The Gift of Prayer-an Act of Trust - 1 Chronicles 5:18-22

     

This morning we’re spending more time than usual praying. Our denomination recognizes the importance of prayer and calls us to hold a prayer service each spring at the start of the planting season. We also take this time to pray for many other things that are important. Prayer’s a gift from God, an invitation to come and talk to him and with him; an act of trust and faith, coming to God with open hearts, meaning that we don’t try to hide stuff in our minds or hearts from him. Prayer acknowledges who God is as the creator of the universe; our creator who created us in his own image in order to have a special relationship with us.

In our scripture passage this morning, the historian tells us of one of the countless battles that Israel found itself in with its neighbours. Three of the tribes in Israel were mostly involved in these battles as they were situated on the east side of the Jordan River. They were the first line of defense for Israel against their eastern neighbours. The tribe of Gad especially had a reputation for being fierce warriors and did not back down easily from a fight, often at the front of the battle lines. Gad was born to Leah, one of the patriarch Jacob’s wives, who at Gad’s birth prophesied about him “A troop cometh,” pointing to a warrior like future.

As warriors, the temptation is to trust in your strength and skills and your fellow warriors to defeat your enemies in battle. This easily leads to pride and boasting, yet this is not the case with these warriors. During the battle against the 4 tribes, all connected to the Ishmaelites, descendants of Abraham’s first son by the slave girl Hagar, Israel’s warriors cry out to God in the battle, trusting in his divine power over their own mortal might and power. The historian writes, “God delivered the Hagrites and all their allies into their hands…. He answered their prayers because they trusted in him.”

Prayer is an act of trust, trusting that God listens to our prayers and will respond in ways we can understand, even if he answers them differently than we expect or want, trusting that he answers them because his love for us. Prayer has always been a large part of Jewish life, scripture has an entire book, Psalms, which are prayers. Many other prayers from many of the people in the Bible are also recorded. Israel knows that God wants them to come to him, to spend time with him talking to him regularly, and prayer is how we do this.

Israel developed several prayers that they would use regularly throughout the day. The most well-known prayer is the Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6 and is recited twice each day, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” This prayer calls Israel to remember who God is and who God calls us to be, a good reminder to all of us. It also calls us to be deliberate is teaching our children who God is and what God expects from his people. Prayer is not just a conversation with God, it’s also a time to remind us of who God is, and even to remind God of the promises and commitments he’s made to us. Jewish prayers praised God for his actions and how God involved himself with his people. The deliverance of his people from Egypt and his defeat of opposing kings and armies are recurring themes in the biblical prayers. For the Israelites, God’s character leads him to act, and his good deeds on behalf of his people need to be told again and again, often in prayer.

The Israelites also developed a series of prayers called the Amidah. The Jewish Virtual Library tells us, “The Amidah is a person's opportunity to approach God in private prayer, and should therefore be said quietly. The words must be audible to oneself, but one should be careful to pray softly enough not to disturb others. If one is alone, it is permissible to raise one's voice slightly if it helps concentration. It is forbidden to interrupt the Amidah even to greet an important person. One should not even acknowledge a greeting. Only a grave emergency justifies interrupting the Amidah, since it is considered a conversation with God.” The Amidah was a collection of 18 prayers, petitions, and blessings to be offered three times a day and during synagogue services. Each benediction ends with some form of “Blessed art Thou, O Lord.” It may sound like Israel depends on formal written prayers, but they’re simply ways of helping them to have personal prayer times with God, helping them focus their minds and hearts on talking to God.

Prayer isn’t always easy for all of us. Even Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them how to prayer after they saw how important it was to Jesus to spend time in prayer regularly with his Father. Matthew places the Lord’s Prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of Jesus’ teachings. Matthew places it specifically in a section where Jesus is teaching on “acts of righteousness,” making prayer an act of right living with God. At the heart of right living with God and each other is knowing God, not just the facts, not just theology, but having a relationship with God and that involves communication, both talking and listening to God. This is where prayer comes in.

Just as we’re all created differently from each other, with different personalities, in the same way there are different ways to pray that help us to pray in ways that shape our hearts according to our differences. For myself, I find praying in groups more challenging, yet I love talking to God while walking alone in the morning. I also find it meaningful to pray the words of the Bible, often using the psalms to help me express my thoughts and heart to the Lord and to guide me into a deeper time of prayer. I also find myself praying shorter prayers during the day, taking to heart Jesus’ warning in Matthew 6 to not babble like the pagans, trying to influence God through the number of words instead of the intent of my heart.

Over the centuries, various ways of praying have been used to speak to God, and to take time to be still and know that I am God. I mentioned praying the Bible. Praying the Bible takes passages from the Bible written by different people who brought their praise, their sorrows, their struggles and questions, many times hard questions to God, and uses these written prayers to begin their own prayers and give themselves the words to talk to God that they might not otherwise know how to say. A friend recently mentioned how he used Psalm 23 to pray after his mother died, focusing especially on the lines, “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are there,” and “surely your love and goodness will follow me.” These verses helped him to share his grief and trust in God to God.

A member of the church in Montreal finds it helpful to write out her prayers; the practice of writing helps her share with God her joys and sorrows, but especially her questions. It keeps her disciplined in her prayers. A teen in Allendale told me how music helped him pray, using the words of praise and worship songs helped him tell God how he loved God and to thank God for Jesus and his Spirit.

Our hope lies in the trust we have that God listens to our prayer. Jesus gives us several parables that show us how to approach God. In Luke 18, Jesus tells of a widow asking for justice from a judge, who refuses her until her persistence finally convinces him to give her justice. This parable is less about persistence, but more about how God is not like the judge, God “will see that they get justice, and quickly.” In Luke 11, Jesus tells the parable of the man who has an unexpected visitor show up late at night and so he goes to knock on his neighbour’s door for some bread to feed his visitor. The neighbour, with grumbling, gives him bread, but Jesus tells us to “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

As Amy Boucher Pye writes, “Prayer changes people because God changes people. He takes those of us who are scared, anxious, bitter, disappointed, and vindictive and morphs us through his Spirit into brave, loving, hopeful, generous people.” Prayer draws us closer to God, building trust while bringing us strength. There’s nothing you cannot bring to God. If you’re like most people, your deepest times of prayer will be during your hardest times. These will be the times when you find yourself at a loss for words, when tears stream down your face and your throat is choked up and hope is fading fast. When these times come, you don’t need words because God knows the words you need to say even before you know what or how to say them because his Spirit is in you. This is when all the times you spent talking to God in prayer become a gift as they’ve built your relationship with God, they’ve taught you trust in God, and they’ve given you the strength to come to God in trust and hope. Prayer, a gift of relationship and hope from God built during the normal times of life for the hard times. May the Lord bless you in your times of talking to God.