Why Do We Pray?

I confess that often I pray because I want things to be better.  I need God’s help because I can’t do the hard job of living all by myself.

Apparently I am not alone.  In the Psalms, the prayer book of God’s people, there are as many as 67 Psalms of Lament, depending on who is counting.  They are also known as Psalms of Complaint.  Some are individual complaints, some are for the community to pray.

“Prayer begins when God addresses us.  First God speaks; our response, our answer, is our prayer.  This is basic to understanding the practice of prayer: we never initiate prayer, even though we think we do.  Something has happened, Someone has spoken to us, before we open our mouths, whether we remember or are aware of it or not.” - Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places

Hmmm…when I want things to be better than they seem to be, can I back the story up to better understand what I am responding to?  Maybe it would be useful to ask myself, “What New Beginning is God starting here that I am resisting?  How might I respond to what God is doing here?”

What did Jesus say about prayer?  In Matthew 6:9-15 (NRSV), we read

 “Pray, then, in this way:

Our Father in heaven,
    may your name be revered as holy.

    May your kingdom come.
   May your will be done
        on earth as it is in heaven.

    Give us today our daily bread.

    And forgive us our debts,
        as we also have forgiven our debtors.

    And do not bring us to the time of trial,
        but rescue us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

I invite you to read the same passage in the MSG version as well.  I noticed an interesting sentence added at the end of the same passage.  What do you notice?

We welcome back Rev. Donna Dinsmore this week, who will be reflecting on this passage and teaching us about prayer.  Once again, we will worship in the Dogwood Room (behind the Lower Hall Stage), where it is cooler than in the chapel.

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