Pray This Way

Invitation to Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer is the central prayer of the Christian faith. It is the only prayer our Lord ever taught his disciples to pray. Everything we need to prayer about can be found in that prayer. If it’s not in there somewhere, then we probably don’t need to be praying about it (Ray Pritchard, And When You Pray, p. 2).

The Psalm (Psalm 5:1-3)
1 Give ear to my words, O LORD,
consider my sighing.
2 Listen to my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation.

The Scripture Reading (Luke 11:2-4)
He said to them, "When you pray, say: " 'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.

For Reflection
This past Sunday our Senior Pastor, Vic Pentz, challenged us to pray the Lord’s Prayer everyday this week. It’s Thursday, but you can still jump in and do it. Who knows – you may keep praying it right through the entire Lenten season. Familiarity sometimes breeds contempt, but more often it breeds carelessness. Our aim this week is to come once again to this model prayer with care and attention.

What phrase (or phrases) of the Lord’s Prayer resonate with you in a particular way today? Why?

Closing Prayer
What you have given us, Lord Jesus, is so simple. And yet our spirits are so sluggish, as if you have placed some monumental task before us. We give you thanks for these precious words. Make us confident as we say then yet again, knowing that we have said all that needs to be said. Amen.