1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. As I give you advice on how to pray today, I want to make sure you approach what I’m about to say in a spirit of freedom. It is, after all, for freedom that Christ has set you free (Gal. 5:1). But, so much literature on prayer seems to place a yoke on your back, turning the gift into a burden, or worse, a scheduled appointment. I don’t want you to miss the joy we have in our freedom to pray. The message today, as we conclude our sermon series on The Lord’s Prayer, is taken from Heb. 13, Matt. 6, and Psalms 5, 55, and 141. It’s entitled, “Using the Gift of Prayer,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. I know that many people want to pray, but really struggle with how to do it. Do I sit or kneel? Do I pray silently or aloud to myself? Must my prayers be spontaneous or written? Can I pray for what I want, or must I only pray the text? What if I get distracted? Is that a sin? (It is not!) Such questions also demonstrate a lack of freedom. They come from people who want to enjoy the gift of prayer but can’t conceive of it apart from a mere demand.
3. A few years ago, our church body, the LC-MS, asked the pastors what were some of the most pressing questions their parishioners asked. A large number of people said they wanted to have a faithful prayer life, but didn’t know how. So, in this sermon, I want to try and offer some helpful advice. I do believe there is some sanctified wisdom here and pray that it would prove helpful for you.
4. GO TO CHURCH. The first thing I want you to know is that prayer isn’t something you engage in alone. As we’ve learned already in this sermon series, Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit pray for us and with us. But there’s more. It is a gift Jesus has given you, but you’re not the only one to receive this gift. This is a gift Jesus gives to his church. It’s a gift to be used by the church as we gather together with each other. The majority of psalms were used in the worship service. The Lord’s Prayer is not addressed to “my” Father, but to “our” Father. Jesus gives us no “me” petitions. To be sure, there is a time and place for the individual to be in prayer. But, we would do well to recognize that prayer begins within the communion of saints.
5. When we attend the worship service, our entire engagement with God is saturated in prayer. He comes to us in Word and sacrament, and we respond with prayer and praise. The Lutheran church designates this pattern of worship as “sacrament” (what God gives to us) and sacrifice (how we respond to God). Do not be misled by the language of sacrifice. We do not believe we are offering a sacrifice of atonement for our sins, but rather, we respond to God’s giving of gifts with “sacrifices” of praise and thanksgiving (Heb. 13:15). So, we don’t pray in the service to earn God’s favor, but because he’s already given it so freely. Having received the promises of his grace and favor through our Lord Jesus, we present our petitions to God, trusting his promises to answer in our favor. Our communal prayers are just as important as our individual prayers. God delights in them just as much.
6. The prayers of the church also inform us of the needs of God’s people. We not only pray them together in the Divine Service, but we can take them home with us and pray for all God’s people according to their needs in our individual prayer time. In this way, we continue to pray with the church throughout the week.
7. TIME AND PLACE. Now we move to the time and place for prayer. Jesus teaches us to go to our room, shut the door, and get to the point in our prayers. God isn’t impressed by long, wordy speeches, incoherent babbling, or even elaborate prayer liturgies(!). Long prayers, which look so impressive to us, may actually lack faith as they seek to persuade God, as though He hasn’t already promised to hear and answer: Jesus says, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Matt. 6:8).
8. Just as you have time set aside in your week to attend worship, it is a useful practice to set up a specific time of day to attend to your daily prayers. There is no law in the Scriptures that commands you to do it at any given time. The key is consistency. “O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch” (Ps. 5:3). As I’ve gotten older, I have found waking up an hour earlier for a time of prayer and meditation on God’s word is much more beneficial. I’ve found that beginning my day with Scripture and prayer, even as I am on my exercise bike, has helped me remain more consistent in my prayers than when I saved my most focused prayer time for the evening.
9. “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Ps. 141:2). When I was younger, I was more of a night owl and said my prayers before bed. This is a practice I still do in my home as our family prayer time is before we put the kids to bed. In the evening, we are all at home with the business of the day behind us. It’s the ideal time for my family to process through the day together with the Lord. We then go to sleep trusting that our Father will “through the night watch over our beds.” (“Now Rest Beneath Night’s Shadow” by Paul Gerhardt in The Lutheran Service Book: Pew Edition (St. Louis, Concordia Publishing House, 2006). 880).
10. “Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice” (Ps. 55:17). It may be that morning and evening are difficult for you to pray. You could take your lunch break at work to spend time in prayer. But, as this psalm points out, our time of prayer need not be limited to one fixed point in the day. The Lord always stands ready to hear our prayers. Though your most focused time of prayer may be in the morning, it is still a great blessing to pray before each meal and at the close of the day to read a psalm and sing a hymn of peace as you close your eyes for a blessed sleep. Again, it is consistency that is key. With set times of prayer, you will find that spontaneous prayers begin to come more naturally.
11. Let me also suggest you find a location that is quiet and where you will be able to focus. A number of people tell me that they have their prayer time while they drive to work. Maybe you are able to focus on God while at the same time focusing on the road. I, however, can’t. So, for the sake of my prayers and my neighbor in the car in front of me, I separate my time so I can keep my eyes fixed on Jesus in my prayers and fixed on the road while I drive. A place free of distraction where you can focus on the Scriptures and prayer is ideal.
12. ORDER YOUR TIME. To help prevent distraction, it will prove helpful to have what I call a personal prayer liturgy. That is, a set routine to help guide you through your prayers. I have some prayer liturgies in the back of the narthex available for you today to do that. Our Lutheran Service Book offers a few brief services of prayer to use individually or with your family. It also offers suggested themes for your prayers throughout the week. You might also order your prayers for each day of the week according to seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. So, on Sunday, when you pray for God’s name to be hallowed, your prayers could focus on that theme. Pray for your pastor, your congregation, the mission of the church, that God would send faithful laborers into the harvest, and the like.
13. PRAY THE SCRIPTURES. Martin Luther was once asked by his barber, Peter Beskendorf, for advice on how to pray. As a result, Luther produced a delightful little book, “A Simple Way to Pray,” where he showed Peter how to prayerfully approach the catechism and allow it to guide his prayers. He said he took up a “garland of four strands” when he would, for example, approach the Ten Commandments. He considered what they commanded, gave thanks for what was spoken and given in the commandment, confessed his sin in light of it, and finally, prayed for divine help in obeying it.
14. Luther’s advice sounds much like the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) format of prayer. Both models prove helpful for praying, not just the Ten Commandments, but all of Scripture. Your time in the word should never be separated from prayer, and your prayers should be informed by God’s word. This simple format from Luther will help you meditate on the Bible more deeply and prayerfully. There’s no need to be overwhelmed with having to order your time. In his Small Catechism, Luther offers another way to pray. When you wake up in the morning, you make the sign of the cross in order to remember your baptism, then, kneeling or standing, say the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, say another prayer (Luther offers his morning prayer as a suggestion), and then go about your day singing a hymn. He also suggests you repeat something similar before bed.
15. If you are struggling to find time to pray, start with this short order from the Small Catechism. Then, as you get more comfortable, add a psalm or a Scripture reading. Recognize that by just following this simple format, you’ll do more damage to the devil’s kingdom in just over a minute than the devil can do to you all day.
16. CONCLUSION. As you consider these suggestions, remember that you are free. Your prayers may falter, but Jesus’s will not. It is the Holy Spirit who groans for you when you don’t know what to say. So, if none of this works for you and you only find yourself frustrated, take heart. God hears your prayers and frustrations on account of his Son Jesus and promise that your sins are forgiven on account of Christ’s death on the cross for you. When such frustration arises, I am encouraged by Gretchen Ronnevik’s wonderful reminder, “There are many methods of prayer, but what astonishes me more than any of them is that the Holy Spirit interprets my groans. I can groan, and God not only hears me, but understands me. When we talk about the level of intimacy God is offering us through prayer, I think that’s a good place to start. Please don’t ask me the correct way to groan.” Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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