[The following is a sermon I gave to my church's youth some weeks ago.]
I’m going to tell you a few things about prayer. I’m going to tell you that it’s important (that’s why we call it foundational). I’m going to tell you that it’s a learned skill. In other words, you get better at it the more you do it. With that in mind, I’ll tell you a bit about how to pray. And I’m going to tell you that while it might not feel like it, it’s one of the most powerful things you can do.
But before I tell you all that, I want to talk to you about rock climbing.
A story (told by me):
There’s this really big rock in Squamish that they call the Stawamus Chief. I’ve been told that it’s actually a 2000 foot tall granite monolith, but that’s just a more impressive way to say “really big rock.” The reason I bring up the Chief is because this story starts with me on it.
I was climbing with two other people. I can’t remember the name of the guy who was leading, so I’ll call him Leroy. A girl named Sarah was the other climber. I was belaying Leroy, and Sarah was sitting next to me waiting her turn. People can get philosophical when they’re 400 feet off the ground, and as Sarah looked down at the town below, she said something that struck me. She said,
“I like big walls. They make me feel so… small.”
I didn’t feel any smaller than normal, so I looked down to see if that would help. The rock sloped away beneath me, the water in Howe Sound glistened in the sun, and I felt pretty much the way I always feel. So I looked up, thinking that the remaining 1600 feet of granite would bring about the small feeling that Sarah was talking about. It didn’t.
Looking up or down, I felt like me. It took me a while to figure out why I didn’t feel tiny. After all, I was just a spec on that rock. A 5’7” man doesn’t leave much of a shadow on a 2000’ tall rock. But before I tell you why I didn’t feel what Sarah felt, I want you to do something for me.
I need everyone to close your eyes.
Okay, now imagine that you’re looking at yourself hundreds of feet off the ground on the Chief. Try to picture the scale more than the height. One person sitting on a giant rock. Now let your mental picture zoom out a bit. Imagine you can see all of Washington and British Columbia, and try to picture yourself still on that rock. Keep pulling back. Watch as the entire North American continent comes into view. Let your mental picture pull farther back until you can see earth like a spinning marble circling the sun. Don’t forget that you’re still sitting on that rock next to the water. Let the solar system shrink in front of you until you’re looking at the galaxy like a glowing top spinning in a dark room.
You can open your eyes now.
Did that make you feel small?
Now I want to put this in perspective. Remember that God, the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords, made all of that. He holds the entire galaxy in the palm of his hand. He is awesome in the true sense of that word. That is, he inspires awe if you get even a glimpse of him in your mind. Knowing that, I want you to think about this: God loves you. He knows your name. He knows the number of hairs you have on your head. Try to hold that thought in your head at the same time you imagine the vastness of God. Now ask yourself how small you feel. Pretty cool, huh?
The reason Sarah felt small is that she didn’t understand that God loves her. She knew of him, but didn’t have that connection between him and her. Ultimately, she felt alone in the universe, and that made it a big, scary place.
The reason I didn’t feel small is that I wasn’t alone on that rock. God was with me. Now, I didn’t feel big either. I just felt like me. It was a good feeling, sitting on a rock way up high with God right there with me.
The reason I knew he was there is that I know him and trust him. One of the most important ways I got to know him is through prayer. Which brings us back to where we started.
Prayer: Talking to the Almighty
Christianity is, in part, a relationship with God. Praying is communicating with God. You can’t have a relationship with someone without communicating with them. You can’t communicate with God unless you pray. That said, you can’t have a relationship with God unless you pray.
I’ll repeat that because it’s important: You can’t have a relationship with God unless you pray.
You can read your Bible. You can go to church. You can listen to people pray. You can give all you have to the poor. But if you don’t pray, all that other stuff is just pretending to be a Christian. In the end, it’s not worth anything.
Some of you are probably thinking that this is all pretty obvious and that I should hurry up and get to something interesting. But before I move on, I want to ask you a question. The last time that something bad happened, who did you go to first? Did you go to your friends for consolation? Did you go to your parents? Did you pray? What about when something really cool happened? Did you text anyone? Did you run screaming down the street? Did you pray?
If God really is the most important person in your life, why don’t you go to him first? I’ll let you think about that for a bit.
Prayer: A Brief How to Guide.
Prayer is not instinctual. Humans are not born knowing how to pray. I know this because Jesus had to teach his disciples how to pray. You see, while the disciples weren’t perfect, we can hardly call them spiritually deficient. And if they needed instruction, it’s safe to say that we need some to. Which is good because everyone I know who’s tried this praying thing has needed help at one point or another. What Jesus said to his disciples can be found in Matthew 6:6-8.
Matthew 6:6-8
6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
People have given very long sermons on these verses, and I don’t have the kind of time I’d need to tell you all I want to tell you about them. Instead, I want you to pay attention to two things.
Thing 1: Prayer is between you and God. Like I said earlier, listening to people pray doesn’t bring you much closer to God. True closeness begins when you start talking to him.
Thing 2: Forget about trying to make what you say pretty. Prayer is not performance art. God isn’t going to be impressed by your mastery of the English language. He also won’t be upset if you have trouble saying what you want to say. It’s okay to stutter and falter and walk over your own words when you’re praying. God knows what you need already. He just wants you to ask for it.
About a year after I graduated from college, I decided that I didn’t know how to pray well enough. So I talked to my dad about it. My dad is a retired preacher for the United Methodist Church. He’s done a lot of praying in his day. He still does a lot of praying. I expected my dad to sit me down and tell me deep mystic secrets. Instead, my dad gave me a work book on how to pray.
As I read through the book, I kept thinking that this would all be easier if my dad had simply told me the deep mystic secrets. But the book didn’t seem to have anything in the way of secrets. The information in it wasn’t really anything spectacular. But it kept asking me to pray, and I kept praying. I think partly I wanted to do all the steps so that when I wasn’t any better at praying by the end of it I could call the book stupid and get on with life. But a funny thing happened. By the end of the book, I figured out that it really wasn’t the author’s intent to bring to light ancient secrets. What the author wanted me to do was pray to get better at praying. My dad didn’t warn me that the author was a sneaky man. I think that’s because my dad is also a sneaky man.
You see, the best way to get good at praying is to pray. It can be awkward at times. Sometimes the words simply don’t come, but God understands. He doesn’t want perfection. He wants you.
I’m going to say this again because it’s important: the best way to get good at praying is to pray.
Set aside a time every day to spend some time alone with God. I don’t know how busy you are, but I know that you make time for this. If God is a priority in your life, then communicating with him is a priority in your life.
Prayer: Making the World a Better Place
If you pray long enough, and pay attention to what you’re praying for, you’ll notice something amazing. God answers prayer. It usually won’t be in the way you expect. God is smarter than you, and he rarely works within our narrow expectations. But he does work. Pay attention, and you’ll see beautiful things happen in response to your prayers.
James 5:13-16
13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
The first night of winter camp I talked to some of you about spiritual warfare. I talked about how real spiritual warfare isn’t glorious. We don’t get to walk around in shiny suits of armor and kill big red dragons. Real spiritual warfare is fought on our knees.
So not only is prayer our communication with God, but it’s also God’s gift to us. We hear on the news that the world is falling apart, and we want to help fix it. But it’s so big and so complicated and we’re just… you know… people. But God has given us a tool. God told us that if we want this place to get better, we need to ask him to change it. We need to pray.
A Recap: Because People Forget Things
1. Prayer is important. Without it, you can’t get close to God.
2. Prayer is a learned skill. It takes work, but it’s worth it.
3. Prayer is powerful. With God, you can change the world.
Homework: Because Some Things Take Practice
Practice praying this week. Make time to make it happen. Sometimes you’ll feel like it, sometimes you won’t. But it’s always worth it.
I’m going to tell you a few things about prayer. I’m going to tell you that it’s important (that’s why we call it foundational). I’m going to tell you that it’s a learned skill. In other words, you get better at it the more you do it. With that in mind, I’ll tell you a bit about how to pray. And I’m going to tell you that while it might not feel like it, it’s one of the most powerful things you can do.
But before I tell you all that, I want to talk to you about rock climbing.
A story (told by me):
There’s this really big rock in Squamish that they call the Stawamus Chief. I’ve been told that it’s actually a 2000 foot tall granite monolith, but that’s just a more impressive way to say “really big rock.” The reason I bring up the Chief is because this story starts with me on it.
I was climbing with two other people. I can’t remember the name of the guy who was leading, so I’ll call him Leroy. A girl named Sarah was the other climber. I was belaying Leroy, and Sarah was sitting next to me waiting her turn. People can get philosophical when they’re 400 feet off the ground, and as Sarah looked down at the town below, she said something that struck me. She said,
“I like big walls. They make me feel so… small.”
I didn’t feel any smaller than normal, so I looked down to see if that would help. The rock sloped away beneath me, the water in Howe Sound glistened in the sun, and I felt pretty much the way I always feel. So I looked up, thinking that the remaining 1600 feet of granite would bring about the small feeling that Sarah was talking about. It didn’t.
Looking up or down, I felt like me. It took me a while to figure out why I didn’t feel tiny. After all, I was just a spec on that rock. A 5’7” man doesn’t leave much of a shadow on a 2000’ tall rock. But before I tell you why I didn’t feel what Sarah felt, I want you to do something for me.
I need everyone to close your eyes.
Okay, now imagine that you’re looking at yourself hundreds of feet off the ground on the Chief. Try to picture the scale more than the height. One person sitting on a giant rock. Now let your mental picture zoom out a bit. Imagine you can see all of Washington and British Columbia, and try to picture yourself still on that rock. Keep pulling back. Watch as the entire North American continent comes into view. Let your mental picture pull farther back until you can see earth like a spinning marble circling the sun. Don’t forget that you’re still sitting on that rock next to the water. Let the solar system shrink in front of you until you’re looking at the galaxy like a glowing top spinning in a dark room.
You can open your eyes now.
Did that make you feel small?
Now I want to put this in perspective. Remember that God, the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords, made all of that. He holds the entire galaxy in the palm of his hand. He is awesome in the true sense of that word. That is, he inspires awe if you get even a glimpse of him in your mind. Knowing that, I want you to think about this: God loves you. He knows your name. He knows the number of hairs you have on your head. Try to hold that thought in your head at the same time you imagine the vastness of God. Now ask yourself how small you feel. Pretty cool, huh?
The reason Sarah felt small is that she didn’t understand that God loves her. She knew of him, but didn’t have that connection between him and her. Ultimately, she felt alone in the universe, and that made it a big, scary place.
The reason I didn’t feel small is that I wasn’t alone on that rock. God was with me. Now, I didn’t feel big either. I just felt like me. It was a good feeling, sitting on a rock way up high with God right there with me.
The reason I knew he was there is that I know him and trust him. One of the most important ways I got to know him is through prayer. Which brings us back to where we started.
Prayer: Talking to the Almighty
Christianity is, in part, a relationship with God. Praying is communicating with God. You can’t have a relationship with someone without communicating with them. You can’t communicate with God unless you pray. That said, you can’t have a relationship with God unless you pray.
I’ll repeat that because it’s important: You can’t have a relationship with God unless you pray.
You can read your Bible. You can go to church. You can listen to people pray. You can give all you have to the poor. But if you don’t pray, all that other stuff is just pretending to be a Christian. In the end, it’s not worth anything.
Some of you are probably thinking that this is all pretty obvious and that I should hurry up and get to something interesting. But before I move on, I want to ask you a question. The last time that something bad happened, who did you go to first? Did you go to your friends for consolation? Did you go to your parents? Did you pray? What about when something really cool happened? Did you text anyone? Did you run screaming down the street? Did you pray?
If God really is the most important person in your life, why don’t you go to him first? I’ll let you think about that for a bit.
Prayer: A Brief How to Guide.
Prayer is not instinctual. Humans are not born knowing how to pray. I know this because Jesus had to teach his disciples how to pray. You see, while the disciples weren’t perfect, we can hardly call them spiritually deficient. And if they needed instruction, it’s safe to say that we need some to. Which is good because everyone I know who’s tried this praying thing has needed help at one point or another. What Jesus said to his disciples can be found in Matthew 6:6-8.
Matthew 6:6-8
6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
People have given very long sermons on these verses, and I don’t have the kind of time I’d need to tell you all I want to tell you about them. Instead, I want you to pay attention to two things.
Thing 1: Prayer is between you and God. Like I said earlier, listening to people pray doesn’t bring you much closer to God. True closeness begins when you start talking to him.
Thing 2: Forget about trying to make what you say pretty. Prayer is not performance art. God isn’t going to be impressed by your mastery of the English language. He also won’t be upset if you have trouble saying what you want to say. It’s okay to stutter and falter and walk over your own words when you’re praying. God knows what you need already. He just wants you to ask for it.
About a year after I graduated from college, I decided that I didn’t know how to pray well enough. So I talked to my dad about it. My dad is a retired preacher for the United Methodist Church. He’s done a lot of praying in his day. He still does a lot of praying. I expected my dad to sit me down and tell me deep mystic secrets. Instead, my dad gave me a work book on how to pray.
As I read through the book, I kept thinking that this would all be easier if my dad had simply told me the deep mystic secrets. But the book didn’t seem to have anything in the way of secrets. The information in it wasn’t really anything spectacular. But it kept asking me to pray, and I kept praying. I think partly I wanted to do all the steps so that when I wasn’t any better at praying by the end of it I could call the book stupid and get on with life. But a funny thing happened. By the end of the book, I figured out that it really wasn’t the author’s intent to bring to light ancient secrets. What the author wanted me to do was pray to get better at praying. My dad didn’t warn me that the author was a sneaky man. I think that’s because my dad is also a sneaky man.
You see, the best way to get good at praying is to pray. It can be awkward at times. Sometimes the words simply don’t come, but God understands. He doesn’t want perfection. He wants you.
I’m going to say this again because it’s important: the best way to get good at praying is to pray.
Set aside a time every day to spend some time alone with God. I don’t know how busy you are, but I know that you make time for this. If God is a priority in your life, then communicating with him is a priority in your life.
Prayer: Making the World a Better Place
If you pray long enough, and pay attention to what you’re praying for, you’ll notice something amazing. God answers prayer. It usually won’t be in the way you expect. God is smarter than you, and he rarely works within our narrow expectations. But he does work. Pay attention, and you’ll see beautiful things happen in response to your prayers.
James 5:13-16
13Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
The first night of winter camp I talked to some of you about spiritual warfare. I talked about how real spiritual warfare isn’t glorious. We don’t get to walk around in shiny suits of armor and kill big red dragons. Real spiritual warfare is fought on our knees.
So not only is prayer our communication with God, but it’s also God’s gift to us. We hear on the news that the world is falling apart, and we want to help fix it. But it’s so big and so complicated and we’re just… you know… people. But God has given us a tool. God told us that if we want this place to get better, we need to ask him to change it. We need to pray.
A Recap: Because People Forget Things
1. Prayer is important. Without it, you can’t get close to God.
2. Prayer is a learned skill. It takes work, but it’s worth it.
3. Prayer is powerful. With God, you can change the world.
Homework: Because Some Things Take Practice
Practice praying this week. Make time to make it happen. Sometimes you’ll feel like it, sometimes you won’t. But it’s always worth it.
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