Christmas Blessings from Unexpected Sources--Luke 2:22-38

            Our news outlets are all abuzz these days with stories about who the President-elect is appointing for various government positions. Everyone is asking, “Who does he want by his side? Who is he selecting to help him carry out his plans? Who does he believe he can trust?”

            As people who desire to serve God and do his will, we would do well to ask the same kind of questions about him. Who does he know he can trust? What kind of people does he select to help him carry out his plans? If we want to be used by him, what kind of people should we be?

            We’re going to answer those questions today by looking at a couple of lesser-known characters in the Christmas story – a godly man named Simeon, and a devoted prophetess named Anna. These believers make only a brief appearance on stage in the Christmas story, but even that brief appearance is enough to illustrate for us what kind of person God delights to use to do his will.

We find their story in Luke 2:22-38. Before we jump right into that text, let me put these stories into context for you by pointing out two striking features of the first two chapters of Luke’s Gospel.

Two Striking Features of Luke 1-2

            The first striking feature of these chapters is that God is communicating. Now you might think, “What’s so striking or unusual about that?” It’s striking because of the historical timeframe of these events in Luke 1-2.

            These events mark the end of a 400-year span of time that is known as “The Silent Period,” because during that time, God had not been giving any new communication to mankind. Many people don’t realize this, but 400 years elapsed between the time of Malachi (the last prophet of the Old Testament) and the birth of Jesus. During those years, God had not sent any more prophets to the people of Israel – as even the Jewish people acknowledged in their own historical documents!

            So for all of those years, there had been no new communication or revelation from God. Then all of a sudden, there was a great burst of communication from God to his people, as we read about in these chapters. We read about three angelic visitations to various people, and we read about several people being moved by the Holy Spirit to make prophetic statements. So out of silence, there is all of a sudden a great burst of communication.

            The second striking feature about these chapters is that God is communicating through and to people whom their society would not have expected to hear from God. Every character we meet in these chapters was one or two steps down the social ladder of their time. Whether it was their age, their income level, their occupation, their marital status, or a physical defect, every one of them had some factor in their lives that would have placed them in a lower social standing in the eyes of other people.

            Yet here they are, hearing from God and being called to play important roles in the fulfillment of God’s plan. What was it about these people that caught the attention of God? Why were they entrusted with the parts that they played?

            The common denominator that unites all of these characters is obedience to the commands of God. Even though their obedience may have been imperfect – as in the case of Zechariah, who doubted the words of the angel – it was nevertheless genuine and from the heart. So we learn, then, that it is obedience that God looks for when he selects those whom he will use to carry out his plans. We see this obedience exemplified clearly in the lives of Simeon and Anna, so let’s take a look now at their stories.

The Story of Simeon

            Speaking of obedience, the stories of Simeon and Anna come about because of the obedience of Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary. They crossed paths with Simeon and Anna when they obediently went to the Temple to carry out everything that the Law of Moses called them to do. Let’s read about this [READ 2:22-24].

            Let’s briefly make sure we understand these details of the Old Testament Law. When a child was born in a Jewish family, the parents were to appear at the Temple after a certain period of time to offer sacrifices to the Lord. The Law called for them to offer a lamb and a pigeon or a dove. If they were poor, however, they could offer two birds instead of one bird and a lamb. We can see in verse 24, then, that Joseph and Mary were giving the offering that was allowed for poorer folks.

            Now if the child was a firstborn son, a special financial offering was also supposed to be given. Firstborn sons had been given a special place in Israel ever since God used the deaths of the firstborn sons of Egypt to free the children of Israel from slavery.

            So Joseph and Mary had come to the Temple to comply with everything that the Law of the Lord had called them to do. Their obedience brought them into contact with a godly man named Simeon [READ vv. 25-26].

            Let’s make sure we don’t overlook this token of kindness from the Lord. God did not have to make any promise like this to Simeon. His plans could’ve rolled along just fine whether Simeon was alive to see any of it or not. But God kindly blessed Simeon with the opportunity to see the beginning of the salvation that Simeon had desired to see for so long.

            Simeon responded by praising the Lord and giving testimony about God’s promise [READ vv. 27-32]. Those final statements reveal that Simeon truly did know God well. He understood something that many of his countrymen struggled to understand – that the coming of God’s chosen one, the Messiah, was not just a gift for the Jewish people but for the entire world. Simeon knew that even the Gentiles were loved by God, so they too stood to benefit from the coming of Jesus.

            But this was not all that Simeon had to say, and his next words would take on a rather somber tone [READ vv. 33-35]. Wow – those are some heavy words to hear, aren’t they? No wonder we don’t find these words of Simeon on the front of Hallmark cards around this time of year!

            Yet perhaps we should remind ourselves of these words around Christmas, and perhaps we should encourage others to take heed of them as well. During the Christmas season, we tend to emphasize nothing but happiness, nothing but joy. But the Christmas narratives in the Bible are not so exclusive. The Bible will not let us forget for a moment that the blessed baby of Bethlehem is also the crucified Christ of Calvary.

            Jesus did not come into this world just so we could have a holiday about a cute baby. He came so that the thoughts of the hearts of mankind might be revealed. It is a very humbling thing to have the true nature of your heart revealed, and so naturally, we are going to respond one of two ways to this – we will either trust Jesus and embrace him to save us from the sinfulness of our hearts, or we will reject him and oppose what his teachings reveal about us.

            That is what Simeon meant by “the fall and rising of many in Israel.” For some people, Jesus has become the cause of stumbling and a fall into the disaster of rejecting God. For others, he is the one and only reason that we have arisen from underneath the burden of sin and stand confidently before the Lord today as his forgiven children.

            This is the message that we must proclaim all throughout the year – Christmastime included! The Holy Spirit knew exactly what he was doing to move Simeon to speak those words at that time, and he has preserved them for us in precisely this place so that we will know from the very beginning of Jesus’ story that we must make a choice of how we will respond to him.

Simeon responded with praise, because he was a man who was already obedient to God. Anna was just the same, so let’s read about her response now.

The Story of Anna

            [READ vv. 36-37]. These details highlight just how devoted Anna truly was. She had made a decision early in her life to devote herself to worship, fasting, prayer, and undoubtedly serving others as well.

            She was widowed from a very young age. Luke tells us that she had lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin. Jewish girls at that time typically got married when they were around 13 years old, so we can guess that Anna was around 20 when she became a widow.

            What a difficult thing to deal with so early in life! Anna could’ve chosen to get remarried and there would’ve been nothing wrong with that choice at all. But instead, she decided to devote herself to worshiping God, and she invested her life and that purpose for 64 years.

            You can imagine her joy, then, when she learned that the Savior had been born. Let’s see how she responds [READ v. 38]. Anna the prophetess became one of the first evangelists, we might say. And notice who she spoke to – “all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

            That phrase highlights an important principle for how to be the kind of person whom God uses to carry out his plans. How do we follow in the footsteps of such faithful people as Simeon and Anna? Where did they find the spiritual strength to be righteous and devout, and to serve the Lord with such devotion for decades on end?

            We find that the key lies in eagerly anticipating the fulfillment of God’s plans. Notice how verse 25 said of Simeon that he was, “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” And in verse 38, we read that Anna was among those who were, “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Those phrases both refer to the plans that God had revealed in the Old Testament. Simeon and Anna believed the word of God, and they knew that if God said something was going to happen, it was as good as done! So in that confidence, they anxiously prepared themselves to be ready for the fulfillment of God’s plans.

            That’s the kind of active response that Luke has in mind when he says that these two godly saints were “waiting.” This is not the kind of waiting we do when we are on hold on the telephone with the insurance company – where impatience builds with every moment and our attitude sours and we begin to lose confidence that someone is ever going to pick up.

            No, we’re talking about the kind of waiting that children do on Christmas morning when grandma and grandpa are coming over with presents. This is “standing by the window” kind of waiting; this is “so anxious I can barely stand it” kind of waiting. This is when we are so confident that God will fulfill his promises that we shape our lives to make sure we are ready when that day comes so we don’t miss out on the tiniest blessing that we otherwise could have had if we had been ready.

            That is the kind of waiting that can sustain us until the day comes when God fulfills his promises. It’s the kind of waiting that the prophet Isaiah referred to when he wrote, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:28-31).”

            If the holiday of Christmas teaches us anything at all, it teaches us that God keeps his word! He said he would send a savior, and he did. He also has said that Jesus will come again to this world, and so he will. So we must ask ourselves, “Am I ready?” We prepare ourselves for that day by embracing Jesus as our Savior from sin by faith, and then as God’s adopted children, we live in obedience to his commands so that we will be fully prepared for Christ’s return, without any reason for shame and anxiously awaiting his kind rewards and the blessing of living with him.

Your Greatest Allies in Prayer--Life with God Series

            Teachers and their students have a rather ironic relationship when you think about it. On the one hand, teachers are given the responsibility of enforcing the academic standards of the classroom. They are the ones who test the students and evaluate them, and ultimately they are the ones who give the students a grade.

            But on the other hand, teachers are also the ones who give their students the most help to meet the academic standards of the classroom. They are their students’ greatest resource and biggest supporters at the school. So at the very same time, teachers are enforcing the standards and giving their students the most help in meeting those standards. That’s kind of ironic, don’t you think?

            In a similar way, we also see this irony in prayer. God, of course, is the one whom we pray to, asking him to hear our appeals, but as we are going to learn today, he is also the one who gives us the most help in prayer. So as we make our appeals to him, he is – at the very same time – the one who gives us the most help in offering our prayers.

            Today we will see how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each work in various ways to encourage us to pray and to help us overcome the general weakness that hounds us as we journey through a fallen world. We can be very encouraged today to see just how much God assists us so that we might pray!

We will look at each of the members of the Trinity in turn.

1. The Father draws us into prayer through His kindness

            To see this truth, we can review some of what we learned last week in Matthew 6:7-8. In those verses, Jesus contrasted the way that the Gentiles prayed with the way that we should pray. The Gentiles had no particular reason to think that their gods cared about them, but we enjoy a very different relationship with our God. He is actually our father, as Jesus reminds us in verse eight, and when we remember how he sent his own son to die for us so that he might forgive us and adopt us as his own children, we have reason to believe that God’s ears are open to our prayers because of the kindness of his heart.

            So when my mind says, “Do you really think God will care about what I pray?”, my spirit can say, “Yes, because I am his child, and he has shown such a great love to create this relationship.” So God’s kind love draws us to pray to him by convincing us that he cares and that he really will consider what we have to say.

Since we spent a little more time on that last week, let’s move on now to see how the Son helps us in prayer.

2. The Son leads us into prayer through His sympathy and intercession

            To learn more about this truth, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews. If you’ve ever wondered, “What is Jesus up to right now?”, the book of Hebrews tells us about one of his present-day activities. In the early chapters of this book, we learn that Jesus is in heaven serving as our high priest before the Father. That is a very rich image from the Old Testament, but today we might be a little more familiar with the idea of an ambassador or advocate – someone who represents our interests in the presence of an authority figure.

            This is one way in which Jesus is helping us right now. Notice how Hebrews 2:14-18 describes this [READ Heb 2:14-18]. Jesus knows what it’s like to deal with the weakness of a human body. He understands the temptation to be grouchy when you haven’t had enough sleep, or to be impatient when someone makes one more request of you after you’re already worn out. He understands these things because he has been through them, too.

            The author of Hebrews picks up this theme again in 4:14-16 [READ 4:14-16]. How wonderful that Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses! He has been through the same struggles that we’ve faced, so he can serve as a merciful advocate. This should give us great encouragement to pray to God.

            Don’t we all find ourselves less than enthusiastic sometimes to talk to people who haven’t been through the things we’ve been through? We don’t feel very eager to talk to someone when we think that they just can’t understand what we’ve experienced. We may still labor through a conversation, but it’s likely to be hindered because of those feelings.

            Sometimes as we walk through life in this fallen world and we consider prayer, we find ourselves thinking, “What does God know about pain and suffering? He’s way off, somewhere up there in heaven being worshiped by angels. How could he really understand what I’m going through?”

            It is for that very reason that the Bible reminds us about the experiences and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and tells us that he is right there in the presence of the Father to sympathize with us and to intercede for us.

            Consider the variety of hardships that Jesus faced in his life, and consider if he can understand what you have been through. He likely lived in a level of poverty that none of us has ever experienced. If our historical research today is correct, he grew up in a home that was carved out of a cave – literally a hole in the ground! Every one of us lives in great comfort compared to that!

            Also, from the biblical story, we have very good reason to think that Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, died during Jesus’ lifetime. Jesus would know, then, what it is like to feel the grief of losing a parent.

            Jesus also knows what its like to be misunderstood and opposed by your own family. We read a couple of times in the Gospels that his brothers thought he was crazy and tried to bring him back home from preaching all over the countryside.

            Jesus knows what it is like to live under the heavy hand of an oppressive government; he knows what it is like to pay unfair taxes; he knows what it is like to receive injustice at the hands of a judicial system; he knows what it is like to be stolen from; he knows what it’s like to be betrayed by your best friend; he knows what it’s like to face public humiliation.

            Do you remember that he even knows what it’s like to feel abandoned by God? As he bore our sins on the cross, there was that fateful moment when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Perhaps in that moment, Jesus felt the full weight of the Father’s anger toward sin. He would know what it’s like, then, to feel that God Himself is opposed to you.

            And let us not forget what the author of Hebrews emphasized—Jesus has experienced every kind of temptation that we have. So when we speak to God in prayer, we know that we have a great high priest in Jesus Christ—an advocate who truly understands what we’re going through because he’s been there. Since God did not remain distant from the pain of this world but stepped down into it and experienced it, he is sympathetic toward our needs and is able to commiserate with us.

3. The Holy Spirit helps us in prayer to overcome our weakness

            In Romans 8, we learn about an incredible ministry that the Holy Spirit performs to help us in prayer. Beginning in Romans 8:18, the Apostle Paul discusses the tension that we feel between the sufferings of this present time and the glory that awaits us as children of God. According to Paul, the glory that is to be revealed is incomparable, but at the present time our souls ache and groan because we live under the curse of sin.

            Our natural limitations as creatures are only exaggerated by the effects of sin on our bodies and our minds, and so in this sense we live in a general state of weakness. Should we despair, then, because of our weakness? No—just look here at verse 26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.”

            Now, I don’t believe Paul is saying, “Shame on you! You should know better than to ask for the things you ask for.” No, I think he’s saying that we cannot always know what to pray for. We pray according to the best of our knowledge, but our knowledge is limited. Sometimes this life can be so disorienting that we don’t even know where to begin when we speak to God. We don’t know whether to ask for this or to ask for that.

            There’s certainly nothing wrong with praying for the things we desire to have come about, but in our limited knowledge, we just don’t know exactly what God’s plan will be. Before I ever met Carmen, I spent a whole summer praying that a certain girl would become my wife. We were good friends, and I’d heard from some mutual friends that she was interested in me, so I had some high hopes. During that summer, I can remember frequently taking walks in the evening, praying that God would bring us together and anticipating what that would be like, because I had high confidence that God would grant my request.

            Well, when the school year started up, we reconnected and re-kindled our friendship. After about three weeks, I asked her out on a date, and would you know that I didn’t even get one date with that girl? She politely declined, and I asked her if this was a “no” for now or a “no” for good, and she said it was a “no” for good.

            I couldn’t believe it! I had prayed about it for months, and I thought it would be a great match, but God declined that request because he had a different plan in mind.

            Now, I didn’t know that, and I couldn’t have known that, so should we just give up on prayer, then, because of this confusion? No, we can offer our prayers and trust in what the Spirit will do for us. Continued reading in v. 26—“but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

            Just think of this grace and sympathy—the Holy Spirit supplements our prayers to bring them into accord with the will of God. He speaks up for us even when we don’t know what to say, or when we might say something amiss.

            Since I’ve had children, I’ve come to learn that I can often understand what they’re trying to say even when other people can’t. I know how they say things and when they might mix up certain words, so if they’re talking to someone else and not getting through, I can usually step in and say, “Here’s what they were trying to say.”

            Perhaps that’s how we should think of the Holy Spirit’s help for us. As we struggle to communicate our desires to God or the depths of our grief, the Holy Spirit intercedes and says, “Here’s what they’re really trying to say.”

            If I could put all of God’s help for us in prayer into one picture, I think it would look like this—the Father stands out in front of us, calling us through kindness to come to him in prayer. As he calls, Jesus stands beside us and takes us by the arm, saying, “Yes! I’ve been where you are. This is the right step to take. Go to him and you’ll find mercy and grace.” Behind us, with a hand on our shoulder, ready to steady us, is the Holy Spirit, saying, “Go ahead. Don’t worry—I’ll help you!”

            Though we appeal to God in prayer, he is the very one who gives us the most help for our prayers. So don’t decline his kind-hearted call to ask, seek, and knock. Don’t think that he can’t understand, because Jesus can—and He does! Don’t worry if you’re not entirely settled on what to say, because the Holy Spirit will help you. Let us take advantage of this great outpouring of help from the Lord.

Speaking to God in Prayer--Life with God Series

            When I play board games, I’m the kind of person who likes to play as an individual. If a game is designed for me to have a teammate, that’s fine—I can live with that. But sometimes, I find myself at a gathering that has 12 people, but we have a board game that only allows for four players. Now what? Some of you don’t mind just pairing up with another person, but I would rather bow out and watch everyone else play than play with someone as a team.

            The reason for that is pretty silly, to be honest—when I think I have a winning strategy, I get so stubborn that I don’t want to have to work with anyone else! They may not see the obvious superiority of my strategy, and they may have the audacity to suggest a different plan!

            Playing a board game as an individual is one thing, but there are some activities in life that simply require partnership and cooperation. Communication is definitely in that category. We’ve all been in one-sided conversations before, and we can all attest that they are a far cry from real communication. Communication truly is a two-way street; it involves sharing and receiving. If only one person is truly interested or active in a conversation, communication simply will not take place.

            In the last couple of weeks, we’ve learned that God communicates to us through the Bible. Today, we’re going to start talking about how we communicate to God, and that is through prayer. Along with obedience, prayer forms a major part of how we respond to what God communicates to us in the Bible.

            Since prayer does form a major part of our response to God, it’s just like God to give us plenty of teaching about it in the Bible. Today, we’re going to start taking a look at the model prayer that Jesus gave us which we often call “The Lord’s Prayer.” We’ll take a close look at the Lord’s lead-in to that prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, and in that lead-in we will find the roots of fruitful praying.

The Roots of Fruitful Praying

            If I had to sum it up, I would say that the roots of fruitful praying are to pray in a manner that fits with what our God is like. We must pray in a way that is befitting the kind of character that God has, as He has revealed it to us through His promises and actions. In that light, we find two attitudes in Matthew 6:7-8 that could give us a disease in the very roots of our prayer lives if we don’t watch out for them.

Diseased Attitudes About Prayer

1. God can be manipulated into answering my prayers

            Notice the warning that Jesus gives us in Matthew 6:7 – “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Let me focus here not so much on what these non-Jewish people did, but on what they thought – they thought their prayers would be heard because of their own actions. Their confidence for answered prayer was not in their god, but in whether or not they did things in the proper way.

            In this case, Jesus highlighted the practice of offering long, drawn-out prayers, but the actions could be anything. He could’ve mentioned offering the proper sacrifices or demonstrating sorrow in a visible way like cutting yourself, because those were also common practices among the Gentiles.

            This attitude toward prayer is a hallmark of false religion. There are many examples of this notion that I can make my prayers effective by my own actions. Consider the Muslim habit of prayer, for example. They believe that their prayers will be effective if they offer them at precisely the right times of day, facing the proper direction, and with the proper order of standing, kneeling, and bowing. Or we could consider Hindu practices, such as crawling for miles to a temple in order to show your sorrow over your sins.

            Whenever I start to think that I can force God’s hand by something that I do, I am catching a disease at the roots of my prayer life. Yet it’s very easy to slip into this mindset. I might think to myself, “If I just get down on my knees and stay there until my knees are raw and my back aches, then God will see how serious I am about this prayer business, and he will answer my prayer.” Or I might think, “If I can just work myself into tears about this, then God will see how desperately I desire this request, and he will give it to me.”

            I have a friend who preached at a church one time, and during the course of the service he prayed a prayer from the pulpit. After the service, the elders of that church were furious with him because he didn’t end his prayer in the way that they thought was necessary. They told him that he had to end his prayer with, “In Jesus name I pray.” They thought his prayer wouldn’t be effective with any other ending.

            My friends, let me be clear about this – when God grants us what we request, it is not because of anything we have done, but simply because of what God is like. He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He is willing to answer prayer because he is good, not because we have made him cry “Uncle!” by using the right postures or the right phrases.

Remembering what God is really like is the key to avoiding the second diseased attitude.

2. God needs to be convinced to care about me

            The Lord continued his teaching on prayer by saying this in verse eight: “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” In their religions, the Gentiles had no reason to think that their gods really cared about them. Perhaps their gods kept tabs on them, but there wasn’t really a notion of personal concern or affection.

            For that reason, their prayers were more like uninvited interruptions, and if you’re going to interrupt your god and make a request, it had better be good, right? You had better speak eloquently, or you better offer lots of compliments. Or better yet, you might try to butter him up by offering some gifts or making some vows.

            But what a drastically different situation we face when we pray to the true and living God – the God of the Bible! As Jesus reminds us here, he is our Father, and one way he demonstrates that is by keeping up with our needs – anticipating them and knowing them before we even realize that we have them!

            When we go to God in prayer, we are like a weary traveler who stops at a home to ask for shelter only to find that the table has already been set for our arrival! The bedsheets have already been turned down in expectation of our visit! Prayer is not a means to convince God to care about us because he already does!

            When we feel like God needs to be convinced to care about us, the result is that we will not pray about very many things. We will consider most things to be too insignificant to merit God’s attention, so we won’t pray about them. Consequently, we will miss out on a multitude of opportunities for God to strengthen our faith by showing his faithfulness through his compassion and care.

            We know God cares about the “big” problems in our lives. We know he cares when we are diagnosed with a devastating disease, or when we receive that eviction notice – but does he still care when we’ve lost our car keys for the third time in a week and we have to get to an appointment? Should we think that we have an invitation to pray even about that, or should we feel like it would be an interruption?

            I’ve certainly had my ups and downs with battling this prayer disease, but I can tell you that when I have chosen to pray to God about the “little” things, he has so often delighted my heart by showing me that he cares. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed that we could find a child’s blanky at bedtime! And you know what? We still have their blankies!

            I remember a time a few summers ago when I was briefly working for Matthew over at United Suppliers. I was driving a delivery truck, and I usually had to leave pretty early in the morning to make my deliveries. On one particular morning I arrived at the warehouse and for some reason, my key simply would not unlock the door! It was like someone had changed the lock; I just couldn’t get in.

            Because it was so early, I didn’t want to call Matthew and bother him, so I said a prayer something like this: “Lord, I really don’t want to have to bother Matthew right now, but our customers need this delivery. Would you please help me get into the building?” I don’t know if an angel came and straightened out my key or something, but I put it back in the lock, and that knob turned as if it had just been freshly oiled!

            When we fail to pray about the little things, we miss out on so many opportunities for God to show his concern and to build our faith. God cares about you, and he even cares about the little details of life. You don’t have to convince him to care, so go to him with all of your concerns.

Now that we have dismissed these diseased attitudes about prayer, we might be left asking ourselves…

What is Prayer All About?

            If prayer is not a way to make God work for me, what is it all about? If it’s not a method to convince God to care about me (since he already does!), then what is its purpose? If it’s not even a tool to inform God about my needs (since he already knows them), then what is it really for? By remembering that prayer is part of a cycle of communication, I think we can readily see one purpose.

1. It is a way to express my love to God

            Even if you know that someone loves you deeply, it’s still good to hear it again, isn’t it? And even if I’ve expressed it to my loved ones a thousand times, it’s still good for me to say it again – “I love you!” Expressing your love has an interesting way of expanding your love. When you express your love to God, it reinforces that love and builds it.

            When you pause to pray, that choice communicates that you value your relationship with God. Even if you don’t speak the words “I love you,” your actions demonstrate it. Expressing love is a healthy and vital part of any relationship, and prayer is one of the ways that you can express your love to God.

And when we think about what God wants to build in our lives, I think we can see another purpose for prayer.

2. It is a way to express and cultivate humility in my heart

            Whenever you pray to God to thank him for something or ask him for something, that act is a tacit admission that you cannot live this life on your own. Praying to God reveals that you understand your need for him; praying to him even about the little things in life demonstrates that you know you need his power and intervention every moment of the day.

            Perhaps more than anything, a lack of prayer should be seen as a symptom not of busyness or forgetfulness, but of pride. When I do not pray frequently, my actions express that I believe I can make it through most of life just fine on my own. In those moments, I am treating God more like a safety net than a shepherd, as if he is simply something for me to fall on when I’m in trouble rather than a kind master whom I have to trust for every need in my life.

            I’m starting to think that the main reason that God answers prayer is this – because prayer expresses humility, and God has promised to give grace to the humble. James and the Apostle Peter both remind us that God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Because God is good, he delights to respond with kindness and grace toward those who humbly approach him.

            Why would we ever hesitate to pray to a God like that? Why should we ever doubt whether he cares about the things that concern us? He has given us this wonderful way to express our love and our humility to him. May we not be negligent to use it!