Prayer Is Not A Bargaining Chip, But A...
Text: Matthew 6:5-18
In the name of Jesus: Amen.
When we sinners try to open our mouths to pray, what
typically happens is this: instead of humble praise and thanksgiving, out comes
a confession to God of our own greatness and accomplishments. It is this way because our tongues and mouths
are coated with the dirty ashes of sin. It gets worse though. Instead of Godly requests for mercy and pleas
for grace, we typically attempt to bargain with God through prayer.[1] That’s right; we create a barter system where
we try to exchange God’s favor for our works:
Oh God, if you could please heal my illness, then I will
serve you with all my heart.
Oh God, if you could help me with this job promotion, I
will then increase my giving to the local church.
Oh God, if you could help me win this game, then I will
make sure to proclaim your name to all my classmates.
You do your part for me and I will do my part for you.
Unfortunately, when we use prayer as a means to bargain
and barter with God, prayer becomes nothing more than a tool of our
unbelief. Yes that is right, you and I
will use prayer to help our own self-serving attempts to pry from the hands of
God the answer that we want, rather than the gifts that our good Heavenly
Father would give us.[2]
If we are left unchecked, prayer becomes a weapon against
God as well. It becomes a way for us to
hoist up our demands to God where we try to ‘force’ God’s hand to act according
to our will.
If we do not go the route of bargaining or using prayer
as a weapon, then there is a chance that we can turn prayer into a theatrical
production where we make a big show out of our prayers, hoping that other
people will recognize our super spiritual powers.
Oh, my dear friends, this way of prayer is certainly
messed up. It is this way because we are
people who have rolled around in the soot of sin. We have been ruined by sin, which means we will
constantly ruin the gifts of God, gifts such as prayer.
Lord have mercy on us for using prayer to barter; Lord
have mercy on us for using prayer as a weapon; Lord have mercy on us for using
prayer as a way to show off, for it is none of these things.
You see, prayer does not originate out of our unbelief or
out of our fear. It is not a weapon to
be brought forth towards God. It is not
the place where we attempt to bend the Lord’s arm to our own desires. But rather prayer is something that the Lord
invites us into.
Permit me to explain.
Because God is our Heavenly Father, He tenderly invites
us to believe that we are His true children – you are His true children despite
the fact that you are smeared with the ashes of sin. And as His true child, by your cleansing baptism,
you may approach Him and call upon Him in prayer. Most certainly, you may ask Him to help you
with your needs, as a dear child asks His loving father.[3]
Remember that our God is not unjust but He is just; our
God is not uncompassionate but He is compassion; our God is not one who is deaf
but One who listens. Our God is good not
evil! Therefore, as baptized believers,
we pray not to overcome or persuade an evil God, but rather, we pray because
God is good and just. We pray not to
overcome an uncompassionate, ruthless and worthless God; we pray because we
already have a compassionate, caring and worth-ful God. We pray because the Lord invites us into
prayer and then shapes our prayers by His Word spoken to us. We pray because we have been given faith,
forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Prayer then is the voice of faith, faith from the faithful
that cries out, “Lord may your will be done,” and God responds from above,
“Yes, dear child, it shall be done indeed, in spite of the devil and all the
world.”[4]
The implications of this are phenomenal! Yes, when we are troubled and tortured by our
own stains of sin and when we are confronted by the hellish attacks of the evil
one and when we are pounced on by the ideologies of the world, nothing is so
necessary as to call upon our Father in prayer, so that He may give, preserve,
and increase in us faith and remove all that stands in our way from receiving
Him.
Simply stated, this Ash Wednesday we remember that we are
simply too weak against the devil, the world, and our own sinful desires.[5] Therefore, we are invited and taught to pray
the Lord’s Prayer. And when we pray this
Lord’s Prayer, we are effectively praying against the old sinner in each of us,
as well as praying against the Devil and the world that continually attempt to
kill, steal, and destroy our faith. We
are praying that we would be strengthened in faith, sustained, and protected.
This is all good, for God wants you and me to cry out and
grit our teeth to Him about our concerns, concerns that come about from the
sinful nature, the world, and the devil.
He desires us to pour out our anguishes upon Him, not because He is
unaware of them, but in order that you and I may be unburdened and moved to
open our arms to receive the Lord’s gifts.[6]
And what are those gifts?
Those gifts are the Word and Sacraments – spoken, given, and shed for
you. They are the Lord’s immediate,
continual, and potent answer to our prayers.
Furthermore, as we lay vulnerably before the Lord in
prayer, we are reminded and remember God’s promises that He has spoken to us
and know that when the Lord answers yes to our specific situations, it is
because He loves us, and when He answers no, it is because He loves us, and
when He provides neither a yes or a no, it is because He loves us.
Dear Baptized Saints, tonight we remember and confess
that we are dust and that we will return to dust. We remember also that God put on human flesh
– dust – and joined to our temptations and sorrow. Yes, Christ Jesus welded our death, was
roasted to death by the Father’s wrath, was reduced to ashes and laid to rest
in a tomb. However, we also remember
that Christ rose from the ashes of the earth and from the ashes of sin – He
lives today and intercedes for us.[7] Therefore, as the Lord’s beloved and
forgiven, we can and do pray vulnerably for all things, knowing that our
confidence is not to be found in the strength of our prayer, but the strength
of the Lord who works all things for the good of those who love Him.
We pray, because Christ died for sin; we pray because
Christ rose from the grave; we pray because the Lord cares for us.
Lord, teach us to pray.
Lord, teach us to listen and receive your Word and Sacraments in all the
events of life.
Lord, open our lips and our mouth in prayer that our
prayers may be the voice of faith – faith that confesses our struggles in this
life and faith that clings and receives all gifts from you.
In the name of Jesus: Amen.
[1]
Rev.
John Pless, “Prayer: The Voice of Faith,” PM Notes,
http://www.pastormattrichard.com/2010/06/prayer-voice-of-faith.html (accessed
February 9, 2016).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Martin
Luther: The Small Catechism (The
Lord’s Prayer Introduction)
[4] Ibid.
[5] Martin
Luther: The Large Catechism (The
Lord’s Prayer: Introduction)
[6] Ibid.
[7] David H.
Petersen, Thy Kingdom Come: Lent and
Easter Sermons (Fort Wayne, IN: Emmanuel Press, 2012), 15.
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