Sunday Sermons
The Ethics of Prayer
Mention the terms ethics or morality and most people would probably not think of prayer as fitting into these categories, yet Jesus reminds us that while prayer is a spiritual act it is an ethical act as well. This is seen in the fact that prayer is exposed to God’s judgment when sound ethical principles do not underlie our prayers. “The ethics of prayer and the place of prayer in morality are therefore not irrelevant considerations” (Christian Personal Ethics, Henry, p. 573). Jesus noted that prayer that arises from the wrong motivation is immoral, “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray…so that they may be seen of men” (Matthew 6:5). In like manner, prayer that is addressed to some false god is equally sinful (Exodus 20:5 “You shall not worship them or serve them”). Thus just because some act or behavior is surrounded in prayer does not mean that the act is moral or ethical. “Prayer to selfish ends is rebuked as irreligious and immoral: ‘You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God” (James 4:3-4). Pagans often regard their prayers as meritorious external works. Jesus distinguished the intercession of believers from that of the Gentiles who trace the efficacy of prayer to their subjective effort, that is, ‘much speaking’, ‘vain repetition’ (Matthew 6:7), rather than in the nature of God. He also decried the practice of prayer as a public spectacle (Matthew 6:5ff.)” (Henry p. 575). Carefully observe that in James 4:3-4, selfish motives behind our prayers is a manifestation of being worldly, that is, of being immoral.
The sincerity behind our prayers
“Unless it expresses man’s sincere, interior relation to God, prayer is a mockery. ‘The ethics of prayer’, Keyser reminds us, ‘consists in the fact that it must be of the heart (‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me’ (Mark 7:6); must be utterly sincere; dare not be mere lip-service; and especially should never be engaged in merely ‘to be seen of men’. Prayer with a view to public approval rather than to that of the Living God is sinful pretension; the celebrity it seeks is the only reward it gets and in the discerning company of heaven it loses even that” (Henry p. 575). Thus, in prayer anything less than our “heart’s desire” is an insult to the God that we are beseeching (Romans 10:1).
The risk involved in prayer
“Prayer involves always an element of risk---the risk of being found out and unmasked in God’s presence as double-minded,‘But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driving and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways’ (James 1:6-8). ‘Pray for what you want’, a wise preacher once encouraged the flock, ‘but be sure you want what you pray for’” (Henry p. 576). Did you notice the emphasis in James 1:6, that prayer cannot involve any doubting? I know people are apt to complain, “But everyone has his doubts”, or, “There is a little bit of us that always wonders, ‘What if this isn’t true’?” It is noteworthy that God approaches this subject of doubt from a different direction. God does not encourage doubt, neither does He justify it, rather He gives the cure for the skeptic. “As long as you doubt, you will be disconnected from God, now, how strongly do you believe in your doubts?” In Mark 9:14-24 we are given a very clear picture of how Jesus views doubt in His power. It is an insult (9:23). Here is what Solomon said on the subject, “Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2). Worship, including prayer is not to be verbal doodling! “Be in no hurry to speak” (Jerus). God does not exist to be a verbal punching bag for mankind and neither is He some giant cosmic complaint department. “False worship is as much an affront to God as obscene insults are to a wife or husband. Better to bribe a judge than to ply God with hollow words; better to slap a policeman than to seek God’s influence by meaningless gestures; better to perjure yourself in court than to harry God with promises you cannot keep” (David Hubbard). Observe the emphasis in the above verse on the word impulsive. I know that our modern culture at times worships the impulsive thought or act, and seeks to glorify the person who is always impulsive. While impulsive might work for road-trips and hitting the late night grill it does not have a place in worship.
“In My Name”
Jesus told the apostles, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14), in a similar manner, John tells Christians in general, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). “The restriction ‘in my name’ guarantees, at very least, that no transactions will be honored which contradict the imperatives God addresses to His followers. For God cannot be glorified by any answer to prayer which does violence to the moral law” (Henry p. 576). On a practical level, what this means is that we must understand that we are praying to a holy God, and only requests that are moral by His standards will be honored. For the sinner, this means that God will only hear a prayer that is interested in repentance and conforming to His will, “God be merciful to me, a sinner’ (Luke 18:13).
Jesus and Prayer
Jesus not only taught us how to pray (Matthew 6:9-15), but He was also constantly praying Himself, “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12); “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there” (Mark 1:35); “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death” (Hebrews 5:7). Often these nights of prayer seem to decide the pivotal choices of His ministry. The example of Jesus’ prayer life is very convicting, because if God in the flesh felt the need for frequent prayer to the Father, something is wrong with us spiritually and morally if we do not have such a need. “The very incarnate Son of God experienced the need of prayer and, moreover, satisfied that need to the full” (Henry p. 574). It is equally convicting to ponder if we could fill an entire night in prayer, or would we lose interest or run out of material? Prayerlessness is at times a problem among God’s people, in the Old Testament the prophets proclaimed, “There is none who calls on Your name, who arouses himself to take hold of You” (Isaiah 64:7); “Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob; but you have become weary of Me, O Israel” (Isaiah 43:22). When you examine these verses it is clear that God is never wearied by our prayers, in fact He encourages frequent prayer that is filled with our concerns and worries (1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing”; 1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you”). Instead, what God considers wearying is apathy, stubbornness, rebellion and sin. “Prayerlessness is a spurning of that fellowship with God for which man was fashioned, a snobbish preference for solitude and for self-reflection above conversation with the Almighty. Likewise, it involves a shameful neglect of spiritual and moral resources. Whoever prefers a monologue with himself to a dialogue with the Creator-Redeemer actually shapes an idol of himself” (Henry p. 575). This is a very wise observation, because even Christians can be tempted to spend far more time in self-reflection than in prayer, unfortunately the more time that we spend talking with ourselves the farther we move away from seeing ourselves accurately. I have found that people often make foolish or sinful decisions after they have talked with themselves rather than having spent that time talking to God.
Prayer and selfishness
One of the great spiritual benefits of prayer is that true prayer requires a sacrifice of one’s self will. There is no room for selfishness or the manipulation of others in the statement, “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10). The practice of prayer regularly brings us back to “What would God have me do in this situation?” “Prayer becomes, therefore, the great school of selflessness. Intercession is, a weapon against egotism and self-love. Consider the model prayer that Jesus gave us on this point. Notice the emphasis on “our” and “us”. “Christian prayer moves characteristically in the first person plural---as the Lord’s Prayer already makes clear—making the transition from isolated selfish concerns of the body of Christ and the body of humanity at large. On the plane of intercession it becomes apparent that prayer is a preparation for the service of our neighbor and for the battle for God’s glory, and not a primary concern with private religious needs. Abstinence from intercession reflects a surface-piety which is still largely self-centered” (Henry p. 577).
Prayer and one’s health
The Archives of General Psychiatry and the American Journal of Psychiatry found that four dimensions of religious life were extremely beneficial to mental health. These four dimensions were: Participation in religious services or ceremonies, religion as social support, frequent use of prayer, and personal significance of one’s relationship with God. Another study found that people who pray and have a close relationship with God have high levels of life satisfaction, well-being and overall happiness.
Observations on Matthew 6:9-15
· “It’s brevity carries us at once to those major needs characteristic of man universally regardless of race, color, or class”(Henry p. 578). In this prayer we realize that all human beings have the same basic needs. The prayer for daily bread is a challenge in the 21st century when we are surrounded by the illusion of man’s self-sufficiency and people only seem to turn to prayer in rare and critical times.
· “First things first, heavenly things are mentioned before earthly things. Stalker notes the brief attention to daily bread, or to the material needs of life, and rather, the concentration on the great things of God. Nothing paralyzes effectiveness more than an uneasy feeling about the propriety of prayer, a sense that what one seeks belongs outside the purview of saintly interests. The teaching of Jesus sets us an example of confidence that God is so aware of the material needs of His children that He may be relied upon to supply the necessary conveniences of life without our making them the all-absorbing interest in prayer” (Henry p. 578). See Matthew 6:8.
· Prayer actually is a means of lifting us out of the daily drudgery in which so many people find themselves. We do not have to worry or obsess over material concerns, for prayer enables us to contemplate higher truths and nobler purposes. We are reminded that we are part of a spiritual kingdom (6:10), so there are things far more essential than simply the politics or movements of the land in which we are living. We are reminded that while men have their plans and objectives, this is God’s world, and God has an overriding purpose (6:10). In addition, we are also reminded of our greatest need, which is neither food nor possessions, but rather forgiveness (6:12). “Prayer alerts man to his high eternal destiny. Conscience is pricked and renewed in prayer. Wuttke called it ‘the very life-blood of morality’. The Scriptures frequently link prayer with an alert spiritual watchfulness against the dangers of temptation” (Henry p. 582). We are also reminded of our need to forgive others, which means that prayer raises our consciousness of the needs of the community and concern for right relationships with others.
