New Prayer Resolutions
Each new year brings with it new resolutions. In this series, we take a closer look at the Lord’s Prayer to see how this daily practice can shape how we approach the change we want to see in our lives.
Scripture: Luke 11:1-2
New year, new me. As 2024 sets in, it’s not uncommon to hear this sentiment amongst our friend groups and to see it posted in various forms on social media. After all, a new year means new opportunities for change and progress. After taking stock of the year prior, many of us are quick to notice all the ways we either fell short of last year’s goals or how we simply want the coming year to look different for us.
But the question is, how do you bring about these changes? Is it a new diet? A new group of friends? Perhaps new hobbies?
When it comes to progress, we lean heavily towards technique and behavior. We convince ourselves that if only we can cultivate the right circumstances or habits, then perhaps we’ll see the results we long for. But what if that’s the wrong approach altogether? Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves, and our problems begin before we ever get to the question of how . What if we need to start with the question of who?
A new solution to an age-old problem
Jesus sets an interesting example when his disciples ask him how to pray. Rather than answer with a how — like techniques to improve their spiritual lives — he answers with a who. He addresses the focus of their prayers, placing the focus on the “Father” instead of the “self.”
This does two things for us:
1. It teaches us to actively bring our problems and areas of improvement before God.
Rather than obsessing over a particular problem and revolving our lives around solving it, Jesus wants us to have the inner peace that comes with seeing our problems in light of God — and not just any god, but a God who is like a father and is deeply involved in his children’s lives. In Aramaic, the word Jesus uses is Abba, which is an informal reference to a father, akin to calling a parent by their nickname. This is significant, because Jewish prayers were traditionally in Hebrew, a more formal language that denotes the sanctity of one’s prayers. By beginning with this introduction, Jesus undoes thousands of years of pomp and ceremony and encourages the disciples to approach God with a sense of familiarity and safety.
2. It teaches us to place the focus of our prayers on God.
Contrary to the amount of “I/Me” statements in our resolutions and prayers, Jesus’ desire is that we’d allow prayer to reshape our thinking to the point where we can trust God completely with our wants and needs. Indeed, this is the very same idea behind Jesus saying, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). In other words, if you want to improve yourself, the answer isn’t to focus on yourself more — but rather to place our focus on the One who is able to fulfill our needs and wants and offers it freely.
Changing our thinking
This way of thinking is countercultural and unnatural for many of us. We’re inundated with constant daily messages that revolve around our own well-being and self-worth. In our culture, we have whole categories of apps and sections of books dedicated to the idea of “self-improvement,” and it can be easy to get lost in the never ending cycle. But Jesus offers the peace of mind found in practicing daily the reorientation of the self towards God.
The Christian author Eugene Peterson beautifully makes this connection between prayer and our modern-day struggle with the “self” in his book Earth and Altar:
“The striking diagnostic consensus of modern experts that we have a self problem is matched by an equally striking consensus among our wise ancestors on a strategy for action: the only way to get out of the cramped world of the ego and into the large world of God without denying or suppressing or mutilating the ego is through prayer. The only way to escape from self-annihilating and society-destroying egotism and into self-enhancing community is through prayer. Only in prayer can we escape the distortions and constrictions of the self and enter the truth and expansiveness of God. We find there, to our surprise, both self and society, whole and blessed. It is the old business of losing your life to save it; and the life that is saved is not only your own, but everyone else's as well.”
In other words, this pattern of thinking provides us with an unexpected gift: that the transformation we discover is not only a benefit to us, but to the world around us as well. Indeed, this is true when we think of how our world is crippled by people with a poor concept of “self.”’ Every day we see terrible examples of people who are too inflated in their view of themselves and thus have little regard for the care of those around them. But at the other end of the spectrum, we also see people with too low of a view of themselves and are plagued with fear and depression.
Each of these extremes are also self-evident in our prayers and devolves into the false narratives that we tell ourselves. In our constant struggle for self-improvement, it’s not uncommon to experience the disorienting nature of vacillating between these two extremes. In the end, we disappointingly settle for being “self-conscious.”
A peace-filled solution
The answer, according to Jesus, is to daily ground ourselves in a rhythm that does two things: that recognizes our worth in a God who is interested in us and wants to hear what is on our hearts, while also acknowledging that we are not God and, therefore, there is a resource greater than ourselves for the change we desire.
In this balance, we then place ourselves under the care of the King whose kingdom includes us and is perfect. That’s why we pray that his “kingdom come” — that his kingdom would be built and that our ideals would be refined to match his. This is the who that trumps the how in life. It’s a life that flourishes because it’s not weighed down by the pressures of the “self” but is freed by the joy of a Father who lavishes good gifts on his children.
In this new year, let’s find confidence in that truth as we bring our resolutions before him and witness his kingdom coming to triumph over our own.
Study questions:
What does your prayer life look like?
What resolutions do you have for the new year?
In what ways do you find yourself focussing on “how” more than “who”?
What does it mean for us to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves? How have you experienced this paradox?
What does “thy kingdom come” mean to you?
