Week 2: Prayer and Meditation
Last week my hubby led the youth in exploring their ideas and fears about prayer. Simply put, prayer is just communication or conversation with God. But why then is it so hard? Why do we go silent when someone asks who would like to pray? Prayer can feel intimidating at times if you fear that others will make fun of you or you are not sure what to say.
Lucky for us though, Jesus leaves us a model for prayer! I am sure most of us are familiar with the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6. Most of us recite the traditional version each Sunday in church, but I recently discovered a modern version from The Message and I really like it.
No matter which translation you read of The Lord's Prayer they all follow the same format and include the same elements. We should begin our prayers by praising God and recognizing His power and glory. We then move to asking for His will to be done, His plan to be complete (not ours mind you!) and for our needs (not our wants!) to be met. Next we ask God to forgive us for our failings and our sins and recongize that through this God models what forgiveness is so that we have the ability to forgive others. We should end our prayers with asking God to help us stay away from sin.
But we also can't forget that part of prayer is listening as well!
The challenge this week was to spend at least 15 minutes in intentional prayer each day and to spend part of that time meditating and repeating some version of The Lord's Prayer. Coincidentally our Pastor happened to preach on meditating on scripture on the same Sunday. This was a great opportunity to use inspiration from both sources to strength my prayer life!
To be honest, I didn't find this challenge very difficult, but the rewards and benefits are still numerous. Prayer is already apart of my daily routine, a habit in my life. I like to begin each day by praying while I am in the shower and often spend the ride on the way to work or while I am running at the gym in prayer as well. It simply just enriched my prayers to add the Lord's Prayer as part of my regular routine and was helpful in reminding me to pray for my needs and for God's will, rather than my wants and my own will.
There are so many different directions and thoughts about prayer that I could discuss, and perhaps I will another day, but the point is prayer is a vital part of a Christian's life. I love this quote from C.S. Lewis that talks about how prayer changes us, and I know it has been true in my own life.
So I invite you again to join me on this Lenten journey and to be intentional about your prayer life. Use The Lord's Prayer as a guide, write your own if you want, and let God change you.
Our next challenge will be Giving- check back in a few days!
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