Mathew 6:9-13, Our Father in heaven

"This, then, is how you should pray:

" 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.' Mathew 6:9-13 (NIV)

A million models using this as the template for prayer have been done over the years. Maybe not a million but certianly many. One some maybe familiar with is the ACTS model. Addoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Use this or another model for prayer is great and provides us a good frame work for understanding and knowing how to prayer.

Prayer is one of the most essential portions in our walk of faith with Christ. It's how we connect to God, and great and might things happen when we pray. This is found to be true in scripture as James 5:16 says, "...The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." There are countless stories of the power of prayer. A missionary in a remote village was sharing the gospel with his family. A local tribe disliked his preaching and went at night to kill him and his whole family. The missionary saw them surround the house that night and gathered his family together and began to pray, for what else could he do? Hours passed and nothing happened and soon the angry tribesmen left. The family thanked God though they never were sure what happened. Years went by and God's word was spread and eventually many members of that tribe came to Christ. One member of the tribe approached the missionary and told him he had been there that night to kill him and was so glad they had failed. The missionary asked the man why, why had they not attacked and killed him and his family that night?

"We wanted to but you had too many men guarding your house we knew would couldn't," responded the tribesman.

"We had no guards?" The missionary said confused.

"Yes you did we saw them, many many strong and mighty men armed surroudning the house that night." The tribesman insisted.

Sometimes the power of prayer beacons angles to our protection.

I know in my own life prayer is difficult, I grow distracted when I try and prayer, I become forgetful, I wonder if I am doing it right. I often wonder, does this work? Yet time and time again, in many small things I see prayers answers, never in the way I expected, but always for my good.

It's simple enough to encourage others to just pray. It's difficult to get others to believe in the power of the prayer. It's difficult myself to believe, understand, and pray.

Maybe instead of modeling our prayers off the Lord's prayer, we take a moment and pray His prayer. Pause as you pray, think of the words. There is much deep meaning behind it all and many books, articles, and podcasts going into the depth of The Lord's Prayer and its meaning. But, for today, I would challenge you just to prayer the words, think and ponder in your own heart on what they mean, ask God to show you the meaning and to bring the prayer to fruition in your life.

Let us pray.