Praising
Bible Text: Hebrews 5:1-10 and John 12:20-33 | Preacher: Rev. Bruce W. Kemp | Series: Praying by J.I. Packer
Over the last few weeks we have been following a path to prayer that the author says is more about a who-to than a how-to. But to get to that point where we are focused on the who-to we need some how-tos along the way. First he encouraged us to understand who is the God we want to pray to and then to understand that this is a God who does not just tell us who he is and what he can do but also a God who seeks to be in a real relationship to us. He wants to be a companion to us on this journey called life in general and our lives in particular. And he has chosen to reveal himself in three significant ways in order to help us gain an understanding of how we can relate to him – as a parent, as a visible companion in Jesus and as a spirit that can enter our hearts, minds and souls and bring us gifts of wisdom, peace, and hope.
So when we make the choice to have God as our companion and friend on this journey, we come to understand that we will never again travel the path alone. But we also come to understand that we can become distracted and veer off the path that God desires us to follow. But while following those distractions and by-paths we learn that God is ever calling out to us to come back to the real path. With a patience beyond our imagining, he continues to call us until once again we find ourselves back on the way.
All of this is really preparation for prayer because as we commit ourselves to being in a relationship with God, we are preparing to speak with God in a real and honest way and also preparing to listen to God speaking to us in a real and honest way. Remember that Packer said that a real friend does not respond to our wants and perceived needs simply because we believe them to be what we really need and want. A real friend understands the situation and the dynamics of our situation and responds in a way that shows a deep care and affection for us. A real friend wants the best for us even if the best may not seem like the best at the time. And if we really trust that friend, we will listen and accept what they say even if it is not what we want to hear.
But we can become distracted and we can find ourselves not really listening – perhaps because we have already made up our mind as to what we really want or need and have closed ourselves off to having a conversation or dialogue with our friend. Prayer is so much more than just closing our eyes and going through the motions. Prayer is our dialogue with the one with whom we will have an eternal relationship.
And so Packer encouraged us to consider brooding prayer or meditative prayer or contemplative prayer. He reminds us that meditation is as old as the creation of humanity and God ever encouraged people to meditate on his words and commandments. Finding our focus through brooding or meditative prayer is an opportunity to reflect on the Scriptures and begin to seek for a deeper understanding of what God has said to people throughout the ages. In this way we draw ourselves into a place where we not only better understand the one whom we are seeking to pray to but we also can begin to see more clearly the answers we need to the situations we face in our journey.
And so we come to the next element on this exploration of prayer: praising. C.S. Lewis came to believe in God as an adult. Once he made the decision, prayer became a big part of his life pattern. But Lewis also had lots of questions. He wondered: why does God, the God of the Bible, the God of Christianity, call on us to praise him? He said,” we all despise the man who demands continual assurance of his own virtue, intelligence, or delightfulness.” Did God want praise so that he could feel good about himself? Is a prayer of praise an opener so that we can get to the stuff that matters to us?
Lewis answered these questions in this way. We praise God not because God demands praise but because it is an expression of our gratitude for what God has done for us and in us. Praise is an active enjoyment of a renewed display of God’s active love. Our praise together in church as a body of God’s people is an expression of that gratitude corporately and helps to draw us into a deeper sense of the presence of God.
Our prayers of praise help us to once again declare audibly who God is and also can remind us of how we have distanced ourselves from our God. Our praise of God is to become a discipline for us and part of our regular spiritual nourishment or diet. The discipline of offering praise to God helps us to stay focused and remember not only the nature of our relationship to God but also the difference that that relationship can make in our everyday lives. When we come together in a corporate body to worship, the discipline of prayer and praise become more regular and we come to depend on one another to be there so that we might be encouraged. Praising God in prayer also needs to be a part of our overall communication with God as it helps us to find the balance that a good diet always brings. Then we come to recognize that to give praise to God is a duty in the sense that we owe it to our friend and companion to never forget the benefits we have from our relationship and it also becomes a delight when we truly appreciate that relationship, the love, the grace, and the forgiveness.
And now for the final answer as to why we give praise to God. We often say that we expect to be in heaven with God when this life is over. But when we get there, will we know what is expected of us? C.S. Lewis says that the praises we offer here, our times spent in corporate worship as well as our individual times of prayer are all preparation for us to be able to continue to praise God in heaven. We teach our children to read, to write, to take care of themselves in so many ways and encourage them to practice these things so that when they become adults, they can continue to take care of themselves. In a similar way, we are taught by the generations that precede us how to offer praise to God, how to sing praises to God, how to become disciplined in prayer, that we might know and never forget how to be a thankful people.
I have mentioned many times the experience I had in Morrisburg back in the 1980s. A coming together of Christians who had chosen different expressions of faith and were in different worshiping communities of faith and yet could come together as one body to offer praise and prayer to God and encourage and support one another. That experience taught me much about the importance of praise as prayer and prayer as praise. It showed me that even in our diversity we could find unity when we chose to adopt the discipline and diet of praise to God.
Clearly there are many elements to prayer and many things to learn and consider but above all may we remember this. Everything we do, everything we say is to be done to the glory of God and to the further development of our relationship to him both individually and corporately.
AMEN