Revisiting Prayer

What a wonderful time we have spent diving into some of the most important prayers in the Bible this fall. Which of those prayers did the Holy Spirit grab your attention? Which of those prayers does the Holy Spirit want you to ponder, memorize and pray?

As God  has led me to these prayers, Abraham's active listening prayer and then his bold and scandalous prayer still grips me. I must pray that prayer regularly.

Several of the Southtowners have shared with me that they are re-reading those prayers and praying those prayers for their families, our church family and our Pentapolis.

Another prayer that I love is the prayer Jesus taught and teaches us. It's known as the Lord's Prayer. Remember how we started looking at that prayer? 

That prayer reminds us who God is and who we are. When we pray it with this view, God re-calibrates who we are and what our focus is on each and every day. Let's take a look at that again.

Prayers                                   Who God is…            Who we are…
Our Father in heaven              -Father             -a child away from home
Hallowed be Your name         -Highest          -a worshipper
Your kingdom come               -King               -a subject
Your will be done                   -Sovereign       -a servant
Give us today                          -Provider         -a beggar
And forgive us our debts        -Savior             -a sinner
As we forgive our debtors      -Confronter     -a revenger
Lead us not into temptation    -Protector        -a sinner in danger of being a greater sinner

As we look at this prayer from this perspective, we naturally see our descending spiritual state, which is so true. But, when we are reminded of Jesus' teaching, "Blessed is the spiritually poor..." we learn that it is also a spiritual ascending prayer as well. The more we walk with Jesus openly and honestly, the more Jesus helps us understand our full need for Him to be our Confronter and Protector. The more spiritually close we become to Jesus, (the more spiritually mature), the more we realize how much of a danger we really are in. So, when we pray these many prayers in the Lord's prayer, let's be very mindful of these two spiritually descending and ascending realities of who we are.

For the past 15 years, every Sunday morning I pray the Lord's prayer on all of you, all pastors, all churches and 7 plus billion people alive. It usually takes me about 15-20 minutes to pray all these wonderful prayers in the Lord's prayer.

Maybe you might adopt one of these 9 prayers that we looked at all fall and pray that prayer on certain days or with certain people or in another way the Holy Spirit leads you to pray them.

Wrestling For The Twin Cities - Abraham's prayer
Wrestling For The Family - Hannah's prayer
Wrestling For The Meaning of Life - Jacob's prayer
Wrestling For Identity - Moses' prayer
Wrestling With Finances - David's prayer
Wrestling For The World - Daniel's prayer
Wrestling Through Darkness - The Psalmist prayer
Wrestling For Strength - Paul's prayer
Wrestling With Jesus - The Lord's prayer

Wrestling with Jesus together,
Pastor Chris

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