Notes from Peru – Prayer

We arrived in Peru at 1:30 am on Friday morning. A group of us from Browncroft Community Church will spend time getting to know our sister church Alianza Cristiana de Miraflores.

During our first day, we discussed topics ranging from small groups, mentoring, Sunday services, and missions. I’m thankful for our translators Manny Marques and Beatriz Flores, who did a remarkable job helping all of us make connections on these topics.

My friend Dave Hertweck says, “We have to learn how to love the problem more than solutions.” 

Browncroft and Alianza desire to see people in the church grow in life-change in Jesus. Both churches face similar challenges such as a culture of busyness, measuring effectiveness, and ultimately helping people outside the church recognize the reality of Jesus Christ in their lives. No matter the context of the church, often we love discussing solutions rather than spending enough times processing the problem.

Interestingly, I will share with the young adult group of Alianza on prayer from Matthew 6:5-13. Many of us will jump to the Lord’s Prayer in this passage, but we cannot miss the first section of this passage. As humans, we succumb to the belief that our prayer performance and repetition of words will move God in prayer.

In all actuality, Jesus in Matthew 6:5-13 challenges us to see the “why” of what we pray rather than “what” we pray. Consider this for our own lives. We ask God for our comfort and access to control, but God desires us to have true life-change in our heart. The Lord’s Prayer models for us the priorities Jesus has for us.

Jesus in a small way teaches us about loving the problem more than the solution. We struggle to pray because our heart can become misguided. This can be true about how we lead the church, parent our children, dream about the future, manage employees, and other areas of our lives.

As we start today, I recognize the times that I love the solution more than the problem. Even this teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:5-13 reminds me to stop in ask for Jesus’ wisdom on the challenges in our lives.

Photo by Carlos Ruiz Huaman