The other day I was listening to my favorite talk radio program and they were discussing prayer. The discussion came around to the Lord's Prayer and how it is the perfect prayer. It's the prayer that Christ Himself taught His disciples to pray. He precedes the prayer with directions, "Pray in this way:..." Matthew 6:9 and in Luke 11:2, "When you pray, say:..."

He precedes the instructions in Matthew with, "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." (vv. 7-8; NASB)

There are people who think that you shouldn't pray the Lord's Prayer. "It's just an example." "You're supposed to pray from your heart and not use vain repetitions." But they don't realize that after Jesus warned His disciples about those vain repetitions He gave them this prayer. This is the perfect prayer. It covers everything we could need to pray for. We may wish to be more specific, but do we need to be? Remember, "your Father knows what you need before you ask Him." Everything we could possibly need is summed up in that prayer.

That's not to say that we shouldn't pray our own prayers. But we must be careful not to make our prayers a Christmas wish list. I love what the pastor being interviewed said... When we're praying, instead of trying to say what we mean, we should try to mean what we say. Do we really want God's will to be done or our own? Do we really want Him to forgive us the way we forgive others? I know that I, for one, am not a very forgiving person. I'm like a dog with a bone. Do I really want Him to forgive me like I forgive others? No, I don't. I would want Him to be more forgiving of me, but do I really deserve that when I find it so difficult to forgive?

For the longest time I beat myself up because I would never remember to pray. I knew that I should be starting my day in the Word and prayer. But I'm not a morning person. I set the alarm to give me just enough time to get me ready to head out to work in the morning. I do my Bible reading at night which means that my evening prayers are done in bed. Not a bad thing except for the fact that I'm usually falling asleep before I've said much. I honestly think that if I ever finished a prayer before falling asleep God would faint from the shock. I wonder if I want to be the one to go down in history as making that happen.

Part of my problem with prayer is that I've never been particularly comfortable with the idea. I feel strange when I pray. I feel too conversational. Not always a bad thing. I have no problem "chatting" with God while I go about my day. Laughing about funny things, ranting about injustices, etc. But for my "prayer time" I feel like I should be more formal. But when I try to be it seems strange. After all I'm not in church. I'm in bed, for crying out loud! Besides, He knows I don't normally speak like that. Am I trying to butter Him up for something? He knows I'm not but I feel like I am. {sigh} It was easier just to "forget" to pray. Then I found this in Luther's Small Catechism:

Morning Devotions
As soon as you get out of bed in the morning, you should bless yourself with the sign of the
Holy Cross and say:
May the will of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be done! Amen.
Then, kneeling or standing, say the creed and pray the Lord’s Prayer. If you wish, you may
then pray this little prayer as well:

My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that
You kept me safe from all evil and danger last night. Save me, I pray, today as well,
from every evil and sin, so that all I do and the way that I live will please you. I put
myself in your care, body and soul and all that I have. Let Your holy Angels be with
me, so that the evil enemy will not gain power over me. Amen.

After that, with joy go about your work and perhaps sing a song inspired by the Ten
Commandments or your own thoughts. (In case you're wondering, no, I don't actually start singing. I love to sing, but I'm also a very self-conscious person. lol)

The Evening Devotions
When you go to bed in the evening, you should bless yourself with the sign of the Holy Cross
and say:
May the will of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be done! Amen.
Then, kneeling or standing, say the creed and pray the Lord’s Prayer. If you wish, then you
may pray this little prayer as well:

My Heavenly Father, I thank You, through Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, that
You have protected me, by Your grace. Forgive, I pray, all my sins and the evil I
have done. Protect me, by Your grace, tonight. I put myself in your care, body and
soul and all that I have. Let Your holy angels be with me, so that the evil enemy
will not gain power over me. Amen.

After this, go to sleep immediately with joy. (I usually can get to sleep, but not always immediately. Sometimes with joy, but usually just sheer exhaustion.)

I've found that by building this into my routine, I have two moments during the day that are not "routine". They are special times that I spend in prayer. If there are other things that are weighing on my mind I can include them, but these prayers cover everything so I rarely do. Since I've begun these morning and evening devotions I sometimes find myself wanting more. Instead of stunting my prayer life (as some would claim) they have helped me want to pray more often.

If you would like to listen to that interview on prayer, go here.

Issues, Etc. On-Demand

Then, go to Tuesday, July 29th, and find the interview with Pastor Ken Schurb.