Learning from Lent: Prayer

Up until about eight years ago, I had never given much thought about Lent, the period on the Christian liturgical calendar from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. As a kid, I knew some of our Catholic neighbors observed Lent, but, being from a largely Baptist-influenced church background, I had never personally participated in the tradition of Lent.

That changed somewhat when my family began attending Gallipolis First Church of the Nazarene in 2004. We observed both Advent, the prelude to Christmas, and Lent as a congregation. I found both observances to be spiritually refreshing.

An article I read recently stated about Lent that its "traditional purpose ... is the penitential preparation of the believer -- through prayer, penance, repentance, alms giving, and self-denial."

Prayer is an essential aspect of the Christian life. It's our lifeline of communication with the LORD, so that we might take our requests and petitions to Him and that we might hear from Him in return. Jesus emphasized prayer throughout His earthly ministry, even giving us a guideline and a blueprint for prayer in Matthew 6:5-15: "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
"Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

The Apostle Paul also encourages the believers in Thessalonica to pray, as recorded in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Perhaps nowhere in scripture is a more powerful portrait of prayer found than that which is recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22, where Jesus prays to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane prior to His crucifixion. Christ's time of prayer in the garden was so intense that the gospel writer recorded in Luke 22:44, that Jesus "... being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

In just a few hours, Christ was about to take the immeasurable weight of the payment for the sin of all of mankind on His shoulders, and the thought of it drove Him to pray with such passion and urgency that none of us can ever understand what He experienced.

My prayer during this season of Lent is that our prayer time with God may become deeper and more intimate.