Prayer RevolutionEsimerkki

The King's Strategy for Prayer

As you pray the Lord's prayer, the words may sound like so many high-sounding phrases. However, as you will see, each petition is rich with various purposes and can be adapted to anyone’s life and situation. This prayer is alive in a spiritual and organic sense. It is not a matter of just repeating the words, like a prayer ritual. It is a matter of praying Jesus’ meaning and intent. Pray this prayer thoughtfully, and you will find that the Lord’s prayer is flexible. Pray its meaning, and it will wonderfully expand to fit your world.

Because this is a prayer Jesus gave, it cannot fail to be heard and answered. Each request of Jesus’ prayer contains the promise that God will hear you and will give you specific answers to your prayers. At the same time, the Holy Spirit will be doing a good work within you. From deep within, you will discover your connection to God is growing as well as your love for others. Two great transformations occur: praying this prayer increases your heart capacity for God and expands your heart for others.

First, the capacity of your heart for God will dramatically increase. The priority of the Lord’s Prayer is the Lord, therefore meaningful and effective prayer begins with a focus on God. His fatherhood, holy name, kingdom, and will are the heart and wellspring of this prayer. Worshiping God, seeking His kingdom, and acting on His will raises your prayers from mundane matters to eternal realities.

The central answer to our prayer is God. God is eager to give Himself to us. Jesus assures those who pray that God will give them the Holy Spirit: “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). Prayer is the affectionate reaching out of our hearts for God. In one of his sermons, Augustine said it well, “It is prayer that develops our desire, and enlarges our heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of himself.”

Second, your heart for others will expand when you share Christ’s own passion for His church and His sacrificial love for a lost world. Pray this prayer and you will move from uncaring selfishness to wholehearted intercession. God will lift you from the narrow confines of present urgencies to the majestic vision of a world transformed through answered prayer. Your commitment and resolve to build Christ’s kingdom will deepen. Slowly but certainly, you will embody the Lord’s kingdom values and be compelled to carry out His kingdom directives. As He fills you with His Spirit, you will become salt of the earth, light of the world, and yeast that spreads throughout a lost and needy world.