THE HEART OF PRAYER

THE HEART OF PRAYER

Before we can talk more specifically about how to pray in the Christian tradition, we have to look more specifically at what prayer means in that tradition. More specifically: Who exactly is this God we're praying to? And how exactly am I supposed to approach this God?

Answering these questions will get us into the very heart of prayer. They'll help us better understand what we're doing and help us to pray more effectively. And one prayer, the "Lord's Prayer," more than any other, answers these questions. So we'll begin there.


Getting Insider Information


I've already said a number of things about prayer, and a careful reader (namely you) has probably asked, "Says who?" You've probably looked at the back of this book and read the introduction and noticed that I've got some credentials suggesting I may know something. But why trust me?

Well, you shouldn't. Frankly, there are a lot of crackpots out there spewing all manner of half-truths about prayerand, as far as you know, I could be one of them. So, if you shouldn't trust me, who should you trust? Where do you go to get good, reliable, insider information on prayer?


The Prayer Book for Christians

You can begin with the Bible. It's not an accident that it has hung around for more than 1,500 years and is still the best-selling book in Americaand this in a society that is supposedly not all that interested in religion.

So what's so great about this book?

For one thing, it's got a lot going on in it, including some pretty darn good history: Moses dukes it out with Egyptian pharaohs. King David steals another man's wife and then murders the husband. Babylonian armies lay siege to Jerusalem and exile the population. Jesus, the Son of God, confronts the authorities and loses. Paul instigates riots in Ephesus.

The Bible is also a book of sublime religious poetry. Lots of passages could be quoted here, but the most famous, Psalm 23, will do for now:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.He makes me to lie down in green pastures.He leads me beside the still waters.He restores my soul;He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I will fear no evil.For you are with me,

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;You anoint my head with oil;My cup runs over.Surely goodness and mercy will follow meAll the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LordForever.(New King James Version)

The Bible also contains some stories that speak to issues every culture in every age is concerned about: the creation of the world (Genesis); the meaning of unjust suffering (Job); and the goal of history (Revelation), to name a few.

On top of that, the Bible is a practical book that gives the world some of its most profound ethics. That includes not only the Ten Commandments, but also Jesus' highest commands: ''Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind," and "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:3739).

The Bible, however, has one more dimension: For Christians, it is the authority in matters of faith and practice. That's why we call it the word of God. We believe that through this collection of books, God teaches us about himself and how we should live.

He also teaches us how we should pray. The Bible is not just a book of theology and ethics, but it's also a prayer book. It teaches about prayer and also teaches how to pray. This only makes sense, because one big theme in the Bible is how people can know God. As we've noticed, prayer is about getting to know God.


The Bible doesn't have a part dedicated to discussing just prayer. Okay, may be the Psalmsa collection of prayers/songscould be considered that (more on that in Chapter 17, "Praying the Psalms"). But other than that, it's a snippet here, a paragraph there on prayer.

So when you open this big book, how do you decide where to start?

The Center of the Bible

Well, go to the center of the Bible. By that I don't mean the physical center, which is somewhere in Psalms. Look at the central figure of the Bible: Jesus Christ.


Jesus is central because he is the one to whom the Old Testament points. Lots of Old Testament passages speak about the great longing for justice and peace and look to the day when a messiah, or savior, would arise out of the Jewish people. Here's one:

"Out of the stump of David's family [that is, King David, the greatest Jewish king] will grow a shoot . . . and the Spirit of the Lord will rest on himthe Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. . . . He will defend the poor and exploited. He will rule against the wicked and destroy them with the breath of his mouth. He will be clothed with fairness and truth." (Isaiah 11:14)

For Christians, the messiah foretold by this and other Old Testament passages is Jesus Christ.

Jesus is central also because the New Testament says that he will bring history to a magnificent conclusion. At the end of time, Jesus will say, "It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omegathe Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give the springs of the water of life without charge! All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children" (Revelation 21:67).

Furthermore, the New Testament teaches that in Jesus' life, death, and resurrectionespecially his presence with us todayhe answers our deepest questions: What is the purpose of life? Can I be forgiven? Am I loved? Is there hope?

You can't get much more central than that.

So, if you're looking for a way to make sense of the many books of the Bible and its 31,000 verses, you could do worse than by focusing on Jesus Christ.

Not surprisingly, of the many things Jesus did and taught, prayer was at the core. The fact that Jesus prayed often and at length is regularly noted in references such as this: "The next morning, Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray" (Mark 1:35).

This obsession with prayer began to rub off on the disciples, who became curious about prayer one day.

The Prayer to Start All Prayer

"Once when Jesus had been out praying," writes Luke, "one of his disciples came to him as he finished and said, 'Lord, teach us to pray.'"

Jesus replied by saying they should pray like this:

"Father, may your name be honored.May your kingdom come soon. Give us our food day by day.And forgive us our sinsjust as we forgive those who have sinned against us.And don't let us yield to temptation." Luke 11:14

Sound familiar? This is what is commonly called the "Lord's Prayer," that is, the prayer that the Lord, Jesus, taught his disciples. Some people call it the "Our Father," after the first two words. This version, from the Gospel of Luke (11:204), is only one biblical version. The Gospel of Matthew (6:913) is the basis of the version said by most people today:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come, thy will be doneon earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread,And forgive us our trespassesas we forgive those who trespass against us.And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.For thine is the kingdom,and the power, and the glory,forever and ever. Amen.

Note one thing: Many churches pray that line about forgiveness like this:

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

We'll look at the meaning of each of those wordstrespasses and debtsin Chapter 6, "The Prayer to Begin All Prayer: Part 2." For now, just be aware that when you're in church and the minister says, "Let's pray the prayer that Jesus taught us," you'll know what he's talking about.

Different versions aside, this little prayer is the most important thing Jesus said about prayer. It is a model prayer, one that we can pray. It also teaches nearly everything Jesus wanted to teach about prayer.


Let's look at the take of both Protestants and Catholics: The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes the early church theologian, Augustine: "Run through all the words of holy prayers [in scripture], and I do not think you will find anything in them that is not contained and included in the Lord's Prayer."

The famous nineteenth-century Protestant preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, put it this way: "I used to think the Lord's Prayer was a short prayer; but as I live longer and see more of life, I begin to believe there is no such thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying that prayer, were to be stopped by every word until he had thoroughly prayed it, it would take him a lifetime."

Not bad for just a few lines. I'm not going to take a lifetime to explain it, thoughjust two chapters. Still, I think you'll soon see why this can aptly be called the mother of all prayers.