Lord, Teach Us To Pray

When Jesus’ disciples began to see the work he was doing – his teachings, his miracles, his healings (basically signs of God’s kingdom breaking out on earth), they said, “Lord, teach us to pray!” In response, Jesus gave them a framework for prayer that would teach them to pray according to God’s kingdom vision for the world. This prayer became known as The Lord’s Prayer—perhaps the most famous prayer in the Christian faith. Millions of Christians across many traditions recite this prayer in worship as well as in their personal prayer lives.

It is a powerful prayer that teaches us how to pray according to God’s purposes, while drawing us closer to God in an intimate, personal way. This prayer is not only useful for reciting in worship, but also serves as a pattern for our prayer lives. Over the next few weeks, we will be learning more about the meaning behind each line of The Lord’s Prayer, both through worship as a sermon series and in our adult Sunday school class. All are welcome to participate! However, more than simply learning about this prayer, I want to encourage us to actually pray this prayer more effectively for our lives and the life of our church. I am asking for folks who would be interested in delving deeper into the practice of prayer to join me in developing a prayer ministry here at HoC. No experience necessary! Often, we feel intimidated by prayer—we don’t know what to pray for, and we’re not always sure our prayers will be answered. Yet, part of growing as followers of Jesus is learning to pray. God understands our hesitation and doubts, yet he draws us to draw closer to him in prayer. We’ll likely begin with lots of questions and doubts, yet I think these are best resolved in the practice of praying. We can learn all about prayer, including The Lord’s Prayer, but transformation will happen when we actually begin to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is a simple model to begin learning to pray. One New England winter when I was in seminary, I remember renting snowshoes for the first time. I asked the outfitter if there was any special technique I needed to learn to snowshoe properly. He said, “Put ‘em on and walk!” Apparently, the best way to learn how to snowshoe is…to snowshoe. Likewise, the best way to learn to pray is to pray. Friends, join me in learning how to pray as Jesus taught his disciples to pray. I trust that God has many blessings in store for us as we seek him in prayer.
Blessings,

Hilary