A Tradition of Prayer "Prayer and Persistence" First-Plymouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ 2000 "D" Street Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1698 Office (402) 476-7565 Fax (402) 476-8402

From the Prayer Room
of First-Plymouth Congregational Church
Lincoln, Nebraska

A Resource for Everyone Seeking Spiritual Growth Through Prayer

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    We welcome you to First-Plymouth Church's Prayer Room. The devotional materials you will find here are provided to give you a chance to spend a few minutes in prayer and meditation.    

Prayer and Persistence
A Sermon by Dr. Otis Young

Sunday July 29, 2001

© 2001, Rev. Dr. Otis Young,
First-Plymouth Church, UCC, Lincoln, NE

    Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." 2 He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." 5 And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7 And he answers from within, 'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. 9 "So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

--Luke 11:1-13

    Whenever you know someone who has obviously excelled in some area, it's a good idea to ask that person what the secret is of his or her success so that you can learn all you can from that individual.  That's what Luke reports the disciples did in the Bible story read earlier.  They noticed that each time Jesus returned from a time of prayer, he was clearly refreshed and renewed.  So one day they said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray."  They wanted to be more deeply aware of their connection with God. 
    Most people I know have the same desire.  Here's what Jesus did in response to their request.  First, he gave the disciples a model prayer, an outline for prayer which they could begin using then and there.  We call it "The Lord's Prayer."  We use it regularly in our worship services and I'm sure many of you use it in your personal prayers.  
    However, Jesus also realized from his own experience with prayer that there is much more to praying than learning the words of a given prayer and committing that prayer to memory.   Therefore in teaching the disciples and others to pray, he gave additional suggestions for improving one's prayer life.  Some of these are found in the passage read earlier from Luke's gospel and others are found in the Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew.

    First, let's consider some obstacles that are mentioned in the Bible which can hinder the development of a more meaningful prayer life.

    One obstacle that can stand in the way of meaningful prayer is an inadequate or limited image or concept of God.  Listen to people's prayers and their conversations about prayer and you can learn a great deal about their concept and image of God.
    I heard a fundamentalist minister say, for example, that he had a vision in which God had rolled up his sleeves and was going to punch the federal government in the nose.  Here's an image of God as a brawler.  There's also the image of God as an avid sports fan.  If you watch enough pre-game and post-game interviews and read enough sports personality profiles, you will hear athletes and coaches repeatedly saying things like: "If the Man upstairs wants us to win this big game, we'll win it.  If He doesn't , we won't.  It's all up to the Big Score-Keeper in the sky now."  Then of course, if the team loses, it's not the coach's fault, or the player's mistakes, it's because God didn't want your team to win.   I heard a baseball player say, "When I hit that ball, I knew it was going to carry far enough, but I thought it might go foul.  I said a fast prayer and sure enough, it landed in the stands a couple of feet fair.  I guess the Big Batting Coach in the sky was really with me on that one."
    A football quarterback said, "I'm disappointed that I completed only two passes in 30 attempts and my left eye was gouged and my leg was broken in three places and we lost.  But I guess that's the way the Big Coach in the sky wanted it."
    After hearing enough of this kind of talk, a picture begins to form of God sitting up there somewhere, flipping from channel to channel to keep up with every play of every game going on in the world and of personally directing who wins or loses. 
    In a World Series baseball game a few years ago, television viewers watched a batter bless himself with the Sign of the Cross before entering the batter's box, while up in the grandstand, the pitcher's wife was shown reciting the Rosary.  The batter struck out.  Did the Rosary cancel out the Sign of the Cross, leaving skill against skill, or was saying the Rosary stronger than making the Sign of the Cross?
    There's also the image of God as the warrior, or God as the Commander-in-Chief.  This is one of God's oldest roles, inspiring troops to go into battle, being at their side and being on their side.  Throughout history, there have been very few wars in which God was not said to be on one side or the other, usually on both sides if you believe the generals and leaders of the nations. 
    Mark Twain once wrote a prayer about war to illustrate the silliness of some of our prayers and implied images of God in relation to war.  Here's part of that prayer.  "O Lord, our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of their guns with the wounded writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us wring the hearts out of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander through wastes of their desolated lands in rages and hunger and thirst....."
    Another inadequate image of God which many people still have in their minds and which can be an obstacle to their praying is that of a God who is not good, not loving, not forgiving and not merciful.  Instead, too many people still think of God as hostile, holding grudges and almost impossible to please.  They still ask, "What can I do to please God and get in good with God?"   Or they say, "I know that God cannot think much of me as I am.  How can I get God's attention and do something to make God love me?"  God is pictured as an angry parent.
    Jesus, however, revealed a God of infinite love, of unending forgiveness and unlimited mercy and patience.  God is not far off, or up there somewhere, but rather within us and around us all the time.  The Bible tells us that each person is created in God's image which is another way of saying that you are an expression of God.  Consider how revolutionary that idea is.   This implies that you do not pray "to God," but that you pray from the consciousness of God.  Prayer is allowing the Spirit of God which is already in you to become more active.
    Meister Eckhart, a Christian mystic, was aware of the very human tendency to be dominated by an objective perspective of God, an anthropomorphic God who rules over our lives with an iron hand.  To change his way of thinking he made what could be considered the most startling statement in the history of religion when he confessed that he boldly "prayed God to rid me of God."
    What did he mean by this?  He meant that if you believe you are dominated by a God who is "out there" you will always be restricted in your prayer's effectiveness.  God is not a person to whom you should pray, but a spirit in which you should live.  

    A second obstacle which can hinder your prayers is holding on to feelings and attitudes which are not healthy.  These tend to fall into one or more of four categories: (1) fear, (2) guilt, (3) inferiority feelings, low self-esteem, (4) hate or misguided love.  Any one of these or combination or all of them can be a block to prayer because they tend to fill your mind and grab your attention and focus which can hinder you from being open to God's Spirit.  
    That's why Jesus said, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister or any one has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar and go; first be reconciled to that person and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24)
    You cannot honestly pray or be in a spirit of worship if there is still within you hostility, hate, envy, or any other kind of negative attitude.  Then you will dwell on one or more of these attitudes which tend to block God's loving Spirit which wants to work within you.
    If you want to deepen your prayer life, it's helpful to search out and bring to light your fears, guilt, hate and inferiority.  It's not that these attitudes bother God's Spirit which wants to be more active in your life, they bother you.  God already knows they are there. You may not know they are there, or how powerful they are.  

    A third obstacle to a deepening of prayer in your life can be the use of too many words.
    Notice how brief and how focused on God the Lord's prayer is.  That's why Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6, verse 7, "When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases...do not think you will be heard for your many words." Meister Eckhart, the mystic, said there is really only one word necessary for prayer.  That word is "thanks."
    Most of the words you use in prayer are not really prayer, but a kind of "pre-prayer."  The words are used to get you in the mood of prayer or spirit of prayer.  They are a prelude, an introduction.  Sometimes they can be very helpful.   If there are too many words they can get in the way.
    In the Hebrew scriptures, in the book of Psalms, it is written, "Be still and know that I am God."  "Be still," means to become peaceful, concentrated and quiet.  Again, it is significant in the Hebrew scriptures that Elijah the prophet, had his most powerful experience of God when he was quiet.   

    To summarize, some of the major obstacles to prayer are: an inadequate concept of God; negative attitudes within you which can block God's Spirit; and the use of too many words.

    According to the Bible in Luke, here are several guidelines for helping you in your prayers.  Each guideline begins with the letter "P"–persistence, practice and patience.
    They are all connected and are actually different aspects of the same thing.
    What Jesus is telling us here is that growing and maturing spiritually is a process that takes time–it therefore takes persistence, patience and practice.  For example, take the act of forgiveness.  To forgive someone who has deeply hurt you and to experience God's forgiveness fully, takes time which is an element of patience.  A willingness to forgive is a good way to begin, but that does not mean it will happen instantly and you can move on.
    A wise person said to me, "If you rush forgiveness, you will most likely miss the lesson you are being asked to learn.  And you will not truly forgive either."  
    There is one more word that begins with the letter "P" which needs to be added to persistence, patience and practice in our prayer life.  That word is "positive."  Make prayer positive.  Too many people in their praying continue to hold on to unhappy thoughts and symptoms.  Over and over again in their prayers, people will declare their unhappiness, their suffering, their sinfulness and pain.  That's ok to do, but you have to also move beyond that. Otherwise you are only affirming your misery rather than letting it go.
    When you let those negative attitudes go, then expect positive results.  Jesus ended his teaching on prayer with his disciples on a very positive note.  He said, "Ask and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened."  Amen.

Prepared for First-Plymouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ, Lincoln, NE.  

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ n the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    If you would like to have a special prayer request added to First-Plymouth Church's prayer list, or if you have a concern you would like to share with our staff, please e-mail us through the Rev. Nancy Erickson.