Prayer

When Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray, he recites this exemplary prayer as a kind of template for their prayers:

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.
Matt. 6:9-13 (NIV)

Many know and are familiar with the Lord’s prayer. This prayer can instruct us on our journey from apathy to advocacy. Indeed, one of the very first things we ask in this Lord’s prayer is that God’s will would be done in the world like it is in heaven. This request, coming at the very beginning of the prayer, aligns our hearts with God’s heart. By asking God that His will be done, spiritual conditions are created for our own passions to be realigned so that, as the seeds of this prayer grow in us over time, we become more and more devoted to God’s coming kingdom. By placing this request at the beginning of the prayer, it’s almost like Jesus is emphasizing how important it is. We should be asking God to grow his kingdom of healing, justice, and love in the world all the time!

But Jesus’ instructions come with a warning as well:

And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Matt 6:5-6 (NIV)

Jesus warns his disciples (and us) to not pray “like the hypocrites.” He almost seems to be recalling the empty rituals that Isaiah criticized so strongly (Isa. 1:13-17). Jesus is pointing to the ways we misuse prayer, to be seen, to be heard, to tend to our reputations. When we pray this way, we don’t make our hearts available to God. We embrace our apathy. As Isaiah wrote, our hands can be lifted in prayer, but if they are covered in blood (truly, a shocking image), God does not listen.

Exercise:

Write a prayer and ask God to open your eyes to injustice and to move against injustice and oppression. Ask him in your own words that his will would win out in the world around you and in your heart. Then pray your prayer in secret, honestly, and with a heart open to change.