Over the next couple weeks I want to invite you take a journey with me through the Lord’s Prayer.  If you come along, I think you’ll find the experience both faith-building and encouraging.  I thought I’d make this invitation because very often on long runs I’ll pray and reflect on a phrase of the Lord’s Prayer during each mile and it’s helped me immensely.  You don’t need to run, though, in order to pray!  My hope is that if you choose to take this journey with me, you’ll enter into this Prayer as if for the very first time.  And you can carry it with you through the whole day!

Here’s how we’ll do it:

I’ll post a daily reflection on each phrase.  Don’t feel bound in any way to pray exactly as I do, just use my reflections as a sort of “jump-start” for your own prayers.

Also, these are obviously not the exact words I pray while I’m chugging down the road, and every time I pray this way the words and concerns come out a little different.  Sometimes I find myself praying for certain parts of the world or for certain situations in the church, or for certain relationships I’m challenged in or blessed by.  My only purpose in giving you these actual reflections is to help you see how God can lead you through the prayer.

Lastly, I want you to notice the communal aspect of the Lord’s Prayer.  Stop yourself—really—from focusing solely on your own needs and concerns.  Always begin by asking God to lead you as you pray.  Then notice Christ’s emphasis on “our” and “we” and “us.”  Think about God first and foremost (“we” don’t even come into the picture until “give us this day our daily bread”).  Until then it’s all God and His Kingdom!  Even when it comes to forgiveness, think of ways our nation has sinned, of how our communities are mis-guided, and use the opportunity to pray for our leaders.  And then, of course, throw in your own sins too—but notice how confessing your own sins right alongside those others changes your perspective!  We begin to see how grievous our “small” sins of envy, greed, etc. can become when taken to a larger scale.

I’ll pray through each of the phrases a mile at a time, but why not take one or two minutes (or five or six!) in the morning before starting your day?  Or before going to bed at night?  Why not go for a walk and pray a phrase from light post to light post?  Be creative about how you pray!

I love the Lord’s Prayer because it gives me a form to pray through.  Otherwise, I just drift from worry to worry, or I “wake up” to find myself thinking about something totally irrelevant!  I’m too scatter-brained to pray well—I need order and structure in order to be more faithful in prayer, and praying this way has helped me immensely.

So please come along and just give it a shot, but if you find this too structured for you, if it feels to mechanical or forced, just leave it and find some other way to pray!  Remember, the form helps me, but it’s not the form that counts, it’s the conversation it allows me to have with the Father.

Let’s get started—and let me know how it goes (even if it doesn’t go “well”)!

OUR FATHER

I thank You, Lord, that we have a Father in heaven and no mere impersonal force or power.  You know us inside and out, more thoroughly and deeply and profoundly than we even know ourselves. You made us, shaped us, called us into being.  With intention and foresight, you gave us life and breath.  Like Adam, you formed us and breathed life into us.  We are made in Your image and likeness, a mystery none can fully fathom.  You have called us into being for Your own purposes and for Your own glory, not our own.  You name us and affirm us.  Each of us is gloriously different from all others, and You rejoice over our very existence.  We are made for You and we cannot fully know ourselves until we know You.  You reach out to us and save us from all our enemies, from those other created beings who would do us harm, and from those spiritual powers that would hinder our growth in and pursuit of You.  You are our Shield and Defender, our Maker and our Redeemer, our Healer and our Master—in all things related to us You are Father indeed.