Prayer Revolution: A 14-Day DevotionalНамуна

Default Prayer vs. True Prayer

We become what we pray. 

When prayer neglects Christ’s kingdom priorities, it becomes constricted and suffocates under a burden of present urgencies. We call this default prayer, in which our prayers focus on a random set of personal problems and health-related challenges. This kind of prayer accomplishes little transformation for those who pray and little for the world in which we live. Answers are few and far between.

While we can gladly and expectantly bring our daily cares and needs to God, this should not be the focus or extent of our prayers. The problem with default prayer is not so much what we ask for but how our prayer is wrongly focused. The object of this kind of prayer is ourselves, not God. It is basically selfish. We pray default prayer because we are looking at life through the wrong end of the telescope. The only object of true prayer is God, when life is viewed from God’s perspective.

While in Coimbatore, India, I spent two days with the leaders and staff of Serve India, and I experienced, with renewed clarity, the expansive capacities of the Lord’s Prayer. I was showing the group how to use the Lord’s Prayer as a grid to bring a kingdom framework and purpose to their prayers. As we discussed and prayed, I came to my own liberating realization. Not only did praying according to Jesus’ “grid” bring a higher purpose and kingdom order to my prayer life, but it also expanded my heart into the greater parameters of the kingdom. Praying the way Jesus taught us was increasing my capacity for God and expanding my heart for others.

Even as I was teaching others, God was speaking to me about my prayers. He revealed a negative tendency: I had been neglecting the habit to pray using the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer and the result was that my prayer requests were becoming constricted to personal urgencies and concerns. I was not asking for wrong things, but my prayers were too self-focused. God opened my eyes to see that praying according to the Lord’s Prayer was a powerful way to counter this tendency.

When I neglected to pray as Jesus taught, I lost a great deal of the joy and power I experienced when using the Lord’s Prayer. The contrast was obvious. I went back to the grid of the Lord’s Prayer. Beginning with the first four petitions of the prayer, I start by meditating on the fatherhood of God before I move on to honoring His holy name, which is followed by taking the time to enjoy the splendor and majesty of His kingdom, and then I surrender my heart, yielding to His will. The longer I continue a thoughtful and interactive practice of focusing on God, slowly but surely, my capacity for God is growing.

As I pray the last three petitions by praying for others’ needs and then my own, my perspective changes. The more I pray for “today’s bread,” the more I experience personal contentment and generosity. By repeatedly asking God to forgive my debts, I am enabled both to extend and receive forgiveness. As I ask to be delivered from temptation and to be guided by God’s Spirit, I am placing myself and others under God’s protection. In the process, my experience of God’s leading moves from theory to reality.

Praying the way Jesus prayed sets me free from constricted prayer, opens my heart to receive God’s gift of Himself, and reverses my selfish tendencies.

As it turns out, God was communicating a similar message to the Indian leaders. At lunch, a young man, alight with passionate energy, asked if I would capture his prayer testimonial on video to share with people in North America. He said:

This has been a divine revelation. My fingers were tingling as you spoke. I could feel I was being filled with the Spirit when you taught us how to pray the Lord’s Prayer. Many people in India believe that if they simply say the words of this prayer, they are Christians. This is a very great error. You have been teaching us that if we pray this way, we will be praying for great and important things.

In contrast to default prayer, the Lord’s Prayer is the prayer Jesus gives His people. This is the prayer Jesus prayed, and the Father always hears the Son (see John 11:41). As God answers these seven petitions, the aims, values, and goals of Christ’s kingdom enter the fabric and heart of our lives. The Lord’s Prayer increases our capacity for God and expands our heart for others.