Groups Guy

This is the best way to start a prayer life. Most of us spend some time praying. For many of us it’s just not very well developed. It sounds enriching to have a deep prayer life but either we haven’t de-cluttered our life or we don’t know how.

Teach us to pray was the request of the disciples in Luke 11. They had watched Jesus. They knew he had a robust prayer experience. They knew he prayed a lot longer than they did. They saw big things happen. They saw a peace, a strength that Jesus had, that the onlooking disciples knew they didn’t have. So they asked, “Teach us how to do prayer. We haven’t got a clue.”

Jesus goes on to teach them the Lord’s Prayer or as some have called it the “disciple’s prayer.” It is a salutation followed by five petitions. The prayer frames who we are addressing and what we are to ask for.

1. Who we are addressing…Father. We pray to some who deeply cares for us, someone who is connected to us. We are his children. Like any father he wants to be with us. This Father encourages us, wants the best for us, knows us. As we come prayer we aren’t approaching a some cosmic distant God. We are connected to our Father intimately.
2. First petition …Praise. Hallowed in the verb form of the word holy. We are called revere him, honor him and treat him with great respect. Think of how David knew it was so good to be in God’s Temple praising and gazing at the Father! Ps 27:4. Praise can be that good. May he teach us how to do it even better.
3. Your Kingdom Come …Big Prayer. The final consummation of all history is what we are praying for. We ask that the Lord’s dynamic reign would come to completion and that evil would be banished. It is also about Yielding. Thy will be done means we won’t get our way necessarily. We allow God to have his desires fully accomplished.
4. Third petition…Little Prayer. Asking for our daily bread seems kind of small when we think of asking that all of history would conclude in the previous petition. Yet Jesus tells us to pray about even little things like food and needs. A good father wants to hear his children’s needs. A good father wants to provide. See the following section in chapter 11 about God’s desire to be generous.
5. Fourth petition…Repentance. Nothing is harder for us than saying we’re sorry. Look at the book of Genesis. Adam couldn’t say it. Eve blamed. Cain didn’t like the consequences. No one in that book comes out and says, “I am wrong.” We too, need help to see it, help to say it. Ps 139:23, 24.
6. Final petition…Protection. Lead us not into temptation seems to say that our Father could put us in a bad place. He doesn’t. James 1:13-15 tells us he never tempts. It tells us we are enticed by our own desire. We need protection from our own selves, the world and the demonic world.

Five petitions and a salutation that strengthen our prayer life. Don’t you want to experience the Lord more? Don’t you want to have peace about the difficulties in your life. I’ve attached pdf that might help you as you work to develop this area of your walk. It has taught me a few things about my tendencies, my weaknesses. I’ve also been taught how to build different areas of prayer. TeachMeToPray-wk1

Here’s a link to some more ways to take your prayer life to new levels. http://wp.me/pEheV-1ai