Page 78 - Teach us how to Pray - Book Layout - PDF

 How does the answer to the church prayer that Jesus must
come quick comfort you?

A PRAYER ABOUT PRAYER

Our gracious God and Father,

Thank you for the gift of prayer. It is my prayer that we as a church
would believe in prayer. Not because it has any innate power, but
because You have brought us into a relationship with yourself and told
us to pray. We acknowledge it is not the act of prayer that does us any
good but the object of our prayer. And we get to pray to You. We do
not pray to a cold and impersonal universe; We do not plead the favor
of petty little deities; we don’t try to arrange karma, so it benefits us
instead of harms us. We speak to a loving Father who created the
universe and created us and began a relationship with us. You tell us
that as our Father You love to hear from your children. You tell us you
love to act on our prayers and act through our prayers.

So, let us live as if prayer matters. Let us worship as if prayer matters.
Let us not grow weary in this task. Let us believe that often the best
thing we can do is not to act first but pray first. Let prayer be our first
instinct rather than our last resort. Let it be instrumental rather than
supplemental to all we do and all we are. Let us be a praying church,
first on Sunday as we gather together in corporate worship and then
through the week as we gather in family worship and as we meet with
friends and as we have times of personal devotion.

Please, Father, help us to pray. Help us make a priority of prayer and
help us to see and celebrate answers to prayer. Give us confidence that
our prayers matter not because we have found just the right formula
and not because we have said just the right words, but because we
know God and are known by God. Let us pray boldly, let us pray
confidently, and let us pray constantly. Let us storm the gates of
heaven through prayer. And let us pray until the day Christ returns. All
the while let us be thankful for the precious gift you have given us in
prayer.

Adjusted from a prayer by Tim Challies on https://www.challies.com/articles/a-pastoral-
prayer/