Ij

"Make Prayer Your Steering Wheel"

Luke 11:1-13

by Clancy Nixon

July 29, 2007

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.holyspiritanglican.org

George Gallup did a poll not too long ago telling us that 95% of American Adults

say that they pray. Three out of four Americans say they pray daily. Nearly all who

pray, say they believe that their prayers are heard and answered. Nearly all say their

prayers bring them peace and hope. Nearly all say that prayer helps bring them closer to

God. Those of you who worry that young people are becoming less religious, take heart,

because young people lead the nation in believing in the importance of prayer. [Gallup,

Surveying the Religious Landscape, 1999]

Americans are a praying people; we are convinced that prayer works; we have

our patterns of prayer. Even so, many of us are terribly insecure about our own prayer

lives. Many of us feel guilty because we think that we don't pray often enough; or we

think that when we do pray, we don't spend enough time praying; or we feel at a loss to

know how to pray for people, even our loved ones. This is true even among born again,

spirit-filled believers. In my life, from time to time, I have had a hard time praying for

more than a few minutes, a difficult time entering into the delight I typically enjoy as I

pray. Prayer continually humbles me, as I often feel inadequate at it. When you look at

the kinds of meetings that are the most popular in church life, Prayer Meetings are

generally at the bottom of the list. Many of us pray only, as it were, in Foxholes when

we're in trouble. Rather than using prayer to help us understand what God wants for us

to do, that is, for guidance, many pray only when all else fails. Corrie ten Boom, author

of The Hiding Place, used to ask her audiences this question: Is prayer your spare tire or

your steering wheel? [pause] Let Prayer be your Steering Wheel.

The truth about prayer is that Prayer is not an optional extra in the Christian life.

Jesus knew that our prayer life is like the air we breathe it is vital to our ongoing life in

relationship with God. Mark 1:35 and Luke 22:39-41 say that Jesus used to pray every

morning in a solitary place. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews tells us at 7:25 that

Jesus' ministry now in heaven is prayer: "He lives to make intercession for them." You

are on Jesus' prayer list. If even the Son of God prays, how much more do we need to

pray?

Prayer goes a long way. I have learned that as a pastor, the best advice I can think

of for people is not always on the mark. And when I preach, I don't always hit home

runs sometimes, I go "0 for 4!" While I intend to communicate love for people,

sometimes the way I react to others communicates something else. The more experience I

get as a pastor, the more I am convinced that even if I can do nothing else for people, I

can show love for people by praying for them. Prayer changes everything. Spoken prayer

brings God into the picture in a very explicit way. Our gospel passage for today reminds

us that Jesus did not explicitly teach his church how to preach; he did not teach us how to

sing; he did not teach us how to study the Bible; Jesus taught his Church how to pray.

Every Christian is called to pray. Is prayer your spare tire or your steering wheel? Make

Prayer Your Steering Wheel.

Fortunately, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, and we call his

answer to that question, "the Lord's Prayer." Now Jesus' disciples had been praying to

God all their lives; they had been watching Jesus pray for over a year; but they did not

assume that they knew how to pray.

Principle #1 from this passage is, use the Lord's Prayer as a pattern for

prayer. Now the Lord's Prayer is a great prayer simply to say, but Jesus did not teach us

this prayer so we would endlessly recite it as a mantra of protection. Brad Young writes

in The Jewish Background of the Lord's Prayer that first century rabbis often taught by

listing topics as an outline. I believe Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer so we would use it

to initiate topics in a pattern of prayer. I do believe that it is good to say the Lord's

Prayer regularly in order to be reminded of the pattern. So where the Lord's Prayer

begins by saying "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name," this is an

invitation to praise God extemporaneously. To hallow means to praise or adore, or to set

apart as holy. After saying one line the Lord's Prayer, stop and do what you have just

prayed. Have you noticed that the Lord's Prayer begins and ends in praise? If you don't

know how to praise God extemporaneously, ask him to show you how. Pray with people

who know how to praise God and learn from them how to move into the overflow of love

for God as you praise Him! When you address God, speak to him directly, as Father, Son

or Holy Spirit. It might sound like this: "We praise you, God for your fatherly goodness

toward us. Praise God for creating us, sustaining us, growing us into the full stature of

Christ. Praise you, Father God, that we have full rights to inherit your kingdom both

hereon earth and in heaven. Praise you, King of Kings for his power that creates, redeems

and sustains your people!" We can hallow God's Name. Praise God for his many names

as found in the Bible, names like El Shaddai, meaning God most High, or one of the

compound names for God, like Yahweh-Ireh, which means the Lord is my provider. Go

ahead and speak out praise to God hallow his names!

On my car, I have a steering wheel cover that says Pittsburgh Steelers on it. That

reminds me of my home team, of a small part of my identity. If prayer is your steering

wheel, let the praise of God be your steering wheel cover.

Principle #2 is, when you are not sure how to pray, Ask God to show you how

to pray. I think it's not enough to say, well, Jesus has shown us how to pray - just say

the Lord's Prayer Let prayer be your steering wheel. When you don't know how to

pray, ask God for guidance. When I pray for healing for someone, typically I start by

praying to the Holy Spirit to show me how to pray. I start like this: "Come Holy Spirit,

and show us how to pray." And then I get quiet and listen. Now I don't always do that.

Sometimes I feel too rushed; sometimes it seems very clear what to pray and how to pray.

Still, it is good to ask God how to pray. Jesus tells us to ask, seek and knock. James, the

brother of Jesus, in his letter at 1:5 says, "Do any of you lack wisdom? He should ask

God, who gives to all liberally, without reproach." Get involved in the process of asking.

If you don't know what to ask, ask about that. If you don't know how to ask, ask about

that. Just talk to God. If you don't ask, how can you expect to receive? God wants us to

be involved in the process of asking, because it draws us into relationship with Him. He

is a loving father -if you ask for a fish, He'll give you a fish, not a scorpion! Is prayer

your spare tire or your steering wheel? [pause] Let Prayer be your Steering Wheel.

Our God is so good, he loves us so much. He longs to hear us ask him for

whatever it is that we need. Ask him for big things, and for little things. We pray, give

us this day our daily bread. Our loving father cares about the daily details of our lives- the

big and the small - from whether we have food to eat, to what to read.

The third part of knowing how to pray, is knowing when to pray. Here in Luke

11, Jesus says, when you pray, do this. He assumes that we are praying. Here is

Principle #3 about prayer: Pray many times daily. Paul says we are to pray always, to

pray without ceasing. (1 Thess. 5:17) When you do, you let prayer be your steering

wheel. You can pray anywhere, any time. Not just in church, but in a car, at a restaurant,

any time or place. Just like in any relationship, like marriage, you can communicate any

time with your wife or husband or with your God. To begin, have regular times of

prayer. Put prayer times in your Outlook and in your PDAs; Most Muslims are better

about praying several times a day than Christians are. Consistent times of prayer are one

way to redeem the time, to show the holiness of the hours of the day, that every hour is a

gift from God. That you pray is assumed. When you pray is important. Get a regular

pattern, and stick to it. Pray at least once daily, alone. Start with ten minutes in the

morning, stick to it, and I promise you, you will want to grow that time.

Make a habit of praying before meals. People will respect you for it, even if you

do it in a public place. Did you see the movie "Witness?" Harrison Ford plays the tough,

hard-bitten cop who means well, but is far from God. His mission is to protect an Amish

family whose little boy has witnessed a bloody murder. The first time they eat together,

he just begins to scarf his food, but then he notices that the mother and her son have

bowed their heads to pray over the meal. He is embarrassed, and respectful, as if there is

something inside him that knows that they are doing the right thing, and he is not. There

is something in us that knows that prayer ought to be our steering wheel.

Let prayer be your steering wheel. Pray whenever you have a care, an anxiety, or

a worry. Jesus told us to ask, seek, and knock, that our God is a loving father who will

give you good things when you ask him. Paul says in Philippians 4, don't be anxious

about anything, but in everything, by prayer and thanksgivings, make your requests

known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your

hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. When you give your worry to the Lord, you get peace,

because we know that God can do more for us than we can do for ourselves.

Is prayer your spare tire? Let prayer be your steering wheel.