1 - Intro Patterns for Prayer
Yeshua’s “Avinu” אבינו
(Our Father)
His Patterns for Prayer
From Matthew 6, the Sermon on the Mount.
Yeshua had just finished the 40 days of testing in the wilderness (Matt 4). He called the first disciples, started traveling all over Galilee and healing people, then (by popular demand) gave an open-air sermon mount, in the location of the picture below in Matthew 5
In this remarkable message He tells us
How to be blessed in this life
How to be a light in this world
To keep the Law and follow the prophets (often discounted Matt 5:17-19
To ask forgiveness and be reconciled with others
What is Prayer?
It's simple
Then this: He gives us a simple pattern on how to pray. Why? Because it may not be obvious. The roots of prayer are simple but they were muddied in complexities layered on by “religious” practice.. Today as well? How did this simple act of one person talking to God become complicated.
Why a Prayer?
A request we entrust to God
This is the first “prayer” in scripture, where someone asks God for something.
Genesis 32:1 Now as Jacob went on his way, the angels of God met him… (then the messengers come and tell him Esau is coming his way with 400 men, and he says to God…actually it is the first use of the word PRAY in scripture… )
Genesis 32:11 Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.
Prayer: this is the first use of “Prayer” in scripture. the word here is not “pray” or “prayer” it is simply, “please”. Jacob says: הצילני נא “hatzilayni na”, “save me, please”. A simple conversation with God, asking “please” to our Deliverer.
Prayer is a two letter word: נא
When Moses prays to be led by God –
Exodus 33:13-18 13 Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. Consider too, that this nation is Your people.” 14 And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 Then he said to Him, “If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. 16 For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the earth?”
17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” 18 Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”
להתפלל = l’heetpallel = to pray (verb)
תפילה = t’feelah = prayer (noun)
תפילין = t’fillin = the prayer wrappings orthodox Jews use.
I found the most fascinating article on “The Science of Prayer” in that most spiritual of publications, the Wall Street Journal. I cut and pasted it because WSJ is a paid subscription. I am linking it here (ctrl clik), the comments are particularly helpful too. It is written by an author with a Jewish name who is in a crisis, her father in a life threatening health event in the hospital and wants to pray but tells “doesn’t know how”. A nurse teachers her right there in the hall, on the spot. It kindles in her a wonderful search, both in the science and the art of faith.
“not all prayer is created equal, experts say. A 2004 study on religious coping methods in the Journal of Health Psychology found that people who approach God as a partner, or collaborator, in their life had better mental- and physical-health outcomes, and people who are angry at God—who feel punished or abandoned—or who relinquish responsibility and defer to God for solutions had worse outcomes.”
Yeshua did not have a subscription to the WSJ but he knew that “not all prayers are created equally. Prayer was something that you can learn. He gave a pattern, that is wholly based in Jewish scripture. It requires us merely t’fillin the blanks… fill in your prayer needs, your na “please, God” items below…
How to Pray?
It's a pattern (or can be). No shame in using a guide, an outline, a form.
Here is Yeshua’s PATTERN FOR PRAYER, His Avinu prayer. OUR FATHER
Matthew 6: 9 “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.’
Comments
Post a Comment