Thoughts for Your Sabbath: Prayer

"Prayer may not save us, but prayer makes us worth saving."
"Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live."
"The focus of prayer is not the self. . . It is the momentary disregard of our concerns, the absence of self-cetnered thoughts, which constitute the art of prayer. . . Thus, in beseeching Him for bread, there is one instant, at least, in which our mind is directed neither to our hunger nor to food, but to His mercy. This instant is prayer."
- Abraham Heschel on Prayer


The Sabbath for a Christian is a time of ceasing for the body and rest for the soul. It is a time for us to focus on our holiness. With this in mind, I thought it would be prudent to focus on what the early church held as holiness. In the beginning of Paul's letter to the church in Philipi, he offers up a prayer:

"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." - Philippians 1:9-11

The next five saturdays will be a series on these three verses. There are three main statements made that each start with the word "that". We will look at each one a week starting next week. This week, I wanted to focus on the very first phrase that may have stronger implications than we realize.

"And this I pray..."

What is prayer to Paul? Later in Philippians he makes a very important statement. "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." Prayer AND supplication. The word for supplication here means asking and even begging for something. Notice this act is coupled from prayer but not the same. Prayer, in its essence, is a time of communion. In this communion, we offer up praise, thanksgiving, and requests as well as frustrations, agonies, pains, joys, love, and our neighbors. I am convinced that prayer would be much more powerful if we focused less on ourselves and more on others. Therefore, prayer is not telling God what He already knows you need. Prayer is offering up to God, as Lord, your very soul.

What does prayer look like? Jesus, in Matthew six, gave very different instructions to prayer than we are used to:

1. We are to pray in solitude (Matt. 6:6). Jesus Himself went to the mountain sides, wilderness, and pretty much any place he could find at early hours to ensure He was alone. He teaches this for focus (the Father is unseen), but also metaphorically to help us remember that prayer is an intimate act between you and God when each other's logos and pathos is poured out.

2. Prayer should be to the point and not filled up with words (Matt. 6:7). Being to the point produces sincerity in our words and hearts. Also prayer is not to be filled with words because our words are not near as important as His word.

3. We are to have the same focus on prayer as the Model Prayer shows us. We acknowledge God's presence and ask for his kingdom to be manifested in our own lives daily; we may ask for much but trust His character on what is essential (i.e. sustenance); we concern ourselves with our neighbor and our sins against our neighbor and God; and finally we ask for God's continual presence and guidance throughout our day.

This quick look at Jesus' teaching helps us refocus today as we pray. We can take his very simple guidance and turn it into a revolutionary instant in our day. The result of prayer and supplication, Paul says, is the peace of God. And that is true rest for the soul. In closing I want to offer up one more quote from Heschel that may refresh our senses on what prayer really does.

"The true motivation for prayer is not, as it has been said, the sense of being at home in the universe, but rather the sense of not being home in the universe. . . That experience gains intensity in the amazing awareness that God himself is not at home in the universe. He is not at home in the universe where His will is defied and where His kingship is denied. God is in exile; the world is corrupt. The universe itself is not at home. To pray means to bring God back into the world, to establish His kingship for a second at least. To pray means to expand His presence."