Prayer Journal – Our Father

⁹ Pray then like this:  First, how not to pray…now, the instruction of how rather to pray:

Our Father who art in heaven, — I love that God is not just Jesus’ Father…and he’s not just my Father…but our Father.  I am not an only child here!  I have a huge family unit consisting of brothers and sisters, spanning the globe and the ages.  We are one big family!  “Father” is a personal, intimate term.  It indicates a family relationship, of favor, love, nurturing and protection.  We might not have the best example in our earthly fathers, but everything that we would expect and respect in our own earthly daddy, God is to us, and infinitely more.  In fact, He sets the bar for earthly fathers, even the best daddy in this world will fall short of the excellency of our Heavenly Father.

Hallowed be thy name.

God’s name and very essence is “hallowed” which means holy, or consecrated (set apart…above all) sacred, or revered  (I’d be getting WAY AHEAD of myself here if I took you on the bunny trail of the word sanctification…we’ll get to it in a bit, I promise).  While we are not the ones doing the “hallowing”, by observing and understanding the holy, sacred nature of God’s Name, we participate in an act of worship to Our Father, God.  It is  the first step in adoration, that is, recognizing  and reverencing Him for who He is, apart from what He’s done/is doing. By the way, if you’ve never done a personal study on the names of God, you are missing out on some wonderful heart knowledge.  I love the thought of incorporating God’s names and attributes into my prayers, but often my mind goes blank and I can’t bring them to mind.  Having a list handy during my prayer time would be helpful, so I decided to devote one page of my prayer journal to the attributes of God, and another to the names that are recorded of His.

This was a lofty plan, I found as I began a crash course on the attributes/names of God, using this site.    Wow.  I knew there was not enough room on my page to list them all (further proof that our God cannot and will not be contained).  I finally just chose the ones that are relevant to me where I am on my journey today.  Eventually, I plan to do an in-depth study of the names of God, I’ll write the Hebrew name on one side of an open page, and the English meaning on the other.  For now, because of limited space, I gave myself permission to write only the English meaning of the Hebrew name.  Since God is both perfect and multilingual, I figure He’s okay with me not butchering the Hebrew when calling on Him.

What about you?   Do you find it helpful to focus you attention on His attributes when you address Him by name?  What are the names/attributes of God that you focus on when you pray?

Tip:  Unfortunately, even with the pages doubled, my marker bled through to the opening page of my journal.  To prevent this, on future pages, I illustrated first (with an index card underneath the page(s)  I’m coloring), then glued when finished.

Let Thy Kingdom Come

Make My Life a Prayer — Text Reference

John Chapter 17:

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,  ² since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.  ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

⁴ I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.  ⁵ So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.  ⁶ “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;  ⁸ for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹ I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.  ¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. ¹¹ And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

¹² While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.  ¹³ But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.  ¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  ¹⁵ I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.  ¹⁶ They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  ¹⁸ As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  ¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰ “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,  ²¹ that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  ²² The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,  ²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  ²⁴ Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  ²⁵ “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

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Luke Chapter 11:1-9

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ² 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 forgive everyone indebted to us.
    And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

Perseverance in Prayer

⁵ And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

⁹ “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹ Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? ¹² Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

________________

Luke 18:1-8

And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; ³ and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Vindicate me against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor regard man, ⁵ yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.’” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷ And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

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Matthew chapter 6:5-15

Concerning Prayer

⁵ “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.^[b]

⁷ “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹ “Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,
    hallowed be your name.
¹⁰     Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done,
        on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹     Give us this day our daily bread.^[c]
12     And forgive us our debts,
        as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³     And do not bring us to the time of trial,^[d]
        but rescue us from the evil one.^[e]

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Make My Life a Prayer – Introduction

Hello!  Welcome to “Make My Life a Prayer”, my first ever virtual retreat here at New Things.  Pour yourself a tall glass of your favorite beverage and relax with me for a minute…we’ve got a full weekend ahead.

This brainchild of hosting a virtual retreat came out of my own need and desire to unplug, pull away to a quiet place and meet with God.  Since I had a good block of time on my hands with my youngest away for the month, I thought it would be neat to put together a mini-series of articles, links, music, and prayers for ladies to get lost in for a day or two…or three.  I had no idea where the Lord would lead, or the amazing things He was eager to show me while working on the study portions.

I’ll post what I have learned from my personal study of what Ray Stedman calls “the longest prayer”, our Lord’s prayer for us in John chapter 17, as well as the prayer that is called “The Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father”.  I will refer to this prayer as  “the Disciples’ Prayer” since it is an account of our Lord teaching His disciples to pray, and has become a model prayer for us, His disciples now.  There is a separate blog post with both texts for your convenience.

I even have a craft project in the works that you can join me in completing, if you like.  I’m compiling a prayer book, composed of some of the “God whispers” I heard while studying through the selected texts.  You can make one too so you’ll have a place to record prayers to memorize, or verses that are special that you wish to memorize or remember, and a list of requests that you may have purposed to pray for.

Bob Hostetler

I picked up two three packs of mini composition notebooks at Walmart for $0.88 so I could share with my nephew and nieces.  These are a good size to pop in a purse or even a pocket to access when I have extra time on my hands or find myself waiting for the next thing.  Other crafty supplies that I am using for my book are scissors, glue stick, sharpie markers and colored pencils.  You can get as fancy as you want to, your own creative mind is the limit.

Keith Green’s “Make My Life a Prayer” has become my heart cry as I study…and I can hear his lyrics echo when I read through the texts I’ve chosen for this series.  It is my own prayer springing from a desire to bring glory to God as Jesus did, and that He would glorify Himself through me while I strive to walk in faith and obey what He asks me to do.

Will you join me in prayer for the Lord to use this weekend to touch lives and draw people to Himself.  Also, read through the links I’ve provided below to stimulate your mind and heart to better understand prayer. If you find one that is part of a series, don’t stop with the one I’ve linked to, click around and read them all…there is some really good stuff that will (hopefully) get you thinking about what prayer is, what it’s for, who it benefits (and how), and ways that we can spur one another on to becoming effective pray-ers.  Finally, please, if you are following along, introduce yourself in the comments and share your insights on prayer and what God has shown you or is saying to you on your own journey.  If you have access to articles and resources on prayer that you’d like to share, by all means, please do.  We are here for one another, and we all have something to contribute.  I would love to see this weekend be one of sweet Christian fellowship that benefits all of us.

Ok?

1. Pray
2. Read
3. Comment/Share

Good.

Let’s get started!!!

What is Prayer? — USCCB article on prayer.

We Pray Because—Check out Saintly Sages’ excellent posts on the reasons we pray.  You will not be disappointed, it is THAT good.

How Not to Pray—ctk blog has an excellent example of how not to pray.

How to Develop a Prayer Life that Transforms —

Praying for our husbands — Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ very well done litany of Scriptures to pray God’s will over our husbands.  Really, this guide is so good, you could use it to pray for anyone, but it is specifically applicable to husbands.

Praying for our children  —  This list compiled by Bob Hostetler is a similar format to Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ list above.  There is a month of Scriptures provided for us to pray God’s Word over our kids.