When you Pray

In Matthew 6 Jesus gives us some amazing instructions in the area of Spiritual Disciplines. This is the conversation we are having at LifePoint during the current series called "Pillars". This past Sunday we discussed "prayer" as a discipline. Jesus begins His instructions in verse 5 with these words, "And when you pray."

Did you catch that? The assumption on Jesus' part is that we WOULD pray. He makes the assumption that we will so he gives us some direction and even a model to follow.
One of the ways that we pray is by turning God's word into specific, practical prayers for the life we have been called to live.

Sunday I used the illustration of the "Lord's Prayer" as a great place to start. In this blog I want to share a few other verses with you and show you how we might turn that into a specific prayer. Remember that we are learning to walk in these disciplines together.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things." (I love this passage and use it all the time)

Here's how I might pray this passage back to God:
"Lord, today I am going to be bombarded by many thoughts. I'm going to be confronted with things that are not true, there will be temptations I will be confronted with to embrace impure thoughts or actions, so I ask you to help me focus this day on truth. God, I know that truth is whatever you say regardless of how I think or feel so let me keep that in the front of my mind. When impure pictures or thoughts come my way help me to turn away and see you!"

Here's another passage:
Roman's 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship."

Prayer idea:
"Wow God! In light of all you have done for me the least I can do today is to make myself available to you. I present myself to you today, so take my gifts, talents and abilities and use them for your plans and purposes!"

For those of you who were there Sunday I referenced Ephesians 6:10-18. Here's a challenge. Grab your Bible, take a few minutes and read the passage and then formulate a prayer that you could pray back to God to make this passage come alive and become relevant in your life. You may even want to take a few minutes and write the prayer and spend a few days reading/praying it until it starts to lodge in your heart.

This Sunday we will look at the discipline of "Study" and that will give us a greater opportunity to grow in God's word and it will enhance our times of praying through scripture.

"And WHEN you Pray!"