PRAYER: CONVERSING WITH GOD
Philippians 4: 4-7
Luke 11: 1-10

           This morning we begin a five-week series on the “means of grace”; an exploration of the spiritual practices or disciplines that allow us to most fully experience the grace of God. By way of disclaimer, both for this sermon and the entire series, I have to say that it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to fully preach each topic in one sermon. Our topic this morning—prayer—could be preached every week for a year, and there would still be more to say. Instead of trying to cram as much as possible into these sermons, we are going to be guided by a central question, “how does this particular practice help us experience God’s grace?”

           We begin this exploration, this journey, looking at the practice of prayer. Prayer is at the heart of our faith; in fact, without prayer, we would have no faith. None of the disciplines we are going to explore, and those we don’t explore, can be done apart from prayer. It is the single most important practice for a person of faith. There are many kinds of prayer. There are many forms in which prayer takes. There are many ways of praying. Despite the variety of forms prayer takes, though, it remains easy to define. Prayer, quite simply, is conversing with God. That’s it! It is nothing more or less than having a conversation with Almighty God. It is through this conversation that we experience God’s grace.

           The experience of grace through prayer begins before the first word is even uttered. Grace is experienced the moment the posture of prayer is assumed—whether we fold our hands and bow our heads, whether we look heavenward, whatever way in which we pray. It is grace because God is allowing us to have this moment. God is allowing us to come before God in the act of prayer. There is nothing that says that God has to let us into God’s presence. But God wants to have a conversation with us. Because of that, God’s allows us to pray. Prayer is one of God’s many ways of showing us that we are important to God; that what we have to say is of utmost importance to God—whether it is praise or anger or bitterness or a cry for deliverance. Prayer is God’s way of showing us that He does not ignore us, but very much wants something to do with each of us. Through prayer, we are allowed to “have God’s ear” and attention for as long as we want.

           A second way we experience grace through prayer is the permission to make our requests known to God. Some have gotten the idea that we aren’t supposed to ask anything of God; that we shouldn’t bother God with our concerns or needs or wants. But the truth is, God invites us to make our requests made known. I am reminded of the story of Solomon from 1 Kings in the Old Testament. After Solomon was crowned king of Israel, God flat-out asked Solomon, “what do you want me to give you?” I cannot get that out of my head—God Almighty asking a mortal “what do you want me to give you?” If God would appear to you and ask you the same question, how would you respond? I confess that I would probably spend most of the time stuttering and trying to find a coherent word. If we read the rest of the story, we see that Solomon asked God for the wisdom to rule God’s people, and God granted that request. I wonder, if Solomon had not asked for wisdom would it have been given to him? Part of me says probably not. But it illustrates this point about prayer and God’s grace: asking is the key to receiving. When people pray, God is moved to action. When people make their requests to God, the ball starts rolling!

           Maxie Dunnam is a former President of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Maxie is fond of saying that “there are some things that God cannot or will not do unless we pray”. Now, this does not mean that God doesn’t have the power to do these things—nothing is beyond the power of God! It does, however, allow us to really confess before God what we need. For example, God knows when there is a need for healing. It might be for physical healing or for healing of relationships. However, I am convinced that if we want that healing to occur, we have got to ask God for it! The same goes for whatever else is going on. If we want something in our personal lives, for our church, for our community, for our world, then we have got to ask for it and not just assume that God knows what we need/want! Asking is our way of communicating to God what is on our hearts and, oftentimes, acknowledging that we need God’s help.

          I will confess that I am a macho male. I like to think I can do things on my own, without help from someone else. I cannot count the number of times Andrea, my wife, has offered her help and I have said to the effect of “I’ve got it under control.” You can probably guess where this is going. You would be right! Invariably, a few moments later, I would come back to her and admit that I, in fact, don’t “have it under control” and I could use some help. So it is between us and God. God is eager for us to ask for those things we need or want. This is not because God is on a power trip, but because God is not going to just barge into a situation if not asked. Asking invites God into a situation, so that God’s grace might be extended.

           With all this being said, though, one thing needs to be established. Asking in NO WAY guarantees that we are going to get what we ask for! There is still an element of trust involved with prayer; trusting that God sees “the big picture”, beyond what we can see. There are times when what we ask for might not end up being in our best interests. Even though there is no guarantee of getting what we ask for, there is, however, always the guarantee that God does hear us as we make our requests known and ask for what we need or want.

           The grace of prayer, however, doesn’t stop there! There’s more! We are allowed to experience God’s grace through having our prayers answered. There are fewer joys in life than answered prayer. There are few things that remind us of grace than receiving a direct answer to prayer. It can take us to depths in our relationship with God that we cannot imagine! Hearing God answer, though, requires us to take a step back. If we speak of prayer as a conversation, then part of prayer is giving God the space/time to answer our prayers. Think about it… it is not much of a conversation if one person does all the talking. So it is with prayer. It is not much of a conversation if we speak what is on our minds, say “amen” and get on with things. If we are seeking an answer, it might take a little time of being quiet and allowing God to speak to us. As we allow God to answer us, our prayers become molded by those answers so that, in time, our prayers touch the very heart of God. To be sure, God wants us to speak, but God also wants to speak to us. Next week, we are going to look at another way God speaks to us –Scripture.

           For this week, though, our focus is prayer. It is one of God’s many precious gifts to each of us. God invites each of us into a conversation; a conversation where God is just waiting to unleash a torrent of grace on, to, and for each one of us. So may it be, AMEN.

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