Title: THE TRUST FACTOR OF PRAYER

Focus: As we learn to seek God’s kingdom, the Lord Jesus calls us to trust our heavenly Father to meet our daily, physical needs.

Function: To encourage the people to center our heart’s desires, concerns and prayers on the spiritual dimensions of life, trusting God to see to our physical needs as we seek to advance God’s rule or influence in our daily living.

Text: Matthew 6:24-34

Heidelberg Catechism. L.D. 45

I admit: a careful examination of my own personal prayers will reveal a self-centered streak. I’ve an automatic tendency to focus on my own physical needs and comforts and of the needs of my immediate family or loved ones.

And I admit: woven throughout my prayers is the thread of worry—an ever-recurring concern that we can meet our physical needs and financial responsibilities. That concern was there when we raised our children. And guess what: it’s still with me as we now face the future and are being challenged to stay as healthy as possible and make financial provisions for retirement someday.

Thus I admit that I spent more energy in prayer on physical needs and financial concerns down the road than on spiritual realities which call for our fervent prayers as well. Am I the only one who finds this tension and self-centered streak in prayer?

I don’t think so. From the gospel reading today, we learn that the Lord Jesus is very much aware of our tendency to worry about our physical daily needs. In Matthew 6, for example, the Lord Jesus calls us to center our heart’s desires, concerns, and our prayers on the spiritual dimensions of life, trusting God to see to our physical needs, as we seek to advance God’s influence or kingdom in our daily living.

And that’s why we need to explore the trust factor of prayer. For this much is clear from Scripture: as we learn to seek God’s kingdom, the Lord Jesus calls us to trust our heavenly Father to meet our daily, physical needs.

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As we have begun our reflections on the “labor of prayer,” we noted last week that our posture should be one of a student who asks: “Lord, teach me to pray.” Such a request implies that we seek to gain understanding, wisdom and direction in our practice of prayer.

Today I want to use an ancient, yet wonderful tool to grow in prayer. Lord’s Day 45 of the Heidelberg Catechism, for example, confronts us with three questions and answers, arising from Scripture and showing us the way to grow in prayer. There is the WHY of prayer, the WHAT of prayer, and the HOW of prayer. First, we will deal with

The WHY of Prayer: Most of us may be a bit puzzled about the question, “Why do Christians need to pray?” You might ask: Is not prayer a religious act, a faith practice? Do not all religious people pray to God or to an idol or to a number of different gods out there? Yet, to many other Christians the question makes sense. Does not the God of the Bible reveal himself as omniscient—all-knowing? Then why do I need to tell him what’s going on in my life and what I need him for? So there it is: “Why do Christians need to pray?”

The biblical answer is two-fold. The first part goes like this: “Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us.” In other words, a Christian prays out of gratitude. God is looking for thankfulness arising from our hearts. That thankfulness is in response to who God is, and to what God has done, and is doing on our behalf. He is our Creator and Deliverer; he is our Guide and our Refuge; he is our hope for today and the future. Do we know him as such? If yes, then our practice of prayer is a sign of gratitude. God calls for such a response on our part.

The second part of the answer to the question, “Why do we need to pray?” reminds me of an aunt of mine. As a teenager I observed her praying on a

regular basis, and it struck me how devout or prayerful she was on many occasions. So one day I asked her about her practice of prayer, and she said, (God wilt aangebeden worden) “God wants to be prayed to.”

Listen to the Catechism’s biblical answer: “(We need to pray) also because God gives his grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for these gifts and thanking him for them.” All Christians have received the Holy Spirit. That gift is signified in our baptism. Now Christians need to pray that the energetic workings of the Holy Spirit may be unleashed in us and through us, so that God’s rule may advance in our circles and spheres of influence. God is eager to grant us the fullness of his Spirit and the vast resources of his treasures or gifts of grace. But we have to ask for them in prayer. Why?

Because God wants a relationship with us. God does not desire to be a “Santa Clause,” dishing out gifts on the basis of our wish lists and desires. Oh, no. God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit wants to be in fellowship with us, and God seeks to abide in us. That’s why Christians need to engage in prayer. Moving away from the WHY of prayer, we now consider

The What of Prayer: “What did God command us to pray for?” The answer to that question brings us to the Lord Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6. Here’s the answer as summarized in the Catechism: “Everything we need, spiritually and physically, as embraced in the prayer Christ our Lord himself taught us.” Note: “Everything we need.” But how do we know the difference between our needs and our wants? How do I channel my prayers away from worry about tomorrow and from anxiety about the future? “Everything we need, spiritually and physically as embraced in the prayer Christ our Lord himself taught us.” Ah, we must turn to Christ as our teacher who lays out for us the territory of prayer in his model called “the Lord’s Prayer.”

In that Lord’s Prayer we find one petition that centers on our physical needs (“Give us today our daily bread”), and all the other requests deal with our spiritual needs: the need to treat the Name of God as holy; the need to advance God’s kingdom, and the need to do God’s bidding or holy will. There’s also our need for forgiveness of our sins; and our need to forgive those who sin against us; and then there is the need for spiritual protection from the arrows of Satan and evil.

These spiritual needs call for our prayers; yet so often we are blind to these needs because we worry about our physical and financial needs for today and tomorrow. What hinders us from learning to seek God’s kingdom first and from advancing God’s influence in our daily living? It’s the lack of trust in our heavenly Father’s provision for our daily needs.

Jesus reminds us of that lack of trust—a lack that shows itself in our worries and in our daily actions. Jesus states the issue starkly in a punch line: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money.”

And then the Lord Jesus unpacks his punch line by forcing us to consider the birds of the air and the grass and lilies of the field. The birds feed out of God’s fatherly hand laid bare in creation, and the lilies reflect their beauty and glory of God simply by drawing upon God’s provision of fertile soil, and rain, and sunshine each day.

“They do not labor or spin,” said Jesus. God clothes them and feeds them and provides them so that they have their being. “If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” The implied answer is: Of course, God will. “Therefore, do not worry about life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”

Jesus reminds us today that our heavenly Father knows our physical needs. I must stop worrying; I must stop slaving to hoard wealth, to fret about how much savings is enough for retirement, or how many part-time jobs I should pursue so that I have a safe “cushion” in the bank, just in case….”

Jesus said, “The pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness—that’s where we must learn to focus our prayers more and more—and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” Thus we see that Jesus calls us today to trust our heavenly Father to meet our daily, physical needs.

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So then, how do you and I (who are tempted so often to worry or fret about physical needs and wants)—how then shall we change our practice of prayer? Here’s how Christians who have gone before us show us

The HOW of Prayer: “First, we must pray from the heart to no other than the one true God, who has revealed himself in his Word, asking for everything he has commanded us to ask for.” Note that we must pray from the heart.

The heart is the center of our thoughts and desire; it houses our loves, it harbors our hates, it produces our passions and desires—good and bad. And our prayers to God must rise from the chamber or core of our being. God is not looking for rut prayers; he is not looking for rote prayers; he is not looking for limply and wimpy prayers. God is looking for prayers that pulsate from our heart. God is looking for us-our soul, our whole being in our prayers to him.

Do you and I dare to pray such prayers? I say “dare,” because prayers from the heart call for hearts that are open to God and to the fullness of his Holy Spirit. And such openness requires a vulnerability on our parts—a willingness to admit our sins and sinfulness, and a willingness to be cleansed and transformed by God’s Spirit. Prayers from the heart are part of the Biblical answer to the question of HOW to pray.

Here is the second part: “We must acknowledge our need and misery, hiding nothing, and humble ourselves in his majestic presence.” The posture of transparency and humility must be part of our practice of prayer. Pretense, thinking that we can fool God, or hide things from him that we do not want him to face or remind us of—have no place in prayer to our holy God.

Neither does flippancy. We must always remember our place before God. Yes, he is our heavenly Father; we may call him “Abba” and coddle in his arms or rest in his bosom as we talk to him. But he is also our Creator, our Judge and Majestic King—the Holy One. And these divine characteristics of God call for deference, respect, a holy fear and reverence.

In fact, we come before God as beggars—with open hands and mouths. We need God to go through life and deal with the brokenness of sin and the misery of sickness and death. We need him to rescue us and transform us if we are to inherit eternal life on a restored, new heaven and earth.

Here’s one more beautiful insight from Scripture that answers the HOW of prayer: “We must rest on this unshakable foundation: even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. That is what he promised us in his Word.” In other words, when we pray to God our Father, we have an Advocate who speaks on our behalf.

It’s Jesus. He is our mediator before the Father. Jesus died for us; rose from the dead for us; rules from heaven for our sake; and he is our Advocate who bends the ears of God the Father on our behalf. Jesus moves the heart of God to respond to our prayers. This truth found in Scripture is an unshakable foundation for trust in God.

This is why Christians over time have learned to pray to God the Father, in the name of Jesus, the Son of God, through the energy or power of the Holy Spirit of God.

So, here’s the upshot: Jesus calls us to seek God’s kingdom first by trusting our heavenly Father to meet our daily needs. Therefore we pray from the heart, with transparency, humility and a holy reverence, and in the name of Christ, our Advocate.

The answers to the WHY, the WHAT, and the HOW of prayer jibe or agree with Jesus’ appeal to trust our heavenly Father to meet our daily, physical needs as we seek to advance God’s influence in our daily living.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.