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TEACH US TO PRAY (Part II)
By Sean Dietrich

KEEP IT IN THE CLOSET

I have been to many prayer meetings where I felt the need to prove my closeness to God by throwing out a prayer that sounds profoundly spiritual to others around me. I’ve also been in many prayer circles where I would repeatedly say “Yes Lord,” simply so that others in the group would hear and know that I am really involved in the prayer. This is what Jesus calls praying on the street corners. It is found in Matthew chapter 6. It’s also very embarrassing to admit that I used to do it.

Praying simply for others to hear is like getting affectionate with my wife when we are entertaining dinner guests. There is nothing wrong with being affectionate while my dinner guests are enjoying dinner. But if I am only being loving with her so that my dinner guests will know that I am a good husband, how will my wife feel? How fake! If the only time I ever show her the best of my love is in public, what kind of love is that? Is is real?

God wants us to be intimate and real with him, I don’t think he is too crazy about PDA. (Public Displays of Affection.) I have re-learned to pray to him and to him alone. Not for others to see.

I REBUKE YOU AND YOU AND YOU TOO!

Some people treat prayer as a time to rebuke and triumph over the spiritual darkness in the world. A church we used to go to would pray for demons to be thwarted on Sunday mornings while church was in service. Many people I have known do not come to Jesus in simplicity, but they come to shout at the devil. They are taking authority over the devil! Regardless of how you view this theologically, you cannot call it prayer no matter how you look at it.

The Greek word for “prayer” does not include the definition of “taking authority.” This has been made popular by American church culture. When the disciples couldn’t cast the demon out of a man, Jesus told them that it came out by prayer and fasting, not by taking authority.

IN MY HEAVENLY NAME I PRAY

I was master of praying to Jesus in such a way that I convinced myself that the things I wanted were really in his perfect will for me. I look back and I think I should have been more honest with the Lord and actually prayed “Not your will, but my will be done.” Because this is what I meant.

I used to push my own agenda and desires onto the Lord even though deep in my heart, they were things that I wanted for myself. This too is embarassing to admit.

THE INFAMOUS TAG LINE

One thing God showed me about my prayers was my religious tag line. I used to say it so fast at the end of my prayers that it blended together. “In Jesus name amen.” In my mind, it was what made my prayers official. I have yet to be around a church going individual who doesn’t pray with this tag line in some form or another. Again, the words aren't evil, but the fact that we don't even pay attention to what we are saying, illustrates how meaningless the words are to us personally. They are fluff for many people. They were for me.

There is nothing wrong with the tag line in itself, but it is simply not the kind of language I would use with my best friend here on earth. So what place does it have in the conversation with my best friend in heaven?

I’M NOT A TEACHER BUT A STUDENT

I am no teacher at all, and I am not proclaiming any revelation truths. I am simply sharing with you some of the things that Jesus has shown me personally. He is so good to me, and has opened up my prayer life and helped my whole life to become a prayer. No longer do I spend moments in mind-wandering prayer, but Jesus and I are most always together conversing. And we are not able to do this because of anything I have mastered, but because he does it all.

Yet another stepping stone in the journey.