Prayer Practice: Family Prayer

from Acts 2:42-47, on March 16, 2014

What a week!  A plane goes missing .....even with all of our technology, we can't find it.  A vote on the Crimean peninsula on whether to join Russia or not.  Then here in Austin, in the midst of wonderful celebration of South by Southwest, a man has too much to drink, drives into crowds of people killing 2 and wounding many more.  We could use some prayer, couldn't we?

I am inviting you to pray during this season of Lent.  Each week we will have a chance to practice some element of prayer.  Each week there will be a practical way of praying for you to take home.  Please be open to some new way of praying you can practice this week, this Lent, or for the rest of your life.

I know that I have entitled this message as Family Prayer, and some of you have come here as single persons.  You are whole and holy in your own right.  In fact, when it comes to prayer, each of us is called to our individual prayer life.  Remember Jesus' words in Matthew's Gospel, "when you pray, go into your closet by yourself and pray to your Father who sees you in secret."  So I don't mean to exclude those of you who have come to worship as a single person.

I call this message Family Prayer because as I read the passage from Acts the early church functioned as a family.  You notice how they held everything in common.  They ate together in worship and in homes.  There was not much difference between the two.  They joined together in the teaching, in fellowship, in eating, and in  prayers.  The church was a place where we became brothers and sisters in Christ, His family.

I will be offering some different ways we pray as His family.  The first is Marriage Prayers.  About 10 years ago I went to a national training event for men's ministries.  We guys are sometimes slow to get things; we can be resistant to spiritual matters.  So for one teaching module, they set it up as a game show.  Competition, testosterone pumping.    We would get points for each correct answer.  I don't remember all of the questions, but I got these next 3.  The first question was, What is the national rate of divorce among all couples in the United States?   I guessed 50%.  Wrong.  It was 1 in 3, 33%.  No points.  The next question was, What is the national rate of divorce among Christian couples in the U.S.?  I guessed it would be lower.  It wasn't.  It was exactly the same.  Bummer.  I thought being a follower of Christ would make a difference.  No points.  The third question came up, What is the national rate of divorce among Christian couples who pray together?  It was lower. It was 1 in 1052!  I have a degree in math, but it is from A & M.  I had to take off my shoes to do this higher math with fingers and toes.  It was less than one-tenth of a percent!

I came home from that conference and said to Cathy, "Honey, let's pray." Now, we had prayed together when we first got married.  Then kids came along, and work came along, and we dropped it.  But for these last 10 years, we pray most mornings.  Not every day, but lots of them. For us, it is in the morning before heading out.  It is in the kitchen, standing, holding each other. Sometimes no one says anything.  Sometimes, only one of us speaks out loud.  Most of the time, we both say something, usually very short, only  a sentence or two.  How, when, and where would you couples pray together?  This may be your take home today.

We also pray with Children.  Hilary has wonderful resources at our website for you to peruse.  Some simple ones are praying a grace at meals.  Parents can say a line, and have kids repeat it.  You can sing a grace like the Johnny Appleseed song or the Doxology.  You can talk about sad times and glad times of that day, and hold those in prayer.

When our boys were young, they used to run through the parsonage in San Saba naked like wild creatures.  To get them to slow down for supper, we used to turn off the lights, and light a candle.  They were in awe of that.  They would sit down and say grace and eat with us.  You can use an icon or another picture to focus on.

At bedtime is another good time to pray with children.  Children love routines.  They bring comfort and security.  You take a bath, get in your PJ's, read a story, say your prayers.  Prayers can be "God bless...." and go down the list of people and pets.  One really great way of praying is gratitude prayers, to say prayers of thanksgiving.  Pastor Jim, our associate, taught me this.  Go to bed, giving thanks to God for 5 things.  Oftentimes, you will fall asleep before you finish.  What a great way to go to sleep--thanking God.

I have some other ways we pray as the family of God.  As I prepare these messages I try to listen for the ways God is moving around me. One I heard about from a man in our congregation recently.  His fraternity brother from college asked him to come to Houston to celebrate the man's son's 16th birthday.  Some 10 men gathered at a restaurant with father and son. The father said to his son, "Son, in the next 10 years of your life, you will be going through some of the biggest decisions of your life:  you will be getting your licence to drive, getting a car, graduating from high school, going to college, getting a degree, meeting a spouse, maybe starting a family, starting a career.  Son, these men will be here for you.  If anything should happen to me, know that you can turn to them for help."  One by one, each man said how they could help the young man.  They were a Band of Brothers.  This may be your take home from this message today.

To practice gender equality, we are trying to start this Mom to Mom program.  Here young moms will not only bond together, they will also have mentor moms from the generation ahead of them.  We all need the accountability and encouragement of each other.  This may be your take home from this message.

I have another way of praying as the family of Christ called the church; that is through sound.  It may be the richness of silence, or a breath prayer, or  wind chimes.  Another person associated with this congregation, who has cancer was telling me about sound as prayer.  She goes with other persons who have these singing bowls.  The sound washes over her.  She said, "It feels like God's healing is flowing over me."  It sounds like this (I do the ringing).  This may be your take away from this message.

Pause now.  How will you be practicing prayer as Christ's family?  What is your take away.  We were made to pray as individuals.  We are made to pray in the family.  That is the good news I have to share today.