The path to prayer.

This week during our in-person worship we are talking about the path to prayer. The path to prayer starts with the word “father.” Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

As a kid on the farm, we knew all kinds of paths. There were deer paths—trampled-down indentations in the foliage of the woods. In the pastures you could clearly see all the cow paths—dusty tan veins on the backdrop of the bright green grass. We had paths between the barn and the house, paths around the barn and the sheds. Paths were all around the farm.

The thing about a path is that it is well-worn. A path doesn’t form by simply walking over it once or twice. It takes dozens of passes for the cow or deer or humans to form. But once you have claimed that particular turf on which to trod, that path quickly moves from crushed grass to very little grass to dusty trail.

The implication of Jesus to his disciples in the Matthew 6 “Sermon on the Mount" is that prayer is a well-worn trail, clearly understood and often traversed. 

So let’s start with the first steps of this path to prayer. (We now call it The Lord’s Prayer.) In English the first word is “our” but the first word in the Greek (and it is written that way for emphasis) is “Father.” Prayer becomes the most profitable in a disciple’s life when they master the concept that God is not just God, but a father.

For some disciples of Jesus, this is easy. If your father on this earth was jovial and engaging, loving and strong and kind, then imagining God as your Father may not be so difficult; you have a pattern well worn in your mind. But for some, the path to prayer, beginning with “Father,” puts up all kinds of challenges and doubts. What if your earthly father was distant or aloof? What if your human father is remembered as an angry tyrant or a lackluster and dry presence in your family? It might be more difficult to think of God as your loving and engaging heavenly Father if your earthbound father didn’t show much love or was never a part of the family picture.

No doubt we can form a group of individuals who have the ability to commiserate the vapid or even damaging presence of their biological fathers. It may take extra time for you to clarify what our perfect heavenly Father is really like—dismissing the negative characteristics that form a dusty web around your conceptualization of “father.” So, for those of you who fall into that category, I simply want to say here, I’m sorry that this is a hurdle for you on the path to prayer. 

As our Heavenly Father, God is also called “hallowed” or holy. To be clear, this means that all his thoughts about you as his child are perfect. All his dreams for you are perfect. All his actions toward you are unmarred and perfect. Simply put: he has the best intentions for you because he is drawn to you by an undaunted affection. He loves you.

I once tried to picture a believer’s place in God’s family this way: If God is your Father (and he is) and you are his dear child, then on his fridge in his kitchen he has all his favorite pictures of you displayed. In the dining room, he shows that you are treasured by placing your name above the 12 by 16 inch frame from your high school graduation photo. In the workshop, you can see shavings from the wood block that he is carving because he has a special gift forming from his powerful hands and it will be presented to you at just the right time in your life. And if you really want to see what he thinks about you, wander down the hall to the room that has always been yours. Inside he has prepared a place for you to be comfortable and feel at home. It fits your style of decoration and he has placed memorabilia from your past, treasures and memories that remind him of you. He walks through this room quite often because he’s getting it ready for you to come home. And Jesus is working with him on making it just so. Why? Because He is your Father, in heaven. 

You may not know God in that way yet; and that makes the path to prayer rather dull and imperfect. But I promise you, that the more you see who he really is as your loving, heavenly, perfect Father, it will make the path to prayer much easier. Come to the Father—your Father—in prayer. Form that path. Make it well-worn. He can’t wait to hear how your day, your week, your life has been.

God bless you on that path to prayer.
Pastor Al

Matthew 6:9-13

“‘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.