Hillcrest Church
  • Home
  • About
    • Discover Hillcrest
    • Giving
    • SCRIP
    • Contact
    • Staff
    • Elders
    • Media
  • Ministries
    • Adults >
      • Small Groups
    • Students
    • Children
  • Missions
    • Adoption & Foster Care
    • Cleveland Elementary
    • Ethiopia
    • Other Missions
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Event Calendar
    • Event Submission
  • Messages
    • Sunday Sermons
    • Sunday's Bulletin
    • Daily Devotional

1/29/2020

The Lord's Prayer: Our Daily Bread

0 Comments

Read Now
 
Matthew 6:6-13
When we pray, we really are talking to God. It should sound like a real conversation, because it IS a real conversation. That’s the way our prayers are supposed to be: real, natural, meaningful. That means the words we use, the way we begin and end, and the posture we’re in. These things shouldn’t be automatic or rote. They should be filled with meaning, with conscious significance. Do you ever feel self-conscious about how to pray? Do you wonder if you should close your eyes or say “Amen” at the end of your prayer? Remember there’s nothing wrong with that, but when we do, let’s do it for a reason and with meaning, not just on auto-pilot.  We pray not to impress people, but to talk to God. And the words and actions of our prayers should be meaningful, not routine. Jesus has given us a model, a template, for prayer. It’s very well known as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Millions of people know it by heart. Many recite this prayer as a paragraph of empty words, almost without any personal meaning at all. Many don’t even understand it. For some, the Lord’s Prayer is a punishment instead of a prayer, as in, “For your penance, say 30 ‘Our Fathers’.” I imagine that the original intention of that kind of assignment was to get people to meditate on the truths expressed in the Lord’s Prayer. But I think more often people get just about as much out of that as Bart Simpson gets out of writing sentences on the chalkboard. Jesus intended it to be so much more. He didn’t give it to us as a script of what we should pray, but rather as an example of how we should pray. It is a great reminder that God wants us to present our needs to him. Although God already knows of them, presenting our needs verbally to Him brings us to a point of greater vulnerability and dependence. Here are three very practical implications:
1. We should pray persistently. Persistent prayer has a way of showing God we’re serious, increases our desperation for God, and even purifies our prayer life.
2. We should pray specifically. Specific prayers enable us to connect the dots between our prayers and God’s activity in ways that overly broad and vague prayers cannot.
3. We should pray expectantly. Praying expectantly reminds us that our loving Father ultimately has our best interests in mind even when He does not respond the way we want him to.

Questions for further thought:
1. What are some specific needs that you could persistently and expectantly present to God?

Challenge: Try hanging your prayers off this prayer, praying one line of the prayer and then praying for other things that fit under that idea.
 

Share

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

Details

    Author

    This devotional is written every week by Hillcrest members.

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018

    Receive this devotional in your inbox every Monday - Friday.

    RSS Feed

Home
About

Contact

Students
Children
Small Groups
Events
Sunday's Sermons

Daily Devotional
Donate
Log In
Picture
Copyright © 2020   .  Hillcrest Church  .  4301 E. 26th St., Sioux Falls, SD 57103  .  605-371-0546  .  hillcrest@siouxfallschurch.com
  • Home
  • About
    • Discover Hillcrest
    • Giving
    • SCRIP
    • Contact
    • Staff
    • Elders
    • Media
  • Ministries
    • Adults >
      • Small Groups
    • Students
    • Children
  • Missions
    • Adoption & Foster Care
    • Cleveland Elementary
    • Ethiopia
    • Other Missions
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Event Calendar
    • Event Submission
  • Messages
    • Sunday Sermons
    • Sunday's Bulletin
    • Daily Devotional