Repentance
People who enjoy God take seriously the need to enter through the door of repentance. There was no other way to the Holy of Holies except to pass by the wash basin of repentance.
Bible prayers go beyond repenting of long lists of actions. They do confess individual sins, but they are always aware that there is something deeper than that. They are not like children who play indoor baseball and then apologize for breaking the lamp. They realize there is a basic sin problem that must be addressed, and they spend most of the repentance dealing with that.
They realize they can either enjoy God or enjoy sin but they cannot do both. They choose not to settle for the puny pleasures of this world.
There is some debate in Christian circles about the exact nature of the current sin problem. Do we have one nature or two? Are there two dogs fighting within us and the one we feed wins? Or, have old things passed away, behold all things become new? ( 2 Corinthians 5:17) The finer points of that debate we will leave to the theologians. The truth is we were radically changed at conversion. Something drastic happened. God took our heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19 , Ezekiel 36:26 , Hebrews 8:10 ) The old man was crucified—not severely wounded—but put to death. Romans 6:6, 7 says this about as clearly as any, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”The Greek aorist tense of the word crucified indicates a once and for all experience. It is this funeral that makes Christian living possible.
On the other hand, the Bible clearly says we still struggle with something called the flesh. The Bible does not neatly define what was put to death (the old man; old self, NIV) and what we still have with us (the flesh, or “sinful nature” as the NIV translates it). The problem arises when we ask the question, does a believer have one nature or two? If nature corresponds to the old man, then we only have one, for the old one is dead. Every time that phrase is used in the Greek it is used in this aorist tense—past, once-and-for-all. Something died at Calvary and something died when we were converted. But we still struggle with something the Greeks called sarx, normally translated flesh.
And people who enjoy God take very seriously this tendency to sin. They realize they can either enjoy God or enjoy sin but they cannot do both. They choose not to settle for the puny pleasures of this world. They spend as much time repenting about their affections, their desires, their motives, their wants, their lusts, as they do praying about their deeds. Nehemiah said it this way: “We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.” Isaiah put it like this, (Isaiah 6:5 ) “‘Woe to me!‘ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’” David, after his sin with Bathsheba and confrontation by Nathan, said (Psalms 51:4 ) “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.”
There is a tone in these prayers that goes deeper than what I have often heard, “Forgive us our many sins, and be with us as we go our separate ways.” That is too easy to say. Repentance without grief, without thought, is a mockery. The Pharisees did that.
Lavish use of scripture
If you would learn to pray as the Bible prays, pray the Bible’s prayers.
You may be wondering, “How could I learn to pray like that?” The answer is simple: study the scripts. Read, reread, study, meditate on, and most of all, pray the prayers of the Bible. We learn by example. If you would learn to pray as the Bible prays, pray the Bible’s prayers. Many of the prayers of the Bible can be employed as-is, with no alteration. You could pray daily for the members of your group Ephesians 1:18 “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” Many of the Psalms can be prayed and sung directly to God. I have often used I Chronicles 29:11-13 in public worship as well as private devotion. “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.”
The prayers of the Bible often quoted the Bible, and they did not yet even have all of the Bible. Both of the prayers above (Acts and Nehemiah) contain quotes from the Bible. Nehemiah said, “You said if we got in trouble but repented that you would forgive.” This does as much for Nehemiah as it does for God.
We often wonder in our prayers if we are praying for the right things. When we pray Bible prayers, or include verses in our prayers we are nearly assured that we are praying the right things. We could, of course, be taking something out of context or otherwise misinterpreting, but it is still safer than wandering out on our own.
The disciples in Acts 4 said, “God, this is what you said would happen, ‘why do the nations rage…’”. We do well to pray that way, especially with reference to repentance. We do well to say, “God, what I have done proves that what you say about me is true, that I still have the capacity to live in non-faith, not trusting you and doing what you say. What I have done verifies your word is true. But your word also teaches that you have made me to be a saint and have clothed me with the righteousness of Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ) Empower me through your Spirit to live out the identity you have given me. By faith I believe it to be true. Forgive me on the basis of the penalty Christ paid on the cross. Fill me with your Spirit.”
Reading books on prayer can be a great help, but studying and praying the prayers of the Bible is the joy of those who enjoy God.
There is one more thing we can do to learn to pray like those in the Bible prayed: pray.
We can talk about prayer, read about prayer, study prayer until we are weary of it and we will still not learn to pray. We learn to pray by praying.
If we pray this way publicly, it may cause people to notice. Of course, this is not our goal, but it is inevitable. Our goal is not to be seen of men, but to be effective with God and to enjoy a relationship with him. If you want to have a relationship with a person of a different language, you know you will have to learn the language. If they are from a different part of the country, you will still have to learn a number of figures of speech. If we want to know and enjoy God, we do well to learn from the prayers of the Bible.
And the only way to learn to pray is to pray.
I watched an A&E (Arts and Entertainment) special on parachuting once. I was intrigued by it because I have always had a fascination with parachuting, especially free falling. If I had nine lives I would spend a couple jumping out of airplanes. I got to thinking afterwards, you could watch these shows, read books, take courses, talk to parachuters, and still not really know parachuting. The only way is to jump out of the plane.
And the only way to learn to pray is to pray.
10 Acts 4:24-30
11 Nehemiah 1:5-11
