The Umbilical Cord of Prayer
Children are dependent, and that dependency doesn’t begin when they exit the womb; it starts at the moment of conception. This is why God has created the umbilical cord. The purpose of the cord is to transfer essential, vital and life-giving nutrients from the mother to the child. The umbilical cord isn’t an amenity or something nice to have or an occasional luxury; it’s a matter of life and death.
One of my favorite writers on prayer is E.M. Bounds. He once defined prayer as the expression of the souls dependence on God. When we pray we are acknowledging our neediness and dependence. Like the infant in its mothers womb, prayer is the umbilical cord tethering us to God and transferring essential, life-giving gospel nutrients from our Father to us. And like the umbilical cord, prayer isn’t an amenity or an additional, optional extra. Prayer really is a matter of life and death. There is no way we can live into the fullness of all God has for us without prayer. Our souls wither into malnourishment without the umbilical cord of prayer.
Jesus understood this, which is why he gave his most popular teaching on the subject of prayer known as the “Lord’s Prayer”. Scholars point out that this prayer should actually be labeled the “Disciple’s Prayer,” because it is a model for how we, his followers, are to pray (John 17, they point out, is actually the “Lord’s Prayer”). And in this model prayer Jesus shows us three big picture things to keep in mind when we pray:
Pray Relationally. Jesus uses one name for deity in the prayer- Father. Just think of all the names he could have used- God, Jehovah, Most High, Lord- but instead he uses a relational term. And when we think about fathers, they do two primary things- provide and protect. Imagine one of my sons friends coming to my home with all of their worldly possessions saying they were going to move in. Or imagine they just opened my refrigerator without asking. Or just think of how strange it would be if they said to me they were experiencing some sort of injustice and needed me to intervene. Now, it maybe nice for me to let them move in, eat my food unsolicited or advocate on their behalf and protect them, but I am hardly under any obligation to do these things because we do not share DNA. But my children come home and open the doors to our refrigerator without asking (I wish they’d do it less!), climb into bed night after night under my roof, and when problems come their way, look to me for protection, and rightly so. These are not just things that are nice for me to do, this is actually a right, an expectation they should have, because I’m their father. When we really relate to God as our Father through prayer, we can approach him in courageous confidence, holding him to his promises. When we need provision for such things as a job, or money or shelter, we should boldly remind him of his role as Father. And when we are in need of protection from the enemy, we need to remind God that he is our Father, and father’s protect.
Pray Communally. You don’t need to spend a day in seminary to notice a glaring omission in this prayer: There’s no words like I, me or mine. Instead we see words like our and us. In other words, this model prayer is a communal prayer. Jesus is saying a completely un-American thing to us: When we pray don’t just think of ourselves, bring others with us. Let me ask you a question: If God were to answer all of your prayers over the last twelve months with a resounding, “YES,” would THE world change, or just your world? Do you pray communally?
Pray Sequentially. Finally, notice the sequence of this prayer. When teaching us to pray, Jesus doesn’t begin with our petitions, but with God’s praise. We should begin with God’s agenda before we get to our agenda. It’s sort of like the section of math called order of operations. Remember that? Order of operations are complex formulas and equations where there’s addition, multiplication, division and subtraction along with fractions; all stuff which is very intimidating to a preacher like myself. Now the interesting thing about order of operations is that while we can get the math right, if we get the sequence or order wrong, the whole thing is wrong. Sequence matters. Now, don’t hear Jesus as being legalistic. Like I don’t think your petition is going to get denied because you forgot to begin by praising God. But there is something beautiful about being lost in the beauty of God before I get down into the weeds of my needs.
