The Prayer of Jesus

I read a great book last night with my wife Elaine. The book is called The Prayer of Jesus, written by Hank Hanegraaff. It is a pretty short book (less than 3 hours to read aloud at a pretty slow pace), but the content is stout.

To give a quick summary, Hanegraaff presents how the Lord's Prayer is a model for our communication with the Father. It should not to be used as a mantra, or simply as a means to get what we pray for. It is a model to guide our communication with God in such a way that our relationship with the Father is deepened. Building, strengthening, and deepening our relationship with God should be the first and major priority of our prayers.

Hanegraaff does offer some great takeaways in the last chapter that I thought you and I would find particularly challenging this weekend.

1. Make the paradigm shift. Stop seeing prayer as merely a means of obtaining your requests. Start seeing prayer as a means of enjoying the riches of a relationship with God.
2. Confess your sins daily. Every single prayer, including the prayer of Jesus, will bounce right off the ceiling if there is unforgiveness in your heart, which is precisely why Jesus ended his public sermon on prayer with the words: "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But, if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:14-15)
3. Get into the Bible. God's will is revealed in his Word. Thus the only way you can know his will is to know his Word. The more we meditate upon God's Word, the clearer his voice will be as we daily commune with him in prayer.
4. Discover your secret place. The secret to prayer is secret prayer. Your public presence is a direct reflection of your private prayer life. If you spend time in the secret place, you will exude peace in the midst of life's storms. If you do not, you will be a poster child for Busy-anity rather then Christianity.
5. Make prayer a priority. Wisdom is the application of knowledge...if you faithfully practice a new discipline for twenty-one days, it may well stay with you for the rest of your life.
   
   -Hank Hanegraaff, The Prayer of Jesus, ch. 10
   

Remember, the world we live in travels at a breakneck pace often leaving us rushed and frenzied more of the day than not. Our prayer life must be more than placing a drive thru order. I highly encourage you to read this book!

Today, as an act of worship, take these thoughts to heart as you commune with the Lord. Seek him with all your heart as you pray along the lines of...

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.
(Matthew 6:9-13)