Mindless prayer loses something in translation

What to say or what to pray?

During the past several weeks, I’ve been preaching my way through our series “Privileged: Talking with God,” on the Lord’s Prayer.

If you’re not familiar, it’s the one that starts out, “Our Father, who art in heaven….”

You may have heard a variation of it in “Christmas Vacation” when Ellen Griswold recites it just before Clark launches the station wagon into the Christmas tree lot “… and forgive my husband for he knows not what he does...”

I went to a Catholic high school in Tampa called Jesuit. Before some of the miserable (weren’t they all?) cross-country races, the lads and I would come together and mutter the Lord’s prayer. Or maybe we uttered it?

Regardless, it was something we simply did. I guess we thought it gave us a leg up or something.

But it was mindless. It was routine. It didn’t mean anything.

When the disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray,” he responded to them by giving them this prayer.

Is Jesus teaching us what to say, or is he teaching us what to pray?

Big difference.

Was he teaching us recitation or reflection?

I don’t think he was simply teaching us what to say, but instead revealing to us a pattern which we could incorporate into our churches, community groups, and

homes.

To utter the words, “Hallowed be thy name,” we join a heavenly chorus praising specific aspects of God’s character, with the desire that our praise becomes contagious and His fame spreads.

When we pray for His Kingdom come, His will to be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven, we are praying for His invisible will done perfectly in heaven to be made visible in my neighborhood, job, county, country, world.

What tangible ways would we like to see this His will manifested?

This is an exciting invitation to answer this question: Which/what/where/whom need healing, reconciliation, truth, justice, beauty, conversion?

Checker’s reminds us that “you gotta eat,” but Jesus knows that.

When we pray give us this day our daily bread, we are depending upon God for all things needed to get us through each day. Maybe food, finances, friends?

What do you think you need, physically, emotionally, spiritually? We eventually find security not in the provisions but in the Provider.

What do I need to experience forgiveness from today?

Am I forgiving as often as I’m asking forgiveness, when we pray forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors?

What grudges do I need to lay upon the altar today?

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

From which specific temptations do I need rescue? What scenarios do I need not to put myself in, and which storms will I need strength to outlast?

When you read the news, don’t you feel as though evil often prevails?

Praying thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever, amen means we believe Jesus and His church will triumph in the end.

What kinds of things block our “line-of-sight” to the Son?

Is it poverty, death, cancer, disappointment in “our” political side?

We get a chance to be reminded God sits on His throne and laughs.

Prayer this robust, this confident, this God-centered, this other-centered, this restructuring of our security, this hatred of sin, this resting in grace, doesn’t happen when we pray right before bed, dinner, or before we need that parking space.

Pray then. But don’t only pray then.

This kind of prayer happens not so much when we stick to the script but when we stick to the pattern. Recite, then reflect.

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 9:35 PM with the headline "Mindless prayer loses something in translation."