Lenten Midweek 2 – February 28th, 2024
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: John 17:1–26
“Types of Prayer (What?)”
Theme: Our whole life can be lived in reflection—both on one’s own life and on God’s goodness—and this is done through prayer.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I don’t know if writing diaries is much of a thing anymore. I know my sisters kept diaries when we were growing up. They would set aside some time each day to write a summary of the day and what happened. Normally writing a diary also includes your thoughts and reactions to those things after the fact, whether you were happy or sad about those events. Now, I don’t know if my sisters still have their diaries, but it’s sometimes amusing to go back years and read what you wrote when you were younger. You can probably tell that you’ve matured and maybe have different memories of those events now.
Christianity is self-reflective. Diaries are good because they cause you to think about your own actions after the fact. Putting your thoughts down is one way to get them out of your mind and think about them. This is necessary for maturity and growth. Thinking about your faults makes you want to stop them. Thinking about what worked makes you want to keep doing that.
Reflection is also natural—we all rewind things that happened in our brain. This is called our conscience. It tells us what we did was either right or wrong. God encourages us to examine ourselves. Lamentations 3:40, “Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord!” Jesus famously says, “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt 7:5). Thinking about your life will help you and how you interact with others.
This is where prayer also comes in. Prayer is a reaction to God for things in your life. Imagine that you have a diary, and instead of writing things down and leaving them at that, you turn them into ways to address God. This is one reason why prayer at the end of the day can be a good idea.
Thanksgiving: Say something good happened. It doesn’t matter what it was, but give thanks to God for that good thing. If you wait any time, you may forget to say thank you to Him.
Intercession: Say something bad happened to someone you know. You can intercede on their behalf to God. Lift them up in prayer for healing or peace.
Request: What if you have a request for yourself? Ask God boldly for it—He is your heavenly Father who loves you. We have an example of this from our First Reading—Hezekiah asks God to remember him and heal him from his sickness.
Confession: Say you messed up and sinned. Confess that to God. Tell him you are sorry, and ask him for strength to do better next time.
Lamentation/Complaint: What if nothing went right and it’s been a horrible, terrible, no-good day? You can complain to God too. He can take it. There’s a whole book of the Bible called “Lamentations.” Many Psalms are written with this in mind.
Praise/Adoration: What if it’s been a generally good day, and you don’t have much to pray about? Extol God’s wonderful deeds and qualities. Praise him for being with you throughout the day.
Prayer acknowledges that all good gifts come from above. The reason we can bring all these prayers to God is because we believe that God cares about every aspect of our life. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). He cares about you and those around you. He cares about your good days and bad. He cares about your victories and your faults. He loves to hear about them from you.
Think about this: even Jesus prayed to His Father. Jesus never had confessions of sin to bring to Him, but pay attention to times when Jesus prays to His Father. He prays when he’s tired and when he’s about to do something hard. He prays after a long day of teaching and in the Garden of Gethsemane. The High Priestly Prayer was our Second Reading for today. He praises his Father for His Glory that He has given to His Son. He prays for his disciples—intercession. He has requests for His Father to protect them.
There is a wonderful quality to his prayer—frank honesty. He is summarizing everything that has happened and what will happen. There is a confidence as he shares all this with His Father. Jesus continues to intercede for you even now. Romans 8:34 says, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”
So, this is why Paul can say, “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thess 5:16–18). Our whole life can be lived in reflection—both on one’s own life and on God’s goodness—and this is done through prayer.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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