Go Vertical: 21 Days To An Improved Prayer Life

Day 15: Prayer Frames Help Shape Our Prayers

"In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." Matthew 6:9-13 (New King James).

Jesus gave His followers this "framework" for prayer to assist them in their prayer lives. His intent was not necessarily to provide us with a form prayer to memorize and recite, as many believers do. Instead, it was to provide a prayer framework to help us towards having meaningful, heartfelt talks with God. The Lord's Prayer is a guideline for prayer that can help us cover what is most important as we talk to God.

"All praying starts with forms of prayer ... yet relationships don't thrive on rigid communication. Relationships require originality and spontaneity." Samuel Chadwick.

As you look at The Lord's Prayer as a framework, you can see that we should approach God with a reverent appreciation of His holiness. Right away, it is important to seek His will and not our own. Then, it is appropriate to bring our daily needs and requests to Him. As we ask for the forgiveness of our sins, we acknowledge that we are required to forgive others as we receive forgiveness ourselves. Finally, we ask for God's protection from temptation and the evil that lurks in our fallen world. Then, we end by reaffirming God as King of our universe by saying, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

In a cement project, the workers lay out the framework with wooden planks in a specific shape. Next, the cement truck is called in to fill the frame with cement. After the cement had dried, the framework of planks is removed. This is how you form what you desire to establish, whether it be a patio, a driveway or the foundation of a house. In a similar way, the form prayer helps you to shape your prayer time, and you fill it with your own words. After you have done that for awhile, you can remove the prayer frame, because it had served its purpose, namely to shape and establish your prayer life. The prayer frame should never replace your heartfelt prayer times with God. After a house is built, the builders remove the scaffolding. The same with prayer frames.

We should use prayer outlines (there are many useful prayer outlines and frameworks available) to keep in mind how to approach God and what to cover. After you are well established in prayer, you should use your personal uniqueness in talking to God. The idea is to have prayers that are built on relationship and love, and not just religious rites and rituals.

The prayer form gives you the needed confidence to start. After awhile, the relationship you have established gives you all the confidence you need to build and comfortably share your heart with God.

Action Step:

- Have you fallen into the trap of making form prayers your only way of talking to God?

- Once you have shaped your prayer time and gained a sense of how to pray, expand your time with God by adding relational conversation in your prayer times. Honesty and transparency will assist you in this regard.

Review:

1. Prayer Is Simply Talking And Listening To God.

2. Prayer Should Flow From A Contrite Heart.

3. Your Prayers Should Be Confident.

4. Your Prayers Should Be Concise And To The Point.

5. Your Prayers Should Be Consistent And Constant.

6. Pray In Jesus' Name.

7. Pray About Everything!

8. You Do Not Have Because You Don't Ask God.

9. Asking God With The Wrong Motive Doesn't Work.

10. Ask Expecting To Receive From God.

11. Ask God To Bless Your Enemies As You Pray.

12. Ask The Lord To Make You More Loving As You Pray.

13. Make Talking To God A Priority Every Day.

14. Pray According To God's Will.

15. Prayer Frames Help Shape Our Prayers.