Abraham and Prayer: Genesis 18:16-33
Easton Christian Family
Centre, Feb 21st, 1999
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Talking about weaknesses this morning - mine
prayer. Which one of us doesn’t find
prayer difficult? And yet which one of us
doesn’t long for real contact with God, the kind of contact where we can
discuss things with him, listen to him, be at peace with him? Because I think it is fair to say that if we
really want to know God, we aren’t going to be helped in it so much by going to
church, or by the books we read, even by the fantastic sermons we hear. Those things are all useful, but they aren’t
the heart of our relationship. If we
want to get close to God, the place we will do that is where we learn to be on
our own, on our knees, spending time, and meeting him in prayer. Encountering him in the same way that
Abraham seemed to find it so easy to do.
That is enough to make us start to feel guilty already. But doesn’t God want to talk to us? Doesn’t
he want us to learn how to find his presence?
Isn’t he longing to know us?
He never went on retreat, he never came to church, he
never read any Christian books, he never went on a Christian houseparty or
holiday, and he never even read the Bible, but Abraham had the most fantastic
prayer life you could imagine. He
didn’t have to sit around for hours in silence
waiting to hear from God. Every
time we read about Abraham praying, what passes between himself and God is a
feeling of closeness and wonder that maybe we feel we rarely experience. I don’t think Abraham was particularly more
special than us, or that God favoured him more. But I think his life contains lessons about prayer which as the children
of Abraham we could do well to learn.
There are two things that are important for us in
prayer:
Where does prayer start?
Who are we and who is God when we pray?
Where does prayer start? At first sight it may look from this passage like Abraham is the
one who starts it all off. God is about
to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham butts in: “Oi, God, Excuse me a
minute - are you really going to do this?”
Prayer here is about trying to catch God’s ear, even to change his
mind. This kind of prayer is about us
bringing our intentions and plans to God, getting his attention, and then
trying to get him to do something about it.
It almost sounds like a bit of wheeling and dealing. And don’t we pray like this a lot of the
time? How often are our prayers wish
lists, or deals with God? How often do
we think praying is about us getting God to listen to what we’ve got to say?
If we look carefully, however, the picture here is
different. It’s God who says, “Shall I
hide from Abraham what I am about to do...”, and then decides to tell him about
it. And at the end of the prayer it’s
God who goes on his way, and finishes the conversation. So the prayer that really communicates is
the prayer that begins and ends with God, and doesn’t just depend on our
agenda. The secret to understanding
what is really going on here is not to see the prayer about Abraham changing
God’s mind, but to see prayer as God changing Abraham to understand what is
really going on in a situation. Prayer
helps us to draw closer to the character of God. As we realize more what God’s heart is, that can seep into our
own. Abraham is taken on a journey into
exploring the heart of God, which begins and ends with God’s love and God’s
agenda, not his own. A seed doesn't
grow by it's own effort and energy, but from the energy it gets from the sun
and rain. We will only truly pray if we
do it not by our own effort or technique, but by the love of God beating in our
heart. Prayer begins, continues and
ends with God. God prays through us. That's what Paul means when he says that
the Spirit intercedes for us and helps us in our weakness. God takes over and initaiates when we give
up on our own words.
When you are on your own in your room, what does this
mean? Spend a minute talking with
neighbour. It probably means some
of these things:
Resisting the urge to go through a list.
Spending time waiting to become aware of God’s
presence.
Being more concerned to receive rather than give in
prayer. Meditating on Scripture,
listening to the voice of God inside you.
Being aware that God wants to pray through us.
Moving on, CS Lewis said that there is a prayer which
comes before all other prayers, and it is this: “May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real you I speak to.” We all change the way we speak according to who we are speaking
to, where we are, or how we think people see us. If Richard’s in Mrs Noah’s kitchen, and he sees Roger, he’ll say
“All right, mate.” If he’s at
Buckingham palace and he sees the Queen, he won’t say “All right, mate.” He’ll probably say something like, “Oh
hello, Madam. And how are you. I mean, we today?” If you think someone likes you, you’re more relaxed with the
things you say to them, and you have a laugh.
If you think someone doesn’t like you, you are more likely to be formal
and spend less time talking with them.
It’s exactly the same with God. The way we talk to him depends on two things
- the image we have of him, and the way we think he thinks about us. Who do you think God is? I think that’s a question which can have one
answer in public and one on private. We
can probably say the right things about him in church or in a house group, but
the time when we really face our feelings about God are when we are on your own
and praying. Who is God to us
then? A lot of people feel that he is
like a headmaster, or like a magician, or like our own parents. And if we had a bad relationship with them,
or didn’t really know them, that can create a lot of problems for us in how we
feel about God. And how do we think he
feels about us? Do we really feel he
wants to hear from us? Or is he like
the boy playing games with the world, and who might lose interest at any
moment? (Cartoon)
What is so wonderful about this story is that it can
teach us about who God was to Abraham, and who Abraham was to God. It was because Abraham was the real Abraham
speaking to the real God that he was able to have such a close relationship,
and to pray in such a powerful way.
Abraham knew who God was. He
knew where he stood with God. Sometimes
I think when we pray we can get confused about exactly what side of God we are
talking to. Either we think God is an
awesome, mighty God and we bow down and worship him, or he is the friend who
touches us in our deepest selves, who holds us in our arms. For Abraham, God was both of these
things. Notice how he feels he can
question God, and almost call him to account.
It says, “Abraham stood before the Lord”, but in some translations the text reads, “Yahweh stood before
Abraham.” - the early scribes thought it was a bit irreverent so they cut it out. For Abraham, God is a God who can be
approached, who can be questioned, who lets us say anything to him.. Not only that, but he can’t be ruffled. In some ways the way Abraham keeps coming
back to God with the same questions reminds me of living with a toddler, who
will go on and on at you...until you are almost at the end of your tether. (Give example) Adults wouldn’t do
that to each other because they would be afraid of losing a friendship. But children do it because they know they
can trust you, and they don’t expect that you could be bored with them. Abraham knows he can trust God. He knows God won’t get bored with him. Abraham knows that God is a God who can take
anything by way of a question. God can
be trusted with our hardest questions, because we can hold him to his
promises. When you pray what do you
really want to ask God?
Abraham wasn’t afraid to ask - he trusted God that
much - and we don’t have to be afraid either.
God isn’t the God we find in Islam who asks us to submit to everything
in life, whatever we feel about it . He
doesn’t work according to the laws of karma in which bad things happen to us
because of our former life and there’s nothing we can do about it. God lets us protest to him, even at
him. After all, if our only
relationship with God is one where we say “yes” all the time, then that can
hardly be called intimate. If we close
our minds to everything that makes us uncomfortable when we pray, then we are
just going through the motions. We’re
not being ourselves, and we are not speaking to God as he really is, only as we
think he ought to be. We can express
to God even the feelings we might be ashamed of - he knows them anyway. After all, the psalmist said things like “O
God, how I wish you would slay the wicked and dash them against the
rocks.” I wouldn’t recommend saying
that before a football match, though.
The point is not the words we use, so much as the level of feeling we are
allowed to show to God.
But Abraham also knew his place. At the same time as he held God to account,
he knew that he was as nothing before him.
“I am dust and ashes.” He knew that he risked a stormy response from the
Judge of All the earth. “Oh do not be angry if I speak.” We can be honest with God, we can ask him
hard questions, we can hold him to his promises. But if our prayer is going to be centred on who God really is,
then we can’t lose sight of God’s majesty.
Someone read Isaiah 40, 12, 15-18 Abraham had a right view of God as the friend he could trust and
as the King to be worshipped, and that view of him meant he could pray with
boldness and trust. God is our Kingly
friend.
But, perhaps more importantly, this story shows us
what God thought of Abraham, and what he thinks of us as we struggle on our
knees to open ourselves up to him in prayer.
God says he knows Abraham. The
word means...He has chosen him, he has made him his friend. We don’t see
Abraham coming up to God, and claiming him as his friend, but we see God
sharing his thoughts with Abraham. He gives Abraham the privilege of sharing in
his plans, and of being a partner. Romans 8 says that we are no longer under a
spirit of fear, but of adoption. We are
children. John is always offering to
help Daddy - and often he makes a right pig's ear of things. But it's a Father's privilege to let his
child become a partner. This is why the
Bible says we are called to be co-laborers with God, workers together with him.
Abraham’s prayers count for something with God. One writer has put it, “God has called you to a celestial board
meeting to deliberate with him on matters of destiny.” Jesus says, “No longer
do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my father I have
made known to you.” Some of us might
carry around a picture of a famous person and show it off to our friends
(picture of me with Princess Anne), but can we imagine if someone really famous
carried around a picture of us in his wallet to show to all his friends? We have to believe that, like Abraham, God
is literally dying to hear from us - that he counts us as important. God said that he knows Abraham - he gave
him a name, he chose him as his friend.
Do you believe when you pray that God is saying, "I know your
name. I have chosen you, you are my
friend." (Give names)
And what Abraham’s story shows us is that we don’t have to be people of
great faith to be the ones whom God wants to hear from, to speak to and to pray
through. The hope of the gospel is that
this Kingly Friend wants to hear questions, doubts, praises, thoughts, from
everyone. We all know it is difficult
to pray. Maybe you don't think you know
how to pray. Perhaps you don’t pray on
your own because you have never been taught, don’t feel like you are good
enough, or don’t really think God wants to hear from you. Maybe you would not
even call yourself a Christian. Whoever
we are, the Bible says that “In him we live and move and have our being.” A sea captain was talking about a big storm
at sea, and said, “God heard from many strangers that night!” God might seem a stranger to us, but we are
not to him. And He does want us to draw close to Him, whatever state we are in! God can take whatever you have to say to
him. He opens his heart to us as our
Kingly Friend. The one who deserves
every ounce of our lives, but only wants to draw that from us in love and not
in fear. Don’t be afraid of the God we
pray to. Don’t think you have to do
always what you can only do sometimes.
Pray as you can, not as you can’t.
But pray. And the God who calls
us his friends will pray through you, bringing you more and more into the
knowledge of his will for your life.