I go to a MOPS meeting on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month, and am in charge of devotions for this year, so on those Thursdays I'll be posting here what I say there.
When Kelli sent me the list of topics that she already had
for this year, I had to laugh that prayer was one of them.
I stink at prayer—so I’m hoping to learn something from the
speaker this morning.
When I attempt to pray, I get distracted. I don’t set aside a regular time for it. And I hate
praying out loud in front of people. It
makes me feel like someone is eavesdropping on a private conversation and I end up being more focused on the people who are listening to me rather than the God to whom I am praying.
Or I hear about books like The Power of a Praying Wife (which I own) or The Power of a Praying Parent and all I feel like is that I’m a
failure at prayer because I don’t follow everything they say. Or even finish reading them.
And as I was preparing this and trying to figure out what to
say about prayer, I found out that my dad was admitted to the hospital. And then I posted about it in the Facebook
group for a Bible Study I go to. And
then I remembered last spring when I used my blog to solicit prayer for a guy
named Matt in Kansas City.
And I
remembered praying so hard when my friend’s newborn baby was not healthy, and
she died.
And I sometimes wonder what the point of prayer even is.
But then I remember my own words from a sermon I gave a couple
of years ago about prayer. I said that I don’t know how prayer works or
why it is sometimes answered and sometimes not.
I only know that when we pray,
all of our differences no longer matter.
What a person believes theologically or politically is of no
importance. Instead, prayer brings us all on equal
footing before God. In prayer, we are
truly united. In prayer, we are praying
together to our Father in Heaven.
So let’s do that now.
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those that trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom,the power, and the glory, forever
Amen
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