Sep 2009

Dear Evangelites and Friends,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

At our Adults CE session with Pastor Joseph Seah on 6 Sep, he emphasized prayer as a key factor in spiritual vitality. In short, he aptly exhorted us to pray hard.

But what does it mean to pray hard? In the world, we are often called to work hard with the expectation that we will eventually get what we have worked hard for. Is it the same with our prayer life—i.e. if we pray hard, we can expect to eventually get what we have prayed hard for?

While there is theological validity to the concept of “praying hard,” we must first of all be clear what praying hard involves. The story about the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14 gives us some pointers.

In the Pharisee’s prayer, we see him praying hard in that he was giving a mini-audit and updating God on the good things about himself. He was worried that God might overlook all the things he had done.

Unfortunately for him, the prayer that Jesus commended was not his but that of the tax collector. In fact, the Pharisee could have prayed in that way every day for 50 years and never could have impressed Jesus. Put in another way, he could have prayed hard for a long, long time and yet not be drawn any closer to the Lord. Why? That prayer emphasized the Pharisee rather than God. It was so full of self but so empty of God.

On the other hand, the tax collector’s prayer was a very short one—“God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus highly commended that prayer because it emphasized God rather than man; it was so full of God and empty of self.

Jesus’ story reminds us that our prayers do reflect how we see ourselves in relation to God and to others. If we have blind spots about either relationship, “praying hard” in that sense will simply enlarge them. Such prayer will falsely suggest that we are drawing closer to God when, in fact, that prayer is a way of keeping God’s grace from influencing every aspect of our lives.

Jesus is teaching us something in this prayer story about the danger of “praying hard” like the Pharisee. He cautioned against drawing a great deal of attention to self while praying. Such “praying hard” can never make God obligated to do the things we consider best.

Praying hard is praying honestly such that we become open to God as He prepares us to make whatever changes that openness may require. Prayer should reflect our openness to God’s grace and our willingness to cooperate with that grace.

One way to come to God in prayer that’s full of Him and empty of self is to come with an “empty plate” before Him. And we then ask Him to fill it with what He wants to be there so that we can pick it up as His will for us. So, it is okay to come to God with a humble “I don’t know” spirit because He can then lead us to what He knows is best for us.

The well-known picture of “Praying Hands” shows a pair of hands clasped together. Perhaps a better picture is one that shows a pair of open, empty hands with palms facing heavenward. I view this as a better posture of prayer—we are open to release what we hold dear, and then allow the Lord to refill our empty hands with what He knows is best for us.

May the Lord help us learn to pray more like the tax collector and less like the Pharisee, looking more to Him and less to who we are and what our successes have been.

A Fellow Pilgrim in Him,
Pastor John

Tel: 6749-2990 (O) 9789-2414 (HP) Email: johnyuencw@gmail.com