How Should We Pray?

"And when you pray..." These are our Lord's words as He sets out to teach His disciples (present and future) how to pray. Note the words carefully - Jesus does not say "If" you pray but "When" you pray. Prayer is a universal experience echoing a universal need echoing a universal creation. Because we are made in God's image we sense a need for union with or help from that God in whose image we are. So we pray. I remember as a little boy asking my mother, who was not a believer at that time, to teach me to pray. She taught me the little children's prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep", etc.  which I prayed faithfully until I came to know the Lord in a personal way. I have been preaching on The Lord's Prayer and found after three sermons, we have not begun to exhaust the great truths of that concise power-packed prayer. Each phrase is pregnant with meaning. If the elements of that prayer were truly realized and prayed with faith and preserving intensity, what a different place this world would be! Let's all give ourselves to more regular, believing, relentless insistent prayer. As we do, we will see differences for the good in our individual lives, our families, our churches, our communities. But don't give up if it doesn't happen in two days! We also have an enemy who will do all he can to stop you with his "weapons of mass distractions." Don't let this dampen your spirit. Pray on!