Maturity In Prayer

This week I have enjoyed the privilege of meeting with the combined churches of Cranbourne for our annual Prayer Summit.  For four nights we gathered at a different church in our area for united prayer and worship for our community and its leaders.  

I love it when Christians come together in prayer and I get excited about the possibilities when we pray for community transformation!  I was enriched by the unique styles and expressions of each host church.  I was blessed by the warm fellowship and generous hospitality.  But I remain somewhat perplexed as to why the Church, which has been in existence in one form or another for 2000 years, continues to pray the so-called 'Lord's Prayer'!?  You may have heard it recited by many congregations - "Our Father, who art in heaven..."  It is staggering to me why a simple model of prayer recorded in Matthew 6:9-13 that Jesus used to instruct His disciples how to pray remains the standard as what to pray in so many church gatherings.

When our children were able to structure simple sentences, my wife and I taught them a very basic model of prayer to teach them how to pray.  It went something like this:  "Dear Lord, thank you for today.  God bless Mum, Dad, Rebekah and Adam."  Our children are now 14 years old and it would be very concerning to us if they continued to pray the same form of prayer today!  As they have grown up, their experience of God and perception of the world has grown also.  This development is now reflected in how they communicate with God through prayer.  In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he wrote, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me" (1 Corinthians 13:11).  At the risk of overstating my point, I think it is time for churches to put childish ways behind them and progress beyond reciting a model of prayer in their services and encourage their congregations to engage in mature prayer that better reflects the depth of their relationship with God and concern for the fulfillment of His kingdom on earth.  

As a church leader I am occasionally asked by some congregation members why we don't say the 'Lord's Prayer' anymore.  This is the reason why!

"Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity" (Hebrews 6:1)

Journey Of Faith

I am almost finished reading "Chasing Daylight" by Erwin McManus, which has been an inspiring read about seizing divine moments and living a passionate life pursuing God's will and purposes.  In his chapter on 'Uncertainty', McManus discusses the progression of faith in the context of miracles by making a comparison between Moses standing at the edge of the Red Sea and Joshua standing at the edge of the Jordan River.

"With Moses, God parted the waters, and then the people crossed over."

It is relatively easy to step out in faith when we see the miracle first.  God does something spectacular that demands our attention and gives us the confidence to embrace those divine moments.  When the waters are parted and we see the way through, standing on the edge of faith is exciting.

"With Joshua, the leaders were required to begin crossing first, and then the waters parted."

It is quite another story stepping out in faith before the miracle occurs.  God's promises go before divine moments giving us confidence that He 'can', however, that confidence requires us to trust that He 'will'.  When the waters block our path and we cannot see the way through, standing on the edge of faith is scary.

McManus captures this development of faith that comes through maturity in Christ brilliantly:

"What it means to live on the edge as your faith begins to develop is not the measure of faith when you walk in maturity.  You should expect and desire that God would move from parting the waters while you stand on the edge of the shore to calling you to step out into the waters and experience the miracle happening around you.  In the first, you watch the miracle.  But in the second, you become a part of it.  Both experiences were expressions of a journey of faith.  Both had amazing similarities, but what God required in the second exeeded what He required in the first." (McManus 2002, p. 89)

There is another dimension of faith living that takes us beyond the need for the certainty of miracles to act.  When our faith rises to a level of maturity that drives us to act amidst the uncertainty of life, but within the certainty of God's faithfulness, we create the context for miracles to happen!