Week 22—Friday Luke 18:9-14
Week 22—FRIDAY
“SPEECHES BY WAY OF PRAYERS”
Jesus pointed to another outwardism: “Again, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; they love to say their prayers standing up in synagogue and at the street-corners, for everyone to see them. I tell you this: they have their reward already” (Matt. 6:5-6, NEB). Praying to God to be heard of people! A newspaper reports: “Dr. So and So prayed one of the most eloquent prayers ever delivered to a Boston audience.” And it was delivered to a Boston audience—that was its intended destination. In India a Hindu, Muslim, and a Christian were to pray at a public function, and the program announced it thus: “Speeches by way of prayers.” That was more frank than usual!
Then Jesus goes on and says: “In your prayers do not go babbling on like the heathen, who imagine that the more they say the more likely they are to be heard” (Matt. 6:7, NEB). I saw widows in a certain institution repeating the name of one of the gods for six solid hours continuously, and I never saw such blank faces on any group of human beings. The “babbling” produced no bubbling as real prayer does.
Jesus then gave the Lord’s Prayer, which is prayer reduced to its simplest and profoundest form—all adjectives squeezed out, and the words and reality coincide and are one. The self-regarding emphasis is precluded by the first word, “Our.” So the prayer is self-purifying by its very nature.
And to remind his disciples of the very necessity of making the prayer an embodiment of attitudes toward others, Jesus turned back and said, “But if you do not forgive others, then the wrongs you have done will not be forgiven by your Father” (Matt. 6:15, NEB). Prayer is the word of request become flesh, or it is mere words. So real prayer to God is a revelation of our attitudes toward others.
Dear Savior, you save us by purifying our very prayers. You show us how to pray for answerable things. So our prayers become your prayers, hence all answerable. You redeem our lowest moments and our highest. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: “At forty a person’s face reveals what the person’s life prayer is.”