Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Abba, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Abba, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Matthew 11:25–26 (NIV)
“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do."
CONSIDER THIS
Let's begin our nine prayers with one I likely didn't think of before as the kind of prayer one might pray. I call it the Prayer of Great Reversal.
“I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do."
There's nothing bad about being a wise and learned person—until there is. The minute we think being wise and learned adds anything to our worth as a human being is the minute we bankrupt our sense of worth as a human being. But this is not really about being wise or learned, is it? It's about pride and humility. I love how The Message version of the Bible frames todays text:
Abruptly Jesus broke into prayer: “Thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people. Yes, Father, that’s the way you like to work.”
Sophisticates and know-it-alls—sounds like pride to me. James, one of Scripture's straightest shooters quoted from Proverbs when he said, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6). And if that weren't clear enough, he added, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up" (James 4:10).
Are you seeing the way the Prayer of Great Reversal works? This prayer opens up a way reversal in our own spirits and innermost selves. It creates the opportunity for a gracious defrocking of our false selves—the sense of worth and security we have constructed for ourselves because we were afraid our true selves wouldn't measure up. Grace is never about measuring up. It's the reverse. Grace is about measuring down. God's ways are hidden from the proud and revealed to the humble.
To be clear, pride and humility are not behaviors or even dispositions so much as they operate at the level of our identity. Pride is a telltale sign that a person struggles with shame at the core of their sense of self. They don't mean to be prideful. They can't help it. Shame prevents a person from valuing their own self, which means they must build an alternative sense of self they can value. Anything that comes against this alternative or false self is vehemently fended off. Pride is a way of protecting the false self. Humility comes from a deep inner sense of knowing you are loved for who you most truly are. This comes from God by the power of his Word and Holy Spirit and through others who have known this kind of unwavering, unconditional love for themselves.
The Message translation continues with these incredible words:
Jesus resumed talking to the people, but now tenderly. “The Father has given me all these things to do and say. This is a unique Father-Son operation, coming out of Father and Son intimacies and knowledge. No one knows the Son the way the Father does, nor the Father the way the Son does. But I’m not keeping it to myself; I’m ready to go over it line by line with anyone willing to listen." (Matt. 11:27)
Jesus, through his prayer, leads us to the very foundation of prayer, which requires coming before God in simple honesty and true humility. This prayer of reversal, if given a foothold in our prayer lives, will chip away at and erode the unstable foundation of our false selves so the true foundation of the unimaginable love of God can be planted. It's why people who have learned to stand on this unshakable foundation are not only people of prayer, they are people of power.
The prayer of great reversal paves the path on the journey from, "I am not worthy of love," to "I am loved," to "I am love."
THE PRAYER FOR PRAYER
Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. Lead me into your way of praying. I want you to go over this line by line with me. I want to know this love that surpasses knowledge. I want to be at home with myself in the way you see me, to let go of the lies I have believed and to pray with this kind of humble freedom of a child. Teach me to pray from that graced place. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.
