How Do I Pray? (Part 3)
We have examined the Lord’s Prayer in the previous two blog posts, so let’s now focus on some practical applications. In other words, how may we utilize the Lord’s Prayer consistently in our practice of spiritual disciplines?
Millions upon millions (perhaps billions) of books, sermons, and articles effectively discuss and teach about Christ-centered prayer. We cannot possibly summarize all that has been said about practicing prayer with an exhaustive list. What we are concerned about in this post are those basic, yet far-reaching practical applications.
Let’s particularly pay attention to certain common elements that we find taught in the Lord’s Prayer and modeled by faithful people in the Bible.
Common Element of Prayer 1: Adoration of God – The adoration of God refers to our recognizing how worthy God is of our worship and devotion. Adoration is the response of the soul to the nature and character of God—especially his lovingkindness and forgiveness of sin.
A word of caution is in order here: Our contemporary culture often romanticizes adoration and secularizes it in a way that is foreign to the Bible and to true communion with God. Adoration in prayer involves our elevating God to his rightful place as Creator and humbling ourselves as his creatures. Adoration is not something practiced among equals.
Common Element of Prayer 2: Thanksgiving – Thanksgiving refers to the ways in which we acknowledge God as the source of all good things and blessings in our lives. While adoration is more about honoring the character and nature of God, thanksgiving is recognizing how God has provided for us even in ways we do not deserve. We express thanksgiving in prayer by expressing gratitude and our indebtedness to God for his mercy.
Common Element of Prayer 3: Confession of Sin – This element is rather self-explanatory, but it is nonetheless highly crucial for our communion with the Lord. Jesus put much emphasis on forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer. It is worthwhile to note that our being forgiven by God is to extend to the way we forgive each other in our earthly relationships. Confession of sin is a great equalizer. We have no room to boast before God and our neighbors. But we do, through confession, have an open door to the ministry of reconciliation.
Common Element of Prayer 4: Petition/Intercession – This element involves our casting our cares on the Lord, trusting that he hears us, is present with us, and will respond (1 Peter 5:7). Petition is simply defined as making requests of God. Intercession is a bit more nuanced. It refers to making petitions for God to bless others and not yourself. Intercession means that we take a back seat to those who we lift up to God.
Now that we’ve examined the Lord’s Prayer and common elements in practicing prayer, let’s talk next about what happens when it seems like God neither hears us nor answers our prayers. Remember that prayer is not a mechanism, nor is it a technology. You don’t put in a few requests to God and out pops an immediate answer as with Google. Let’s therefore visit next week about some of the perceived problems that may arise in our prayer discipline.