Does your devotional life scintillate with energy? Where do prayer and Bible study fit in your life as a preacher? Are you so busy with the needs of the parish that the only time you open a Bible is to prepare your weekly sermon? How vibrant is your prayer life? How often do you talk to God in a meaningful way?
I would like to suggest three basic components that need to be part of every devotional life. If any one of these three are missing, you will not be firing on all cylinders. These three foundational building blocks are found in the Lord's Prayer.
Luke reports that one of Jesus' disciples observed Jesus praying and when He had finished asked Him to teach him and the other disciples to pray just as John had taught his disciples (Luke 11:1). Jesus replied by giving them a model prayer that takes less than 30 seconds to pray. How can such a short prayer help us know how to pray?
Upward
Jesus tells His disciples that every prayer must begin with God. We need to look upward before we look any where else. "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth" (verse 2). Jesus directs us to that which is unchanging, certain, firm, unshakable, secure, solid.
Throughout Scripture God is likened to a rock: "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold" (Ps. 18:2, RSV). "To thee, O Lord, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit" (Ps. 28:1, RSV). Through out the Psalms God is referred to as a great and mighty rock.
When we build a house we make sure that it is built on a firm foundation. So Jesus told His disciples that before they considered their own needs or the needs of others they needed to focus on the One who provided their identity, who created them, who loved them so much that He came and died for them.
The strong devotional life spends much time in praising God and His t great salvation. It spends time contemplating God and reaching out to God. When we have filled ourselves with God, then we are ready for the next stage the inward look.
Inward look
"Give us day by day our daily bread" (Luke 11:3). Yes, we are to ask God for the necessities of life. Notice how short this part of the Lord's Prayer is. God does not want us taking an enormous amount of time asking for ourselves, but He does want us to ask. And in verse 9 He tells us that anyone who asks will receive. God delights to bless.
We may complain that God does not always seem to answer. God answers to the degree that we are able to receive. A glass half full of water can receive only a half glass of milk. A full glass of water cannot receive any milk. The degree to which we have surrendered to God is the degree to which God can bless and fill us with His blessings. That is why He wants us to spend so much time praising Him, spending time singing His goodness, His salvation. It is in the contemplating of God's justice and mercy that we are led to renounce self and enable God to prepare us to receive more and more of His blessings.
We must feel good about ourselves. We cannot share with others if we are insecure in our relationship with God. Christ's death on Calvary reveals our worth. He died while we were yet sinners (Rom. 5:8), not when we were good. Jesus told us that the second great commandment is to love others as we love ourselves (Matt. 22:39). The degree to which we feel good about ourselves is the degree to which we can love others. So it is important that God fills our daily needs.
But there is a third component to the devotional life the outward look.
Outward look
And "forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us" (verse 4, NIV). Once we know where we are anchored, once our own needs have been met, then we are ready to look outward and pray for others. Most mental illness occurs because people hold grudges and are unwilling or unable to forgive. So Jesus says to His disciples that when you pray, make sure you pray for others and that you forgive them despite what they may have done to you.
The hard part about forgiving is forgetting. We have not truly forgiven unless we are also willing to forget. We cannot love others if we keep remembering the unjust and unkind things they have done to us. As we pray forgiveness for others we are then able to relate to them in the same way that God relates to us. People will sense our love and our acceptance of them.
If any of these three components are missing, our devotional life will be stunted and never rise to the full maturity that God longs for us to reach. So even though this prayer is so short, it is a treasure of structure, psychology, and theology.
Jesus models on the cross
As Jesus hung dying on the cross at Calvary He modeled all three parts of His teaching to His disciples. As He breathed His last breath He handed His spirit over to His Father the up ward look. He knew where His rock, His security lay. He died confident in His Father's love.
He recognized His own needs. He thirsted the inward look and even the rude Roman soldiers offered Him some liquid. Hanging in the hot sun soon dehydrated a body. Jesus was human and cried out for His own needs.
But there was also an outward look. He took care of His mother, handing her over to the care of John. He prayed for forgiveness for His enemies. He ministered to one of the thieves and reassured him that he would be in heaven.
There you have it. Three mighty components of the Lord's Prayer the upward, inward, and outward looks. May they become an integral part of your devotional life this coming year.*
