The Pattern and Practice of Prayer

“Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1 NKJV.

Prayer can be your natural posture, priority, and practice, as it was for Jesus.

My thoughts and comments today are about “the pattern and practice of prayer.”

Communication is important. Mutual relationships and meaningful personal and social collaborations require effective communication. A few practical examples are: marriage demands considerate communication; parenting depends on clear communication; friendships rely upon frequent communication. Why would anyone presume that a growing relationship with God can successfully occur without frequent and meaningful interaction?

And how does such interaction with God occur? Let’s consider the practice of prayer as central to a healthy, growing spiritual life. There is no better example or place to begin than with Jesus. Prayer was Jesus’ posture, priority, and practice. The power of His prayers resulted from His practice of prayer. As His disciples observed the intimacy of His praying and were witnesses of the power of His prayers – speaking with indisputable authority, calming storms, healing all manner of sicknesses, casting out demons – they desired to pray as He did. “As Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He finished, one of His disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray . .’” Luke 11:1 NIV.Like you, they wanted their prayers to make a difference in matters of concern to themselves and others. They wanted to be a force for God’s will, and believed their prayers could be that.

Prayer begins with a desire to be taught how to pray, accompanied with a devotion and discipline to actually pray. My friend, Rick, has given me a book of prayers drawn from the Puritan Movement, a religious phenomenon of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This morning, I read, “In prayer, I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. In prayer, I find my heart going after Thee with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to Thee. In prayer, I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the eternal world I can give myself to Thee with all my heart, to be Thine forever.”

Reading such a prayer exposes the short attention span, shallow thought, or superficial language, to which I can easily succumb in my prayers. Today’s culture encourages slang, inapt chatter, and extempore thoughts of undue brevity through text messages, Twitter, Snapchat, or Facebook. When in His presence, it seems to me that God deserves better. Your words can be simple, but must be sincere; your language can be plain, but must be from the heart. “When you pray, God hears more than you say, answers more than you ask, gives more than you imagine – in His own time and own way.”

To the disciples’ request, Jesus taught a pattern for the elements of prayer, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven. Give us our food for today, and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. [For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen]’” Matthew 6:9-13 NLT/KJV. We will look more specifically at these elements of “The Lord’s Prayer,” in upcoming devotionals. I recommend His prayer for your reading and reflection.

My prayer for you today is that you practice praying until it is natural communication.