Just Ask

Luke 11:1-13

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I first started learning to play the guitar back when I was 10 or 11.  One of my early influences was my grandfather.  There would be times back then when visiting my grandparents that I would get tired of watching TV and get the urge to go upstairs and jam on Granddaddy’s guitar.  There was only one problem—I had to ask him if I could play it and that created a huge internal dilemma for me.  I would sit there and sit there for what seemed an eternity, trying to get up the nerve just to ask.  It was agony.  My heart would race, my mind would say “just ask him,” but I just couldn’t do it.  I would get to the point of almost blurting it out, but…I just couldn’t do it.  Something just kept me from asking and it didn’t make sense.  So frustrating!  Well, occasionally I did get the words out and he’d answer, “Why sure.  Help yourself.”  I’d go on up and ten minutes or so later he’d come up and try to teach me a song he played when he was young – The Boogie Woogie usually.  Those were special times for my grandfather and me.  We were the only ones in the family that played.  

I don’t know why I had such a hard time just asking Granddaddy if I could play his guitar.  I knew he’d say yes.  I just couldn’t ask.  I was just a shy kid who had a hard time saying what he wanted, I guess.  I couldn’t get beyond myself enough to stop and think who it was I was asking and how willing he would be to share not only his guitar but his time and his memories with me, that he might actually want that special time with me.

Why is it so hard sometimes to ask for what we want especially when we know it comes from someone who cares infinitely about us and who won’t say no?  Why is it?  That’s one of the greatest mysteries of life, I guess.  But it boils down to that we just get so caught up in our own irrationalities (it’s actually shame) that we forget who it is that we’re asking.  It doesn’t make sense.

I think this problem affects how we pray as well.  We get so caught up in our own mess that we forget to whom it is that we pray.  I think this is part of why Jesus when instructing his disciples on how to pray, begins with the reminder of exactly to whom it is we pray: “Our Father in heaven”. The first lesson that Jesus gives to us on how to pray is that when we pray, we pray to our Father in heaven.

Calling God Father changes the way we relate to God.  Some may have an understandable problem with understanding God as Father for reasons of it being patriarchal, sexist, or their own father was abusive.  I understand but, before we through the baby out with the bathwater, there’s something we need to understand about the name “Father” from a biblical perspective; more so the role of a father.  We should think about what an honourable father was supposed to be and do for his family.  Abraham and Job are good examples here.  Along with a good wife whom he honours and cherishes, a father brings a family into existence.  The father provides a safe home and all that the family needs.  He is faithful to and truly cares for the well-being of everyone in the family.  He defends the family and publicly conducts himself so that the family name is respected.  He looks after the spiritual needs of the family.  He provides an inheritance for the family thus providing for the future of the family.  He blesses and is a blessing to the family.  As the children grow up the father includes them in the responsibilities of the family work and listens to their opinions.  The family respects the father and honours what he wants for the family.  You see, the honourable father wants only what God wants for his family and strives for that. Underneath it all is a bond of love in the family.  

So, we are to have all that in mind when we pray to the Creator of this beautiful universe and rest assured that this Creator considers us his beloved children, his family, and invites us to consider him our Father.  This Father in heaven loves and cherishes us and only wants the best for us and can and will make it happen.  So, if calling God “Father” is difficult, let’s just still take to heart this fatherly nature of God when we pray.  There’s motherly nature to God as well.  That’s a good way to think about the work of the Holy Spirit.  There’s also a sibling nature to God with Brother Jesus.  There is a profound family-like nature to God the Trinity.  Regardless, it is important when we pray that we consider the nature of the one to whom we pray, that there is a love there that’s family-like, that will not hurt us the way family can in this broken world.  It’s important that we put aside our own irrationalities and shame and come to the God who loves us in prayer.

About prayer, prayer takes place in our spirit as it communions with God.  I like to think of our spirit in its simplest terms as that part of us that relates to God, to others and to our self.  So, prayer is a relationship.  Prayer takes place in the bond of love that we have with God.  Prayer is not making requests to an aloof deity that says he’ll hear our prayers on account of some human sacrifice years ago.  Prayer is kind of like me sitting in a chair across the room from my grandfather stressing out over whether he’ll let me play his guitar except putting all that stressing out stuff aside and rather listening to that part of me that knew Grandaddy’s love for me and that there was nothing that he wouldn’t do for me so long as it was in my best interest.  My grandfather was true to that love to the tee and that’s what prayer is like.  Prayer is sitting in the presence of our loving Father in heaven in communion with him and brother Jesus and the Holy Spirit present with a sense of God’s presence gluing us all together, our spirit with the Holy Spirit, and knowing that what we ask will be granted if it is according to his will and care for us.  

So, what to pray?  In the prayer that Jesus gives us which we should pray frequently throughout the day, we ask for God’s Kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Praying this leads to our desiring it which leads to our striving for the coming of God’s Kingdom to earth.  We ask for God to provide for what we need each day.  That should always have us questioning do we need more than that.  We ask God to forgive us in accordance with how we feel others owe us something.  Thinking that somebody owes us something is the root of what a grudge is and that’s a sermon for another day.  There’s also the not bringing us into the time of trial thing that has to do with evil deciding to test your faith.  That’s also a sermon for another day.  The Lord’s Prayer is a prayer to have frequently running through your mind throughout the day.

But, what about specific things we need to pray about: the hurts, the illnesses, the grieving, hurting relationships, and so forth.  Well, Jesus begins by saying be persistent.  Don’t think you’re inconveniencing God or don’t deserve anything special from God.  Even friends will do what we ask if we bother them enough.  Won’t our father in heaven do all the more.  But the fact that it takes persistence means that things take time.  We don’t know what all is involved in God answering a prayer for us.  Prayer is not a magic wand and there’s none of this “just believe you’ll get it” stuff that TV preachers push.  Placing things that are beyond our control into the hands of God is a difficult task.  Asking, seeking, and knocking on the door are things we must do.  There are no overnight solutions to anything, but waiting on God changes us.  Waiting creates humility, patience, compassion, kindness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.  

Jesus finishes with inviting us to pray for the Holy Spirit; praying for God’s felt, life-transforming presence with and in us.  The Holy Spirit nurtures us with the felt faithful love of God to be more like Jesus is his nature of unconditional love.   There is nothing greater in this life that we can pray for than a healthy dose of knowing God, knowing God is present with us, knowing we are beloved by God, knowing and feeling that God’s faithful love surrounds us.  God is very generous when the prayer request is “God, give us yourself.” Or “God, let me know your faithful love.”  Be persistent.  The Holy Spirit will make himself known to you particularly by the way he changes you which will be noticeable.  Just ask.  Amen.

A Bit about Prayer

Luke 11:1-13
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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.

The Transforming Power in Prayer

Luke 11:1-13

Have you ever driven yourself crazy asking "what is the God’s will for me?"  What does God want me to do with the life he gave me?  Did you walk away a bit disillusioned with no clear distinct answer?  Or at some point, as is the case with most ministers, did you settle into the notion that you are definitely called to a specific task that's going to take considerable preparation and therefore set out on that journey?  Or did you just figure you would do what you want, be a good person, a good citizen of a Christian nation, and do good and not trouble yourself with the will of a God who's not involved in our lives until we're standing before him on judgement day?

God’s will—what is it?  That is a big question and I would just as soon answer it with I haven’t got a clue.  There have been times when I thought I knew what the Trinity’s will for me was.  I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I was supposed to be doing, things were going good and then out of left field comes a zinger that changes everything. 

I find that the topic of God’s will gets highly speculative when we deal with it as some sort of specific step-by-step plan that God has for our lives that if we figure it out and follow it we will have a most wonderful life.  I am a bit suspicious of that way of looking at the Trinity's will mostly because it sounds more like ancient pagan notions of fate rather than anything biblical. 

If we take the Bible in its entirety we find that God does have a grand scheme plan for history that includes my life that ultimately ends with our becoming like Christ Jesus, united to him by his incarnation and by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit we share in his relationship with the Father.  The specific step-by-steps of that plan are not for us to know though we can and do get hunches of it from time to time. 

What is most important for us is that we simply be God’s people.  We be the children of God who reflect his image in the creation.  The Trinity's will is more about who we are and how we live than about specifics that have to happen.  We are Jesus’ disciples, beloved children of the Father just as he is, and it is the Trinity's will that we increasingly grow up into him.

Let me say a little more about this, the Trinity does have a specific plan for history.  It is that the Good News of Salvation in Christ is to go out into all the world until the Father calls things to an end with Jesus' return, and then the resurrection of the dead, the final judgement, and God’s establishing his kingdom where we serve and worship God freed of sin, death, and evil.

Within that plan the Trinity calls us to specific tasks.  Sometimes we seem to have no doubt as to this calling.  Other times, we’re cluelessly in the right place at the right time.  It can even be we’re doing everything we can to work against God and the call, but God still works it into his will for us. The called ones are who we are.  We bear the task of proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and living under his commandment to love one another so that we in our life together are living proof of what is to come.  Our individual tasks in this calling are varied yet there is one calling, one invitation, common to us all and it is that we all know salvation in Jesus Christ, that we all come to know and share in the steadfast love and faithfulness of God the Father as Jesus the Son himself does in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. 

Salvation is an actuality in our lives now due to Jesus' presence in our lives changing us, healing us, transforming us through the work of the Holy Spirit from the sin and death of our broken humanity to be more and more like him.  Salvation is that in Jesus Christ God did, is, and will reconcile the world to himself and has made it possible for us to have an intimate and being-changing relationship with God the Father through Jesus the Son in the Holy Spirit.  The Trinity’s will for us each and us together is that we all be saved, that we all be in this transforming relationship with him.  So, salvation essentially is that the Trinity in through, and as Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit has brought us into himself, into this new form of human being the Bible calls “in Christ” and “in him” God is transforming us to become the image of Christ in living union with him. 

Therefore, I conclude, that ultimately the Trinity’s will is that we all become like Christ Jesus, which is that we be humans who are indwelt by God partaking of his nature.  It is our task, our calling, to let that happen.  The Trinity’s will is that we become like Jesus Christ. 

St. Athanasius of Alexandria one of the key theologians behind the Nicene Creed said, “He became what we are so that he might make us what he is.”  St. Irenaeus of Lyons the dominant theologian of the 3^rd Century in his work “Against Heresies” wrote: “our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.”  John Calvin writes; “This is the wondrous exchange made by his boundless goodness. Having become with us the Son of Man, he has made us with himself sons of God.”

  Having set that stage I must go on to say that when we are talking about the Trinity’s will and how it applies to our lives we are really talking about a struggle of wills—the Trinity’s will with our own.  To be like Jesus is to have two wills—the will of the Trinity and a human will.  Jesus kept his fallen human will  fully in line with the will of the Father and that is our goal.  There is one problem though, our wills are corrupted, bent by sin to be self-oriented rather than God-oriented.

 This problem is complicated by the harsh reality that there is nothing that we can do to change our wills outside of praying.  Indeed, Jesus himself prayed ceaselessly.  Prayer is the one thing necessary that we do in the pursuit of knowing and living the Trinity's will for us.  In prayer is where our human spirit and will unite with the Holy Spirit so that the Trinity’s will for us to become the image of Christ can be done here on earth as it is in heaven.  God’s will for each of us is that we be united with Christ so that we can become like Christ and prayer is the primary setting for where this happens.  It is when we are in prayer, sitting at Jesus’ feet in the presence of the Holy Spirit, that God’s kingdom begins to come “to me”. 

Now, if prayer is the place where the Trinity works most powerfully in us, then the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray is of utmost importance.  The purpose of the Lord’s Prayer as best as I can determine it is to make us like Christ.  Praying the Lord’s Prayer continually from the heart opens us up so that the transforming power of God in the Holy Spirit can work mightily in us---mightily!  Praying the Lord’s Prayer will help us to know God as Jesus does, as loving Father.  Being in that relationship is where we are saved. 

Praying this Prayer will open us up to God’s kingdom coming into us now and God’s will being worked in and through us.  To ask for our daily bread is to increase our faith in God’s provision for our needs and make us less reliant on material things and our own sufficiency.  To ask God to forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors forces us to accept our own sinfulness as well as to bear the cross of being forgiving.  Praying for God not to lead us into times of trial where we are tempted to deny Christ and rather deliver us from the evil one makes us aware that God does not tempt us to sin and when we feel temptation we know to resist it and God will deliver us from Satan.

The Trinity calls each of us to be continuously in prayer.  Paul says “Pray without ceasing.”  Yet, a constant state of prayer is not something that we can achieve on our own.  It is a gift from the Trinity that feels like a constant awareness of God’s presence in our lives.  Praying the Lord’s Prayer constantly throughout the day when our minds would otherwise be occupied by worry and what not is particularly rewarding.  In time we find ourselves changing, transforming in our goals and desires for life.  We find ourselves hungering and thirsting more for the presence of the Lord in our lives.  We find ourselves “wanting to want to love God” as St. Teresa of Avila once said.  The discipline of prayer actually changes the way the brain chemically works.  It forges new neural pathways.  If you know anything about the brain chemistry of addiction, prayer is the only way around the “stinking thinking” that feeds addiction.  
When Jesus’ disciple’s asked him to teach them how to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples they were wanting just this—a disciplined way of praying that would draw them closer to the Father and change them.  So, Jesus taught them this prayer.  Therefore, my friends, pray it.  Pray it ceaselessly and from the heart and you will find yourselves changed.  Amen.

The Transforming Power in Prayer

Text: Luke 11:1-13

Have you ever driven yourselves crazy asking what is the Trinity’s will for me. What does God want me to do with the life he gave me? Did you walk away a bit disillusioned with no clear distinct answer? Or at some point, as is the case with most ministers, did you settle into the notion that you are definitely called to a specific task that's going to take considerable preparation and therefore set out on that journey? Or did you just figure you would do what you want, be a good person, a good citizen of a Christian nation, and do good and not trouble yourself with the will of a God who's not involved in our lives until we're standing before him on judgement day?

God’s will—what is it? That is a big question and I would just as soon answer it with I haven’t got a clue. There have been times when I thought I knew what the Trinity’s will for me was. I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I was supposed to be doing, things were going good and then out of left field comes a zinger that changes everything. I find that the topic of God’s will gets highly speculative when we deal with it as some sort of specific step-by-step plan that God has for our lives that if we figure it out and follow it we will have a most wonderful life. I am a bit suspicious of that way of looking at the Trinity's will mostly because it sounds more like ancient pagan notions of fate rather than anything biblical. If we take the Bible in its entirety we find that God does have a grand scheme plan for history that includes my life that ultimately ends with our becoming like Christ Jesus, united to him by his incarnation and by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit we share in his relationship wit the Father. The specific step-by-steps of that plan are not for us to know though we can and do get hunches of it from time to time. But, what is most important for us is that we be God’s people, we be the children of God who reflect his image in the creation. Therefore, the Trinity's will is more about who we are and how we live than about specifics that have to happen. We are Christ’s disciples, beloved children of the Father as he is, and it is the Trinity's will that we increasing grow up into him.

Let me say a little more about this, the Trinity does have a specific plan for history. It is that the Good News of Salvation in Christ is to go out into all the world until the Father calls things to an end with Jesus' return, and then the resurrection of the dead, the final judgement, and God’s establishing his kingdom where we serve and worship God in eternal bliss. Within that plan the Trinity calls people to specific tasks and these people seem to have no doubt as to their calling. The called ones are who we are. We bear the task of proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and living under his commandment to love one another so that we in our life together are living proof of what is to come.

Our individual tasks in this calling are varied yet there is one calling, one invitation, common to us all and it is that we all know salvation in Jesus Christ, that we all come to know and share in the steadfast love and faithfulness of God the Father as Jesus the Son himself does in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Salvation is an actuality in our lives now due to Jesus' presence in our lives changing us, healing us, transforming us through the work of the Holy Spirit from the sin and death of our broken humanity to be more and more like him. Salvation is that in Jesus Christ God did, is, and will reconcile the world to himself and has made it possible for us to have an intimate and being-changing relationship with God the Father through Jesus the Son in the Holy Spirit. The Trinity’s will for us each and us together is that we all be saved, that we all be in this transforming relationship with him. Salvation essentially is that the Trinity in through, and as Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit has brought us into himself, into this new form of human being the Bible calls “in Christ” and is transforming us to become the image of Christ in living union with him.

Therefore, I conclude, that ultimately the Trinity’s will is that we all become like Christ Jesus, which is that we be humans who are indwelt by God partaking of his nature. It is our task, our calling, to let that happen. The Trinity’s will is that we become like Jesus Christ. St. Athanasius of Alexandria the key theologian behind the Nicene Creed said, “He became what we are so that he might make us what he is.” St. Irenaeus of Lyons the dominant theologian of the 3^rd Century in his work “Against Heresies” wrote: “our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.” John Calvin also gets in on this line of thinking writing; “This is the wondrous exchange made by his boundless goodness. Having become with us the Son of Man, he has made us with himself sons of God.”

Having set that stage I must go on to say that when we are talking about the Trinity’s will and how it applies to our lives we are really talking about a struggle of wills—the Trinity’s will with our own. To be like Jesus is to have two wills—the will of the Trinity and a human will. Jesus kept his fallen human will fully in line with the will of the Father and that is our goal. There is one problem though, our wills are corrupted, bent by sin to be self-oriented rather than God-oriented. The problem is complicated by the harsh reality that there is nothing that we can do to change our wills outside of praying. Indeed, Jesus himself prayed ceaselessly. Prayer is the one thing necessary that we do in the pursuit of knowing and living the Trinity's will for us. In prayer is where our human spirit and will unite with the Holy Spirit so that the Trinity’s will for us to become the image of Christ can be done here on earth as it is in heaven. God’s will for each of us is that we be united with Christ so that we can become like Christ and prayer is the primary setting where this happens. It is when we are in prayer, sitting at Jesus’ feet in the presence of the Holy Spirit that God’s kingdom begins to come.

Now, if prayer is the place where the Trinity works most powerfully in us, then the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray is of utmost importance. The purpose of the Lord’s Prayer as best as I can determine it is to make us like Christ. Praying the Lord’s Prayer continually from the heart opens us up so that the transforming power of God in the Holy Spirit can work mightily in us---mightily! Praying the Lord’s Prayer will help us to know God as Jesus does, as loving Father. Being in that relationship is where we are saved. Praying this Prayer will open us up to God’s kingdom coming into us now and God’s will being worked in and through us. To ask for our daily bread is to increase our faith in God’s provision for our needs and make us less reliant on material things and our own sufficiency. To ask God to forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors forces us to accept our own sinfulness as well as to bear the cross of being forgiving. Praying for God not to lead us into times of trial where we are tempted to deny Christ and rather deliver us from the evil one makes us aware that God does not tempt us to sin and when we feel temptation we know to resist it and God will deliver us from Satan.

           The Trinity calls each of us to be continuously in prayer. Paul says “Pray without ceasing.” Yet, a constant state of prayer is not something that we can achieve on our own. It is a gift from the Trinity that feels like a constant awareness of God’s presence in our lives. Praying the Lord’s Prayer constantly throughout the day when our minds would otherwise be occupied by worry and what not is particularly rewarding. In time we find ourselves changing, transforming in our goals and desires for life. We find ourselves hungering and thirsting more for the presence of the Lord in our lives. We find ourselves “wanting to want to love God” as St. Teresa of Avila once said. The discipline of prayer actually changes the way the brain chemically works. It forges new neural pathways. If you know anything about the brain chemistry of addiction, prayer is the only way around the “stinking thinking” that feeds addiction. AA has been telling us that from day one. When Jesus’ disciple’s asked him to teach them how to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples they were wanting just this—a disciplined way of praying that would draw them closer to the Father and change them. So, Jesus taught them this prayer. Therefore, my friends, pray it. Pray it ceaselessly and from the heart and you will find yourselves changed. Amen.