Hollywood says evil is a guy in a hockey mask toting a machete.  The nightly news tells me it looks more like starving children with bloated bellies.  These pictures, though morbid, are not evil.  These are evil’s children, the violent offspring of an idea gone bad.  Really, really bad.

There was a day when evil surfaced as the ultimate alternative lifestyle.  Before evil had a face.  In that day, evil did not look like a plane wreck or starving refugees or even a 1,500 calorie fudge Sunday.  Evil… looked like an idea.   

“You can be as God, knowing good and evil.”

At the time this proposition was made, our ancestors already knew good.  GOOD… was connected to God.

And His kingdom.

And His will.

But evil runs a slick campaign and Adam bought the pitch that he could walk with himself in a way he did not need God  -  in a way a runaway might not need his father.  When Adam ran away from God, he altered the relational DNA of the men who walked behind him.  (That would be you and me). 

Embedded now in every man is a bend towards evil’s impulse.  Evil, you see, has gravitational pull.  There’s a word for this.  It’s called “temptation”.  Temptation is that desire you have to walk with yourself independent from God. 

As center of your own kingdom. 

     In the direction of your own will.

A guy named James (who headed up the early church in Jerusalem) said it this way:

“When desire (for evil) has conceived it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full grown, gives birth to death”.

Evil, James says, has an end.  That end is called “death”.  Where evil grows, something dies… and Static reigns.       

Somewhere between evil’s conception and the death it yields lies a choice, a choice to walk in a particular direction.  You can either walk with God or you can walk with yourself.

Walking with God is not easy.  It is in fact, impossible.  We need more than help.  We need rescued!  For this reason, Jesus taught His friends to carry their compulsion to wander back into the presence of God. 

Lead us not into temptation, Jesus instructs us to pray.  In other words, “Guard me from that overwhelming desire to travel in my own way.” 

But deliver us from evil  -  “Cause me to about face and walk with You, Oh God!  Rescue me from evil’s gravitational pull.”THIS… is an idea gone good.  In the center of this idea is a total dependence upon God, even for the desire to walk with Him.

If you are losing ground against temptation’s yank, consider that you may be fighting from the low ground  - from that place where you are leaning upon your Self for victory.  If this be the case, you need to know you have a traitor in your midst. 

Your freedom resides within the opening volley of Jesus’ prayer, within relational connection to your heavenly Father.  Temptation will come, you can’t avoid it.  But you don’t have to walk in it.  You need simply to turn around on your Self and walk with God, in that place where evil has no pull

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The Scriptures tell us God desires that He be plainly known.  Even still, we often strain to hear His voice. 

The glory of His creation engulfs us and the Truth of His Word surrounds us and yet…  and yet… His voice can still fade faint and obscure. 

Such was the signature of Jesus’ day as well, that time when God walked in flesh among men.  In that day, people trained their ears to the voices of men who spoke for God.  But the men did not speak clearly.

They broadcast Static and drowned the sounds of the Savior’s approach.  

So God pulled up close.

Real close.

Within earshot kind of close.

One day, Jesus’ friends overheard Him talking with the One they called God.  They noticed Jesus spoke not just as God and for God, but He also spoke to God.  In a clear sort of way.

“Lord, teach us to pray…” the disciples asked.  They wanted to talk to God like…  that!

So, Jesus took His friends to Lesson #1:  “When praying, you need to know to Whom you are speaking and your proper before Him…”

The idea made sense to men for whom God was barely approachable.  These were they who occupied the margins of the community who “knew” God.  What did not make sense was the protocol Jesus instructed the men to use.  

Jesus slid His friends a salutation that calibrated their conversation to an unexpected place. 

“Father…”  Jesus began.

Absorb this image for a moment.

Jesus tells us we are to talk to God as a child would his Daddy. 

The approach is intimate.  Access is immediate.

Maybe your earthly father hasn’t left you with much to work with here.  Maybe he was distant and obscure, or worse.

The picture Jesus leaves us is clear.

Jesus invites us to approach our Heavenly Father with familiarity.  He tells us to begin with the premise that God is near and that we are unconditionally accepted.  Most importantly, Jesus tells us God desires that we be relationally connected to Him. 

Your Heavenly Father wants to hear from you.  Directly.  Routinely.  Personally.

Unobstructed by the Static of men.

… why can’t I hear God?

The Scriptures tell me God desires a relationship with me. They tell me if I search for Him, He may be found. Even still, I skid through seasons where God seems distant, where He is vacant from that place I need Him most.

Ever been there?

Have you ever leaned into the void to hear the voice of God?

Sometimes, God is strategically silent. I’m okay with that. I rest in the knowledge that God might, for a time, hold my petitions in escrow while He seasons my soul with a deeper and more abiding trust. But such does not explain the times God is not silent, when His voice is scrambled amongst a malaise of auditory confusion. These are the times I stretch for God’s voice, yet all I hear…

…is Static!

Static is the white noise that intercepts our communion with God.

Static is not new. It is, in fact, quite ancient. If static is occupying your stretch to hear God, you are not alone. Nor does your struggle approximate your position with Jesus.

One day, those closest to Jesus pleaded with Him that He tell them the secret - the one that makes the static go away. The Gospel writer, Luke, records the conversation this way:

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray…”

Jesus’ friends wanted to hear God.

Just like we do.

Jesus’ answer has resonated through the centuries. You might recognize His words. They have been passed down to us in what has come to be known as the Lord’s Prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer is about many things. It’s about how we view God. It’s about how we treat men. It’s about how God treats us. It is about all these, and more. Mostly, the Lord’s prayer is about communion with God.

Communion… without Static.

Luke 11