Alone With God
Dr. Larry Thorson
Scripture: Matthew 6:5-13
5 "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. 6 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. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like
pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not
be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 "This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your
name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'
Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Today we’re going to talk about being alone with
God. If prayer is simply talking to God,
why can’t you just toss up prayers during the day in random sorts of ways as
circumstances unfold that you need help with? The answer is you can. God absolutely,
positively hears those prayers.
I’ll pray in the middle of trying to get to a
meeting on time, Lord, please help me find a parking space. And behold, the parked car in front of me
leaves and there is a space, sparkling in the sunlight and I am saved! Or I
might pray, God, help me not to have to go to this meeting at all, and glory, the
meeting for that day is cancelled.
You can operate this way. It doesn’t always work.
Sometimes it does—sort of like a coin toss. But it kind of reminds me of when Martha
and I were trying to work out our schedules with our kids when they were
younger. I remember once when, for an extended period of time, our
conversations had been nothing but: You pick up Eric and drop off Kari… OK and
I’ll get Kari to dance after something else.
OK and then I have a meeting tonight so I won’t be home for dinner…And
someone needs to get the dog from the vet. He needs special prescription drops.
Get those…don’t forget because if you don’t give them to him he’ll throw up all
over the new carpet.
In that kind of situation you can feel like you’re
in the same room but not feel very connected to one another. We’d been talking,
but it was all about functionality—not about us. That’s when we went to dinner
and had a long conversation—just the two of us, spent time, got reconnected,
and found each other again, being alone with one another.
The disciples had seen Jesus being alone with God praying.
But he did it differently than other rabbis. He seemed to have an intimate and
personal relationship with God instead of this obligatory and rote relationship.
So they went to Jesus and said, “Teach us to pray.”
Jesus was very specific with them…“Go into your
closet,” He told them. “and close the door.” How many
of you have a closet? I do, but I get a little claustrophobic in it. Scripture doesn’t say Jesus went into a
literal closet either. It does say Jesus
went into the wilderness to be alone and sometimes He prayed all night. Find a place to pray that is quiet and
remote, away from people. Find a place where you can shut out noise and
distraction and do your praying there. I
knew one pastor who said the bathroom was the only room in her house where she
could get away.
Getting away from people is harder for extroverts
than for introverts. Extroverts get their energy from being with people. So the
idea of being alone with an invisible God is not particularly appealing. It’s
hard to spend periods of time alone, but there are some things extroverts can
do to help. Maybe putting on music, or reading the Scripture aloud, or praying
aloud, or even writing letters to God…taking a prayer walk can be very helpful
in terms of making alone-time with God work for you.
I’ve noticed that if I just shoot up prayers
during the day, they often have an awful lot to do with me. They start with me,
and end with me. (Help ME! Spare ME!) And if that’s what you do…that’s what you
do. But do we go deeper? How do we grow closer to God? How do we experience
intimacy with Jesus?
Jesus seems to be saying that there is a way to go
deeper if you want it, in prayer. There is a way to explore new vistas, and
have new doors open to you spiritually, if you intentionally set aside a time
and a place to be alone with God.
It’s kind of like the difference between me
swimming and my son swimming. Eric used
to swim competitively and works as a lifeguard in the summer. When the Valley-Wide pool is open he has to
be there, at a certain time, at a certain place every day, and he trains in the
pool to improve his skills.
I can swim. I slap around in the water and can
swim a lap or two…But I don’t have the muscle strength to go into the deep
water with him and do a mile. I’m an
occasional recreational swimmer. What
happens when your prayer life becomes a by-product of circumstance or
occasional recreation is that when you hit the deep waters of life…you’re apt
to sink.
We might say “Well, God sure didn’t come through
on that one.” So am I giving up on this prayer thing? I asked and asked and
nothing happened. What good is prayer anyway? What’s going to happen is going
to happen. God doesn’t care. God isn’t there. How many of you have prayed for
something that didn’t happen… Or hasn’t happened yet? I think we’ve all had
that experience.
So I need to ask you…what if prayer was something
more than simply getting our requests answered? Jesus says, “Your heavenly Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.”
(Matthew 6:8)
It doesn’t mean we don’t ask for things, because
clearly Scripture tells us to ask. But God is aware today, before you ask, of
all the things that are on your heart that you want fixed.
So
you don’t need to spend extended amounts of time on this. It’s one aspect, but
a small aspect of what you do when you are alone with God. Remember also what
Jesus said… “And when you pray, do not
keep babbling like the Pagans, for they think they will be heard because of
their many words.” (Matthews 6:7)
A lot of people are afraid to be alone with God
because they feel that they don’t have the right words to say. If God knows what I need already…and I am not
supposed to have long winded, long worded prayers that sound like that TV
evangelist guy, what do I say?
Jesus says to us, “So when you pray then, pray like this…”
Then
He proceeds to teach His disciples what we call the “Lord’s Prayer.” I don’t
think Jesus meant for us to simply say this prayer verbatim and assume that we
are done. He was, rather than teaching us words to say by rote, was teaching us
a method of prayer. This is how you ought to pray.
Notice that the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer
starts with whom? Me? My
needs? Give me… bless me…rescue me…help this to happen….help this not
happen? No. It starts with God. “Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name…”
(Matthew 6:9)
Jesus says… START WITH GOD. This is the starting line of prayer. Just
think, what if most of my prayer was soaking in the vision of the One who it is I am praying to? The God of
the universe and the God who knows my name. What if my prayer were
simply soaking in the reality of that One whose death on the cross demonstrates
only a fraction of God’s love for you? Can
I stay there for awhile in that awareness? Be awed by that One? You get to be
with that One…
The next part of the Lord’s Prayer says “your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.” This is the place where we
may wrestle with God and this may take awhile. I want my own way, more often
than not. If you know the Scripture, you may remember that Jesus spent the
entire night in prayer before He was crucified so that He could say with all
His heart…”Not my will, but yours be done.”
It took time but the angels came, Scripture says,
and strengthened Him. The surrender part is hard, but it’s the place of
transformation. We may wrestle because we are holding back. Our fists are
clenched. We want to surrender, but we can’t. And God meets us right where we
are.
“It’s OK.”
“I’ll help you to let go by the power of My Spirit. I’ll help your will
to align with My will.” “I’ll work into you the flexibility and
humility that will allow you to see me at work…even in ways perhaps that do not
immediately fulfill the outcome that you may have in mind. But let’s work it
out, together, in relationship day by day.” “I’ll be there guiding and directing, and you
do all the wrestling you need…”
Do you see how this process of allowing God to
align our will with His will can’t happen on the fly? It can’t happen unless we stop, and make
being alone with God a practice. It’s
like our reception on the cell phone when we used to have Sprint. I would be
walking through my house talking to my wife and the reception in certain parts
of the house would fade out. “What?” Martha
would say. “I can’t hear you. Say it again…” And finally since she knew the
problem in our house would say “Could you just stop right where you are, so
that we can hear each other?”
Could you just stop? God asks. The line is open,
but I need you to stop. Go into your closet and close the door so we can hear
each other. The reception is far better that way. And since we have spent some
time beforehand soaking in the reality of who God is—who it is we are talking
to—we know deep down that God’s will, whatever it looks like from our vantage
point, can’t possibly be bad. We belong to a very good God. And this is what
allows us to trust enough to surrender.
The final part of the Lord’s Prayer is all about acknowledging
our dependence on God. We are dependent
on You for our daily bread. We are dependent on You
Lord, for our protection. Lead us not into
temptation…deliver us from evil. I need you God. I’ve surrendered everything to
You as best I can. Now please show up.
A lot of us aren’t so needy where we absolutely
have to lean into God for our next meal. There are a lot of things we can use
to prop ourselves up, depend on, other than God.
So how do we spend time alone with God? We begin with God—not ourselves. We surrender to God—wrestle to unclench those
fists. We acknowledge our dependency on
God.
This
is the method that Jesus taught us when He taught us the Lord’s Prayer. This is
what we do when we go into the closet, or room, or wilderness; when we stop and
get away and close the door on all other activity.
This is not a legalism. It is an opportunity. I
don’t care how long you spend alone with God. Nowhere in Scripture do we read
about a necessary time frame required. This is a heart thing,
this is a relationship you are building. This is not a performance thing. Just
intentionally set aside whatever time you can manage right now right where you
are. God will meet you there.
Go into your closet, whatever that looks like for
you. Close the door. Don’t worry about the words you use—don’t babble. It’s far
better to just sit quietly in God’s presence, or read Scripture prayerfully, or
look at nature with awe, but start with God.
And one last word on this—let go of guilt. There
is such a difference between feeling guilty for something (Oh No! I didn’t pray
today!), which sets up a negative cycle with regard to prayer that it makes me
not want to do it, if every time I do it, it always makes me feel guilty,
because I didn’t do it right, or I didn’t get the right outcome—versus feeling
attached to someone whom you actually want to be with.
If your mind wanders, or you quit praying for
awhile because you are disillusioned, join the frail human race! Gently bring
yourself back to the intentional practice of solitude with your Creator. Every
moment God gives us the chance to begin again. Your longing for God, your
desire to be with God grows over time. And when you hit the deep waters of
life, it’s this relationship with your loving Creator that will sustain you
Some material from this sermon
was adapted from a sermon written and delivered by the Reverend Kim Engelmann
at the Menlo Presbyterian Church in