Interrupting Heaven - Does Prayer Matter?

Perhaps more than any other activity, prayer expresses the fact that God has invited us into a personal relationship with Him.  Think about it... we have the chance at any given moment to go to the Creator of the Universe with what's on our hearts and what's going on in our lives - and He's promised to be attentive and respond.

People often think of prayer as an act done by desperate people (which is obviously an important time to pray).  Often, when things are going well, we trust in ourselves and our own abilities more than God - and it's not until something goes wrong and we're faced with a situation that's impossible for us to fix on own that we turn to Him.  However, God's desire for us is that prayer be something that we do not just in times of desperation, but a way of life - because when people pray, it changes things. 

Bringing the Real, Honest You Before the Real God
Interestingly, the prayers recorded in the Bible are often not the very careful, cautious prayers that we may tend to pray.  People in scripture were very bold and shamelessly honest with God - they spoke to Him with the assumption that prayer really does matter and that prayer really does change things.  Genesis 18:20-33 shows Abraham "haggling" with God after God says He's going to destroy the city of Sodom.  In the conversation, it's clear that Abraham feels that God's course of action really can be affected by what he says: "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?... Far be that from you! Shall not the judge of the earth do what is right?"   Also, Numbers 11:10-15 is a perfect example of being real and honest with God, as Moses openly communicates his frustration with his situation:

"Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their forefathers? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, 'Give us meat to eat!'  I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now..."

In reality, when we're not honest with God, what we're really doing is role-playing.  In the DVD, John Ortberg says is that "when it comes to prayer, one of the single most destructive things a lot of us do is we try to jump in and be really heroic in our praying."  We talk to God about things we think we're "supposed" to or things that we think will sound noble or altruistic, rather than what really matters to us and what's really going on in our lives.  While there's nothing wrong with praying for world peace or missionaries - if that's the only thing we're doing in prayer, we're missing out on a huge piece of our relationship with God and His power to transform us.  In Mark 11:24 Jesus proclaims: "That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large.  Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything" (MSG).  In Luke 11:5-13 and Luke 18:1-8, Jesus again spoke of the importance of being direct with God and asking Him for what we need.  After speaking about persistence in Luke 11:5-9 (the story of the persistent friend) Jesus says:  

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you...  Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead?  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him." (Luke 11:9-13)

Similarly, in Luke 18:1-5 Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow and unrighteous judge, finishing by saying:

"Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice and quickly.  However, when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:6-8, NIV) -  or "how much of that kind of persistent faith will the Son of Man find on the earth when he returns?" (MSG)

Are we usually honest and bold in our prayers with God?  Do we come to Him with the expectation that He has promised to respond?  That He wants to meet our needs? 

But When I Try to Pray, My Mind Wanders...
One of the great challenges when it comes to prayer is that our minds are racing around so much that it's really hard to slow them down.  The Life You've Always Wanted DVD compares it to "monkeys jumping around in a banana tree."  So, the first thing to do is take a minute before you start to pray and slow your mind down before God, focusing on Him.  What if "a monkey" refuses to settle down?  It may be that if our mind keeps wandering someplace while we're praying, it's because that's what's really important to our heart.  Instead of viewing that as an obstacle to prayer, we can view it more as a stepping stone.   That "thing" is what we need to talk to God about - it's the anger, fear, or hope that we keep going back to in our mind because it's so important to us.  Again, having an honest conversation with God comes from talking with Him about what really matters to us.  It's about bringing the real honest you before the real God and then He really will guide you in prayer...

Life Beyond Regret - The Importance of Confession

None of us is perfect – we've all sinned.  The Bible clearly states that God freely forgives our sin, but many of us struggle to live in the reality of that forgiveness.  That's where confession comes in.  We might wonder why confession is necessary since God is a God of Grace and He's promised to forgive everything anyway... Basically, confession is not something that God has us do because He needs it.  God wants to show us where we went wrong so that the next time, when faced we the same situation we can make different choices.   Something doesn't just get "wiped off the slate" – but becomes a power that changes us so that we become the type of people who don't continue in that pattern of being trapped and drug down by the same sin.   Confession is a practice that, done wisely will help us to heal and be changed – another step in the process of spiritual transformation and "morphing."

Confession: The "Spiritual Stain-Removal" Process
Step 1 -  Preparation.  We begin by placing ourselves under God's care and really falling into His grace.  Apart from this, confession is dangerous.  If left to ourselves, we are prone to beating ourselves up over things (in which case we need to ask God to help us not to sink into despair/defeat, but for this process to be a type of "spiritual surgery" that will leave us healthier), or on the flip-side, glossing over the truly ugly stains that demand attention or blaming others for our mistakes (in which case we need to ask God to help us recognize the reality of our actions). Confession always starts with us opening ourselves up to God so that He can lead us through the process and areas we need to examine further... 

Step 2 – Self-Examination.  This step involves taking time to reflect on our thoughts, words, and deeds – and acknowledging that we have sinned.  Ortberg says a helpful approach is to think through various categories of sin (for example, the "Seven Deadly Sins" or the "Ten Commandments") and think about where any of those things may be going on in our lives.  We need to seek to be ruthlessly honest before God as we look at specific acts and ask Him to help us think about those acts differently, so that we have a complete change in attitude. 

Step 3 – Change in Perception.  In this step of confession, we ask for honest perception.  We want to see our sins through a new lens.  Two questions in particular may help us to gain a new perception: 

The first is "Why did I do what I did?"  We may find that we lied in order to try and escape the consequences of something else we've done.  We may discover that the reason we gossiped about someone is that we were feeling insignificant or jealous.  This question is critical because often sin is an attempt to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.  It may be that we need to experience the love of God more fully so we can be liberated from the petty jealousy that makes gossiping irresistible.  

The second question that helps us gain a new perception is "What happened as a result of my sin?"  By examining this question, we begin to see our sins through the eyes of the person we sinned against and we ask God to help see our sins through His eyes.  When we take the time to honestly unravel the motives and consequences of our sin – (with God's help) we begin to become the type of people who don't want to do those type of things anymore. 

Step 4 – A New Decision.  Confession is not just naming what we have done in the past.  It involves our intentions about the future as well.  Resolving with God's help to not do "  (fill in your own blank) " anymore.  We also have to recognize that we'll probably fail again sometime in the future (after all that's why confession is a continual process) – but we'll never grow at all if we don't form a new intention.

In the DVD, Ortberg remarks:

"I can only be loved to the extent that I'm known.  As long as there's stuff about me that you don't know – even if you say you love me – there's a part of me that says 'Yeah, but if you only knew the whole truth about me, you wouldn't really love me...'  When someone knows the truth about me and still says 'I love you' – then I'm loved." 

1 John 1:7-9 states: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness... we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ... He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins."  Even though God freely forgives our sin through His grace alone, we can still hold ourselves captive by guilt or regrets and miss living out the freedom He wants us to experience.  Confession is about what we do directly with God to experience the fullness of His unconditional love – regardless of anything we do.  Through confession, we can fully appreciate His love by grace alone and truly begin to heal so that we aren't trapped in our own guilt. 

As 2 Corinthians 7:10 states: "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" (NIV).  The Message, paraphases this as "Distress that drives us to God... turns us around.  It gets us back in the way of salvation.  We never regret that kind of pain.  But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets..."  If we've genuinely confessed our sin and still continue to dwell on it and let it eat away at us - we're actually refusing to believe God when He says He remembers our sin no more (see Isaiah 43:25).  Even worse, we're letting Satan steal our joy by replacing grace with a lie that God's love is based on our performance.