Do these things promptly…

1. 1. Confess sins.  “Keep short accounts with God,” it’s called.
   2. Write thank you notes. Even two sentences.  Oh, and hand-write them, rather than dictating them for someone to type.  The personal touch is good.
   3. Write notes of appreciation.  “Great song Sunday.”  “I hear excellent things about your class.” My suggestion is you should begin every Monday morning in the office by handwriting five notes.
   4. When inspiration for a sermon or an article comes in the middle of the night, it must be recorded then or, count on it, you’ll never remember it.  Keep a pad by the bedside. Or, do what I do: get up and go into the breakfast room and pull up a chair and write everything out.
   5. When you agree to do a friend  a favor–write a letter of recommendation, call on a patient in a hospital, whatever–do it immediately or you will never do it. As a cartoonist, I try to do the same when asked to illustrate someone’s writing.
   6. Jot down a story, illustration, or thought for a sermon that occurs to you.  If you’re in the car alone, look for an exit and get off the highway so you can write this down.  I’ve sometimes asked my wife to make a note for me as we drove.
   7. Pray for someone when prompted by the Spirit.  When I spot someone who reminds me of a person I knew years ago, I take that as an impulse to pray for them.

And these also–

1. Pray for someone when you are asked to pray.  Stop right then and do it
2. Forgiving offenses.  Whether they ask for it or not.
3. Tell your wife how lovely she looks.  Don’t wait for her to ask if that dress looks all right.  Every time you think of it, tell her she is lovely.
4. Give your kids a hug.  Let them know how special they are to you, with no condition or strings attached.
5. Worship God.  In your spirit, in a few words.  If  possible, say it out loud.

But do not do these things promptly.  Take it slow and reconsider these the next day…

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“Pray without ceasing.”  — I Thessalonians 5:17.

I’m not implying that I know more about prayer than you.  I hate to hear anyone celebrated as “an expert in prayer,” for the simple reason that no child should be called an expert in talking to his/her parent.  What’s so hard about that?

Granted, we make it harder than it should be, with our rules, our religions, our legalism, our opinions, our blindness, and our sinfulness.  But in its essence, prayer is talking to the Father through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Period.

What I do imply however (for this article) is that there are insights in Scripture on the subject of prayer many of us may have missed.  Here are a few……

One. Scripture says you do not know how to pray as you should.  That’s Romans 8:26. So, let’s not let that stop us.  God’s not looking for eloquence but faith. My book on prayer is called Pray Anyway.  That’s the idea.

Two.  Scripture says both the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus are interceding for us.  That is Romans 8:26 and 8:34. Now, personally, I have no idea how this works, particularly when Romans 8:31 adds that “God is for us!”  So, it appears that all of Heaven is on our side!

Three. Scripture says the best pray-ers were Moses and Samuel.  That’s Jeremiah 15:1.  So, we can learn about prayer by studying what they did.

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“And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites… Therefore, do not be like them…” (Matthew 6:8).

All right, class, listen up.  If you expect to be the next generation of hypocrites, you need to give me your full attention.  The old Pharisees will be passing off the scene before long, and we’ll need a new class of the double-minded–you know, the play-actors–ready to step up and fill their ranks.

Tongue firmly planted in cheek now, everyone?  All right. Let us proceed….

It’s not easy being a hypocrite.  You’re always working on two levels, keeping things to yourself while presenting another image to the world.  And that’s hard.  It takes a pretty smart person to pull this off.  Shallow lazy people can be a lot of things, but not a successful Pharisee.

Scripture says “a double-minded person is unstable in all his ways;  he should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” That’s James 1:7-8.  We cite it here for two reasons. First, to say how tough our calling is, and second, to remind ourselves that being hypocrites we’re not expecting to receive anything from the Lord for our prayers.  That’s not the point.

Okay? Got that? For a hypocritical Pharisee, prayer is about a lot of things, but touching the Heavenly Father with our actual needs is not one of them.

Now, that being said….

Your assignment as a hypocrite will cover a lot of areas–your home life where you say one thing and do another, your church life where you pretend to love the Lord while secretly maneuvering and conniving, your stewardship where you claim to give more than you do and look for ways to profit from your spirituality, and of course, your prayer life which will be groomed for public consumption but devoid of anything vital and sincere. But today, let’s zoom in.

For the moment, let’s focus on prayer.  Praying like a hypocrite–the Pharisaical model–is not for the weak of heart.  Only the top ten percent of the class will be able to meet the stringent requirements.  Consider, for example…

One. A Pharisee must be able to pray effectively in public.  (Matthew 6:5)

He does it in public because that’s the whole point: to impress people.

Those with stage fright who dread speaking in public will not be able to pull this off. A Pharisee can always be counted on to pray at public gatherings, in church settings, and at civic events.  A Pharisee will have worked up a set of great phrases and voice patterns which sound impressive to the public at large, and which, with a little practice, you will be able to whip off at a moment’s notice.

The end result–and this is always the point–is that people will come away impressed by your spirituality and ready to trust you with the crown jewels.

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(This is a reprint of an article from 2011.  Rather than tweak and update it–my usual practice–I decided it works very well as is.) 

Tonight, a realization threw me out of the bed and drove me to my note pad. I was lying there in the post-midnight hour doing what we preachers do, going over my sermon for later this morning.

The sermon is a beginning message for a four-day revival meeting I’ll be preaching for the First Baptist Church of Crowville, Louisiana. This congregation runs 80 to 100 in attendance and is made up largely of farmers and their families. The pastor, Dr. Keith Dowden, and I had dinner tonight and prayed for the Lord to give me the messages and do something special in the hearts and lives of his people.

My text is the parable of the mustard seed, Matthew 13:31-32. It’s a strong insight that a lot of the people in our pews need to hear, that God loves to use small, ordinary things and churches and people and acts and offerings. The mustard seed is a reminder that what God begins to do may be unimpressive on the outside, ordinary to the human eye, and not big by any means. However, being God, He can do amazing things with small beginnings.

I love to encourage small congregations with the assurance Jonathan gave his armorbearer just before the two of them took on a nest of Philistine warriors. “It matters little to the Lord whether He saves by the few or the many.” (I Samuel 14:6)

I like the question the prophet Zechariah raised as he spoke of the rebuilding of an economical version of the Temple and the coming of a Messiah who would ride in on a colt and be pierced for our transgressions: “Who has despised the day of small things?” (Zech. 4:10)

The answer to that is: “We do.” We like big things, dramatic results, impressive crowds, celebrity guests.

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