Alpha Prayer Talk - Final

Let’s talk about How to Pray.

Here’s a really good acronym on prayer:

A = Adoration

C = Confession

T = Thanksgiving

S = Supplication

We can pray in adoration only for the power and glory of God and His creation.  We could pray in confession of our sins and ask for His forgiveness.  We could give thanks for what He has done for us and we could pray in supplication to His will and His guidance for us.  Or you can combine all four into one prayer as Jesus taught us through The Lord’s Prayer.  Let’s dissect that prayer as a model for how to pray.  It is my model for almost all my own prayer life these days:

We start with “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” This is addressing God and honoring His sovereignty over us and the universe.

“Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”  Oh, God give us what we really need – not so much that we become chained only to worldly desires and pleasures.  But what we need to sustain us and grow.  And I am sorry and regret my sins.  Please forgive me as I have forgiven those who have done wrong to me.

“And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”  Another way of saying lead us into green pastures for thy name’s sake.  Protect us from the evil one and give us the strength to avoid temptation and sin.

That’s a pretty good model for prayer at anytime, don’t you think?

So When Should We Pray?

Well, always.  Both alone and with others.

The other night my little dog finished his dinner and in his usual way came over to me as I was sitting typing out this talk and intentionally bumped into me.  I ignored him and he did it again.  Eventually he spoke.  A whinny little request to be taken “out.”  I said “Do you want Daddy to take you out?”  Of course he got all excited and headed for the door – although he was probably either thinking “Well yeah …” or he was enthused because I was finally smart enough to catch on.

As we marched out into the back yard it was absolutely a clear November night.  Stars all over the place.  As the puppy did his business I started looking to the sky noticing the stars and then an airplane, and another and another until I counted eight of them all going in a different direction and at different altitudes.  I thought of my two friends who are retired air traffic controllers and how stressful they admit their jobs were.  Then I thought of God who has the ultimate traffic control job going on.  In there we fit somehow -- each with a free will, each with our own destination, each with our own plan of some kind, and each with our own unique gifts and personalities.  And each one of us has a plan made for us by God. And I asked God to help me in my struggles to be a good man.

Pretty good that we have a communication line wired up directly to the Author of it all.  If we’ll use it and pick up the phone.

So you can make a prayer out of walking your dog.  I pray always when I’m in my car.  I pray when I can’t sleep.  I pray with my wife.  I pray with and for my children and grandchildren and I pray most effectively next door in our sanctuary during services with the other wonderful people we have gotten to know here at St Francis.

By now you might be asking yourself, “Does Ned think he hears God?  I mean does he hear a voice?  You know – “Ned, let go of the branch.”  No I don’t.  God does answer my prayers though.  But sometimes I just stop and listen.  Pay attention to what is going on in my life.  Look for what God’s will would be for me.  I have learned to be patient.  I have also come to believe there really aren’t any coincidences.  Is it always a coincidence when I have prayed about something and it happens?  Or when we are about out of money and a check arrives from an unexpected source?  Or that I ask God to show me what I should do next and a request comes for me to do this talk?