Hail Mary 

Ready:

“Jesus said, ‘This is how you should pray: Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. Give us each day the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.’” Luke 11:2-4 NLT

Set:

This is probably the most famous prayer in the Bible, memorized and prayed by many! But, there is more than just a prayer to pray here for us to learn from. 

First off, it is essential to note Jesus begins by saying, “When you pray.” It is an assumption on the part of Jesus that His followers will pray. Jesus modeled this in His life and ministry, often in the Scriptures. By doing so, He showed the importance of prayer. 

Corrie Ten Boom has a quote that hit me hard when I first started following Jesus: “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” What a challenging but helpful question. Often in life, we turn to prayer when things get difficult, we find ourselves in a tight spot, or we have no other option. We only pray when it is time for the Hail Mary instead of praying throughout the game. We do the same thing in the game of life. We pray in big moments but fail to pray daily for our teammates, family members and our personal lives. 

Prayer can be like trying to play cricket when you’ve been playing baseball your entire life. To begin with, we don’t even know how to do it. We overcomplicate it, think that we can’t possibly do it without trying or just do it over our mealtime. Prayer is a lot easier than you would think; it is simply talking with God or hearing from Him. Jesus’ example that He gives for prayer is a helpful one we can repeat. I have used it as an outline for how to pray. Check it out:

• May your name be kept holy: This means simply that He is holy. I begin my prayer by praising God for how wonderful He is and giving Him glory.
• Your kingdom come: For this portion, I pray for Christ’s Kingdom to come on Earth and for those, I would love to see come to know Jesus.
• Give us each day the food we need: Here, I ask the Lord for provision for that day. This can include strength and peace, resources to live and courage to follow Him. 
• Forgive us as we forgive others: This is where I repent of where I have fallen short in my walk with Jesus. It is also where I pray for those who have hurt me and for the strength to forgive them and love them as Jesus would.
• Lead us not into temptation: Here I ask for victory over sin and the ability to live for Christ for whatever the day brings.
• For yours is the kingdom: The version of this prayer in Matthew includes this and reminds me to close out my prayer in worship to Him.

Prayer is like a muscle. You wouldn’t start bench pressing 250 right away; you would work your way up to it. Start your prayer exercise with just five minutes a day, and watch what God does in you! 

Go:

• Do you think prayer is important? Why or why not?
• What does your prayer life look like right now? What improvements can you make?
• Can you think of other ways to pray other than talking to God? 

Weekly Challenges:

• Spend five minutes praying each day this week. Don’t worry about the results, just be with Jesus.
• Explore other ways to pray: being silent and listening, a prayer list, a prayer journal or so on.

Reading Plan: 

Day 22 - Luke 8-10

Day 23 - Luke 11-12

Day 24 - Luke 13-15

Day 25 - Luke 16-18

Day 26 - Luke 19-21

Day 27 - Luke 22-24

Day 28 - Acts 1-2