It always fascinates me that Jesus prayed when he walked on the earth ! I mean, he of all people had every excuse not to pray and yet He did. Probably, His disciples saw how effective His prayers were which prompted their question in Luke 11 :
"...Lord teach us to pray..." they said. That resulted in Jesus giving them what is recited in most Christians circles as the "Lord's Prayer". I think praying the Lord's Prayer as we do is powerful. But even more powerful is the fact that I sincerely believe that Jesus gave us the Lord's prayer as a guide also ! A guide to effective prayer and spending time with the Father.
I believe in spending time in prayer. If it is not unusual for me to spend an hour on the phone with my friend or on social media or watching TV, then it should not be unusual for me to spend an hour chatting with the One who loved me so much He sent His Son to die an undeserved death for me. It's the very least I can do. And so today I am writing on how you can easily spend an hour in prayer using the Lord's Prayer as a guide or template.
Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name : "Hallowed" is another way of saying "holy". This phrase worships our Father who is in Heaven. Worship involves us pouring out our adoration, praise and thanks to God for who He is and what He does in our lives. I challenge you to do something : take a pen and a piece of paper and list 20 things you can praise God for. You can praise God for the next 10 minutes for the things on that list.
Thy Kingdom come : This is where you can pray for Kingdom business.There are so many aspects of the Kingdom of God we can pray for. Your local pastor is a part of the Kingdom and he needs prayer to continue preaching the unadulterated Word of God. Missionaries within and without need prayer to take the gospel into the difficult regions of the world. That evangelistic outreach your church is doing could use some prayer too. You can spend another 10 minutes here too.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven : Personally, this is one of my favorite prayers to pray ! There is nothing better and no place worth being more than in the will of God. I am a personal witness to the miracles and mighty works that can happen when we simply surrender our plans and dreams in order for God's will as He intended it before the beginning of time to be fulfilled in our churches and in the several different aspects of our lives. Jesus prayed that God's will would be done in the Garden of Gethsemane just before He went to the cross. I think it's the best example of how to pray and see God work mighty things through our lives. You can pray like this for another 10 minutes.
Give us this day our daily bread : This is a typical prayer of supplication where we ask God for our personal needs. Who doesn't have personal needs ?! You can chat with Papa about this for another 10 minutes.
And forgive us our sins/trespasses : This is another one of my favorite prayers to pray ! Confessing my sins because let me tell you, I mess up A LOT ! This is also the part of prayer where I examine myself and see if I have any bitterness towards anybody. We can't have answered prayer or be forgiven ourselves if we haven't forgiven others. You can also ask the Lord Himself to search you and see if there is any wicked way you have not recognized yourself (Psalm 139:23-24). (5 minutes)
We're almost at an hour !
And lead us not into temptation : We all face temptations everyday of our lives. In addition to praying that we would be forgiven, it is also important that we pray to receive the strength we need to resist and overcome temptations when they do arise. (5 minutes)
Deliver us from evil : The devil is working day and night to destroy us. Jesus said so in John 10:10. We are in a spiritual battle against him as well as demonic entities (Ephesians 6:12). One of our weapons against the devil is to pray against the evil he sends against us (now this could be a whole other series on spiritual warfare and so I will just leave it at this until another time. For now, you can pray in Jesus' name that anything the devil has set up against you will completely fail). (10 minutes).
And you've spent an hour praying ! I understand that in the beginning praying for an hour will seem like an impossibility. You may find yourself done with what I suggested after about 20 minutes. That is alright. The most important thing is to keep praying and to make prayer a lifestyle. Very soon, praying for an hour will be a walk in the park ! You will begin to get closer to the Lord and your walk will be richer and more blessed !
God bless you.
You are loved relentlessly by a powerful Savior.
Gertrude.
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This is part 4 in the series I am doing on prayer. Please check out the other posts here.
I look forward to hearing from you either in the comments below or on Facebook.
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