Prayer Devotion One

And so, yesterday we learned about prayer as we continued our series: Everday, allowing Jesus to lead our lives. If you havent had a chance to listen to the message from yesterday, you can find it under the resource tab on our website: www.newcommunityonline.com.

We looked at Matthew 6:5-13 yesterday

Prayer
5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[a]'


Jesus first pushes back on those who were praying for the wrong reasons, and then he taught his listerners how to pray. This is commonly known as "the Lord's prayer". We learned together that Jesus wasnt giving this as a formula, but really a starting place for those who were awkward and uncomfortable to pray. Once we finished the teaching of the passage, i read a paraphrase of that prayer, or a more modern interpretation. We have already had a ton of people ask for it. So, for our prayer devo today, i am giving this to you so that it may be your beginning place as you are intentional about talking to God through prayer.

Here it is:
God/Jesus you are so great
This cant be the way you want things to be
help me spread your love around here
Please watch out for me today
Forgive me for taking you for granted
Help me to forgive others as you have forgiven me
There are so many distractions going on in my life
keep me focused
Keep me pure, keep me safe, help me to live
my life like you want me to.
Thanks God, AMEN.

May this be your prayer today. More to come tomorrow.