Lord, Teach Me to Pray…
Most days, my husband and I try to carve out a few minutes to spend reading a brief portion of scripture and then praying together. We pray for one another, our children, grandchildren, people we know who have needs, neighbors, faith community, nation, and the world.
We conclude with the prayer Jesus taught his disciples when they asked, “Lord, teach us to pray …” (See Luke 11:1-4). (Ron and I use the version we learned as children. Here are more modernized words of the Lord’s Prayer from the NKJV.)
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
Like the disciples, I often wonder how best to pray. Often, I find the answer within the pages of my Bible, where many of my favorite prayers are written. Here are two of the Apostle Paul’s recorded prayers that have become staples in my prayer journey:
So this is my prayer: that my, (or adapted for a friend or loved one as his/her) love will flourish and that I will not only love much but well. I ask that I learn to love appropriately, to use my head and test my feelings so that my love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. I ask I will learn to live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
from Philippians 1:9-11 in The Message and further personalized by me
Paul’s prayer to his friends in Ephesus is one I have prayed often for my daughters as well as myself and others I care about:
I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower the one I love with inner strength through his Spirit. I ask Christ will make his home in the heart of this one I love as her trust in God grows, that her roots will grow down into God’s love and keep her strong. And may she have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May she experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then she will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Ephesians 4:13-19 NLT, adapted by me
