So as I was sitting in church on this Easter Sunday morning I found myself struck with a sense of overwhelming indignation. Just as the choir finished singing a very powerful, moving song about Jesus’ glorious resurrection –one which makes you just want to throw yourself on the floor in prostration not because you are gripped by the powerful emotionalism of the song (must be leery of that) but because you understand the powerful Truth the lyrics hold and what it means for your life –one of our associate pastors got up to say a prayer. Now I am not disparaging my pastor or his prayer or the way he prayed but rather I am really praising God because of my reaction to it and the reflection that followed.
“Christ is risen from the dead! Trampling over death by death. O death! Where is your sting? O hell! Where is your victory! Holy, only begotten Son of God, Ancient of Days. Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations, Son of God and Son of Man, glory and honor, praise, adoration, now and forevermore be Thine.”
It’s so easy to forget what Christ did for us. We “forget” in the sense that we sometimes lose our sense of reverence when approaching God Almighty, Lord of all the Universe whether in prayer or supplication or thanksgiving or in singing worship. We are to fear and tremble in awe at the sound of His name. I have yet to meet a person who literally trembles at every thought of the Most Holy and I know I never will this side of heaven because we can never know or completely understand God’s glory (and even in heaven I don't think God will give us complete understanding either). Perhaps we would start trembling more often if, before we engage in any act of deliberate worship, we first set aside a few minutes of conscious meditation on how holy and perfect God is and the sacrifice He made for us completely unworthy beings so that we can be with Him one day.
After the choir sang I found myself lost in one of the moments where you are just in complete speechless awe and wonder of how and why a perfect Savior would want to save such an imperfect, worthless being. And then one of the pastors gets up to pray: “God, we thank you for this opportunity to gather together to worship you…..we thank you for this…..we thank you for that…..” There was no obviously lack of reverence in this prayer but have you ever been in such speechless awe that to mutter any words coming from a mouth that has sinned many times would taint the perfectness of the object or person you are in awe of? Well, that is how I felt in that moment and it made me seriously reevaluate my own prayer life.
What defines prayer? If you asked me when I was a kid I probably would have strictly defined prayer as talking to God. If we accept this simple definition then why do we make one of the simplest things the most difficult?
At the end of the day it is so easy to get on your knees and mindlessly go through heartless prayers that you have memorized. I don’t mean “memorized” in the sense of reciting the Lord’s prayer but memorized as in you say the same prayer that comes to mind every night because you are too tired to think of much else. Sure this kind of prayer may bring a peace of mind but it sure doesn’t bring intimacy (and, if you are somewhat alert and not too tired, you may recognize the thoughtlessness of the prayer which produces a lot of guilt). Even if we are fully conscious and awake, prayer takes effort and concentration. It is so easy for our minds to wander sometimes.
Abraham Kuyper writes on prayer and the consciousness in his book The Work of the Holy Spirit:
“The form of prayer does not affect its character. It may be a mere groaning in thought, or a sigh in which the oppressed soul finds relief; it may consist of a single cry, a flow of words, or an elaborate invocation of the Eternal. It may even turn into speaking or singing. But so long as the soul, in the consciousness that God lives and hears its cry, addresses itself directly to Him as though it stood in His immediate presence, the character of prayer remains intact. However, discrimination between these various forms of prayer is necessary in order to discover, in the root of prayer itself, the work of the Holy Spirit.”
C.S. Lewis wrote: "What seem our worst prayers may really be, in God's eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling. For these may come from a deeper level than feeling. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when he catches us, as it were, off our guard."
It is really the sin of prayerlessness that precedes all other sins. In Jesus' life and ministry prayer preceded his actions. If you were honest with yourself, you would have to admit that your prayer life often lacks consistency, enthusiasm, confidence, or possibly some combination of all three. Henri Nouwen reminds us that the original meaning of “theology” was “union with God in prayer.” In his book In the Name of Jesus, Henri Nouwen says “but for the future of Christian leadership it is of vital importance to reclaim the mystical aspect of theology so that every word spoken, every advice given, and every strategy developed can come from a heart that knows God intimately.” Before we begin to pray, it is crucial to get into the right mind frame. Before you utter a word, remember you are speaking to the most Holy of all Holies.
