Prayer is more than just Words, Gimmicks, and Formulas

Prayer is not primarily about words. Ultimately, it’s about a genuine and honest relationship. Reciting a prayer formula is of little value. Formula is not the substance of relationship. Jesus warned that a mere repetition of words will not incline the Father to hear our prayers (Matthew 6:7). Then, what will? Instead, prayer must arise from a heart aligned with the Lord.

Consequently, the very nature of the person has a great bearing on whether or not God will respond. Proverbs teaches us that “the LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him” (Proverbs 15:8), and that “if anyone turns a deaf ear to the law, even his prayers are detestable” (Proverbs 28:9). No prayer formulas would overcome this liability.

In contrast, Jesus was in perfect communication with His Father. At the rising of Lazarus, He prayed:

• "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me…” (John 11:41-42)

Why did the Father always hear the Son? It had much to do with the nature of their relationship than with words:

• During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. (Hebrews 5:7) 

Instead of “reverent submission,” the King James Version translates “was heard in that he feared.” What does it mean to “fear” God? In either case, it means to put His will and Word above everything else (Mat. 6:33; John 14:21-24; Luke 22:42; Psalm 130:4; 34:11-14; Prov. 8:13; 29:25; 23:17-18; 10:27; 14:26-27), embracing and identifying with those things that the Father embraces.

We shouldn’t think of the “fear of God” as oppressive. Instead, for the Messiah, it was a “delight” (Isaiah 11:2-3) and a service of love:

• The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. (John 14:31) 

His joy was a matter of serving the Father:

• "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. (John 4:34) 

How did Jesus do this? By abiding in His Word! All the testing that He endured involved one question - whether or not He would submit to the Word of the Father. When the Devil tempted Him to break ranks with the Father’s plan and change the stone into bread, Jesus responded:

• "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4)

God, the Son, could have answered with His own words. Instead, He submitted to the Words of the Father by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. In doing so, He acknowledged that Scripture is God’s very Words and that life depended upon living according to these Words. Because life depended on “every word,” there could be no picking-and-choosing. Jesus didn’t place Himself above the Father’s Words but submitted to them all! Had He instead chosen the words He liked and rejected those He didn’t like, He would have made Himself lord over the Words of the Father. This wouldn’t have been “reverent submission” or the “fear of the Lord.” Instead, He would have been like Frank Sinatra – the captain of his own ship!

Then the Devil tested Jesus again. He quoted Psalm 91 and twisted it to suit his purposes:

• "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" (Matthew 4:6)

And once again, Jesus quoted the Father’s Words against the Devil:

• Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" (Matthew 4:7, quoting Deut. 6:16)

Had Jesus thrown Himself from the mountain to prove that He is the Son of God, He would have sinned by forcing the hand of His Father. Instead, He demonstrated that His entire life was to be lived for the glory of His Father and not His own. This is love! And when we draw near the Father in this manner, He draws near us (James 4:8). Therefore, it is about the heart and not merely a recitation of words.

When the Devil offered Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world if He would worship Him, Jesus again answered with the Words of the Father:

• "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" (Matthew 4:10, quoting Deut. 6:13) 

Jesus didn’t have to limit Himself to the Words of the Father. However, this demonstrated His “reverent submission” – what was in His heart. These quotations didn’t represent an attempt to manipulate the Father in order to get what He wanted. Instead, these words represented what Jesus is all about in the core of His Being. It was also the love for the Father that drove Him to the Cross to seek His glory (John 13:31-32):

• I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world [Satan] is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” (John 14:30-31)

When we too have humbled ourselves to our Savior to seek His will above everything else, we too will be heard for our “reverent submission” as opposed to mere lip-service:

• But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. (Matthew 6:33-34) 

Let me guess what you are thinking:

• I am just not capable of this kind of “submission.” I guess then that I can’t expect that my prayers will be answered.

 None of us are capable of this! Instead, our Lord will draw us near:

• When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions. Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple. (Psalm 65:3-4) 

Without Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). He must do the heavy lifting. However, we must pray. We “have not because we ask not” (James 4:2). We have to cry out to Him (Psalm 62:8). Of course, this process is very painful. There is no way around it. How did Jesus learn “reverent submission?”

• During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. (Hebrews 5:7-8) 

According to Scripture, there is no way around suffering. If we want to be like Jesus, we have to suffer like Jesus:

• We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. (2 Corinthians 4:10-11)

In order to enjoy a more intimate relationship with the Savior, we have to become more like Him, and this will not happen without suffering. If Jesus had to learn obedience through the things He suffered, how can we expect otherwise!

What will suffering accomplish? Many things! For one thing, it will cause us to despair of the self. Only by learning to distrust ourselves can we begin to learn to trust in God – the most unnatural thing in the world. The Apostle Paul also needed to learn this lesson:

• We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8-9) 

When given the choice, we will always choose self-trust. It’s just too comfortable – the ultimate drug! Therefore, the addiction to self-trust has to be burnt out of us. This can only happen through the most painful process – despair of self!

However, when we are humbled in this manner, prayer becomes more vital. It is no longer a necessary obligation. It becomes a life-line – our only hope. We can only become fervent in prayer when we see that prayer is our only hope.

Through suffering and the resulting self-despair, we learn that feeding on Scripture is a necessity. When we find that all of our thinking is wrong and sin-stained, we long for the pure milk of the Word so that we can grow.

Suffering is also like refining steel. The fire must melt the iron ore so that the impurities rise to the surface. There, they are skimmed off. The more refinement, the more the impurities rise to the surface! When this happens, we begin to see our impurities, the things we have hidden from sight, even from ourselves:

• Now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7) 

How can suffering produce praise? Suffering humbles us. The ugliness and unworthiness within comes to the surface, and we are appalled. We cry, “How can God love someone like me? I am totally unworthy of Him!” In desperation, we are driven to the Word to see if offers us anything that we can cling to in hope. Our Savior begins to show us that He is far more gracious than we had ever thought. Now that we understand that we need His mercy more than ever, we find that it is available and unlimited - that He has died for us, procuring for us a gift that we could never deserve or earn. He must first humble us so that He can exalt us.

This produces a gratefulness we would never had learned had we not been confronted with our utter unworthiness and His overwhelming love (Eph. 3:16-19). This is how suffering produces praise and gratefulness.

Only those who have humbled – even broken – by the sight of their unworthiness are ready to be exalted by the pure knowledge of the Gospel. We must first be humbled before we can be exalted, lest we boast (Eph. 2:9; 1 Cor. 1:29).

Joseph’s brother first had to be humbled before they too could be exalted. Joseph first had to test them to see if they were ready to receive the incredible blessings that he wanted to give them.

Out of jealousy, they had hated Joseph. Their father Jacob loved Joseph more than they and had given him a stunning robe of many colors. However, instead of killing him, they agree to sell him as a slave to a caravan heading into Egypt and lied to their father, claiming that Joseph had been killed by wild animals.

In Egypt, Joseph suffered many disappointments and years in jail. Finally, Pharaoh, the Egyptian king, elevated Joseph to his right-hand. God then revealed to Joseph a future seven year famine, and so Joseph made great preparations to store grain for the famine.

After enduring the famine for several years, Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to procure grain. It had been so many years, that the brothers didn’t recognize Joseph, and Joseph didn’t disclose himself to them. Instead, he imprisoned them, falsely accusing them of being spies. They protested that they weren’t, explaining that the father remained behind in Canaan with his now favorite and youngest son, Benjamin.

After three days, Joseph released them, keeping one brother in jail, and told them that if they didn’t return with their youngest brother - the one other son of Rachel, Jacob’s deceased beloved - they would never see Simeon again.

They returned to their father with the life-saving grain and explained that they would never be able to return for more without Benjamin. However, this famine persisted and Jacob relented, allowing Benjamin to accompany them. However, he warned that if Benjamin failed to return with them, he would surely die.

When they returned to Egypt, Joseph – his identity still remaining hidden – threw them a great banquet, while he remained distant from them. However, he purposely tried to incur their jealousy by giving Benjamin five times what he had given the brothers.

After they left with their packs filled with grain, Joseph’s servants caught up with them, accusing them of stealing Joseph’s silver goblet. They searched and found it in Benjamin’s pack. The servants therefore brought the brothers back before Joseph:

• Joseph said to them, "What is this you have done? Don't you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?"    "What can we say to my lord?" Judah replied. "What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants' guilt. We are now my lord's slaves-- we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup."  But Joseph said, "Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace." (Genesis 44:15-17) 

However, they knew that they couldn’t return home to their father without Benjamin. It would kill their father! Therefore, Judah pleaded:

• "Please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father." (Genesis 44:33-34) 

How different from the way they had treated Joseph many years before! They now were willing to sacrifice themselves for the favored son, Benjamin!

• Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it. (Genesis 45:1-2) 

Why hadn’t Joseph revealed himself earlier? He had wanted to. He had also wept on their first visit. He loved them and wanted to bring the entire family under his protection, but were they ready for receive such a blessing? Would they instead be consumed with jealousy as they had been before? If they weren’t ready, such a blessing would have been counter-productive. It would have enflamed their jealousy even more as they watched their beloved father fawning over Joseph.

However, they had now grown. They had learned “reverent submission” unto their father. Joseph had tried to inflame their jealousy over the favoritism he showed to Benjamin. However, this ploy failed to prevail over their devotion to their father.

When Joseph saw this, be broke down and revealed himself. However, he first had to send the Egyptians out of the room. They were not ready for such a revelation. Even then, the brothers were terrified.

Ask our Lord to provide for you a “reverent submission,” and He will grant it! It is His will to conform us into the image of His beloved Son. Just keep on asking!

The Passover: It’s Teachings on Justice, Equality and Mercy

The Passover is an expression of the “equality” of all of us before God. We are all sinners who require His mercy, if we hope to avoid condemnation and death. Israel’s Savior made this clear by requiring Israel to make a blood sacrifice so that death wouldn’t strike them as it would the Egyptians:

• “When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.” (Exodus 12:23)

Moses explained that without the blood of this substitutionary sacrifice, the “destroyer,” the angel of death, would also inflict upon Israel what Israel deserved – death. They too deserved to die for their sins. Moses then added an interpretative note:

• “When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.  And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” (12:25-27)

Moses explained that He “spared” Israel – that He had mercy on Israel and “passed over” them. Without the substitutionary blood on the doorposts, Israel would not have been spared. To reinforce the fact that Israel too deserved judgment, God required His people to understand they too deserved to die. Therefore, they were required to make a regular substitutionary offering in place of their own lives:

• “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’” (13:14-15)

Israel was required to buy back from God’s judgment their firstborn with an animal sacrifice. Instead, of them, the animal would pay the price for sin.

The Passover is an expression of equality in another way. Redemption was also open to the Egyptians. Those Egyptians who took God’s Word seriously were either able to avoid the effects of some of the plagues or even to join themselves to Israel (12:48-49).

However, today’s secularism wants to apply equality even further by eliminating any distinctions among humanity. Brian McLaren, a key writer of the Emergent Church movement, charges that:

• Christians have been taught to see in "us vs. them" terms for centuries, and it will take time to reorient faithful people in a new direction -- "us with them," working for the common good (Huffington Post Religion Blog, 2/19/03)

However, Scripture has always maintained a sharp distinction between the people of God and those who aren’t. The Passover also reflects this absolute distinction:

• There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. (11:6-7)

Is this kind of favoritism a violation of God’s just nature? No! For one thing, God has always stated or demonstrated that it is legitimate for Him to be merciful to those He chooses (Rom. 9:14-19). For another thing, we all live in a way that reflects such discriminate mercy. When we throw a party, we have no qualms about inviting only those we want to invite. If someone from the next town complains, “That isn’t fair. You should also have invited me,” you would simply point out that this has nothing to do with fairness but everything to do with our freedom to be kind to only those who we choose.

However, if we are a judge, we must apply the same principles of justice to all indiscriminately. But under this standard of justice, none of us deserve anything from God except condemnation (Rom. 6:23). Therefore, our only hope is in the mercy of God, not in the justice of God.

This might violate our current values, but there is nothing unjust about only being merciful to a select group of people. Nevertheless, God had made His mercy available to all. Any who sought to join His people could. In fact, when Israel left Egypt, they were joined by a “mixed multitude” (12:38) of people, presumably including Egyptians. Besides, there is no scriptural instance where someone who seriously wanted to join Israel was refused.

Instead, we must be free to extend discriminate mercy. If instead I am required to be merciful to all, I can be merciful to none. Instead, true mercy must begin at home with individuals, with those we favor. It is because I favor my children and wife that I can be compassionate and merciful to others who have wives and children. This is because I understand and value of discriminate mercy. If instead, I must be equally merciful to all, mercy will be consumed in a sea of sameness and sterility.

A lack of evidence was never the problem. Egypt had all the evidence. They experienced the 10 plagues of Israel’s God. This caused them to tremble before God and to have a great respect for Moses. However, this was not enough to incline them to accept Israel’s God.

The same was true of the vast number of the Canaanites. They had heard all about the miracles that God had performed for Israel (Joshua 2:10), but they remained unresponsive to this God with the exception of one prostitute.

The Gibeonites’ behavior reflected the deep darkness and rebellion in the heart of humanity. They too had been convinced by the evidence that God was with Israel (Joshua 9:9). However, they oddly decided to deceive the Israelites and to become their slaves rather than to receive their God and to become their brothers.

Does this make God unjust? The Egyptians had all the evidence in the world but instead chose to harden their hearts against God. Should God be required to be merciful to them? To the Canaanites? Many would say “yes.” However, they can only maintain such a position by denying that we are morally responsible agents. Instead, the Passover declares otherwise.

Islamophobia and the Reality of Jihad and Intolerance

Thanks to our support of the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic persecution of Christians in Egypt has accelerated. According to Open doors USA:

• Since the revolution of January 2011, levels of violence against Christians have increased. Salafi Muslim attacks on churches led to the massacre at Maspero where the military did nothing to protect Christians and even participated in the killings. In rural areas, Copts are constantly terrorized, while security forces turn a blind eye; Coptic girls are abducted and forced into Islamic marriages. Support for the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists is growing, but the army still retains power. 

We shouldn’t be surprised by this. The Brotherhood’s motto reads this way:

• Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.

This motto might help to explain the Islam-inspired violence found throughout the world. After all, warfare is holy - the means to force the infidel to submit to Islam. It also helps to explain Islam’s widespread intolerance towards other religions. Here is just a representative sampling culled from Open Doors USA:

• Isolated from the rest of the world because of its mainly desert landscape and because it is ruled by an oppressive regime, Mauritania is very proud to officially be a pure Muslim country. The constitution does not include any provisions for religious freedom and its laws prohibit conversion to Christianity. The sentence for apostasy is death. Pressure on Muslim-background believers from family, tribe members and leaders of local mosques is very high. There is some freedom for expat churches, but Mauritanian Christians must meet in secret.

Although Mauritania represents an extreme expression of Islam, it is not usual. Saudi Arabia, America’s “friend” is similar:

• There is no freedom of religion here. The legal system is based on Islamic law and conversion to another religion is punishable by death if the accused does not recant. Non-Muslim public worship is prohibited, and although the government recognizes the right of non-Muslims to worship privately, the religious police often do not. Worshippers risk imprisonment, deportation and torture. Most Christians are poorly paid foreign workers who are vulnerable to violence because of their faith. Two Indian believers were imprisoned in January 2011 for ‘converting Muslims to Christianity’.

This is just a very small sampling. Ironically, when we talk negatively about Islam, we are termed “Islamophobes” in the West. (In the Muslim world, where no criticism of Islam is tolerated, we might simply be beheaded.) Tragically, the question of whether or not Islam represents a significant threat is suppressed.

Here’s a good rule-of-thumb. If you want to know what your fiancée might be like in the future, just look at his father. The same advice might also pertain to Islam. If you want to gauge what Islam might look like in the West in a few more years, just look at Islam in the East!