"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words." (Matt 6:5-7)
Flash back about eight years.
This is my first time attending the church prayer meetings on Saturday nights with my dad. Nope, sorry. Can't sleep over tonight. But inside, I'm not too sad. I'm finally growing up. Finally to be recognized as something more than an insignificant child. I am nervous my first week. I sit quietly with my dad, soaking up the genuine spirit of the meeting, along with the religio-lingo that gets stuck in there to make everyone in agreement feel important. As I sit there huddled beside my dad, I formulate my prayer for next week. It will be grand.
This is probably my first time experiencing the kind of feeling that I believe the pharisees of old felt. You know the ones. . . they were the ones Jesus was talking to when he said, "pray in your closet." Anyways, here I come to the next meeting. Theres a lull in the praying. . . here's my chance! "Jesus. . ." I begin. Oh no! What comes after this? Dead silence. "Uh. . . please help my grandpa's leg to feel better." I blew it! My chance to impress all the mature Christians that I want to be recognized by, gone! Right out the window! As the meeting comes to a close, I am surprised to be greeted with thanks, with an almost adult-like respect. It isn't just smiling, as if to hide thoughts like, Oh man why did that kid have to come here and ruin our religious time with God. They were genuine thank-you's.
Flash forward to now. Looking back I realize that the response I recieved from my prayer may have been because of the simple joy that I gave everybody just from the encouragement of seeing a kid who seeks God. But maybe there was more to it than that.
The simplicity of a child.
Despite the fact that I'd had this huge elaborate speech of a prayer planned out, when it slipped my concrete, childlike mind, I automatically reverted back to my natural self. My natural self is the person that I am when I "pray in my closet." I was thanked not for the depth of my prayer, but for the authenticity of it. I was simply praying to God the same way that I would any other time.
This is probably my first time experiencing the kind of feeling that I believe the pharisees of old felt. You know the ones. . . they were the ones Jesus was talking to when he said, "pray in your closet." Anyways, here I come to the next meeting. Theres a lull in the praying. . . here's my chance! "Jesus. . ." I begin. Oh no! What comes after this? Dead silence. "Uh. . . please help my grandpa's leg to feel better." I blew it! My chance to impress all the mature Christians that I want to be recognized by, gone! Right out the window! As the meeting comes to a close, I am surprised to be greeted with thanks, with an almost adult-like respect. It isn't just smiling, as if to hide thoughts like, Oh man why did that kid have to come here and ruin our religious time with God. They were genuine thank-you's.
Flash forward to now. Looking back I realize that the response I recieved from my prayer may have been because of the simple joy that I gave everybody just from the encouragement of seeing a kid who seeks God. But maybe there was more to it than that.
The simplicity of a child.
Despite the fact that I'd had this huge elaborate speech of a prayer planned out, when it slipped my concrete, childlike mind, I automatically reverted back to my natural self. My natural self is the person that I am when I "pray in my closet." I was thanked not for the depth of my prayer, but for the authenticity of it. I was simply praying to God the same way that I would any other time.
My dad is a firm believer in "ask for what you want." The philosophy of this idea is that someone can't help you achieve something if they don't know what it is you want to achieve. The easiest way to help someone see what you want is to simply ask them strait up. In fact, people often get annoyed when you put too much icing on the cake and side-step your actual question.
I believe that God responds in a similar way. Not that He gets annoyed with us necessarily, and not that he doesn't already know what we're trying to ask, but God doesn't need or want to hear all the elaborate speeches we hear in prayer meetings. Our God is a god of the common folk. Proof of this? The New Testament was written in "slang" Greek (a nifty tidbit I picked up from my dad). He had the Bible written in the common tongue so that everyone would be able to know Him. Not just the scholars and philosophers. From the naive children to the stubborn elders. Everyone.
God created everyone as they are, with specific plans for them. He knows the journeys. He loves us as He created us. When we come to Him in prayer, specifically in front of others, I don't think he's looking for us to show off how "tight" we are with Him. That's silliness. It's like these stupid "top friends" on myspace and facebook. Instead of aiming for deep relationship with someone, we aim for a spot on that top friends list; whatever it takes, I've got to get on his/her top! This isn't what relationships are people! Yet, however much I wouldn't like to admit it, I myself get trapped in this relationship race quite often.
It is much the same with our relationships with God. He wants us to aim for personal depth, not the admiration of others for our vocabulary or our "deep relationship with God." I believe God is infatuated with children. Children are so genuine, so simple, so insignificant.
God loves the simple. He wants everyone to come as we are. He created our "natural selves." He wants us to come to Him just as he created us. He desires for us to be one person, a person of integrity, without different costumes and masks for every situation. God wants that person that is praying fervently in the closet to be the same one praying in the spotlight. This is not to say that the spotlight is wrong. Indeed, the Bible, our life manual, encourages praying in groups. We've all heard the pastor or small group leader recite the scripture: "Where two or three are gathered. . ." However, there is also the time that he criticized the hypocrites who pray on the pedestal. So what does this mean? Does it mean that Jesus just can't decide what we should do? Definitely not. I think that both apply.
God wants us to pray like we pray like we pray. Same in the closet as in the small group as in the spotlight. The emphasis is not on how many people are watching, but on our internal motives for our prayer. Are we praying to and for God alone? Or is there an ulterior motive? Are we working up the relationship ladder to God? Or are we working up the church ladder to fame and importance?
"Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 18:4).
God loves the simple. He wants everyone to come as we are. He created our "natural selves." He wants us to come to Him just as he created us. He desires for us to be one person, a person of integrity, without different costumes and masks for every situation. God wants that person that is praying fervently in the closet to be the same one praying in the spotlight. This is not to say that the spotlight is wrong. Indeed, the Bible, our life manual, encourages praying in groups. We've all heard the pastor or small group leader recite the scripture: "Where two or three are gathered. . ." However, there is also the time that he criticized the hypocrites who pray on the pedestal. So what does this mean? Does it mean that Jesus just can't decide what we should do? Definitely not. I think that both apply.
God wants us to pray like we pray like we pray. Same in the closet as in the small group as in the spotlight. The emphasis is not on how many people are watching, but on our internal motives for our prayer. Are we praying to and for God alone? Or is there an ulterior motive? Are we working up the relationship ladder to God? Or are we working up the church ladder to fame and importance?
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