During the season of Lent, I am attempting to follow a Bible reading plan and offer reflection on the Scripture text. Today's reading is from Monday in the first full week of Lent. (And while this is the first posting of the series, the actual start of Lent was last Wednesday. I am going to try to work my way back to the start of the reading plan as well as move forward towards Resurrection Sunday.) I welcome feedback. What are these Scriptures saying to you?
Matthew 6:5-15
Common English Bible (CEB)
Showy prayer
5 “When you pray, don’t be like hypocrites. They love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so that people will see them. I assure you, that’s the only reward they’ll get. 6 But when you pray, go to your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is present in that secret place. Your Father who sees what you do in secret will reward you.Proper prayer
7 “When you pray, don’t pour out a flood of empty words, as the Gentiles do. They think that by saying many words they’ll be heard. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask. 9 Pray like this:
Our Father who is in heaven,
uphold the holiness of your name.
10 Bring in your kingdom
so that your will is done on earth as it’s done in heaven.
11 Give us the bread we need for today.
12 Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you,
just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.
13 And don’t lead us into temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.
14 “If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you don’t forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your sins.
____________________________
Prayer is a major part of the Lenten experience, and this is a nice reminder of how to (and how not to) pray. I think we can make two equal but opposite blunders when it comes to prayer. We either err on the side of making it "too big" or of making it "too little." In this teaching, Jesus is showing us how to avoid both mistakes.
The "too big" approach is what the hypocrites do. They get into the big words, the flowing gestures, the proper vocal inflections, etc. I've seen some folk pray like this. They get into lots of "thee's" and "thou's" and "wherewith" and polysyllabic words. Sometimes these prayers are downright impressive as I listen to them, but yet they remain semantically null. Or to put it into plain English: they don't say a lot!
The other "too big" approach that Jesus warns against is the repetition prayer. This is when a person says something again and again and again and again and ... An often unconscious expression of this type of prayer is when we say "Lord, we just ..." As in "Lord, we just ask you to be with us right now. We just want to know you're present in a mighty and powerful way. Lord, we just need you, and we just want you to know that we need you..."
A four-year-old once asked who Lord Wejuss was because he heard people saying that name so much in their prayers!
But there's also a "too little" approach to prayer. This happens when we don't take prayers seriously. We make prayer a "by the way" or perfunctory sentence or two before digging into the mashed potatoes.
Jesus' model prayer offers the balanced prayer - the one that's "just right!". It both acknowledges the greatness of God and the intimacy of God. It is grounded in simplicity, and yet contains some incredibly profound concepts. It moves us from the grandeur of heaven to the mundane-ness of ordinary daily life.
It's no wonder we so often take this "Lord's Prayer" and make it the centerpiece of the prayer experience in worship. But unfortunately, this very familiarity of the prayer can make it become more rote ritual than real prayer. Our challenge, then, is to keep praying this prayer and mean what it says each time we pray it. Reflect on it. Remember it. Apply it.
I think its the application of the prayer that Jesus had in mind when he transitioned from prayer to forgiveness. Yes, pray that God forgive you for your wrongdoing, but be sure that you're applying that forgiveness principle yourself! We so easily get caught up in rationalizing away the need to forgive someone. "They didn't ask for it" "They don't deserve it" "They hurt me too much" "I forgave them before and they didn't change"
But Jesus doesn't leave us wiggle room on this. If you want your Heavenly Father to forgive you, then you (and I) MUST forgive others! This is a reverse-conditional phrase. What that means is that God's forgiveness isn't conditioned by our forgiveness, but rather that our forgiveness derives from God's forgiveness. God's forgiving is the primary action, and our forgiving is the secondary response. And if we want to experience God's forgiveness, then we must respond to that forgiveness by forgiving others.
Holy God, as I pray, may my prayers honor your name - who you are and what you stand for. And may your holiness descend upon me so that I can become a better witness for you. Show me the ones whom I need to forgive, and show me the ones from whom I need to ask for forgiveness. And may this be done daily, so that I continue to be humble, willing to be changed, and ultimately transformed into the likeness of Jesus himself. I pray this in his name. Amen.
Return to the BIble Reading Plan
uphold the holiness of your name.
10 Bring in your kingdom
so that your will is done on earth as it’s done in heaven.
11 Give us the bread we need for today.
12 Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you,
just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.
13 And don’t lead us into temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.
14 “If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you don’t forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your sins.
____________________________
Prayer is a major part of the Lenten experience, and this is a nice reminder of how to (and how not to) pray. I think we can make two equal but opposite blunders when it comes to prayer. We either err on the side of making it "too big" or of making it "too little." In this teaching, Jesus is showing us how to avoid both mistakes.
The other "too big" approach that Jesus warns against is the repetition prayer. This is when a person says something again and again and again and again and ... An often unconscious expression of this type of prayer is when we say "Lord, we just ..." As in "Lord, we just ask you to be with us right now. We just want to know you're present in a mighty and powerful way. Lord, we just need you, and we just want you to know that we need you..."
A four-year-old once asked who Lord Wejuss was because he heard people saying that name so much in their prayers!But there's also a "too little" approach to prayer. This happens when we don't take prayers seriously. We make prayer a "by the way" or perfunctory sentence or two before digging into the mashed potatoes.
Jesus' model prayer offers the balanced prayer - the one that's "just right!". It both acknowledges the greatness of God and the intimacy of God. It is grounded in simplicity, and yet contains some incredibly profound concepts. It moves us from the grandeur of heaven to the mundane-ness of ordinary daily life.
It's no wonder we so often take this "Lord's Prayer" and make it the centerpiece of the prayer experience in worship. But unfortunately, this very familiarity of the prayer can make it become more rote ritual than real prayer. Our challenge, then, is to keep praying this prayer and mean what it says each time we pray it. Reflect on it. Remember it. Apply it.
I think its the application of the prayer that Jesus had in mind when he transitioned from prayer to forgiveness. Yes, pray that God forgive you for your wrongdoing, but be sure that you're applying that forgiveness principle yourself! We so easily get caught up in rationalizing away the need to forgive someone. "They didn't ask for it" "They don't deserve it" "They hurt me too much" "I forgave them before and they didn't change"But Jesus doesn't leave us wiggle room on this. If you want your Heavenly Father to forgive you, then you (and I) MUST forgive others! This is a reverse-conditional phrase. What that means is that God's forgiveness isn't conditioned by our forgiveness, but rather that our forgiveness derives from God's forgiveness. God's forgiving is the primary action, and our forgiving is the secondary response. And if we want to experience God's forgiveness, then we must respond to that forgiveness by forgiving others.
Holy God, as I pray, may my prayers honor your name - who you are and what you stand for. And may your holiness descend upon me so that I can become a better witness for you. Show me the ones whom I need to forgive, and show me the ones from whom I need to ask for forgiveness. And may this be done daily, so that I continue to be humble, willing to be changed, and ultimately transformed into the likeness of Jesus himself. I pray this in his name. Amen.
Return to the BIble Reading Plan
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