“Teach me to pray.” That was what I prayed over and over on my drive from Rhode Island to Boston my first day of seminary. I thought to myself, “If I was really going to do this ministry thing, then I truly did want to learn how to pray.” A teachable spirit is of primary importance for all people who embark on a spiritual love relationship with God. For me, learning to pray seemed like a great place to start. I had been praying for years, however, it felt like there was much more to learn.
Through the years of being a pastor for various sizes of church, I often heard the plea from parishioners to “teach me to pray.” Laity and seminaries alike are avid pray-ers, and yet the creative tools and techniques for prayer are often overlooked within the life of the congregation. I wonder if it has ever been assumed by church leadership that “prayer is a simple thing, of course everyone does it; so why teach others how to pray?”
Scripture Reading
It was a simple request. The Disciples were just beginning to feel like community. They wanted something to identify them as Jesus’ faith group of followers. That was when the Disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. Luke 11:1-13. Jesus’ response was all about relationship with God. The prayer in this section of Scripture which Jesus taught is entitled The Lord’s Prayer, since Jesus was the one who spoke the prayer. However, it is truly a disciple’s prayer expressing common needs and a sense of togetherness as followers of Jesus.
Disciples in connection with God take nothing for granted from God. The mystery, power, protection, miraculous active love of God provides for our most basic needs and knits us together beyond our wildest imagination. We discover from The Lord’s Prayer that God is approachable. Our posture for prayer as a disciple of Jesus is one of humility as we come before One unequaled in the universe.
Today’s Prayer Practice
Today you are invited to an examination of your interior character through The Lord’s Prayer Examen. May your spirit be teachable as Jesus instructs you in prayer. Together we will take each phrase of the prayer and discern how we are leaning into the phrase as we live faith out loud. Pray The Lord’s Prayer three times.
Frist, pray at your regular pace and speak out loud The Lord’s Prayer.
Secondly, please join me in praying very slowly each phrase of The Lord’s Prayer. You may desire to journal your responses to each question.
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.
- How are you intimately loving God?
- How do you active live respect for God?
- What is your relationship with God like?
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
- Pray for God’s rule to come upon humanity and this earth.
- How do you care for the earth, respecting its beauty, fragility, and possibility?
- What circumstance causes you to seek God’s justice among humanity?
- How will you invite God into the situation so that God’s way of love may be lived?
Give us this day, our daily bread;
- When and how have you relied upon God for all your provisions in life?
- For food, money, health, relationships, home, safety etc.
- Consider a specific time when God provided for all your needs, wants, and desires.
- What was that experience like for you?
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;
- Have you ever held a grudge for what another has done, or you thought he or she did?
- How easily do you forgive the other?
- When have you experienced God’s forgiveness?
- What was that like for you?
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
- When have you been led into temptation? Temptation for or to what?
- What do you do when you are tempted?
- How do you lean into full trust of God for spiritual and physical protection?
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
- How do you stand in awe of God’s truest nature?
- When have you experienced the power of God’s presence?
- How do you seek God’s glory each and every day?
After completing a phrase by phrase experience of this prayer, slowly pray The Lord’s Prayer without pauses as you conclude your time of prayer.
May your relationship with God be strengthened as you pray with Jesus this day.
Enjoy praying.
