Teach Us to Pray

This past year I learned to love Jesus more by praying the Lord’s Prayer. Depending on our faith backgrounds, this prayer may or may not be recited often. At the beginning of the year, it became a significant part of my prayer life and, as I begin to use this prayer more and more, I feel as though it is drawing me into a more intimate relationship and also opening my heart to the world around me.

There are endless resources for prayer. There are books, newsletters, blogs, apps, magazine articles, and the most excellent resource of all, Scripture. Why do we, like the disciples, feel so inadequate to pray? “Teach us to pray,” they said. It’s not as though they had never prayed. It’s not as though prayer had never been modeled for them.

Early one morning as I was praying through some of Wycliffe’s prayer needs, the deep sense of weakness and deficiency in knowing how to pray filled me and I echoed the words of the disciples that so often surface in my heart, Lord, teach me to pray. And then, the words just came. My heart heard, “Pray in this way:”

Our Father in heaven – the Father of all people, every nation, tribe, and language.

Holy is your name and may your name be kept holy by every nation, tribe, and people of all languages.

Your kingdom come – in and through us here in our organization and through nations and tribes and people of all languages, everywhere.

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven – may your will be done in and through us and through nations and tribes and people of all languages, everywhere.

Give us today the food and nourishment we need for our souls and bodies to accomplish your tasks.

Forgive us our sins of autonomy, distraction, hopelessness, and frustration, as well as many, many other sins.

Let us forgive others their sins, too, since we rely on your grace and mercy.

Don’t let us be tempted to blame undone work on the lack of resources, nor be tempted to rely on self-sufficiency and moving ahead of your leading and guiding.

Deliver us from evil and the evil one and protect us, our staff, and the people we serve.

Because this is your kingdom that we live in, it is your power that flows in and through us, may we bring your glory in all we do and everywhere we go in each moment you give us, forever.

Amen.

As I use this template for prayer, I feel closer to Jesus, and I also feel more love for the world he created.

Key Quotation

Because this is your kingdom that we live in, it is your power that flows in and through us, may we bring your glory in all we do and everywhere we go in each moment you give us, forever.

Question

There are endless resources for prayer. There are books, newsletters, blogs, apps, magazine articles, and the most excellent resource of all, Scripture. Why do we, like the disciples, feel so inadequate to pray?

Valerie Salkeld, Wycliffe Bible Translators of Canada