Greetings in Jesus’ name, the King of kings and Lord of lords. The time has gone by very swiftly, and here we are again ready to do some exercises. How do your spiritual muscles feel? I hope they are at least a little sore.
In the last issue we had a family exercise with some tremendous potential. This time we have a personal exercise that could change your prayer life forever. When our Lord Jesus Christ was in the garden praying at His greatest hour of temptation, He found His disciples sleeping. His words of reproof and challenge to them are also convicting to us. He woke them and said, “What, could you not watch with me one hour?” He continued, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” Now the Lord Jesus knew the temptation they were about to face. They could have used some of the strength that He had just received. When the trial came, He passed, and they failed. A consistent prayer life is a mainstay in the life of a believer. We are going to explore a method of prayer that you will find helpful. It will help you get a handle on fervent prayer.
What is this method of prayer? The prayer that is called “The Lord’s Prayer” is not actually His prayer. When Christ gave this prayer, He was in fact teaching on prayer. He said, “after this manner pray ye.” Many people pray this prayer word for word and that is all. I have no problem doing this; however, there is a deeper exercise here. You will notice while reading the prayer that it is divided into six major parts. If you take each of them and make them an area of prayer, you will see that you have a prayer outline. Many Christians down through the centuries have found this outline helpful. With this prayer outline, you take the main points, and fill in with your own life with God. Let’s see how this can work for us.
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.”
Use this to begin your time of prayer. Spend a season praising God. Let this be a time of worship. Tell Him how much you love Him. Find a song of adoration and worth, and sing it to the Lord, from your heart. Loosen up and bless the Lord in your closet. Do this for ten minutes.
“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Pray these words, then use them as a springboard to personalize the prayer. Pray about God’s will for your life. Bring the things of your everyday life to God. What decisions are you facing? Pray about them. Pray about your family, your church, or any area that is before you at the time of the prayer. Please note: these things change every day. This is the blessing of using an outline. You fill in the blanks before God each day. Spend ten minutes on God’s will.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Personalize these words to the Lord. This point covers the area of God’s provisions. You can pray about your finances. Maybe you have a need, and you don’t know how it will be met. Again, these circumstances change all the time. Pray for the physical needs of others. You can also transfer the idea of need to spiritual needs. “Lord, give me bread for today, you know what I need.” Pray for spiritual bread to feed your family, or anyone else you are responsible for. Take ten minutes to focus on needs. George Mueller would often spend an hour on needs.
“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
Again, you want to personalize these words to begin with. Then reflect upon your life. Allow God’s Spirit to search you, and as failures, shortcomings, and sins come to mind, confess them. What a beautiful way to start the day. After you have cleared your conscience, move on to others. People have hurt you; forgive them before the Lord. Someone is against you; bless them and forgive them from your heart. You can easily do this for ten minutes.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
You know your needs. Pray about them as you pray this point. Think of the temptations of your present life. These are areas where you need to be strengthened. Remember also, you just finished confessing sin to God. Now you can verbalize the longings for victory. Pray about any besetting sins you are struggling with. Cry out to God for deliverance. I wonder how many of them would vanish from your life if you prayed about them this way for ten minutes each day.
“Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ever.”
This is the last point of the outline. Finish your season of prayer the way you began; with a time of praise and worship. You have much to honor Him for. Reflect back over the time you have spent with Him and all the ways He has helped you. Let your heart overflow with thanksgiving and your tongue be loosed to exalt Him. Find another song that is fitting to sing to the Lord from the heart. Do this for ten minutes.
It is easy to see how quickly an hour can go by. I assure you, if you spend an hour in meaningful prayer like this, it will change your life. A new level of grace will begin to flow into your heart and life. Maybe you feel that one hour is too much for you to begin with. Then I would suggest five minutes for each point. This will give you a half an hour in prayer. Try it for a week, every day, and remember this is a spiritual exercise. It is suppose to be a bit difficult. This kind of prayer will prepare you for the temptations that you will face in the day that is ahead.
