We’ve all heard the accusation. If God has already determined the future, what is the point of praying? This comes from our evangelical brothers, who, recognizing us as members of that species reformandicus bibliotechus, are looking askance at our pointy heads. We, true to form, whip out our portable blackboard, and start explaining about primary and secondary causality. We start talking about how the sovereignty of God encompasses not just ends but means. The argument we give is sound enoughy. That our response is an argument, however, proves their point all too well. Our response might be better if we were to get on our knees and pray. Too many of us are far more adept at giving arguments for the efficacy of prayer than we are at practicing the efficacy of prayer.
We’re not like the disciples. Our logic chopping isn’t worthy of the name until we string together seventeen premises, four sub-conclusions, cite three axioms, and end up with a conclusion that comes complete with a footnote citing Augustine before us. They, on the other hand noticed two things. First, Jesus had great power. Second, Jesus prayed a great deal. And so they, simple fishermen that they were, asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray.” Jesus, perhaps because He hadn’t yet studied the wisdom of Paul, did not speak to them about why we should pray. Instead He told them what to pray.
“Our Father…” He began. How mundane. Where are the lofty allusions to His sovereign power? After all, we’re not addressing the sissy god of the Arminians. No, Jesus begins by telling us to pray to our Father. Already our world should be crumbling down around us. God, our Father? How can this be? Islam believes it beneath the dignity of God that He should have a son. We, on the other hand, aren’t even surprised that we are His sons. What follows is a list of five (depending on how you count them) requests. Before we get to them, let us remember that we make these requests of our Father. What father, when asked by his son for bread, gives a stone? What father, when asked by his son for an egg, gives a viper? We ask with confidence, for we are the children of the King.
First, because it is of foremost importance, we importune the God of heaven and earth that His name should be hallowed. This is our highest good, because it is His highest good. That we are His children does not change the loftiness of His name, and we would be wise to remember that.
Next, we ask that His kingdom would come, that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. This, having covered the foundation of all things, that His name be hallowed, covers the end of all things. This is an eschatological request, reaching fully and ultimately to that day when heaven and earth will be one, and new.
Third, we ask of our Father for our rather literal bread. We remember that He is the one who provides for us, that our food is not ultimately the result of our own labors, but that it comes from His providential hand of blessing. We ask that we might remember that He is the giver of every good gift.
Fourth, we give what may be the most dangerous petition, what may amount to a maledictory oath. We ask that we be forgiven as we forgive those who do us wrong. Here God warns us against nursing grudges, while reminding us of our need for His grace. We know that we have been sinned against. His prayer recalls to our memory that we sin against others.
Finally we ask this, that God would be pleased to not lead us into temptation, that He would keep us safe from the snares of the evil one. Note what is missing from this prayer. Jesus does not instruct us here that we should pray for our political leaders. Such is mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, but it does not make Jesus’ model prayer. We are not told to pray for our health, yet in most churches one could easily confuse the contents of the prayer chain with the roll call at the local hospital. Once again Scripture elsewhere does encourage us to pray for the sick, but not here. We are not told to pray for that promotion at work, or the bonus we’ve been hoping for. Nor are we told to pray, at least here, that our name might be vindicated. The discrepancy between the prayer of our Lord, and the prayers of His disciples is telling. It contrasts our priorities with His priorities. We want to be healthy, wealthy and happy. He wants us to be holy.
If we want to have our prayers answered in the affirmative, we need to ask for those things that God is pleased to give us. When we pray, “Lord won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” the answer will probably be “No.” If, on the other hand, we pray that His kingdom will come, we can pray with confidence that He will indeed bring this to pass.
What will His kingdom look like? The prayer tells us. His kingdom is come where His will is done. There is then no tension between praying for big things like the kingdom and praying for little things, like not being tempted. There is no tension between praying for God’s goals, like that His kingdom would come, and our goals, like not being tempted. There is, in short, no tension between personal piety and the social gospel. All things will be made right, when I am made right. Every knee will bow and every tongue confess when my knee bows and my tongue confesses. There is no tension between looking inward and looking outward. Let there be peace on earth, the song used to say, and let it begin with me. His kingdom will come when His bride is made ready. She will be ready when I am washed of my sins.
So we ought to pray. We ought, as Jesus taught us, to pray with fervor, with purpose, with knee numbing zeal, that we would fall not into temptation. This in turn requires that we pray that we not be tempted to lie to ourselves. We are experts at measuring the importance of a particular sin in direct proportion to its distance from us. We think sodomy a grave sin and gossip a comparative peccadillo precisely because the thought of the one turns our stomach, and the thought of the other sets our tongues to salivating. If you want to know what sins you find most tempting, one way to discover such might be to measure what sins you find yourself repenting of with frequency. If I find myself losing patience regularly, would it not be prudent to pray that God, as He makes me bear the fruit of patience, would keep me from circumstances where my potential sin becomes actual?
Our prayers need to recognize the world we live in, and the battles we wage. We are at war with the world, the flesh and the devil. Temptation and its handmaiden the devil are real enough that Jesus taught us to pray against them. May we have the wisdom to pray that we might learn to pray aright. We need to have the passion of our Husband, that we would be washed clean.
Perhaps the greatest temptation the devil has given us is that we would forget that we are at war. He has seduced us into believing that the kingdom will grow as we do all that we can to disguise that which makes us distinct from the world around us. If we dress like them, talk like them, live like them, maybe the world will find its way into the kingdom. Quite apart from how this puts our light under the bushel leaving the lost in the dark, it further besmirches the bride. We are called to be set apart, distinct, holy, separate. Lead us not into temptation.
The clichéd sit-com gag of the devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other, like most clichés, became a cliché because it has a ring of truth. We must discern the voice of the Master from the hissing of the serpent. He does tempt us, and so we must be on our guard. He wants us to think, to feel to act as he would. If we would live in the Word, rather than the world, then we would better hear His voice. And His Word tells us to pray, deliver us from the Evil One.
We seek His glory, by His grace. We seek His kingdom, by His grace. This is why we must fight the wiles of the serpent. We want our Captain, our King, to behold a bride that perfectly reflects the radiance of His glory, even as He is the express image of the glory of the Father. This is why He came. This is why He spoke to us the words of life. This is why He died. This is why, in turn, death could not hold Him, and He burst forth from the tomb. This too is why He ascended on high. He who ascended will come down once more and all things will be made right. Then we will face no more temptation. Then the devil will be cast into the lake of fire. And we will dance. For His is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, now and forever. Amen.