Monday, June 28, 2010

The Disciples Prayer

The prayer found in Luke chapter 11:1-4 is most commonly refered to as the "model prayer" (a more common place to read of this prayer is in the Gospel of Matthew), but I would like you to think of it as the "Disciples Prayer" for the next few minutes.
Heres the text:
1It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples."
2And He said to them, "When you pray, say:
'Father, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
3'Give us each day our daily bread.
4'And forgive us our sins,
For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.'"

Notice that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. I don't want to get into whether or not to memorize this prayer or if just saying these exact words is some kind of magic formula (but recall that Jesus likely spoke in Aramaic and the original gospel was probably written in Greek).  I want, instead, to point out a few things that will hopefully prove helpful in your prayer life
1) "When you pray"  Implies that you ARE praying
2) Addressed to the Father and immediately gives Him praise and prays for Gods will to be accomplished
3) Petitions God for necessities (God has promised to give us good things, just maybe not what we always expect)
4) Prays for forgiveness, and admits that they too need to forgive others
5) Prays for protection against sin, not that God would lead us to sin, but that given the sinful world we live in that we may resist with His help
 
Hope you had your prayer time today!!!
God bless you...
 
Thoughts???
 
Patrick Antonucci

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