Day 13: Alignment

Whenever it would rain at college, my friends and I would go “grising” outside: sliding down grassy hills in the rain for fun. Sometimes though, when the grass wasn’t slippery enough to slide down, it devolved into glorified puddle jumping.

This can happen in our prayer time. Often our prayers are like what C.S. Lewis calls “wide and shallow puddles,” covering a vast list of topics that cross our minds, but rarely going beyond requesting God to “just do something” about them.

In Evangelical traditions and especially Pentecostal circles, we prefer spontaneous prayer, thinking these are somehow more authentic, but we must not neglect praying the way that Jesus Himself instructed us to.

Using the Lord’s Prayer not only helps us stay focused, but helps us to pray with greater spiritual depth. We can still come to God with our requests, but as we pray them in light of the Lord’s Prayer, they begin to align with God’s will and are prioritized the right way. We also discover more deeply who God is, and what His will is for us.

Today, pray the Lord’s Prayer, but consider your personal requests as you pray through it. Start with the language of the Lord’s Prayer, but then add your requests as you work your way through it a second and third time.

As you pray through it again, how can you pray this over someone else’s life? Or perhaps a world situation? Use the Lord’s Prayer as your guide, but pray each line over that person or world affair.

“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.
And forgive us our debts,    
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,    
but deliver us from the evil one.
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’”

Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)