Jesus prayed many times in scripture. He also taught his disciple’s a prayer.
Luke 11:1-4
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them,
“When you pray, say:
“‘Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’”
For the followers of Jesus this is one of the most frequent prayers. In my church we repeat it together every Sunday. Hearing the voices of Jesus’ followers gathered to repeat the words of Jesus from 2000 years ago is a habit but also emotionally heartwarming.
Through the centuries many Christian prayers were written down and passed to others. The first part of the Serenity Prayer was written on a wooden plaque in the kitchen of my family home. It is attributed to Reinold Niebuhr
God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
A popular prayer parents teach their children is attributed to Charles Wheeler. He lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. He was clergy and a traveling writer with18 children. Obviously, teaching children to pray from an early age was frequently on his mind.
The essence of prayer is talking to God. Being honest with Him. Telling Him your troubles, concerns, needs, wants, and anything else you would tell your wisest best friend. God wants to be in relationship with us. All relationships take time to develop and maintain. It is difficult to feel close to someone when we rarely converse. God loves us and wants to be involved in every part of our lives. But He is a patient and all-knowing Father. He waits for us to be ready. He will listen for as long as we want to talk if we are honest and respectable towards Him. God can handle our anger, disappointments, frustrations, and doubts. We do not need to hold anything back. But in the end, we should remember that He is God and we are His children.
There is a prayer I use in times of distress, fear, or danger. It is to simply say the word GOD. It is similar to a small child crying out to a parent. When parents hear their child scream, parents know by the sound of the child’s voice if this is a small or large problem. Parents run to the child faster the more desperate the child sounds. Usually when the parent sees the child, the parent knows instantly how to fix the problem. God is smarter than any parent. He knows about the problems we encounter long before they occur. Overtime, I learned to say the word GOD, either loudly or softly, then looked for what appealed to me the most. If I am running while praying, suddenly one direction seems right while another direction feels wrong. In the midst of an approaching car collision, the word GOD can cause miracles to happen. Sometimes the word GOD brings people to my side to help me.
There is no problem or disaster to complex or too overwhelming for God. As quickly as I say GOD, I also remember to say thank you GOD afterwards. I learned to walk through or into the most dangerous situations by practicing praying the word GOD throughout my life. I do not take God’s help for granted. I am not arrogantly walking into danger. If I see danger in my path, I pray before continuing. Sometimes after praying, I decide to turn and run away. Praying God, does not make me invincible. If does give me confidence that I can face many difficulties with God at my side.
Often, when scared or unsure of my surroundings I do more than pray. I declare a few of my favorite Bible verses as a prayer. These are not said with a meek voice begging for help. These are spoken with the strong determined voice of a precious child of the Most High King.
Psalm 139:9-10
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Psalm 23:4-6
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Then I pray starting with a request for myself to be blessed today. Then a praise of God such as ”I love you Jesus, I love you Jehova, I love you Holy Spirit. You are the maker of heaven and earth. You rule earth with mercy and justice, and all your rulings are good and right. Jesus came to earth to die a horrible death on the cross as an atonement for our sins. The third day he was raised up and seated at the right hand of God. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. The Holy Spirit was sent to live among us and inside of us, that we may have the very power of God to change us fromthe inside out. You are seated in glory and honor. You will be exalted above the whole world. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, you are Lord. I praise your holy name Almighty God”. Saying these words from heartfelt belief fills me with joy every day. It may seem to far over the top. But taking time to acknowledge who God is, what he has done, and what will be feeds my soul with pleasure, peace, and confidence. Declaring the deep belief that He is who He says He is, gives me courage. The courage of a dearly loved child with a powerful Father. “Nobody can beat-up or out maneuver my daddy!”
Then I pray for my expected day. Ask forgiveness for yesterday’s troubles or sins. Often, I have ideas concerning things I want to happen, with or without my participation. Then I begin a circle of prayers. Starting with family, friends, acquaintances, my church, my community, my country. Then other countries, especially those at war or suffering disease or famine. I often read the news from previous days and pray for the strangers needing help or for the sinners needing a change of heart.
My prayers vary greatly depending on what is happening in my life or in the news. Sometimes ides concern getting Bibles to certain people or counties. I may ask for militaries at war to begin singing hymns or Christian music to give them strength. For problems in my city to become a focus for one or more churches. Sometimes I just sit and count my blessings and thank God for all He has brought into my life.
Frequently, I pray for people’s eyes to be opened to see the truth and for ears to be unstopped to hear the truth. That people will know the truth and not believe a lie. I pray for myself and others to see the world around us through God’s eyes. I pray for people to do God’s will even when they don’t want to, including myself. Basically, I pray about everything and anything. I believe God has no limits, so my prayers can be as big as my imagination, as long as they are part of God’s will for this world and its people.
Isaiah 55 is one of my favorite books of the Bible. In verse 11, this is what God says about himself,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
If we ask Him for something and He says it out of His mouth, it will happen. We only need to learn to align our request with His.