Last month on vacation I was reading Luke 22:24-32, where Jesus is trying to have an important final dinner with his disciples before his crucifixion, but his disciples are busy arguing about “which among them was considered to be the greatest.”

Jesus first describes how “the kings of the Gentiles” rule. They “lord it over them” and consider themselves benefactors; they want to be in charge, tell people what to do, and have everyone fawn over their graciousness and generosity. In other words, their ambition is to be thought of as “great.” Jesus pretty firmly contrasts this with how his disciples are supposed to act: “You are not to be like that” are his exact words. Instead the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. Radical, counter-cultural stuff the church has yet to practice consistently.

However, what caught my attention this morning was that immediately after this, Jesus warns Simon Peter that Satan had asked to sift them all like wheat. Mentally I’ve never put these two texts together, but they are really part of the same passage that began with the dispute about who was the greatest. In other words, Jesus isn’t giving Simon an isolated warning about something unrelated to the situation at hand. In fact, the opposite is true: the fact that they were about to be sifted like wheat had everything to do with their undisciplined ambitions to be “the greatest.”

Their obsession with honor in the eyes of man would make them unwilling to suffer with their Lord. Their ambition to receive the accolades of human beings would cause them all to abandon the one they called “Lord” when he was being spitefully spat upon and abused. Simon’s desire to be “great” was the reason he would deny his Lord when the chips were down. They did not yet love their Lord as much as their own reputations. They had not yet learned to humble themselves and simply receive what their Lord would give them, whether it be suffering or comfort.

The sifting was necessary, though, to expose the disease and root it out. Sifting is a turbulent process of separating the pure from the impure, the useful from the useless. Jesus doesn’t pray for his disciples to be spared the sifting. He doesn’t reach magically into Simon’s soul and “fix” him so he wouldn’t need to go through it. Instead Jesus simply says, “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.” He is so confident, too, that this prayer will be answered, that he says, “And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Not if you turn back, but when you do.

This doesn’t mean that sifting isn’t dangerous. Judas is the starkest example of this. But sifting is necessary to expose hidden motives and dig up rocks under the surface that are choking out the life of the kingdom. When we respond to this kind of sifting like Simon did, with confession and repentance, the result is a deep work of grace that allows us to walk with God in a new humility, freeing us up from our own ambitions so we can truly love our Lord, even when it leads to humiliation or worse, and truly serve others, even when it means performing the most menial tasks for them.

We no longer serve the tyrant ambition, because we know that Jesus has conferred on us a kingdom that we didn’t earn. It’s just a gift and he will figure out who sits where and what our responsibilities will be, but we know we all have a place at the table because of his mercy. The greatest is then free to be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. The one who submits to the sifting is the one who can truly bless and strengthen their brothers and sisters, because they are free from the need to dominate or control them. Like Cornel West says, “You can’t lead people unless you love people. You can’t save people unless you serve people.”

So if you’re in a sifting season, don’t resist it. Instead welcome it as God’s discipline, rooting out ambition and purifying your love for Christ. Allow yourself to be brought to nothing so the power of God can flow through your life unhindered to bless and strengthen those around you.

God-

We’re sorry, we were wrong…

We were wrong to think we knew everything about you.

Rescue us.

We were wrong to make you so small in order that we could measure up with little effort.

Rescue us.

We were wrong to try and make you cool, as if being cool is what matters most.

Rescue us.

We were wrong to feel bad that we weren’t able to fit time with you into our day, when each day is your gift to us.

Rescue us.

We are easily distracted and live among a people easily distracted.

Rescue us.

If our lives are not offending the ritually religious, the situationally pious, clean us afresh in order to better reflect your glory.

Rescue us.

Offend us with your grace when we’ve made you in our image.

Rescue us.

Like the blind Son-of-Timaeus, we cry, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us.’

Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

As we finish our time of learning to pray from the psalms, we’ll focus on a well-known and well-loved one: Psalm 139. It’s an intimate conversation where David revels in God’s knowledge of his life. Every nook and cranny is opened up to God, nothing is hidden. The image is God knitting us together in the womb, protectively forming us from conception to adulthood. The images conjured in this Psalm paint God as a doting mother who cares deeply for her children.

Prayer exercise
Simply knowing that God sees us, knows us, and cares for us can be a great comfort in times of loneliness or conflict. Much like yesterday’s exercise, simply take time to “pray though” Psalm 139 meditatively, pausing after phrases to make things more specific for you and your life situation. Use it as a template to experience a time of intimacy with God.

1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

One of the remarkable things about the Psalms – and David’s writing in particular – is the intimacy being expressed. The use of “I” and “You” represent two concepts previously unexplored in ancient literature: the personal voice and the intimate God. This is the same kind of deep intimacy we encounter in the prayers of Jesus.

As we wind down our time in the Psalms and our study of prayer in genera, this prayer by David from Psalm 86 seems to sum up many of the touch points in prayer we’ve visited.

Hear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.

2 Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.
You are my God; save your servant
who trusts in you.

3 Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I call to you all day long.

4 Bring joy to your servant,
for to you, O Lord,
I lift up my soul.

5 You are forgiving and good, O Lord,
abounding in love to all who call to you.

6 Hear my prayer, O LORD;
listen to my cry for mercy.

7 In the day of my trouble I will call to you,
for you will answer me.

8 Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;
no deeds can compare with yours.

9 All the nations you have made
will come and worship before you, O Lord;
they will bring glory to your name.

10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
you alone are God.

11 Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.

12 I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.

13 For great is your love toward me;
you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.

14 The arrogant are attacking me, O God;
a band of ruthless men seeks my life—
men without regard for you.

15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

16 Turn to me and have mercy on me;
grant your strength to your servant
and save the son of your maidservant.

17 Give me a sign of your goodness,
that my enemies may see it and be put to shame,
for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

Prayer Exercise
Much like the Lord’s prayer, this covers a wide range of human concerns. Take some time to pray through this Psalm much like we practiced with the Lord’s prayer, using it as a kind of outline. This is much longer than the Lord’s prayer, so you may want to select four or five verses that seem particularly striking to you and use those. If it helps, you could print it out double-spaced, and then write in the margins your own similar prayers alongside David’s.

Troubled over all the evil and injustice in the world? It’s hard not to be, because we’re aware of so much of it. Refugees running from murderous regimes. The slave trade is alive and well. People are “disappeared” all the time by corrupt governments. Torture is renamed “enhanced interrogation techniques” and becomes acceptable. And then there’s the complicated, tragic mess that is Haiti.

It’s overwhelming! Which seems to be why Psalm 37 is in the Bible. It has the potential to be an extremely irritating psalm, though, because it essentially tells us not to get so worked up over evil. The most annoying time to hear “don’t get angry” is when you’re angry. But there it is, three times in the first few verses:

“Don’t worry about the wicked” (1)
“Don’t worry about evil people” (7)
“Don’t lose your temper” (8)

Aren’t we supposed to be angry about the injustice in the world? Aren’t we supposed to care? What’s with all the don’t worry, be happy talk?

Psalm 37 helps us understand, and is a powerful tool against worry and rage in the face of evil. It empowers us in three ways:

1. It tells us why we don’t need to worry: because God will bring about justice for his people in his own time and his own way. God is taking care of things and will make sure justice is done. In the end “the meek will inherit the land and will live in peace and prosperity” (11). Jesus quoted this psalm in the beatitudes, which likewise call for patience and faithfulness in the face of evil.
2. The way it tells us why is also important: it’s written as an acrostic poem, every other line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It lends itself to repeating the same ideas in different ways. When we’re upset, we’re like children who simply need to be told over and over, and in many different ways, that everything is going to be alright. Psalm 37 does that.
3. This psalm also tells us how to trust God despite the evil we encounter every day: “Trust in the Lord” (3). “Take delight in the Lord” (4). “Commit everything you do to the Lord” (5). “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act” (7), etc.

Prayer exercise
Take a moment and identify what is worrying you right now. What people or situations are bothering you, causing anger or worry to rise up in you?

Now read Psalm 37 in its entirety out loud, pausing to reflect when a command is given to trust in the Lord or take delight in the Lord. Perhaps you’ll want to keep a bookmark at that place in your Bible so you can return to this Psalm when the injustice of the world starts to overwhelm you again.

As Christians it’s common to think we’re not allowed to pray for ourselves and, even worse, we sometimes think our prayers are always supposed to be upbeat, thankful and grateful.

David knew better. He understood that prayer is supposed to be a raw form of communication with God, stripped of all pretense, and accordingly, he made good use of the ancient Jewish practice of lament. Consider Psalm 6:

1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.

2 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint;
O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.

3 My soul is in anguish.
How long, O LORD, how long?

4 Turn, O LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.

5 No one remembers you when he is dead.
Who praises you from the grave?

6 I am worn out from groaning;
all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.

7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.

8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
for the LORD has heard my weeping.

9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.

10 All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed;
they will turn back in sudden disgrace.

This is a classic prayer of lament. It taps into a tradition of that goes deeper than mere cathartic self-expression, rather it dares to remind Yahweh of his own oligation to be faithful. Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggeman notes:

“As doxology celebrates the peculiar character of Yahweh as faithful, so complaints [or lament] insists upon Yahweh’s faithfulness and protest against Yahweh’s refusal to be visibly and effectively faithful.”

Lament gives a necessary voice to the pent-up frustration of a world gone mad, or the exhaustion of a life lived in senseless trial and suffering. Against such atrocities as war, exploitation, slavery, and rape the reverent prayer of assent (“thy will be done”) is often an affront to the God whose main attribute is hesed, or “lovingkindness.” Unto a God who claims to be the source of extravagant mercy, grace, and love, only a passionate plea for vindication is appropriate in certain circumstances.

These are bold and courageous prayers, the kind that take chances and risk disappointment, but which acknowledge the the Old Testament God who is moved by reminders of his own character and covenant promises.

Prayer Exercise
What do you need to lament? Set aside enough time alone to pray through the frustrations you have using Psalm 6 as a outline and touch-point, much like we’ve learned to do with the Lord’s prayer.

Our final week of the prayer series will focus on learning to pray from the Psalms.

Today, read Psalm 19.

This psalm is a celebration of a God who speaks in both the skies (1-6) and the Scriptures (7-14). Most of us today can get our heads around the fact that God speaks through creation. But I would be surprised if many of us could really relate to David’s breathless praise for the Bible in these verses. More precious than gold? Sweeter than honey? Really?

Maybe you can relate to John Bunyan, who seemed to have had a kind of bi-polar relationship with Scripture: “Sometimes there has been more in a line of Scripture than I could bear to stand under. Other times, the Bible has been to me as dry as a stick.” It’s good to know we’re in good company when we find the Bible boring, dry, uninteresting, and hard to read. It’s a common experience.

But we shouldn’t become apathetic about it, either. If prayer is a two-way conversation with God about what we are doing together, then the Scriptures are a critical part of it, because they make up the main part of God’s side of the conversation! I want to be moving toward a place where I can pray Psalm 19 with David and deeply mean every word of it.

Prayer exercise
This exercise is taken from God’s Prayer Book, by Ben Patterson (an excellent resource on learning to pray the Psalms, by the way).

Read the following sections of Psalm 19 again do the exercises:

They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. (10)

• Ask yourself, How would I act if I believed there is treasure hidden in the Bible? If you had in your hands a map showing you where you could find great material treasure, wouldn’t you apply yourself diligently to crack any code or language and overcome any mountain, weather, or foe to find the treasure?
• Now turn your face heavenward. Open your mouth to the Lord and say, “Lord, let me taste the sweetness of your Word.”

How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. (12-13)

• Ask yourself, Do I really expect, or want, to meet God when I read the Bible? “It’s not what I don’t understand in the Bible that worries me,” wrote Mark Twain. “It’s what I do understand.” If you need to, confess your apathy toward the Bible. Perhaps it is a smoke screen to hid your fear of exposure.
• Look at the words David uses for the power and deceit of sin: lurking, hidden, deliberate–all controlling your will and desires. Cry out to God, “Don’t let them do this to me!”

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (14)

• Ask the Lord to so fill you with the purity and sweetness of his law (like fine gold and honey) that your interior life will be transformed, that your every thought will reflect his character.

(This exercise was written by Jason Coker as part of our prayer journey with Ikon Community.)

Today we visit Jesus again in the garden (Matt 26:39-44), only this time we zoom out from his admonition to Peter and view, instead, with the wide lens that gives us a brief peek into his own prayer life:

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

There are three things about Jesus’ prayer that I envy: The first is that he is persistent. Three times he prays the same prayer, urgently petitioning God to give him relief. Frankly, I rarely do more than utter a half-hearted plea.

The second is related to the first: I envy Jesus’ passion. I don’t mean merely his urgency – no doubt if I was convinced of my impending death I would be rather urgent as well – rather, I’m talking about the sense that Jesus really seemed to believe in the nearness of his hearer. We speak differently to people we know are listening, and even more differently when we know a person of means is listening. That is the passion I hear in Jesus’ voice. He knew God was listening and could do something about it. On my bad days I think I may have given up on that.

Lastly, I envy Jesus’ submission. As paradoxical as it might seem, I somehow manage to lack persistence and passion, yet overflow abundantly in obstinacy. Like some dumb animal I just can’t see it any way other than my own.

Like most good things, these three traits aren’t skills that can be taught by instruction, they’re character traits that must be caught by practice. Like the father who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!”(Mk 9:24) we may need to say, “Lord I pray. Help me to learn to pray!”

Prayer Exercise
This prayer exercise is a bit different because it doesn’t actually involve praying. At least, not at first. Your task this week is to find someone older who you believe has a good prayer life and interview them. It doesn’t have to be formal, they don’t even need to know you’re “interviewing” them. Just find a way to ask them some questions about prayer. What have they learned? Why do they pray? What does it help? Think about the questions you really want to know about prayer, and ask their perspective. Then come back here and share what you learned.

Then go pray.

There is perhaps no greater example of Jesus in prayer than the lengthy, swirling “high-priestly prayer” recorded in John 17.

One of the striking things about this passage is that although Jesus is God in the flesh, he seems to rely heavily on prayer as a means of accomplishing God’s will. He doesn’t simply teach his disciples what the right way is or “fix” them in some “supernatural” way. He spends time praying to God the Father on their behalf, here in John 17 and many other places. The New Testament is also clear that the risen and ascended Jesus continues to pray for us (Rom 8:34; 1 John 2:1). Prayer is apparently still the way that God’s work gets done.

One example of this can be found in In Luke 22:31-32. Jesus foresees that Simon will be tested severely. Though Simon thinks he is ready to die with Jesus, he will find out that when it comes down to it, he will quickly, easily deny that he even knows Jesus. You would think Jesus would want to secure the future of the church by perhaps re-wiring Simon’s brain so that he responds differently, to somehow guarantee his eventual success. But he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus says, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” One would imagine that Jesus desperately wants Simon to pass the test, but instead of trying to engineer the outcome, he simply prays for him. It speaks volumes about Jesus’ trust in God that he sees prayer as the best thing he can do for Simon in this very crucial, dangerous time.

Looking at Jesus in prayer teaches us that it really is a powerful tool for seeing God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven. Of course it always must be married to faith-filled action, but action without prayer is powerless to effect real transformation and belies a subtle form of unbelief where we think nothing of value can come from people simply praying. The life of Jesus and the Scriptures indicate otherwise: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

Prayer Exercise:
Set aside 20-30 minutes to think about the following questions:

• When you want to see transformation happen in those you love, is your first instinct to pray for them?
• Or do you first begin strategizing about how you could steer them toward change?
• Do you perhaps trust more in your own persuasive abilities than in God’s Spirit?
• How would you like your prayer life to change based on your answers to these questions?

Now read John 17 slowly, meditating on the fact that Jesus is praying for you right now.

(This exercise was written by Jason Coker as part of our prayer journey with Ikon Community.)

Ever have something so important to do that you worked straight through lunch? That happens to me all the time. Actually, most of the people I know skip at least one meal a day because they’re so focused on something. In some ways that’s the climate of our culture.

Ever skip eating all day because you’re so busy? That happens less often, but still, my guess is you know what it’s like to go a whole day without really eating because something is so important – or distressing – that you just didn’t think about anything else.

What about all night?

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

That’s from Luke 6:12, and what we see here is Jesus pulling an “all-nighter.” You probably done that before too. Maybe it was in high school or college and you had an important test the next morning or a twenty page paper due. When something is really critical to us we’re willing to put off all kinds of normally important things – like food and sleep – so we can focus on it.

This is the spirit of fasting and prayer. Not some Herculean religious effort, but zeal so fervent that you skip eating in order to finish something important – you stay up all night to finish what’s really important.

Exercise
You can’t really fake a prayer “all nighter,” so I won’t ask you to stay up all night in prayer like Jesus does here. But stop and consider what things in your life are serious enough to require intensive prayer. Make a list. Now, pick something that really needs your prayer attention and plan to spend an unusually long amount of time praying about. Maybe for you that’s 30 minutes, or maybe it is all night. If it helps, ask someone to join you. Now the only question left is, do you really believe prayer can be the kind of work that “get’s the job done?”