The Lord's Prayer VII

Deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Matthew 6.13

 

Let me offer a few thoughts to focus our prayer time today.

• Satan is an adversary who wants to disrupt our lives in every way. He is perfectly happy to possess, distract or obstruct believers and their prayers. We must be constantly vigilant against him.
• It may seem old-fashioned to believe in Satan, but there are too many things in the world that are evil. These events need an explanation and the devil fits the bill. Besides, why would we want to take a chance?
• Although it seems that Satan rules the world, Jesus teaches us that we can be delivered from his influence. Don't be defeated or discouraged by the evil you encounter. God is the winner!
• God is in charge of everything. We have a powerful ally in the battle against the world.
• The Lord is not only the ruler of all with more power than we can imagine, he is filled with glory! How wonderful to know that mediocrity is not the plan for followers of God. We are blessed.

Prayer: Lord God, it is with relief and joy that we are reminded that you are in charge and you are interested in our well-being. Thank you for caring for us. For offering victory over our greatest enemy and blessing us with your presence we thank you.  Amen.

 

The Lord's Prayer VI

And do not lead us into temptation... Matthew 6.13

 

The world is quite literally filled with temptation. We are bombarded in advertising, television, movies, music, everywhere. We are tempted to sin in every conceivable way. We are encouraged to indulge our physical, sexual, emotional and relationship desires. Temptations come at us and cause us to not think about consequences. We look at how other people live, at how fun that temptation looks, and it becomes easy to rationalize or justify almost any behavior.

Temptation is inevitable. There can be no question about that. There is no way that normal humans can avoid all temptations. But Jesus, in his prayer does provide some help. Temptations will come, but we must avoid dwelling on them. We must not be 'led into' temptation. Our approach to things that Satan puts before us must be a three step process.

1. When we are tempted, we must recognize and name the temptation as soon as possible. By identifying the temptation we lessen the significance of its power over us.
2. After recognizing the temptation, we must take every measure possible to eliminate it and get past it. Temptation would love to come into your brain and rest there for awhile. As soon as you see it, get rid of it.
3. Pray that you will be given victory over temptation and that it will not return. Never, never, never entertain the temptation, but rebuke it and pray that you can avoid it in the future. 

God has great things in store for you, but they will never come to pass as long as you focus on the temptations in your life.

Remember, being tempted is not a sin. However, when we focus on the temptations in our lives, we open the door to sin.

 

Prayer: There are many things that want my attention and my love, O God. Help me to discern the things that are from you and are good for me. Give me power and victory over the temptations in my life.  Amen.

The Lord's Prayer V

And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. Matthew 6.12

 

Humans are notorious for their ability to blame others. Everything is always someone else's fault. We want everything bad that ever happens to us to be the responsibility of anyone other than ourselves. "The devil made me do it." "My parents were divorced." "My co-worker didn't do his job." You probably could add to this list.

But, in his model prayer, Jesus doesn't let us off so easily. He understands that each of us people is capable of sin and very likely to do so.  We should not be pointing the finger at someone else, but owning up to our own culpability in many situations. We need to be forgiven our own sins. 

There are a couple of more things for us to realize, however. First of all, depending on which gospel you are reading and which translation of the Bible you are using, this verse is translated as debts, trespasses and sins. Each of us has to deal with our sins. We might call our sins by other names to try and make ourselves feel better and look better to others. We will convince ourselves that we have made mistakes, gotten off the path or simply need to make a course correction. But its all sin. And we are all guilty (Romans 3.23).

Secondly, our personal forgiveness seems to be tied to our willingness to forgive others. Humans have a tremendous capacity to hold a grudge. Here is a word of advice: Get over it! The only way that you can live a fulfilling, fruitful and peaceful life is to forgive those who have wronged you. 

Forgive, and be forgiven.

Prayer: I am sorry, God, for all the things that I have done that are not pleasing to you. Forgive me. Allow me to know your grace and peace. May I be willing and able to forgive others, according to your word and your love.  Amen.

Lord's Prayer III

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6.10

 

Here is a pet peeve of mine: When we recite the Lord's Prayer aloud in worship, we create a misconception. We say the prayer like this is two different ideas. We typically get into a rhythm. There is a certain cadence with which we say the prayer. We say:

Your will be done...

On earth as it is in heaven.

Unfortunately, that would lead us to believe that  we should pray for God's will, and that we should pray that earth should be like heaven. Those are both good and noble objectives for prayer, but what Jesus is asking us to do is much more simple- and much more difficult.

It is simple because we are to pray that since God's will is always done in heaven, it should be done on earth as well. This is a perfect corollary to the previous part of the prayer. When God's Kingdom is manifest fully it will be inevitable that his will will be done. 

It is difficult because of the tremendous burden that this puts on us followers of Jesus. We must always be looking for God's will. This means that we should be praying over each decision that we make, even the most simple and mundane. To be a follower of Christ, to pray in the way that he has taught us, means that we pray for God's will in every situation.

What would Jesus do?

 

Prayer: Jesus, we do not always understand your will, but we long for it. We do not always appreciate your will, but we want it. Help us to know what your desires are for us and give us the courage to live according to your plan. Amen.  

 

Lord's Prayer IV

Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6.11

 

In their wilderness journeys the Israelites collected manna each day. They could only collect enough manna for today. They were prohibited from stockpiling it. In fact, if they collected more than they needed for one day, the surplus manna would get rotten and be infested with maggots. Jesus' instruction on prayer recalls that time and that dependence on God.

There are two things that we should especially note here.

1. God will take care of us for today. We are not promised anything more. Each day we are to go to God with our needs. If we take this seriously we need to be in prayer each day. You and I may get frustrated by not knowing God's long-range plan for our lives. We might get discouraged or feel as though we are getting nowhere when we have to ask for help over and over. But remember, he does provide enough. Always. 

2. You and I are required to recognize our dependence on God. The natural state of humanity is to exercise independence and make our own decisions. We want  to be on our own all the time. But here Jesus encourages us to remember that we are children of the Father. Like the children of any parent, we need to always be mindful that we need God for everything. He is not just a source of encouragement and comfort when we are in need. Everything we have, all that we know, comes from him. We need God and his work in our lives and world for everything.

This is not a nice prayer for food. It is not grace before a meal. This is nothing less than a declaration that we make affirming our faith and relationship to God.

 

Prayer: Lord, be with us today. Don't let us be discouraged about the future. Help us get through this circumstance. Give us an answer for today's problem. Then remind us that we always need you. Help us to depend on you for every part of our lives.  Amen.

The Lord's Prayer II

Your kingdom come. Matthew 6.10

One of the things that we can be sure of in this life is that this is not how God intended for things to be. We live in a sinful, fallen, corrupt world. Satan has caused people (all people) to sin. Our sin, and the sin of all humanity, has caused turmoil, strife, disaster and more all around the world.

Sometimes we can see God at work in our sinful world. There is a new baby, a miraculous healing, a glorious sunset. We hear testimonies of a life turned around, redeemed from addiction, crime and wasteful living. We know that there is more to this life than the unfortunate condition that we find ourselves in. 

God has a kingdom that is not a part of our status quo. His kingdom is one in which he rules and controls everything. And all of that is for the good, the blessing and benefit of his people. That is the kingdom that followers of Christ long for. Our hearts cry out for God to reign in our lives and in our world. We seek the protection that he can offer.

Our prayer needs to be that God's kingdom would be the reality that we live in every day. 

Prayer: Lord, we are unhappy with the way the world is. Fix it, we pray. We ask that your kingdom, your reign and your rule would come into our world today. May our reality be that we are your subjects. Fill us with a longing for your work in us. Amen.

God's Answers

Are you ready for some honesty? Can you handle it if I share with you a real problem that I have? Don't think bad of me, but sometimes I get very frustrated because my prayers seem ineffective. I know that God is out there somewhere, but it seems that he is not listening to me. I am sure that there are times- sometimes it seems like weeks, months or years- when he doesn't answer at all. The Bible teaches me that God is there, that he cares about me, that he listens to my prayers and that he always answers me. But in reality, it doesn't always feel like that.
So, what can I do? How does God speak to me? What can I know for sure about God and his answers to my prayer? I think that there are many ways that God answers us, but his response to our prayers generally fall in only a few categories.

• Go. There are times when God answers right away. He looks at my life and blesses me. There are times when my desires are consistent with God's will and he gives me an answer to my prayers that is resoundingly affirmative. I can be certain that God is in charge and that he is encouraging me to move forward.
  
• Slow. There are other times when I think I know what is best, but it just doesn't work for the Lord. He may support the idea that I am praying for, but the timing is off. Maybe I need to work on my relationship with God, or with others, or even with myself, but his answer to me is “not yet.” This doesn't mean that God is telling me know, or even that he is not answering at all. It means that God is trying to work on patience in my life. There will be an answer, but I have to wait. I can proceed, but I need to be sure that I am operating on God's time.
  
• Whoa. Sometimes I get ahead of God. I have a great idea, or at least I think its a great idea, but God is not quite ready for it yet. I need to stop what I am doing, at least for a season. I may get to go again, but not now.
  
• No. Brace yourself. This is the answer that we usually don't want to hear. But there are situations in which we need to pay attention to God's denials. But remember this, when he says no, it is always because there is something better that God has in mind for us.
  
• I don't know. One point of clarification here: God knows everything. His answer is never “I don't know.” But, often we think the answer is I don't know. Almost always, when we think the answer is I don't know, we can find God speaking one of the other answers to us.
  

Today, you may be frustrated because you are not hearing from God, or at least you are not hearing what you want from God. Know that he is speaking to you. Remember that there are many answers that he might be giving. As you pray, ask God to help you hear his voice, even if he is saying something you don't want to hear.

The Lord's Prayer I

Our Father in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name. Matthew 6.9 

When we pray, at least as Jesus taught us, we are to begin our prayer with an address and with worship.

Our address is an intimate expression of a relationship. When Jesus taught us to pray to our Father, it wasn't a formal or unfamiliar greeting. The idea of calling God Father was completely foreign to the disciples. God was seen as being far away from humanity. He was not someone that you could know personally. When Jesus suggested that we address God in this way he was offering us the opportunity to have a personal, familial relationship with God. Think of saying 'Our Father' in the same way that you would say "Hi, Dad!"

Perhaps the hardest word in the Lord's Prayer is hallowed. After all, no one uses that word anymore. It has become archaic and subject to misinterpretation and misunderstanding.  Let me offer some suggestions to help with that.

• Hallowed comes from the same word as Halloween, which is All Hallow's Eve, the night before All Saint's Day.
• Hallow also shares the same root as holy, holiness, whole, wholeness and holistic. Being holy is more than just a spiritual experience for a few Christians. It is the desire of God that all his children be "whole" and "holy."
• God serves as our example for holiness.

Finally, it is crucial that in our prayers we recognize who God is and offer our praise and worship to him. That is what it means to hallow God's name. I challenge you today to love God and worship him.

Prayer: Lord God, you are great and holy. I offer to you my love and honor. You are great and greatly to be praised. You are high above me and all that I know. I am humbled in your presence. Speak to me, O God, and make me like you, holy and whole. Amen.

Eyes Wide Open

Have you ever tried praying with your eyes open? It can be dangerous. I mean, there are distractions everywhere you look. When I am looking at the world I can get easily sidetracked in my prayers. I notice a person walking outside my window, or a family on a bike ride, or a bird, or the sunlight, or traffic seems a little heavy today, I wonder what's going on uptown. That's where everyone seems to be headed. What am I missing out on? Did I forgot something important at the library? Maybe someone died. I miss my grandma. She was such a great prayer- warrior. Ooops. I'm supposed to be praying.

But there is an upside.

 When I have my eyes open, I can be praying for that family walking. I can be reminded to thank God for the birds, the sunshine and all his blessings to me. I pray for those who I see. You see, if we allow it to happen, watching the world can be a great aid to prayer time. Give it a try. You might like it.

Dear Lord, I don't want to be distracted by the cares of this world, but I want to be sure to  be in tune with your work and your creation. Show me the needs that I can pray for and the things that I can do to bring your kingdom on earth. Amen.

Ways to Pray

This year we have been focusing on spiritual growth. Our primary exercises, or disciplines for doing this have consisted of Bible reading and prayer. There are many other things that will help you grow in your faith. Do not think that these are the only methods to use in getting closer to God. However, I believe that prayer and Bible study are the most simple, universal and effective ways to enhance your relationship with God. If you will do these things, you will find your faith growing significantly and quickly.

With all of that being said, let's look at some practical approaches to prayer. I am convinced that many Christians are simply intimidated by prayer. It seems so holy, so directed at the “other” that we don't even start praying. What follows, then, is a series of solutions that are accessible and simple for anyone.

• Pray with a journal. I often (almost daily) write my prayers. It gives me a record of what is important to me and what God is teaching me. This also keeps me focused on my prayer times. I can look in my journal and know how faithful I have been. If I am not writing my prayers, I may not be praying.
• Memorize prayers. Everyone remembers prayers that they said as a child; “God is great,” and “Now I lay me...” But there is value in memorizing prayers as an adult. Learn and pray the Lord's Prayer or the 23^rd Psalm. Make those prayers, and others, a regular part of your prayer time.
• Use prayer reminders. Write a prayer request on a sticky note and put it on your bathroom mirror, your office door or some other visible location. Every time you see the note, say a short prayer for that person.
• Pray aloud. I often find that praying silently easily leads to mind wanderings for me. Although this is very discouraging, it is avoidable. If I am actually speaking, I tend to stay more focused.
• Pray while you are driving (but don't close your eyes). There is a lot of driving time that is wasted. We listen to radio programs that may not be good for us and generally lose all the time we are in the car. Make your car a “prayer closet.”
• Text message prayers. Get a friend or prayer partner that you can pray with. Use text messaging as a simple, quick and effective way to keep in touch and up to date with needs and prayer concerns. Texting gives an immediacy to your prayers.
• Sing your prayers. Sometimes you will find that a particular song or hymn speaks exactly to the needs in your life. Sing to the Lord.

There are many more ways to pray, but you surely can find one here that will get you started on your path to a deeper relationship with God. 

Praying, Plain and Simple

I am convinced, as many of you are aware, that Christian people want to pray. They believe that they should pray more than they do, but they feel ill-prepared and untrained for the task of prayer. Part of this is because of some false perceptions of prayer. For example, we often labor under the assumption that praying is about telling God what we want. We read or recite a list to him, and we think that our responsibility for prayer is complete. However, as we grow in faith, we come to learn that prayer is not about a 'wish list,' but a relationship. Being with God is more important than telling him what we need.

As we continue on this year-long journey of spiritual growth then, we should agree that the two most important steps to improving our prayer lives are simply, 1) learning to pray, and 2) just beginning to pray. What follows are some samples of ways that you can pray. These models of prayer include times for asking God to meet our needs, but there are other aspects of prayer as well. These patterns will help you get started.

The idea behind using patterns for your prayers is not to enforce a strict formula, but rather to suggest some topics that will enhance and strengthen your prayers. Use the following patterns to guide you to deeper levels of prayer, rather than to oppress you with rules and obligations.

• ACTS- This is an acronym. The letters of ACTS give you a handy reminder of some areas for prayer. Use this to remind you to have a well-rounded prayer time. A- adoration: Praise and worship God for who he is. C- confession: Confess your sins and repent of your wrongdoing. T- thanksgiving: Thank God for all the blessings that he has provided for you. S- supplication: Ask God to meet your needs.
• PRAY- This is another acronym. P- praise: Offer to God words of praise and adoration. R- repent: Repent of the things that you have done, as well as the things that you should have done, but have not. A- ask: This is where you ask God for the things that you need, and for the needs of others. Y- yield: When we yield to God we echo the words of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, “not my will but yours.”
• PATH- Yet one more acronym. P- praise: Give to God your allegiance and glory. A- ask: Again we ask God for the things that we need. T- thanksgiving: Thanking God for answers to prayer is essential. Don't forget to also thank him for the blessings he provides that you haven't specifically asked for. H- help: There are areas in which you need God's help that don't fit into any of the other categories. We need help making decisions, finding direction and forgiving others, among other things.

There are some suggestions. Now its time to start praying. Try praying in these patterns for the next month. You will find that you grow much closer to God.

Why Should You Pray More?

As we have been reflecting on spiritual growth this year, we have been focusing primarily on Bible reading and prayer. Those are two of what I call the Four Most Important Things. The Four Things, in no particular order are:

• Bible Study
• Prayer
• Christian Fellowship
• Ministry

Each of these elements lend themselves to the spirituality of the Christian believer. Be sure to participate regularly in each of those “disciplines” for your spiritual health.

In this article I would like for us to think about the question of prayer, and especially why it is valuable for us to spend more time in prayer. To that end, let us consider the following answers to the question of why we should pray more.

• We should pray more because it will help us to know God better. Like a conversation with a friend, prayer will allow you to reveal things to God, and help you to gain deeper insights into his person and his will for your life.
• We should pray more because it is gives an indication of our level of commitment to God and his ways. When we love him more, we will spend more time with him.
• When we spend more time in prayer, we are able to pray for more needs. You can pray more specifically for more things; for missionaries, family members, lost loved ones, the ministries of the church, etc.
• When we spend more time in prayer, we long to spend more time in prayer. It is intriguing how this works. The more time you spend with God, the more time you want to spend with God.
• We should pray more because our conscience pricks us. We do not pray enough presently. For peace of mind, spend more time with God.
• We should pray more because our spiritual growth depends on it. If you want to grow in your walk with the Lord, spend time in prayer.

There are more reasons than these to pray more. In fact, there are enough different reasons that each person reading this could have their own specific rationale for praying more. But the bottom line is this: The reason you pray more is insignificant. You need to pray more. Get started. Don't wait another day. Pray to the Lord as if your life depended on it- because it does.

Using a Prayer Notebook

Are you ready to learn the most important secret to my personal spiritual life?

I have a deep sense- I believe that it comes from God- that our congregation is to focus on spiritual growth for 2012. This does not mean that we will neglect worship, or mission, or the administrative parts of the church. It just means that I am going to spend the rest of this year encouraging you to grow spiritually. In reality that's the most important part of my job anyway. I am supposed to convince pre-Christians to accept Jesus and join the faith, and to get those who are already committed to the way of Christ to grow in it.

There are a lot of ways that we can do this. One of the easiest is to join in our congregational resolution of reading the New Testament this year. By reading God's word it will become clearer how we are to live, behave, think and believe. But Scripture reading focuses on the intellectual part of spiritual growth. There is more to it. We also need to be praying.

So, here is the big moment. This is the secret to my spiritual life and growth. (I hope you are sitting down as you read this.) I pray in a spiral notebook. Revolutionary, huh?

Most days I write my prayers to God on one page in a regular spiral bound notebook. I know this is anti-climactic, but it makes a huge difference in my life, and I think it could in yours as well.

• Writing my prayers forces me to slow down. I write more slowly than I talk, so when I am writing my prayers I often hear God speaking to me about an answer, a solution, or even something else altogether.

• Writing my prayers forces me to be a little bit organized. I cannot just sit down with my notebook and make words magically appear on the page. I am more intentional about my prayers.

• I limit myself to one page of prayer. I never want praying to seem a burden or an overwhelming obligation. I write one page each day (which gives me 15-20 minutes with God) and then I close my notebook.

• I use a variety of types of prayer in my notebook. On Monday I might use a prayer list and pray for needs of friends and family members. On Tuesday maybe I will write a love letter to God. Wednesdays might be used for writing Scriptures that I have memorized.

• I do not limit my prayers to my notebook. I pray way more than my 20 minutes of notebook time. I pray for needs that arise throughout the day. I pray for meals and for other things. When I close my notebook I am not done praying.

Give notebook praying a try. It is pretty inexpensive and can change your life.

A Difficult Thing

I am just muddling through life. I mess up on a regular basis. If I were to keep track of my mistakes, I am sure that I would need counseling. I am not as good as people think I am and I get lost, confused and unhinged regularly.

There are some days that I do nothing right. I hurt people's feelings with my words. I offend others with my actions. There is a whole group of people who I neglect all together. Meanwhile I am in near financial ruin because of poor choices. My family is struggling because of my deficient leadership. I feel hopeless and directionless.

The bottom line: I don't know what I'm doing.

Life is a crap shoot. You give it your best shot and you hope it works. But sometimes it doesn't. My life isn't always bad, or difficult, or confusing, or pointless, but when it is it stinks. That's when I am reminded that no matter how hard I work at it, I don't get it.

So I pray. I pray because I don't know what I'm doing and God might. He might have an idea where I have gone wrong and what I can do to improve things. He might be able to help show me what I need to do, where I need to go.

Ultimately, no matter what, God cannot make my mess any worse than it already is. Even if he doesn't care and can't do anything, praying to him can't hurt.

But, I don't believe that. I think that God is interested. I believe that he is powerful, caring and involved. I think that he knows my situation and can fix me and my problems. Not only that, I believe with all my heart that God knows what he is doing. I'm going to give him my problems. He will know what to do with them.

In Prayer I

For the next several weeks I am going to use this space to offer some model prayers. These prayers can be used to help you start your prayer time, to guide you through your prayer time, or to be the content of your prayer time. May they inspire and encourage you to always grow in faith and prayer.

In Thanksgiving

Lord, You are good.

Your love lasts forever.

Your grace knows no end.

You continue to care for me, encourage me, provide for me.

Thank you.

Thank you for your provision.

I am grateful for...

food,

shelter,

family,

a job,

safety,

and security.

Thank you for my relationships.

I am grateful for...

my spouse,

my children,

my parents,

my family,

friends,

co-workers,

those who encourage me and those who challenge me.

Thank you for my faith.

I am grateful for...

forgiveness,

salvation,

Christian fellowship.

Thank you for the hope I have. I know that I am not alone. You are always with me. You have promised me good things in the future. Stay with me.

In the name of Jesus I pray.

Amen.

Lenten Prayers II

During Lent we have been focusing on a time of self-reflection and repentance. Let the following prayer help you in your meditations, reflections and prayers.

Show me who I am, Lord.

Not the person that others see,

but the person that you know from my heart.

And Jesus, when I see who I am

help me to become who you want.

Search me and help me to see my faults, my problems, my sins.

Make me a person of integrity.

Help me to discover my inconsistencies,

my hypocrisies,

my jealousies,

my bitterness.

Help me to evaluate my priorities.

Protect me from desiring only what is

popular,

expedient,

or pragmatic.

Remind me what you think is truly important.

Lord God, I pray that those things would become important for me as well.

Let me see your purpose for my life.

Do not let me be distracted by the interests of others.

Keep me from words, thoughts and activities that I choose just because they are popular.

If I can be popular I will not be disappointed,

but first of all, let me be your child.

May those who know me, know you.

May those who love me, be loved by me.

May those I meet, meet you.

May I be a person who lives for you,

and may I encourage one other to join me.

For your glory and in your name I pray.

Amen.

Lenten Prayers I

During Lent we have been focusing on a time of self-reflection and repentance. Let the following prayer help you in your meditations, reflections and prayers.

O Lord,

When I think about your greatness, your holiness,

I am reminded of all the ways that I am unholy.

I sin against you regularly.

I come short of your standards, your expectations for me.

I miss the mark in what I think, what I say, and what I do.

There are things that I know I should do-

reading the Bible, praying, being kind and loving to others-

That I do not do.

Forgive me when I fail to do what I know I should do.

But I also have sinned by the things that I do.

I have violated your Word and your way over and over again.

I have been jealous.

I have envied.

I have lied.

I have cheated.

I have stolen.

Lord, there is not much good about me.

My thoughts are often centered on sin.

I want to succumb to temptation.

My willpower is low.

I feel worthless and hopeless.

Forgive me when I knowingly violate your will.

Forgive me when I find that I have already sinned.

Forgive me when I feel self-assured and independent.

Remind me that I always need you.

Remind me to turn to you, to rely on you

And to expect you.

Forgive me and build my resistance to temptation.

Keep me from wandering from your way.

I pray this now- and always- in Jesus' name.

Amen

Weekly Prayer Thought

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6.6 (KJV)

When I was a teen-ager I remember game nights with my youth group. There were 10-15 of us who would meet at some one's house with our favorite board games. We played cards and games late into the night. We ate pizza, popcorn and pop. We flirted. We prayed. We had a great time.

My favorite game was double-bid euchre. I'm not sure that I can remember how to play it today, but it was great then. We also played Monopoly, Life and Clue. It seemed that every time we had one of these gatherings someone would arrive with a new "religious" game. One time it was a Bible trivia challenge. Another time it was the "Ungame." It was not competitive and there were no winners or losers. It was not very popular in our group.

One time someone showed up with the "Prayer Closet Game." I don't remember much about the game, except that it was pretty fun as Christian games go. There were dice, markers and a game board. There were challenges and competitions. The one thing I remember clearly about the game, however, was the thing that offended me. There was a penalty area on the game board. It was roughly equivalent to Jail in Monopoly. When you drew the wrong card, or landed on the wrong space, or rolled the wrong number on the dice, or answered a question wrong, or something, you had to go to the Prayer Closet.

How wrong is that? When you fail your punishment is that you have to pray. I was upset by that premise then, I am more upset by it now. It is hard enough for Christians to spend time praying. We should never equate prayer with punishment, or as a penalty for doing something wrong. Prayer is a reward. It is a privilege to spend time with God. We should feel honored to go into our prayer closets with the Creator of the world, the Lord of the universe.

One final thing; there are times when prayer may be especially hard. It could be that there is sin in your life that you do not want to admit or face. In such cases we may dread the encounter with God that is necessary. But we should always remember that when we come to God, he will forgive and restore us. Prayer is never a punishment. It is a blessing. It always has been.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Remind me that prayer is an awesome and intimate experience with you. Help me to always see it as a positive experience. Be very present with me when I pray. Stay with me always. Amen.

Weekly Prayer Thought

"Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You." John 17.1

With these words Jesus began what we have come to call the "High Priestly Prayer." Although this particular prayer is not as famous as the oft-repeated "Lord's Prayer," there is still much to commend it to us.

• We should read this prayer to learn the prayer priorities of Jesus. When we know what was important to him, we can make sure that our prayers are in line with his. We can pray for the things that Jesus prayed for, and prays for.
• We should read this prayer so that we can pray like Jesus did. Remember that in the Lord's Prayer Jesus was telling the disciples how they should pray. Here we have recorded a prayer of Jesus himself. If you want to pray with the same power, intensity and grace that Jesus had, pray this.
• We should read this prayer to realize the focus of Jesus. Remember that within moments of saying this prayer Jesus was arrested and put on trial. The next day he was executed. The thing he did with his last free hours was to pray for you and I. That is focus.
• We should read this prayer so that we can learn balance in our relationships. Jesus prayed first of all, that his relationship with his Father would be good. Then he prayed for his disciples and his relationship with them. Finally, he prayed for all that would follow. That's you and I. We do not live in a vacuum. We are in relationship with others. Jesus taught us that in this prayer.
• We should read and pray this prayer to maintain a ministry focus. Jesus did not pray only that people would be safe, happy and healthy. His focus was on building the Kingdom of God. Our prayers are too often ridiculously anemic by comparison. Don't just pray that Aunt Tillie will arrive safely. Pray that she will change the world for the sake of Christ when she gets there.

Spend some time reading Jesus' prayer here. Let it get into your mind and into your heart. Let it change your world and make you more like Jesus.

PRAYER: O God, make me like you and your Son, Jesus Christ. Give me a heart for the world. Help me to pray like you prayed. Give me your priorities. May I be focused on your work, always. Be glorified in my life. Amen.