Prayer Practice: Lord, Teach Us To Pray

from my Lenten Series, from Luke 11:1-4

You were made to pray.  God hard-wired you just for this.  Prayer is talking with your closest friend.  It is talking and listening.  There is nothing weird or unusual about praying.  You were made to pray.

Little children pray very well.  Maybe it is only as we get older that we get self-conscious about praying.  We start rating ourselves.  We get intimidated.  We say, "I can't pray like Billy Graham."  So we stop.

What I teach is this:  Pray as you can....not as you can't.  There are many right ways to pray.  Silence, journalling, art, meditation on  scripture, breath prayers, with images/icons, singing, flashing prayers, mission projects, all are wonderful ways of praying.

When we don't know what to pray, there is a prayer waiting for us.  We call it the Lord's prayer, but really it is our prayer, the model prayer that Jesus gave us.  I am glad to see those closest to Jesus still needed help in praying.  "Lord, teach us to pray," they ask.  So we do today.  It takes the pressure off.  It is a learning process.  We never finish.  It is liberating.  It is like a research project.

Today we use the model prayer as a way to get started praying.  First, our Address of God. What name do you use to address God?  In the model prayer, we say Our Father.  Father is one of the most common ones.  Father is used 15 times in the Old Testament and 245 times in the New Testament to address God. I went on the internet this past week and looked up names for God.  There were 100's.  How do call upon God?

Second, we offer praise to God.  In the model prayer, we say Hallowed be thy name.  Here we praise God for who God is, for what God does, for God's character, for God's attributes.  How do you praise God?

Third, we ask.  In the model prayer, we say, Give us, forgive us.  I know that in other places Jesus says, that the Father knows what we need even before we ask.  I also know that Jesus says we are to ask, seek, and knock.  I think God likes to hear us ask even though God knows what we already need.  It is part of the relationship, the asking.  The more we ask, the better we get at asking for the right things.

Let me illustrate with my cell phone.  Here I will take a selfie, that is a picture of myself.  That is how we often begin our life of prayer, asking for ourself alone.  That is not wrong.  But it is a beginning place.  Now let me turn around and take a selfie with you, just like they did at the Oscars.  We are all in the picture.  That's how our asking gets shaped, from me to us.  Look at the pronouns in the model prayer.  Our, us, ....they are all plural.  We were made for community.  God shapes our asking as we pray.  What are you asking for today in your prayers?

Finally, we close.  We leave with respect, with politeness.  The model prayer does with a benediction.  We often pray in Jesus' name, that is, praying as Jesus would have us pray.  We often say, Amen.  Amen means, So be it, may it be so, I affirm this, or Yes.  In Battlestar Galatica, they say, So Say We All!

Take a moment to pray now.

There is another simple way of praying using the acronym ACTS.

The A stands for Adoration.  How do you adore God?

The C stands for Confession.  Here is something we need to do that we don't always do so well.  We need to humble ourselves, to admit that we can't save ourselves.  We need to come clean before God.  Lent is like spring cleaning for the soul.  We need to tell the truth about ourselves before God, trusting that God forgives.  We need to make room for God to move in our lives, letting go of hurts and sins.  What do you need to confess this day?

T is for Thanksgiving.  This is one of our most basic prayers, paying attention to how God is moving in our lives.  For what are you thankful today?

S is for Supplication.  That is a big word for asking.  Another way of talking about supplication is saying, Help.  Where do you need help today?

The good news is that when we say, Lord, teach us to pray, He does.  Amen.