Pray Simple Prayers

Pastor Leon Aguilera

⁷ But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. ⁸ Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him

  – Matthew 6:7-8

Imagine if your son or daughter came to you and said, “Dad? I just want to tell you I’m so glad I have a father like you. Thank you for being my dad. And I appreciate so much knowing you’re here with me right now, Dad, as I’m about to work my way around eventually to ask you something. . . . ”

At this point in the conversation, those of us who have hair would be pulling it out. “What do you want?! Just tell me!”

But isn’t that the way we sometimes talk to God? God loves us, yet do we approach Him like we believe it? We should come to Him as our Abba Father (Romans 8:14–15) and make our requests known to Him—simply and directly.

Are your prayers simple? Or do you “use not vain repetitions” and nice-sounding fillers, stall, and try to butter Him up before You get to the point?

Jesus taught, “⁷ But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” Our ancestors had a reputation. The pagan Gentiles practiced polytheism, which meant they had a lot of deities to juggle and appease. For them, praying involved coping with the demands of all these cantankerous gods. Each god had a weakness or fault that had to be taken into account. Prayers became rote incantations designed to keep the gods happy and distracted. The people thought, This god is going to like it if I say it one more time. If I persist, then the god is going to hear me. But because those gods weren’t real and the idols were powerless, the phrases said to them were empty—no matter how high the penitent stacked them up!

We see this illustrated in the story of Elijah vs. the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel (1 Kings 18:17–40). The pagan priests went head-to-head with Elijah in a prayer contest. He was outnumbered 400 to 1, and each team was calling down fire from heaven. Elijah said, in effect, “The prayers that bring fire down are getting through to the real God. The other one is an impostor. May the true God win.” Then Elijah added, “You go first.”

The priests started praying and “called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.” (1 Kings 18:26)! They chanted their mantra, “O Baal, hear us,” over and over.

“But there was no voice, nor any that answered.” (18:26). How sad.

During the lunch break, “Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” (18:27). So they prayed harder!

Louder! More fervently! Hour after hour, they chanted, “O Baal, hear us.” Silence.

After a full day of this circus, it was time to get real. Elijah prepared his sacrifice and soaked it with water. Then simply and calmly, one time, he invited God Almighty to do His thing. “Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” (18:38).

Just as God answered Elijah’s simple prayer, so He will also answer ours. Our prayers shouldn’t be an obnoxious echo, like a child who thinks he can wear down a parent through incessant repetition. Lose that. I wonder what our prayers sound like in heaven when they go on and on. The issue isn’t that we can only mention something to God one time. We can talk to God as often as something is on our hearts and minds. But the issue is our thinking that incessant repetition will force God’s hand or earn His favor.

No, when we need something, we should come straight to our heavenly Father and tell Him what we need, “for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” Our prayers don’t inform God. Never does God hear a prayer and then blurt out, “Oh, now I get it.” We don’t unburden our hearts before God for His sake, so He can understand. It’s for our sake—because we need to tell Him, because prayer exercises our faith in Him, and because prayer aligns our agenda with His.

Secret Prayer

Pastor Leon Aguilera

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.  ⁶ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.  – Matthew 6:5-6

How can you spot hypocrisy? What are hypocrites like? Jesus tells us “they love to pray standing” In Greek, there are two words for standing. The first word conveys an uncertain or timid stance. The second word means to take your place, mark your spot, and make your stand. Now which of those definitions do you think applies to these hypocrites who love to stand? Correct, the second. Hypocrites love to boldly take their place. They think, Only two more people till it’s my turn to pray. Only one more person, and then I’m up! Very soon I’ll take the stage, and everybody’s going to hear me talk to God. They will be so impressed with me this week at small group. I’m going to blow them away with my prayer. Revival will break out because I am so awesome at talking to God! The hypocrites get an emotional rush out of displaying their holiness.

And not just “in the synagogues” (read: church settings) but also “in the corners of the streets” (read: public settings). Today’s hypocrites think, I love to get to the office early and sit at my desk with the Bible open. I can hardly wait for people to walk by and see me. I’m so godly. Or they think, I love when my kids come downstairs in the morning and see me with my coffee and open Bible. They see how good I am at God. I’ve clearly got the God thing figured out.

Really?! Jesus says if that’s the part you like—the impression you create—then you already have your reward. Whatever that’s doing for you, those feelings are the only result, because the performance is not doing anything for God. He is not responding to you. Why doesn’t God answer my prayers? you might wonder. It could be because your true motivation is to “be seen of men.” If you love it when people see you being spiritual, if your public prayer exceeds your private prayer, and if you prefer it that way—then hear Jesus’ correction.

“But thou, when thou prayest,” Jesus said, “enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”Jesus is commending prayer by yourself. It’s not wrong to pray in groups. It’s good to pray with your spouse. It’s important to pray in your group. But public prayer should be the overflow of what’s happening in secret. If the substance of your prayer life is your public prayers, if your high watermark is people hearing you pray, then it’s time for a shift. The furnace for an authentic prayer life is praying in secret. “enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door.”

Once you are alone with God, “pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” The prayer closet allows no showing off. Solitary prayer is a mark of your sincerity. No one goes into a room by herself, closes the door, and gets on her knees to fake it. No one pretends in secret.

The secret to prayer is secret prayer. And the litmus test for the vitality of your spiritual life is what is happening in that private place that only you and God know about. Everything else that happens in your spiritual life, if it’s genuine, is rooted in what goes on just between you and God.

Far More Abundantly

Pastor Leon Aguilera

 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,  – Ephesians 3:20

How big can you dream? Most of us have big, bold imaginations. We can hope big, wish big, and dream big.

But do we pray that way? Maybe we believe that God can answer us, but secretly we fear He won’t. So we give Him an easy out with our limp, little prayers, never daring to ask for something big and bold because we’re afraid He won’t deliver.

Let’s challenge the content and assumptions of our prayers. After all, He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” We can ask for and think of a lot—and He can do more! What if we take Him at His Word? What if we align our prayers with this biblical description and start praying big?

This principle has revolutionized my prayer life, and maybe it could do the same for you. Visualize your prayers as already answered. As you’re verbalizing your requests to the Father, picture them done.

Let’s say you’re praying for a prodigal child. In your mind, picture the event you are asking for: “Lord, I can see him returning to You. I see him standing beside me in church, singing Your praises, delighted to be in Your presence. I can picture him sitting in his room reading Your Word and letting what You are teaching him filter into his conversations so I know You’re renewing his mind.” Visualize that prayer fulfilled, and then say, “I believe that’s going to happen, Lord.”

Over the past few years, I have lifted many crises to God in prayer: serious health challenges, ministry catastrophes, and wandering children. I express it as vividly and clearly to God as I’m able, believing it’s part of the future He has in store for me. No, I’m not trying to dictate to God how He should answer, but I’ve found that lurking behind some of our hesitation to ask is the fear that God won’t answer. The willingness to vividly imagine what God’s answer could look like is a much more definite statement of faith than half-letting-Him-off-the-hook with a timid prayer. Are we really afraid God can’t deliver what we can imagine? The Apostle Paul wasn’t. He knew that whatever he asked for, God could do “do exceeding abundantly.” Are those just words, or do they express an absolute faith we can put into practice when we pray?

Picturing the prayer as answered is a beneficial aspect of the discipline of prayer. When we visualize our prayers answered, we may discover that God delights in proving us not bold or vivid enough! He does far more than we ask or think. And the biggest surprises aren’t just the ways He answers our prayers, which may shock us, but the ways He changes us and grows our faith in the process.

What God Has Given

Pastor Leon Aguilera

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  – Isaiah 9:6

                We all have favorite memories of Christmas. Maybe it’s a family tradition, a scene from childhood, or a special song or the first snow that you connect with at Christmas. It might be a certain aroma like evergreens, Christmas dinner, or a recollection of all these things. The scenes and tastes of the season are wonderful things—but none of them are Christmas.

Those warm memories are ours to enjoy, as long as we don’t make them the main thing. It’s not Me-mas; it’s Christmas. Without Jesus there would be no celebration. Without Christ, there is no Christmas. There’s only something a lot less. 

Christmas is about giving—it’s about what God has given to us. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Isaiah 9:6). In that phrase we find summarized all the wonder of the Incarnation—God becoming flesh and dwelling among us (John 1). The human side of Jesus was the child born, and all the lessons wrapped up in the timing, location, and status of His birth stand alongside the awesome truth that the baby in the manger was God’s Son given to us and for us.

Then, like now, the world was largely oblivious to what God was doing. The Roman census was a grand opportunity for travel, profit, and networking. But in the middle of all that frantic human activity God came to earth. Only those who were attentive knew; only those willing to be directed saw the newborn. God came to His own, John tells us, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (John 1:11). God didn’t make a grand entrance—He came under cover as one of us.

Jesus’ arrival in Bethlehem fulfilled not only Isaiah’s prophecy but also God’s purposes all the way back to the Fall of humanity. God first promised Christmas in the Garden of Eden. While Adam and Eve listened in, He informed Satan, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15). Jesus was the gift God gave for the longing within us from the beginning. As the carol writer put it, “The hopes and fears of all our years" were met in Bethlehem that night.

When you remember God came to earth on a mission, Christmas becomes truly life-changing. He revealed Himself as accessible. Jesus is Emmanuel—God with us. He put the glory of God on display at the human level. As John wrote of the Jesus he knew: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

When you realize Jesus came with you in mind, willing to do whatever it took to make you fit for eternity with Him, that gift in the manger takes on personal significance.  Have you received that gift—God’s Son—as your Savior?

If you miss God’s glory at the heart of the story, you miss Christmas. Don’t get distracted from the best part. This year, sit among the events and moments that surround the Savior's birth and remember God’s glory is the center of it all—seen in His Son Jesus Christ. 

Breaking Through to God in Prayer

Pastor Leon Aguilera

Do you ever feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling?  Ever wonder if your prayers are getting through to God?  Believe me, you’re not alone.  We’ve all been there—but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can stir God to action with our prayers.

However, it’s not a given. Too often our prayers don’t touch God’s heart.  The result?  He doesn’t act on our behalf.  What we often fail to realize is that we are the ones preventing God from being moved to answer our prayers.  We put up barriers in our relationship with Him, and unfortunately it’s quite common.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m definitely not suggesting that we can somehow put God in a box.  We can’t.  That is man-centered, humanistic theology, and it is not what the Bible teaches. What I am suggesting, though, is that if there’s a problem in prayer—if your requests are not being answered regularly, specifically, sometimes very dramatically and supernaturally—the problem is not God; the problem is you.  We need to dispense with the notion that we’re the ones willing to make this prayer thing work, while God’s reluctant.  The reverse is true: God is ready and willing to make this prayer thing work.  We’re the problem.

Unanswered prayer is not some mysterious, inexplicable problem.  James 5:15-16 is key to understanding this essential truth.  It says, “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

Notice three central elements in these verses.  First, you must pray in faith believing that God will answer.  Second, your prayers must be effective (or fervent).  Your prayers cannot be effective if you have barriers between you and God. Third, you must be a righteous person.  If you are not living according to the Lord’s commands, your prayers will be hindered.  Fully understanding these truths is essential to experiencing the victorious and dynamic prayer life that God wants you to have.

God has made some incredible promises about prayer in His Word.  Growing up, We were taught to distrust them.  These promises weren’t for us; they were only for the apostles, or for other people in other places at other times—or so we were told.  I now know that to be false teaching.  God’s promises about prayer are for you and for me today.  Here’s just a sampling:

·         Matthew 21:22 – “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

·         Luke 11:9 – “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

·         John 14:13 – “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

·         Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

The Father longs to answer your prayers in amazing ways.  Are you standing in His way?  Are you hindering Him from answering you?  Get on God’s program, and get ready to experience a supernatural breakthrough in your prayer life. 

No matter what’s happening, no matter how dark the moment, God is in control. He can be explicitly trusted. He’s working out a purpose beyond what you can imagine. Some of it you’ll see in this life; some of it you’ll see in the life to come. Give thanks to God—always and for everything! Go for it. Thank Him for the hardest part of your life. Just say, “Thank You, God, even for this,” and trust in His steadfast love which endures forever. 

Thankfulness is Learned

Pastor Leon Aguilera

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endurethfor ever.² O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endurethfor ever.³ O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endurethfor ever.–Psalm 136:1-3

                The Bible doesn’t hesitate to urge us to thank God. If you are a new creation in Christ, the process of thanksgiving should be a continual interest to you. Psalm 136:1-3 records a three-peat command to “give thanks” followed by this echoed and overwhelming reason: “for his mercy endurethfor ever.”

These verses and the rest of this Psalm urge us to remember we are giving thanks to One who doesn’t need our thanks. Yet He receives our gratitude anyway and loves us with a steadfast, everlasting love. God deserves every effort we can make to improve our capacity for thanksgiving.

Scripture shows there are three learned levels of thankfulness, and every follower of Jesus is enrolled in the school of gratitude. But too many are flunking out, having forgotten God’s steadfast, enduring love. That’s why a regular review of the development of a thankful heart is important. We never fully graduate from the school of thankfulness.

First, there’s basic elementary school thankfulness. Hebrews 13:15 says, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” Thanksgiving is the sacrifice.

You might think, Okay, I know I should be more thankful. Fine, I’ll make a list of things I’m grateful for. I’ll make the sacrifice. I’ll be thankful.

Congratulations—you’re an elementary school graduate. It’s a place to start, but don’t stay there!

Once you have developed a consistent habit of thanksgiving, it’s time to graduate to the next level: high school thankfulness. First Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In every thing give thanks.”

You’re making progress in gratitude when you discover something to be thankful for in every situation. The picture may be dismal, but learn to find a bright spot—a hint of God’s presence. For example, you may not feel thankful for your spouse at the moment, but you’re thankful for your kids and the life you have together. Or you might not feel thankful for your job, but you’re thankful for your health insurance and the ability to provide for yourself. In other words, go after deliberate, if selective, gratitude.

Finding something to be thankful for in everything is certainly a step above having only random grateful thoughts. But there is still plenty of room for developing a deeply thankful heart. Here’s what you’re going for: graduate school thankfulness. Ephesians 5:20 says, “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;”

No matter what’s happening, no matter how dark the moment, God is in control. He can be explicitly trusted. He’s working out a purpose beyond what you can imagine. Some of it you’ll see in this life; some of it you’ll see in the life to come. Give thanks to God—always and for everything! Go for it. Thank Him for the hardest part of your life. Just say, “Thank You, God, even for this,” and trust in His steadfast love which endures forever. 

Go Ahead, Bring your Umbrella

Pastor Leon Aguilera

⁵⁸ And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.  – Matthew 13:58

Poor Nazareth. The people there took offense at their hometown prophet, Jesus, and as a result, Jesus couldn’t do much in that town “because of their unbelief.” Their lack of faith robbed them of Jesus’ “many mighty works.”

Wouldn’t that be an awful thing to have said about your home, about your family, about you? “Jesus couldn’t do much in or through you because you didn’t believe Him.” Do you ever wonder, Lord, why don’t You do more in our church? Could it be because of unbelief? Why do You cause good things to happen in my friend’s life but not mine? Could it be because your friend believes God more? You may be a candidate for James’s blunt wisdom: “ye have not, because ye ask not. ³ Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss,” (James 4:2b–3a).

Faith is the key. God’s promises are activated by faith. Faith is not passive—it’s active. Don’t say, “I’ll just wait over here. Maybe God will work; maybe He won’t.” What are you doing about it? Are you like the sick patient who needs to get better but refuses to go to the doctor? That’s foolish. You have to do what you can. Or like the single who longs for a spouse but never goes to where the singles are? You can’t just sit in your basement and pray for someone to show up. Not a great plan. Do your part. Or like the people who are filled with worry and want to have hope but never read the Bible. They might carry it, respect it, and defend it, but they’re not living in it. They’re not opening it like the Word of life and drinking from it like someone thirsty in a desert.

The next time you gather with other believers to cry out to God for rain, count how many people bring umbrellas for the trip home. Bringing an umbrella doesn’t force God to send rain, but it does indicate how seriously you are expecting God to act!

Faith has to be active to be real. Remember Naaman, the leprous general from 2 Kings 5? God told him to go dip in the filthy Jordan River seven times. He was insulted. He hadn’t expected that healing would involve potentially humiliating circumstances. He would have paid richly for treatment, but he wasn’t eager to follow these instructions. At first he angrily refused, but eventually, once he humbled himself and followed God’s plan, he was healed. In faith, he did his part—and God did the rest.

Remember the widow in debt from 2 Kings 4? She collected containers from her neighbors to hold all the oil God gave her to pay back her creditors. In faith, she did what she could—and God did the rest.

A warrior heading into battle has to pick up his weapon. We must do what we can, what we’re commanded to do as an expression of faith. Put some action behind what you believe, and then watch God work. Only when we have done all we know to do can we wait by faith for God to do what only He can do.