Rising Church

Has your prayer life grown stale? Do you find yourself offering up the same "canned" prayers over and over again, prayers you say by heart, but not necessarily with heart? Perhaps now would be a good time to rethink prayer and turn away from your old habits and ways of thinking about prayer, and turn in a new direction. In the Lord's prayer, Jesus attempted to give us a new model for prayer, a new template to follow. His goal wasn't to teach us the exact words to pray, but to teach us how to pray. For most of us, prayer is about asking God for this or that. This isn't wrong, God specifically tells us that in every situation, we should bring our prayers, petitions and requests to God. He is attentive to our voices. This is just an incomplete view of prayer. In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus gives us what I have called three "pre-petition postures". Three postures we should take in prayer before we ask God for anything, before we bring all of our prayers, petitions and requests before our heavenly Father.