you? Do you have an image in mind when you think about the word?
2. Make a list of words you would use to describe God.
3. Share your list with somebody in the group.
4. What words or ideas did you agree on? What words or ideas were new to you?

Part Two

Here are some words and phrases that describe God. Which of them match or nearly match yours? Which ones are new to you? You might need to research some of them…

• father of creation
• king of heaven and earth
• the ground of our being (Paul Tilloch)
• numinous (Rudolph Otto)
• trinity
• strength, power
• love
• glory
•  judge
• mother

Reflection:

Of these words, why do you think you are attracted to some and not to others? What might you gain from thinking about God in this new way?