#003: The Lord's Prayer Intro

At Gateway West, we are in the middle of a short 3 part teaching series called Reminders.  I'm "reminding" our congregation about our need to Love God, Live in Community, and Serve the City.  We use these three statements to describe what God has called us to do.  Other churches might use different phrases but many churches emphasize the three directions of UP - our relationship with the Father, IN - our relationship with other believers, and OUT - our relationship with a broken world.

I'm generally a practical kind of teacher but for this series, I'm taking it a step further and emphasizing "doing" more so than "knowing."  I'm reminding our folks of information they already know but strongly encouraging them to be putting it into practice.

Last week, I simply asked, "Are you loving God?"  I challenged all of us to prioritize time in our busy schedules to simply spend time with God in prayer and in His Word.  We all know this to be the basics of our relationship with God but we struggle to make this a consistent part of our every day lives.  Thus, we need the reminders.

Prayer is a core practice and discipline in our communion with God.  I've been wrestling with the Lord's Prayer lately because I've been challenged with the thought that this is how Jesus said to pray.  I have sought out advice on prayer over the years from friends and even well known teachers and authors but I was convicted that I ought to be learning from the best teacher of all and see he says to pray.  I need to be obedient to him.

Jesus never meant for the Lord's prayer to be trite words but to be a model of prayer.  He gives us sort of an outline for praying.  So, I figured that I'd spend the next few posts talking about the Lord's prayer as a way of reminding, challenging, and encouraging you to pray the way that Jesus wants you to pray.

So, here's your homework assignment.  Go back to the Lord's prayer and pray it.  You'll find it in the gospels in several places.  I'm not going to tell you where it's at.  Go find it.  And then pray it everyday for a few days.  Think about it.  Meditate on it.

Over the next week or so, I'll walk you through the prayer and how you might use it in your walk with God.  I fully recognize that most of this information will not be new to most of you but I am praying it will be helpful in your spiritual journey.