Skit:

[College student is on one side of stage and parents are on the other. Phone rings]

Dad: Hello? Oh, hi honey, how’s college?

Student: Dad, I need money.

Dad: Sure, Honey, but tell me how things are going. Are you enjoying anthropology?

Student: My dorm room is too small, I need a bigger one. My roommate is loud and
smelly. What I really need is my own apartment.

Dad: Darlin’, it’s [Student] on the phone. Do you want to talk to your Mom, Dear?

Student: All my sorority sisters are going to Panama City Beach for fall break. Why
can’t I go?

Mom: It’s so good to hear from you, sweetie. Are you eating your vegetables?

Student: My car needs new brakes. Oh, by the way, tuition is going up next year by a
thousand dollars a semester. I gotta go, some friends are coming over.

Mom and Dad: Goodbye Honey, call again soon.

Dad: She only calls when she needs something.

Mom: Yeah, but we still love her. I just wish we could talk to her, really talk. So, where
are we going to get another thousand dollars a semester?

Dad [kneels to pray]: Father, I need money.

I had an epiphany the other day when a telemarketer hung up on me. That’s pretty
unusual isn’t it?. I listened to his script, and told him that I wasn’t interested and wished
him a good night. Now, at this point I just wanted him to say “good night” and hang up.
But, of course, he launched into another script. I told him again that I wasn’t interested
but he stuck to the script. So I said “good night” again, and asked him if he would say
“good night”. When I asked him that, there was a moment of silence and then he hung
up.

You see, he didn’t care if I had a good night. I wasn’t a person to him, just a potential
sale. When he felt sure that there would be no sale, he just hung up. That’s one of the
reasons why we dislike telemarketers and spammers so much. They invade our privacy
without having any kind of established relationship.

Are my prayers spam? Am I spamming God? Do I sound like a child talking to his
father, or like a telemarketer pitching a sale? All too often it’s the latter. I’ve come to
realize how much I pray, and how little I actually talk to God.

In the morning I pray with my children, but I pray what I want them to hear. I pray for
them to be good. I pray good advice for them. Honestly I’m probably praying to them
more than to God.

At meals I pray with my family, but we say the same prayer over and over again. That’s
like the telemarketing calls you get where it’s a recording. I’m not saying that the
blessing has to be unique at every turn, but it might be nice to actually say something
interesting about the meal. It would seem more grateful. My current mealtime prayers
are more like an automated email response to the meal.

At bedtime I pray for my children as I tuck them in to sleep. It’s not really a setting
where you can open up and pray from your heart at length. They’d be wandering around
the house.

So, how can I pray something genuine? Jesus provides us with some straight teaching on
prayer, with a message that encourages me when I read it. Turn with me if you will to
Matthew chapter 6. If you need a Bible there should be one nearby on the pew.

Matthew 6
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 men. I tell you the truth, they have
received their reward in full. 6But 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. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think
they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father
knows what you need before you ask him.

Jesus said “When you pray” not “if you pray.” Most people pray, they just may not have
a concept of what it means. They pray when they need something. They pray when
they’re nervous or frightened. There’s nothing wrong with praying at those times, but
that shouldn’t be the only time you pray.

Jesus said not to be like the hypocrites who pray to be seen by other people. This is a
hard case to understand. I don’t believe that Jesus is telling us not to pray publicly. He
did so and encouraged his disciples to do so as well. It’s okay to pray at the restaurant.
It’s okay to pray in a group activity.

What Jesus is telling us is simply don’t draw attention to ourselves. We should not be
center stage. What’s interesting is this further idea of going into your room and closing
the door. Jesus prayed in gardens and before crowds. How does this reconcile with the
idea of closing the door?

When you pray, you should close the door to everyone but God. Don’t pray to the crowd,
don’t pray to the kids. Pray like no one else is listening but God. Don’t spam the crowd
with you prayers. Don’t spam God with them either. Close the door to everything
around you and focus on God.

Jesus also taught us not to go on babbling and repeating ourselves. He also taught us to
pray persistently. Reconciling those two things has brought me to a conclusion about
prayers. They shouldn’t be long, but they should be frequent. We don’t need to go on
and on about our requests, but it doesn’t hurt to mention them often.

I remember that when I was a boy there was a man in our Church who loved to pray very
long prayers. He repeated himself over and over again, sometimes taking fifteen minutes
or more for a prayer. I’ve seen him do prayers that were longer then the sermon. He was
a frustrated preacher, and so he was probably using the prayer time as an opportunity to
preach a sermon. He was praying more to us than to God.

Since he was an elder in the Church, he had to get his turn every once in a while. So,
when the pastor would utter those dreaded words “Brother G. C., would you lead us in
prayer?” you would hear a few people let their breath out slowly. You’d hear people
moving in their seats to get comfortable for the long haul. Kids would lay down to sleep
in the pews.

Jesus finally added “Your Father knows what you need before you ask.” That begs the
question then, "Why pray?" If God already knows what we need, why pray?

Prayer is not about trying to get God to do something for us. Prayer is not a magical
incantation that we use to get what we desire. God is not a slot machine. Prayer is not a
method to manipulate God, it’s about a relationship.

Imagine for a moment that you’re eating dinner and the phone rings. It’s a telemarketer
pitching a sale. Your dinner is interrupted, and you are not interested in buying anything,
just in getting this inconsiderate person off the phone. You resent the interruption of your
private time by their business pitch.
What if it’s a dearly beloved friend, someone who is part of the family? You chat with
them while you’re eating dinner, and everyone around the table throws in something to
say to the friend. It’s not an interruption, but a welcome blessing.

The relationship makes all the difference. You prayers first and foremost need to be talks
with your Dad –not laundry lists of what you want, not complaints about how things are
going, but talking with your Dad.

When your prayers with your Dad are right, you won’t need to ask him for things all the
time. It won’t matter, because you’ll be satisfied with Him.

Like any good Dad, he’ll watch over you. But, he does it like a Dad, not like a Mom.
That’s why he’s our Father in heaven, not our Mother in heaven.

I went through the bedroom yesterday morning and noticed Olivia sitting in front of the
television. She was sitting on a balloon –bouncing up and down. Now, a mother would
have removed the balloon and told her that it was dangerous. But I’m not a mother, I’m a
father. I said “You’re going to pop that if you don’t quit”.

As a father, I analyze what my kids do and let them get hurt some. I don’t protect them
from everything painful, because I know that they learn from pain. If I removed the
balloon and told her it was dangerous, she’d forget that. Or, if she remembered she might
not believe me. If the balloon pops and scares her, she won’t forget that.

In that same way, our Father God allows pain in our lives. I can’t begin to explain to you
how he decides this. I do know that he has said that he won’t put on us more than we can
bear.

So, when I’m in pain I pray about it. If it’s more than I can bear, meaning it’s not from
God, He’ll remove it. If I can bear it and learn from it, He may let it remain.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. It’s effective because a
righteous man prays for God’s will to be done. A righteous man talks to God about
things other than what he needs, or even what other people need. I want to be that kind
of righteous man, but honestly I’m not there yet.

Some of you aren’t there yet, either. You’re praying what you think other people would
like to hear. You’re praying to impress people. You’re coming before God with a list
every time you pray. You’re not alone, most of us are in the boat with you. But we don’t
have to stay there.

We can fix our eyes on Jesus. We can pray from our heart like no one else is listening.
Shut the door to everything else. Talk to your Father, He’s listening.