“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either.
All these people making a regular show out of their prayers,
hoping for fifteen minutes of fame! Do you think God sits in a box seat?
Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God.
Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage.
The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.”

(Matthew 6:5-6, MSG)

I don’t know about you but sometimes I find prayer difficult.  Often prayer can be a struggle to even know how to begin.  At times I feel pressured to find just the right words.  Other times I feel inadequate or unworthy to come before God in prayer.  But I love that we can always come to God with our prayers no matter what!  God hears our prayers.  God even knows our prayers before we put them to words.

I love that when we get stuck in our heads, we have been given a template for how to pray!  Within the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel Jesus gives a lesson on prayer…we know it as the Lord’s Prayer.  We pray it together every week…but how often do we pause and think about the words we are praying? Jesus didn’t hand us a script but rather he handed us a framework.  A pattern to shape our own prayers – and lives – around.  It is an outline on which every other prayer can be built.

This Sunday we begin our sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer.  Each week we will focus on one phrase of the prayer.  As we walk through this prayer over the next eight weeks I invite you to join me in a prayer experiment.  Daily pray the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).  Speak it out loud, slowly, deliberately and from the heart.  Each week we will add another step as we work through each phrase. But for now…

Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage.
The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace. (Matt 6:6)

Friends, prayer is a powerful gift we have been given.  There is no right or wrong way to pray…the important thing is to simply pray, to be genuine in our prayers, and to listen as much as we talk.

Blessings,
Pastor Jenni

The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant.
They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for
getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense.
This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need.
With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. (Matt 6:7, MSG)