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There
was once a class of young students who were given the assignment to divide into
two groups and go find out everything they could about oranges. One group decided to go to the library and
research them. They found books, films,
and encyclopaedias and compiled a grand report on oranges that included
everything you ever wanted to know about oranges and even who invented orange
juice. The teacher gave them an A.
The
other group went to the grocery store and bought a bag of oranges. They touched the oranges, smelled them,
peeled them, tasted them, and discussed them.
They ate the whole bag and went back to school with nothing to show for
their work. The teacher asked them what
they had learned about oranges. They
overwhelmingly said, “Oranges are good.”
The teacher said “OooKay,” and asked, “what does an orange look
like?” They said, “Well, like an
orange…round, dimply, and orange.” The
teacher asked, “can you tell me anything else about oranges?” They began to describe how some were sour and
some sweet, how they shoot juice when you peel them, how they smell and taste
like an orange, how they are divided into sections by fibrous skins and that
its good to peel back these skins so that you can eat just the juicy little
bulbs of Orange. The teacher gave them
an A also.
Now, who
do you think learned more about oranges: the students who went to the library
to gather facts or the students who went to the grocery store to buy oranges
and eat them? I’m inclined to think that
the group that bought the bag of oranges and ate them actually learned more
about oranges than the library crew.
Though there was so much about the orange that they couldn’t quite put
into words, they experienced “orange-ness”.
The other group could say a lot about oranges, but never experienced
“orange-ness”. There’s a huge difference
there.
Let me
ask a similar question. Who do you think
would be more apt to know what prayer is; those who have studied theology and
the Bible or those who actually pray?
Well, both are necessary but either extreme is flawed. There is nothing more pathetic than someone
who knows everything about prayer but does not actually pray. So also is someone who prays all the time but
has no guidance in what they are doing. Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Teach us how to
pray.” Prayer is something we must be
taught to do and more so something we must then actually do.
Prayer
is important. It is at the heart of
living the new life we have in Christ Jesus.
It is the wellspring of eternal life in the here and now. Prayer is time in which we intentionally meet
with God; time to “Be still and know that I am God”; time to be open before God
with the heartfelt lyric, “Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.” Prayer is time for us to let the Holy Spirit
do his work of transforming us to be more like Jesus. It is time for us to absorb the experience of
knowing ourselves to be the beloved children of God the Father just like
Jesus. It is time that God gives us to
truly rest and to breathe the air of the assurance of God’s love for us.
Standing
on that basis it goes to say that prayer is the most important thing we do in
this life. For us Christians in
particular, in prayer is where we will find the source of an on-going
experience of salvation, of the new life God promised to us in Jesus
Christ. In prayer is where we are
transformed to become the new creation.
If we do not pray, life eventually goes empty—loses its sense of life for
the simple reason that we lose our foundation.
Prayer keeps life from becoming the entrapment of death. Without it our relationships get empty. In prayer is where we find God’s love, where
we discover our sense of mission. As I said, prayer is the most important thing
we do in this life.
Now, let
me say a little bit about what is happening when we pray. 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 reads: “So if anyone is
in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away: see,
everything has become new! All this is
from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…; that is in Christ God
was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against
them.” Basically what this means is that
in Jesus Christ when he was walking the earth and in us now who are made into
his body by the Holy Spirit living in us God is restoring the relationship
between Himself and us that is broken by sin.
Having an relationship with God in which we communicate with him and
experience his presence is the uniqueness of the Christian faith. Jesus has
made it possible for us to have an intimate relationship with God, to know God.
No other religion can or does make this
claim.
Hebrews
4:16 after explaining that Jesus is both the sacrifice for our sins and the
High Priest who intercedes for us before the Father invites us saying: “Let us
therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Because of Jesus we can boldly approach God and ask for his healing
mercy—healing mercy like what the Samaritan did for that wounded and robbed
traveler on the roadside. We can boldly
ask God for help when we are helpless.
Even
more special when we are so broken we do not know what to pray or how to pray
the Holy Spirit prays for us. Romans
8:26-27 reads, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not
know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too
deep for words. And God, who searches
the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes
for the saints according to the will of God.”
When we are lost in this life God prays within himself for us that his
desire will be done for us. Have you
ever gone to the Lord in prayer and just felt like you could do little more
than groan? Then you know what Paul is talking
about the Spirit interceding for us with sighs too deep for words.
Well, I
guess that you are noticing that prayer as I am talking about it is a bit more
involved than just placing needs before God.
Prayer is more than talking to God.
Prayer is even more than sitting silently listening to God. Prayer is more than meditating on passages of
Scripture. Prayer is when and where God
the Father by the power and in the presence of the Holy Spirit makes us into
the image of Christ.
Well,
enough about prayer. Let me give you
some homework so that you can buy the proverbial ag of oranges and learn what
prayer is. Take some time this week and
sit in silence and pray these words repeatedly and slowly, “Our Father who art
in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy
Kingdom come the will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Pray this not just with your mouth or your
internal voice but with your mind and heart also. Think about what you are saying. Stop and ponder on every word. Pray it so that you feel God’s Fatherliness.
Pray it truly desiring his will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Let God’s fatherly love and your desire for
his will to be done be the context from which you pray lift up your concerns. Try this.
It will change you. Amen.
