A Fresh Perspective - 08/03/07
A lot of confusion about prayer could be cleared up if we took our cue from Jesus. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus is asked to give a lesson on prayer. Jesus responds by saying, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into the time of trial."
According to Jesus the context for prayer is a loving, caring relationship with God comparable to a relationship between a loving parent and child. To pray "hallowed be your name" is to pray that all people will come to know the God of compassion that we know; that the God of grace will be "hallowed," regarded as special. The heart of the prayer is that God's kingdom, or as I like to say, God's new world, will come in all its fullness. We pray for God to supply our physical and spiritual needs so that we can be instruments of grace and forgiveness to help usher in God's new world. We experience forgiveness as we become channels of forgiveness to others.
As far as I can tell this prayer is not very popular in contemporary, evangelical Christianity. On the other hand, a little obscure prayer tucked away in an inconsequential part of the Old Testament has become much more appealing to thousands of American Christians than Jesus' prayer. It's the prayer of Jabez: "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain."
The difference is obvious isn't it? The prayer of Jabez is all about me - bless me, enlarge my territory, be with me and keep me from pain. The Lord's Prayer is about God and about God's new world; it's about us and the well-being of the human family. It's a community prayer that seeks the betterment of all people. It's not about my little territory; it's about God's new world. It's not about blessing me; it's about blessing all people, as disciples of Jesus embody Christ's compassion and forgiveness. It's not about my little story; it's about God's big story. When Jabez takes precedence over Jesus, prayer simply degenerates into another exercise in consumerism.
The prayer of Jabez is more harmful than helpful. Only in the spirit and posture of Jesus' model prayer, only in the context of God's unconditional love for all people and God's passion to bring peace and justice to the world does the invitation to ask, seek and knock on God's door in prayer make any sense.
Chuck Queen is Senior Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church, Frankfort (www.ibcfrankfort.com); he welcomes your comments at cqueen@fewpb.net. Look for "A Fresh Perspective" every Friday.