Prayer Modeling

by Kathy Lay

This Week’s Verse: Luke 11:1, “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."(NIV)

Devotion:
Prayer came hard for me on a recent morning. I’d been praying for a lot of people’s health issues lately, as well as my own “usual” stuff, and I just felt I couldn’t ask God for one more single solitary thing. Do you ever get to that point? He’s just given us so much, ya know?

Plus, I’d just woken up and wasn’t fully engaged mentally. Trying to put aside the grogginess, I told God, “I have no idea what to pray, Lord. You take care of all things, I know that, so I’m finding it hard to put thoughts into words. And you already know it all anyway.”

Instantly, my mind woke up to a verse in Luke 11 where the disciples ask Jesus how to pray. Jesus’answer? The Lord’s prayer. I felt like God responded to me by saying, “Just pray that.” So I did, in a personalized way:

Lord, you are my God in Heaven. Holy is your Name. Let your Kingdom burst forth here on earth just like in Heaven and allow my family and me to be a mighty part of that. Show us your will and give us the strength to walk in it. Thank you for providing food, shelter, transportation and so much more and I do ask your continued provision. Thank you for your forgiveness and please keep extending grace, helping me to do the same with others. Keep temptation to sin at bay governed by the self-control your Spirit allows and keep evil from us by your wall of protection. To You is the power and glory, Jesus, forever. Amen.

By the end of the prayer I felt that wonderful peace that passes all understanding. God reminded me that I sometimes make things more complicated than they really need to be—even talking to Him, when he modeled how to do it.

In this simple prayer, all the power of heaven is released to do its work here among us.

Lord, thank you for modeling prayer for the disciples, both then and now.

Application:
Practice putting the Lord’s Prayer into your own words, including more specific and detailed requests, if you’d like. Or revel in the simplicity of keeping it general. Anticipate the Kingdom descending to earth as it is in heaven.

Power Verses:
Matthew 6:9-13, “This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”(NIV)
1 Kings 8:28, “Nevertheless, listen to my prayer and my plea, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is making to you today.”(NLT)
1 Peter 3:12, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”(NIV)