The Lord’s Prayer is an excellent model for building your own prayer life. It may be used in numerous ways to organize your petitions to Our Father. It’s importance is underscored by the fact that it is Jesus’ specific instruction to his disciples when they said, ‘Teach us to pray.’ Here are a few ways:
- Make the Lord’s Prayer a framework for daily praying. Hold each clause in your mind and think about your prayer concerns in the spirit of each clause. When you feel spiritually dry, let the Prayer fill you up. When you feel particularly selfish, let the Prayer reorient your spirit.
- Use the Lord’s Prayer as you breathe. Taking in and out the concerns of the Prayer. Be calmed by the Prayer. Let the Prayer accompany you as you drive or sit silently or begin your day.
- Use the clauses of the Prayer as a daily focus: Sunday, Our Father; Monday, Hallowed your name; Tuesday, Your Kingdom Come; Wednesday, Give Us Daily Bread; Thursday, Forgive our trespasses; Friday, Deliver us from evil; and Saturday, the Kingdom, the power, and the glory. The clause of the day then becomes the lens through which you see the world that day as well as a source of the day’s meditation.
- There are dozens of other ways the prayer can be used. Prayer Beads, for example. Be creative. Let the Prayer influence and inspire all parts of your life. It will bless you.
The importance of prayer has been recognized by many, many people throughout history. Here are a few.
- “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” ― Mother Teresa.
- “Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.” ― Mahatma Gandhi.
- To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. Martin Luther.
- “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” Samuel Chadwick.
- “A life growing in its purity and devotion will be a more prayerful life.” E. M. Bounds