What's my motivation?

We like to be recognized, especially for doing good things.  There’s nothing wrong with receiving a compliment for a job well done…unless your aim was to get a compliment.

Matthew 6:1 Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of people, to be seen by them.  Otherwise, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discusses several areas where we may have the outward appearance of being mature or spiritual, but instead our motives behind the behavior is misplaced.  His point is that improper motives will prevent us from receiving a reward from God.  One area where he calls out our motives is prayer:

Matthew 6:5-6 Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people.  I assure you: They’ve got their reward!  But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret.  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

This isn’t a prohibition on praying in public, rather this is instruction to make sure our motivation for praying in public is the right one.  We should not be praying with the secret aim to be seen by people.  That’s what makes us hypocrites…acting like we’re talking to God, when really we’re just talking out loud with our eyes closed, hoping that others notice how “spiritual” we are.

Rather, Jesus instructs us to go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret.  This is both practical and makes sense.  If I’m focusing more on what others are thinking when I talk to God than I am focusing on my conversation with God…then the best remedy is to completely remove all other people from my conversation time with God. 

Jesus doesn’t stop there, however.  If we choose to engage God in prayer for the right motive – that we actually want to talk with him – Jesus says that your Father who sees in secret will reward you.  Ok, but what’s the reward?  In these verses, Jesus says that both the hypocrites and those who pray in secret will actually get what they are aiming for…the hypocrite will be seen by the people immediately around him, and that is his “reward” will be found in the opinion of others.  On the other hand, those that pray in secret to God, in order to spend time with him…they will also get what they aim at, namely a relationship with the King of the Universe!  That “reward” has benefits in this life and in eternity future.  The hypocrite’s motivation and perspective is much, much too small…and he misses out because of it.

If I only hold my wife’s hand when we’re in public, if I the only time I act interested in what she has to say is when other people are watching, or if I only say “I love you” when I know someone else will hear me tell her…while it may appear that I have the perfect relationship with my wife, the exact opposite is true and I’m living a lie.  The only benefit I receive is that someone thinks that I’m a good husband.  However, the truth is that my wife would feel isolated and alone, with nothing but a sham of a relationship with me.  The right way to have a relationship with my wife is to do all those things, even when no one is watching.  The reward for doing those things is a genuine, deep relationship with my wife – and that kind of relationship will be readily apparent to others.

Jesus is pointing out that when we’re more concerned with what others hear in our prayers than who we are praying to, we lose the ultimate reward of fellowship with God!

So let’s “go deep” with God – pray to him in private, purposely get to know him intimately and away from all other distractions.  If we do so, the public side of our relationship will take care of itself.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Praying for an enemy (part 2)

Words are cheap.

Words are easy to say, but sometimes they are hard to follow through with.

During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has this to say about how those in the Kingdom of God should act toward enemies:

Matthew 5:43-45 You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of our Father in heaven.  For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Last time, we wrestled with this passage and what Jesus is instructing us to do.  Someone who is actively plotting our downfall, someone who takes pleasure in seeing us fail, someone who harasses us without end – that is not the person I am generally interested in showing love to or want to pray for.

As we look at what Jesus taught here about prayer…it almost feels too big. 

All sorts of defensive thoughts and emotions come to mind when I imagine praying for those who persecute me.  However, the core of all those thoughts and emotions is my own self-centeredness.  Even when recognize this truth, I’m still unsure of how to pray for an enemy. 

Thankfully, we have an example.

Within about a 12 hour timeframe, Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused, slapped, spat on, beaten, repeatedly mocked, savagely whipped, crowned with thorns, and had three metal spikes viciously hammered into his wrists and feet.  After all that, and while he was suffocating to death on the cross, Jesus said

Luke 23:34 Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.

In the midst of excruciating pain, less than a few hours before death, after all he had been through – Jesus petitioned God for their forgiveness.  Jesus kept his enemies’ most important need in mind, despite the circumstances.

That’s something I love about Jesus.  He never asks of us anything that he couldn’t do or wouldn’t do himself.

Everything he went through in those 12 hours, we have also experienced, to some degree, at the hand of an enemy.  On the days when I feel betrayed by those closest to me, the days that someone’s words leave welts and wounds on my heart and in my mind, or when I am antagonized to the point that it feels like they have ripped open my flesh – Jesus has been there before.  There are times when we’re getting run over by someone who is purposely out to make our life miserable (or worse).  Let’s be honest, there are people like that in the world.  They go beyond just being self-centered, and they are actively looking for ways to take us down.

It’s in those frazzled, exhausted moments that we need to be praying for our enemies.  Just like Jesus did, we must remember that their greatest need – God’s forgiveness – is greater than our greatest pains.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Praying for an enemy (part 1)

The first time Jesus discusses prayer during his Sermon on the Mount is at the end of a series of Kingdom-living examples.  Jesus begins each example with “you have heard that it was said”, which is followed by Jesus quoting a portion of the Mosaic Law.  Then Jesus looks beyond the letter of the Law to teach that even the person’s motivation is to be evaluated by that part of the Law.  His last example in this section states:

Matthew 5:43-44 You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

The Jewish community of Jesus’ day was very internally focused.  They thoroughly believed that it was them against the world, and in many ways, that was true.  However, nowhere in the Law does it give license for the Jew to hate your enemy, the only direction is to love your neighbor.  Unfortunately, in their acceptance of the command to love their neighbor, they applied it only to their Jewish neighbor, and then they rationalized that they could do the opposite to an enemy.

Let’s not mince words here, either.  When Jesus said enemy, he meant enemy.  Someone who is actively opposing you.  The Greek word for persecute means to actively pursue or systematically oppress and harass a person or group.  Jesus isn’t giving instruction on how to deal with the annoying or selfish people we encounter…he’s talking about those who purposely oppose, fight, and undermine us.

Enemies are the ones who instigate situations, initiate fights, reduce us to tears, stress us out…we have heart problems, sleep issues, and mental breakdowns because of their actions and their desire to see us fail.

But should I seriously love them?  Why should I pray for that person?  Why should I petition the God of the Universe to lovingly interact with someone who is out to get me?  Truthfully, I’d rather pray that God gives me strength to deal with them…or better yet, I’d rather pray that God just removes them from my life altogether.

Matthew 5:44-45 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

The sobering question we must ask ourselves is “How does our Father in heaven act toward enemies?”

Jesus continues:

Matthew 5:45-47 For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 

God uses the things he has authority over for the benefit of those who love him…and for the benefit of those who actively oppose him.  Let that sink in for a moment…

There are some blessings God continues to give toward those who practice evil against him.  He does it daily, without fail…even if they never acknowledge him for it.  And when we act like God does toward enemies – loving them and praying for them, even when they don’t deserve it – we are modeling God’s love to others.

But Jesus doesn’t stop there.  He goes on to explain that choosing to treat enemies the way the sons of your Father in heaven would…to choose to love and pray for those that persecute us…these actions will be rewarded!

Jesus makes this point by referring back to how the Jews were loving only their Jewish neighbor and hating their enemies, and pointing out the lack of reward for acting differently towards enemies than God does:

Matthew 5:46-47 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?  Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing out of the ordinary?  Don’t even the Gentiles do the same?

Love, greet, and pray for your enemies.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ first direction about prayer is for us to petition God on behalf of those who actively try to undermine us.

Will we follow through on this instruction?  As we saw before, it is the wise man who hears Jesus’ words and does what Jesus says.  It won’t be easy, but God promises a reward when we choose to act like he does.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Trust and prayer

The first place we’re going to look at when it comes to what Jesus taught about prayer is during his longest and most famous teaching session, known as the Sermon on the Mount.  However, before we get to his teachings about a person’s prayer-life, it’s worthwhile to pause for a moment and listen to what Jesus has to say about his teaching in general.

At the end of his sermon, Jesus concluded with this illustration:

Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock.  The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house.  Yet it didn’t collapse, because its foundation was on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed.  And its collapse was great!”

The two groups of people the Jesus is addressing here are those that “hear and do” in contrast with those who “hear and don’t”.  Both groups hear Jesus’ words.  And what did they just hear?  The Sermon on the Mount, which was instruction primarily focused on Kingdom living.  So now that they have received direction, Jesus closes by warning them about the importance of putting his words into practice.

Notice the other similarities between the builders:

• Both needed to build a house for protection from the coming storms
• Both built their house before the storm came, presumably while the weather was good
• Both experienced storms, as they couldn’t prevent the weather

But the difference between the builders…in fact, the ONLY difference between the builders…was also the defining difference when the storms arrived.

Jesus is claiming that the difference between those that “hear and do” and those that “hear and don’t” is just as significant as the foundation chosen by the builders.

Do we trust Jesus enough to act on his words?  It does us no good to simply listen to Christ’s teachings about prayer (or any other topic) if we’re not willing to take him at his word…and then take action accordingly.  In fact, Jesus says to that to hear him and then disregard his words will result in the eventual collapse of what we build in this life.

If we’re going to learn to pray like Jesus, we’re going to have to trust that he knows what he’s talking about…and then take action accordingly.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Much ado about prayer

I remember when I was in grade school, I was told by my Sunday School teacher that I shouldn’t end my prayer the way I was saying it.  She gently told me that what I was saying wasn’t exactly theologically accurate…now while I don’t remember verbatim what my first grade mind came up with, I do remember thinking that I didn’t want to say what everyone else said at the end of a prayer.  I wanted to say something different, my own way of signing off or saying “see you later” to God.  She said that it would just be better for me to say “In Jesus’ name, Amen”.

Truthfully, she may have been correct that what I was saying was inaccurate…but to this day, I’ve often wondered what’s the “right way” for us to pray?  Later in my childhood, I was told by another adult that prayer was simply “talking to God”, but that statement still leaves me feeling unsettled. 

When my boys were young, they specifically asked me “Dad, what’s the right way to pray?  How do I do it?”  Not wanting to burden their young minds with the doubt and questions I had as a child, I reiterated what was told to me…Don’t worry about it, son.  You’re just talking to God, that’s all.  No formulas, no requirements.  Just tell God what’s on your mind…your worries, your hopes, anything that’s going on.  God can handle it.

However, as I’ve grown and matured…both in life and in my relationship with God…I still have the same lingering questions rattling around the back of my mind.  Is there a “right way” to pray?  Is it really “just talking to God”?  Am I doing this right?

It’s a good exercise to face the questions within us.  It’s also good to talk with other Christians about these things.  But when we have questions about our relationship with God, it’s even better to see what God has to say about it.

A survey of the Scriptures shows that prayer is everywhere.  Seems almost every person we encounter, from all walks of life, prays at some point.  From Job to Paul, David to Peter, Moses to Jabez, and Jonah to John it seems that everyone is either praying or talking about praying.  There are scores of example prayers to look at, and we could spend some time looking at the situations each of those prayers came from.  There would be plenty of benefit to looking through other believers’ examples in the Bible; however, I’m going to narrow the focus a little more in the hopes of answering my own lingering questions.

C.S. Lewis said that God’s aim is that “Every Christian is to become a little Christ”, and the Apostle John had this to say when he wrote about the health of our relationship with Christ:

1 John 2:6 the one who says he remains in [relationship with] Him should walk just as He walked

If these accurately describe God’s purpose toward those who have accepted Christ as Savior, then when it comes to prayer…I want to know how Jesus prayed.  Not only “how”, but also “when” and “why”.  If becoming like Christ is the goal, then he should be the first one we look to as our example.  Jesus’ own disciples also recognized this:

Luke 11:1 [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

The disciples wanted to be like their teacher, so they naturally wanted to pray like him too.  We’re going to take a close look at what Jesus taught his disciples, as well as Jesus’ own prayer life – when did he pray and what did he pray?

As of this writing, I don’t know the answers to all of these questions…so we’re going to walk down this path and learn together.  Perhaps our best starting point is to have the same request the first disciples had

Lord, teach us to pray.

Keep Pressing,
Ken