Welcome to the Come to Jesus Daily Devotional. This week, in our God’s Vision for the church series, we’ve been reflecting on how the church is God’s family and today we finish by seeing that prayer is the privilege of all of God’s children.
To watch this devotional, follow the link below:
‘“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But 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. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”’ (Matthew 6:5-13)
Humans are working very hard to communicate with any alien life that may exist. For example, In 1977, the ‘Voyager Golden Records’ were launched with the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. They contain a variety of sounds and music from Earth, including greetings in 55 languages, and a range of images depicting human life and culture. The ‘Message to Extraterrestrial Intelligence’ (METI) is an organisation that is actively involved in sending targeted messages to nearby star systems. They use radio telescopes to broadcast messages with the hope that extraterrestrial civilisations might intercept and understand them. This attempt to communicate with the ‘beyond’ is a natural human trait. If this amount of money and effort is going into communicating with aliens, how much more should God’s children use their access and privileges to communicate with God!
As God’s children, we have special access to our heavenly Father. However, I feel that we can often become overfamiliar with this and even fail to use our privileged access. I love this story of a young girl gaining access to the American president:
Grace Bedell, an 11-year-old girl famously wrote to Abraham Lincoln in 1860, just before his election as the 16th President of the United States. In her letter, Grace suggested that Lincoln grow a beard, believing it would make him look more dignified. Her famous letter read, in part: "I have got four brothers and part of them will vote for you anyhow, and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you. You would look a great deal better for your face is so thin." The story doesn’t end there. After Lincoln was elected, he made a special stop in Westfield, New York, on his way to Washington, D.C., in February 1861. As the train pulled into town, Lincoln asked to meet Grace. When the two met, he reportedly greeted her warmly, and according to accounts from the time, he bent down, kissed her, and said, "You see, I let these whiskers grow for you, Grace!"
Our text assumes that we will pray as it opens with the words, ‘“But when you pray…”’ Jesus assumes that His church will make prayer a great emphasis and so He encourages us to pray with the right perspective. The only right perspective and the key to powerful prayer is to speak to Him as a child to a father.
A church that fails to pray has failed to grasp a vital aspect of her identity as God’s children. Why would we not talk to our Father who is also God Almighty? Something must be deeply wrong with an individual or a church that fails to respond to our Father’s invitation to pray to Him about anything and everything! Do we see that a failure to talk to our Heavenly Father indicates at least three deficiencies:
i. We are not Christians - We do not have a new heart for God that is the gift to all of God’s children.
ii. Ignorance - We’ve never learned or been taught about how to pray. However, before we blame others for not teaching and helping us (and leaders should do this!) we must ask ourselves why we’ve never made the effort to think and study or even to think about The Lord’s prayer for example.
iii. Missing the gospel - We can fail to pray because we feel condemned and unheard. When we fail to build our lives on the gospel, our prayer-lives will be severely affected. When we miss the gospel we judge the effectiveness of our praying on our feelings or the good and bad things in our lives rather than on the free and real access we have through Jesus.
I love this illustration of how a Christian - a child of God - and a church can fail to enjoy the benefits of the relationship that Jesus has bought for us:
‘Imagine two sons. Jack makes breakfast for his father every day and they chat for half an hour while they eat it together. Later in the day Jack and his father hang out together—flying a kite, playing football, reading a book. Meanwhile Jack’s older brother, Phil, is embarrassed by his father. Phil stays in his room all day with his music turned up loud. On the rare occasions when Phil communicates with his father, it normally takes the form of dismissive grunts. How many sons does the father have? The answer, of course, is two. And what did they do to become sons? Nothing. They were simply born as sons. But only Jack enjoys being a son. Only Jack experiences a good relationship with his father. Praying and reading your Bible won’t make you more Christian. And not doing these things won’t make you less of a Christian. Somewhat like Jack and Phil, we become children of our heavenly Father by being born—the difference being that Christians are born again. We’re saved by grace alone through faith in Christ. Our status as God’s children is a gift. But how much we enjoy that communion depends on what we do’ (Tim Chester, Enjoying God)
Response
Today, let’s be encouraged that there is always a new and fresh welcome to anyone who feels that they are failing to pray as they should - and I’m sure we all feel this to some degree! Today, let’s hear again that we are invited, through Christ, to pray to God as our Father. I love what Tim Keller wrote on our access to God in prayer:
‘The only person who dares wake up a king at 3:00 AM for a glass of water is a child. We have that kind of access.’
Let’s end with these powerful words from J. C. Ryle:
‘Prayer is the privilege of sons and the proof of sonship.’
Community Group Notes
1. Notices
It might be good to begin with notices. Please share from this week’s Church News.
2. Icebreaker
This, for many, may be the first time you’ve met in a while. Therefore, it might be good to catch up on how things have gone - the highs and lows - of the summer. Alternatively, you could discuss: How has God been speaking to you from His Word recently and how has this helped you?
3. Worship together
Let’s begin our time together by lifting our eyes and hearts to worship our great God. Perhaps you have readings and songs that you would like to use together. Let’s be open to the gifts that the Spirit wants to give in order to encourage one another.
4. Study and pray together
Our message on Sunday from our God’s Vision for the Church series was on how the church is God’s family. The church - The community who follow Christ - are adopted children of God and are to reflect this in their love for God, joy in life and love for the family of God.
Please read Ephesians 1:3-6 and discuss:
What would you say is the main message and application of Ephesians 1:3-6?
Did God speak to you about anything specifically from Sunday’s message?
What does it mean for us to be adopted by God?
How is this truth to affect our relationships in the church?
How does being God’s adopted child help you in life?
How is this new identity to affect the way that we pray? (See Matthew 6:5-13)
Alex Dias, in His message, made reference to God as our potter and our entering ‘the potters house (Jeremiah 18). How does our being God’s adopted children, along with this potter analogy, mean for how God wants to work in and on us?
SIV - How will enjoying your adoption make you a more compassionate and courageous evangelist?
SIV - Do we have any stories of how we have ‘Served, Invested, and inVited’ recently?
SIV - Spend some time together talking and praying about who and how you are seeking to bring your community to Jesus.
Let’s pray together from Romans 8:15-17.
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