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Psalm # 17: 6 & 7

Preached: 23 May 2010 Des Arc First UMC Nursing Home

The one thing the Apostles asked of Jesus we find in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Where they ask him to teach them to pray.

These people were not unfamiliar with prayer. They had done it all of their lives. They had gone to the temple and into the synagogues and they had prayed as their teachers and priests had taught them.

So why did they need to be taught to pray?  Simply because they had never heard a prayer as short and simple as the prayer we call the Lord’s prayer.  There is a very similar prayer in Luke. It is shorter and changes some of the words around but again it is short and to the point.

The psalmist this morning is saying something similar.  A lot of people do not really know how to pray.  Jesus taught and we see this in his prayers and in the prayers of David and the other Psalmist that God can and does hear our prayers.

So now you are probably saying to yourself. Well now Reverend Mike has gone to meddling. I pray the way my mother and father taught me and this is the way we pray in our church. Well to that I say fine if that is what you do then don’t let me stop you from talking with your God ever. And pray as you feel God will hear and understand you.

If you do not know how to pray though or have wondered about it let me talk to you about the many ways I pray.

First there are the quite prayers I say several times a day. These are called praying the offices and they are prayed about 5 times a day and are very formal and mostly written down or are read from a book of prayers.

Second there are my rosary prayers. I am not talking the Hail Mary type used by my Catholic Brothers and Sisters, but a similar device of beads that I use to pray the prayers of Adoration,  prayers of Confession, prayers of Thanksgiving and finally prayers of Supplication. This I try to do at least once a day also.

Third I do prayers of Thanksgiving and blessings for my family and food and good things that happen in my life.

Fourth I try to say prayers of comfort and for healing when I am out visiting the shut in and hospitalized people.

Fifth I say prayers of blessings when I am done talking with the children in church or with the people I meet and am leaving in places like nursing homes.

Sixths I say prayers as I prepare sermons and homilies that I will give to you and to my church.

Paul said that we should be in constant prayer.  This means that if we are washing dishes. We need to be saying a prayer over each of those dirty dishes we wash to make it an act in God’s service.

Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer to start a prayer very personally.  He started it simply by saying Abba. This of course means Father or as we have changed it to Our Father.

Next we say that we believe something. That our Spiritual Father and  God is in his place. which is in Heaven and that we think of him as something Holy and set apart from our sinful nature.

We next make the statements about our desires for our Lord.  When we talk about His Kingdom coming His Wants being done not only in heaven but also on this earth. These are prayers of Adorations

Then we do our Supplication prayers and ask for our basic needs to be taken care of. And that we might have our sins removed and we remind ourselves that we too need to forgive those who sin or trespass against us in our daily lives.

Finally we end the prayer with a prayer of supplication stating that we know who our Lord God is and who we are in comparison.

So Jesus taught us to do the ACTS model of prayer also didn’t he.

A women once asked me how she should be praying.  I took two chairs and placed them facing each other.

I told her to sit down in on and imagine Christ was sitting across from her.  I then told her to just talk to Jesus as if he was a friend and to have a conversation with him.

That is how we need to talk to God also. Like he is a long lost friend whom we need to catch back up with and let him know what is going on in our lives. By doing so we are not letting God know what is going on in our lives but expressing to ourselves where we really are in our lives.

We pray because like the psalmist says in today’s reading because we believe and know that God does here those prayers and will answer us, even if it is not the answer we want for sometimes the answer is a no to something we really desire, because God has other plans. And sometimes there is no answer because the prayer really does not require an answer to something that has been said or asked for.

But the one prayer we all need answered if for Him to show us the way we are to live. And Christ already answered that prayer. In his coming to earth for each of us to show us God’s love for all of his creation.