Metaprayers

One of the things that usually kills an attempted prayer life is simply the human tendency to get distracted by the twin drives to seek pleasure and avoid pain. But this is not without its diabolic element as well:

Matt 13:3-9

3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed.

4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.

6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.

8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-- a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

9 He who has ears, let him hear."

(NIV)

Matt 13:18-23

18 "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:

19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.

21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

(NIV)

The interesting thing to note about this parable is the signifigance of the symbols of “seed” and “root,” which apparently captured the minds of both Peter and John:

1 Pet 1:22-23

22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

(KJV)

I Jn 3:9-10

9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

(NIV)

Both Peter and John remembered this parable and never forgot that the message, the word of God, the good news of Jesus Christ, is only a seed. The reception of it does not gurantee the regeneration of the individual who receives it, even with joy. It must take root and grow in the individual, and grow against all that would starve it out or crush it out.

Such a root cannot be in the individual himself. That’s too weak and vulnerable a place for it to be. The root is in Christ, who enjoins his disciples to live in Him as a branch.

John 15:1-13

1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

(NIV)

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” It is prayer that is this “remaining” in Him. In the KJV, its “abiding” in Him. Living in Him as a branch by living from Him as the vine. We strengthen and grow in that abiding by prayer and reading the word of God.

And from this grownth in Christ, by Christ, comes visible fruit as well as invisble fruit: “unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently”; “Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother”; “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

Why this insistance on love for others? Is this a sappy, airy-fairy play for “world peace?” Nay! Rather, it is a test with very real consequences, as John makes clear:

I Jn 4:20-21

20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

(KJV)

Though the things that are seen are temporal and the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Cor 4:18) yet they are both connected by God, who is the ultimate Reality behind them both. If a man’s fruit is not manifest in the seen, it is likely not manifest in the unseen as well.

Should this cause us some worry? Not if we have a strong habit of praying concretely and continuously. It is in concrete prayer that we cultivate our Root. If you cultivate the Root, the fruits will take care of themselves.

So given that it is so very important to pray concretely and continuously, how can we keep our hapless little boat of prayer a float on the roiling sea of pleasures and pains? We can pray about our prayers. The metaprayer I now use now for continuance in pray is the following:

“Cause me to continue to pray.”

Again, this is such an obvious prayer that it seems like it’s in the category of “big deal!” But it is a very big deal. Realize this: If this were the only prayer in my prayer book, and God decided that He will always answer it, then I would be praying without ceasing.

There is a term for this in computer programming (my former profession.) It’s called “an infinite loop.” If you order a computer to do something without specifying the conditions when it should stop doing that thing, it will keep on doing it, like the Energizer Bunny, until it either you stop it yourself, or it breaks down, or the crack of doom sounds.

It was this concept of an infinite loop that first got me to thinking about metaprayers, and thinking of prayers as being the programming that God does on us as we allow it to be done.

If one prays “Show me what to pray for and what to stop praying for,” and also prays “Cause me to continue to pray,” and then honors God with the expection of those prayers being answered, I believe it is hardly possible for a praying person to fail to have a very rich prayer life that honors God. “Them that honour me I will honour” God declares (1 Sam 2:30) And I have found that, yes, He does. Where I was one a prayerless nimrod who didn’t know what to do with my life, I am now a prayful nimrod who waits on God to know what to do.

Now that this infinte loop has put about a hundred prayers in my prayer notebook, the Lord gave me another metaprayer

“Cause me to have the strength to complete my prayers.”

As God choses to answer this metaprayer, I either complete only my Daily (and sometimes not very daily either), or my Daily and some of my Rounds. Or my Daily and all my Rounds. Or sometimes my Daily and all my Rounds more than once a day. God answers prayer as He sees fit.