What About Litergical Prayer?
Verse for the day: Matthew 6:7 (more…)
Was It the Lord’s Prayer or the Disciple’s Prayer?
We need to remind ourselves that what we call the Lord’s Prayer isn’t really the Lord’s prayer—it is the disciples’ prayer and our prayer. The disciples were the ones who wanted to be taught to pray. And just as Jesus taught them to begin their prayer with worship, He instructed them to end prayer with worship: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (Matt.6:13).
Jesus taught the disciples and us that in prayer we are to pay homage to the reality that this is His kingdom. God has control over everything, and He can and will answer our prayers. He has infinite power to accomplish whatever we ask. There is nothing impossible with God (Luke 1:37).
Tim
Prayer and Obedience
Seldom do we hear prayer and obedience in the same sentence. Matter of fact, you don’t hear much on obedience preached in most churches.
What place does obedience have with prayer? Obedience is simply the outflow of faith, faith in action. Obedience is the proof of love (John 14:21). And, if you want the fullness of the Holy Spirit and all that He brings to your life of prayer, it depends on loving obedience to Christ and His commands (John 14:15-16).
Doing God’s will without any hesitation is the delight and privilege of a praying person. Having clean hands and a pure heart leads to bold and confident prayers.
How Does Your Day Begin?
The word was spreading quickly about this Jesus and later that night the whole town came to where He was. Yes, the whole town of Capernaum (population estimated to be between 1000, and 1,500 people at the time) gathered at the doorstep, bringing the sick and demon-possessed and clamoring for Jesus (Mark 1:32-34).
Can you picture the scene? Can you see yourself there? Imagine the sense of anticipation, the stirring of the people, the talk, and the electricity in the air. This was a dramatically taxing, emotionally draining, and physically demanding day for Christ the man.
What did Jesus do the next morning? Did He get caught up on His much-needed sleep? Perhaps take a late breakfast?
No. He began a pattern that is referenced many times by the Gospels. In fact, as Luke observed, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16, NIV).
Tim Cameron
The morning prayer determines the day.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Andrew Murray and Oswald Chambers on the Holy Spirit and Prayer
The only thing that saves us.
We can only keep ourselves in the love of God by building up ourselves on our most holy faith and by Holy Spirit praying, and by nothing else. If we try to fight God’s battles in our own moral, resisting power, we shall fail, and fail miserably, but if we use the spiritual weapons of implicitly trusting God and maintaining a simple relationship to Jesus Christ by praying in the Holy Spirit, we shall never fail.
Oswald Chambers
The Holy Spirit and Prayer
Paul more than once reminds his convert that the chief characteristic of his preaching was the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.
There is no manifestation of the Holy Spirit when both the speaking (from the pastor) and the hearing (from the parishioner) are both mainly the working of human understanding and feeling.
Andrew Murray