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At Chain of Lakes part of our purpose is to be disciples who impact the world. Were living out this part of our Purpose Statement during Lent through this sermon series called Prayer and Righteous Action. On alternative Sundays were looking at prayerhelping us to be healthier disciples or followers of Jesus. And then were looking at important community issues righteous action. Today the topic is prayer. Were looking at the question how do I pray? Im going to share two easy methods that can help you in your prayer life. I want to encourage you to get out this brochure that is in the bulletin. In the devotion I shared with you six rich prayers from the Bible and devotional readings. By using this devotion this week youll grow in your prayer life. You have a place to take notes and a place for prayer requests. I have a vision for the prayer life at Chain of Lakes. It has two parts. One part is our community prayer life. I would love it if people frequently got together to pray. We would have prayer groups and prayer partners. We would be a group who was comfortable finding someone and saying, lets get together and pray this week; or lets pray for each other this week. Im guessing you could find a person here who could be your prayer partner. What I mean is you would pray for each other and you would get together to pray. I would love it if we had a group who would pray together 15 minutes before we started worship. We have quality worship, but we would worship even better if we had a group who was praying for worship. I would certainly love it if we talked about our prayer lives with each other. Were as comfortable in talking about our prayer lives as we are in talking about the weather. We all know that we can do better, but when we talk about our prayer lives we do it with honesty and not self-judgment. Weve let go of the moralism of prayer. Finally I would love it if all of us were frequently asking God for direction in our ministry together at Chain of Lakes. Before we start a new ministry we would

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stopeven if we are completely gung ho about the ideaand pray to God for direction. We would become skilled at knowing if God is leading us. The other part of this vision is our individual prayer life. I use the language of a prayer life. I believe a prayer life has 4 ds. They are: SLIDE Dailywe pray every day. If we miss praying during the day, we know it Diversewere comfortable in praying in a variety of different ways. We have learned that petitionary prayer is not the only way to pray Disciplinedwe pray even when we dont want to pray. We understand that we will go through dry spells and also understand how to overcome dry spells. Make a differencewe are different people because of our prayer life. We know that we could not have become the people we are unless weve been praying. This is the vision. As I said earlier this vision involves us talking about our prayer life. I want to try an experiment. Im pushing the envelope a bit here. I know that some of us come to worship and we want to be by ourselves. Every now and then its good to talk to each other. What were about to do we dont do very often. Stand up. Turn this wayfind someone and have a conversation for four minutes about these three questions SLIDE 1) A time in your life when you had a prayer answered or someone you know had a prayer answered 2) What does your prayer life look like right now? (Dont use adjectives or judgmental phrases. Describe itdont judge it) 3) What is the biggest obstacle to your prayer life? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Two weeks ago I addressed the spiritual nourishment of prayer when I addressed the question, Why pray? 1. We pray because Jesus prayed. If the Son of God needed to pray then we need to pray 2. We pray to go deeper in relationship with God. 3. We pray to negotiate the complexities of our life. As I shared today Im addressing the question, How do I pray? Im going to share two ways or methods.

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The first way is to pray the Lords prayer during the day. Today we heard a story where the disciples came up to Jesus and said, teach us to pray. The disciples wanted to know how to pray. Their question is the same question were looking at today. Jesus answered the question. He answered it by saying this: SLIDE When you pray say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial. Luke 11:2-4 We recognize this as the Lords Prayer. There is one other place in the gospels where we can find the Lords prayer. The other place is Matthew 6:9-13. Here is the version in Matthew: SLIDE 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 also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the time of trial, But rescue us from the evil one. Matthew 6:9-13 When you look at these prayers you might wonder, how did we get the Lords prayer from these two prayers. Because there are two versions of this prayer in the Gospels different people in the church edited them over time and came up with the Lords prayer. The Lords prayer was developed over time by people in the church.

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I think the Lords prayer is the best prayer in the universe. It can help us in our own prayer life. SLIDE A couple weeks ago on my Facebook page I asked people to share the obstacles to

a deeper prayer life. One obstacle that was identified was finding the words to pray. Sometimes we just dont know what to say. If we ever find ourselves not coming up with words, we can say the Lords prayer. People in the church say different versions of the Lords prayer. Yesterday at the Memorial service for Bill Finks mom we all said the Lords prayer in the way of our own tradition. The Lutherans say forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. The Catholics stop saying the prayer after the line, deliver us from evil. Then the priest will say a prayer. Then the entire congregation will pray, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. As Presbyterians we use the words debts and debtors. One of my dreams for the universal church is that we would say the same Lords prayer. I dont think this would be so hard to dothough Im sure there would be resistant. That Presbyterians, Catholics, and Lutherans and our non-denominational friends would all say the same Lords prayer. That would be a common witness to the world.

Saying the Lords prayer is powerful. Try an experiment this week. Try saying the Lords prayer five or six times during the day. Maybe once a hour. Maybe at the start of every hour, close your eyes, and slowly say the Lords prayer. You could say the Lords prayer the first thing as you come to awake in the morning. If you wake up in the middle of the night and cant get back to sleep or if youre awakened by your crying infant, you could say the Lords prayer. We can say the Lords prayer while were driving. Were only limited by our own creativity.

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One response to the question, How do I pray? is to say the Lords prayer often during the day. A second way to pray is to carve out time during the day to pray. One of the parts of having a prayer life is finding 10 or 15 minutes of uninterrupted time during the day to pray in a quiet place. Some people have called this a quiet time. I find it helpful to pray at the same time every day. I pray in the morning. If you want to know what Im doing between 6:30 and 7, Im usually praying. Some people pray right before they go to bed. I know that people who pray right after a meal. You could pray immediately after breakfast or after lunch. If the same time every day doesnt work, try organizing your day so you can have that 10 to 15 minutes. Im a runner. I run three times a week. I wish it was more. When I run it takes about 6090 minutes to get dressed, go for a run, get showered. My time is very, very tight. I do. I have to be intentional about finding the time. The same idea applies to our prayer life. We have to be intentional about finding that time. I think its helpful to carve out a place that is your own prayer station. You could decorate it, or put pictures of your family there. When you come to your own prayer station you could light a candle. When you come there you have a warm, beautiful feeling. It becomes a sacred space. What do you do during those 15 minutes? Try the ACTS method. Im guessing that many of us have heard of this before SLIDE Aadoration Cconfession Tthanksgiving

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Ssupplication or petition. I like this method because it forces us to pray with varietyanother part of a developed prayer life. Adoration is praise of God for a quality of God. I praise you God for a quality of God Adoration or praise is different than thanks. Adoration or praise is not about usits about God. I praise you that I got this job. That is a form of prayer, but thats more thanks. Thats beautiful. Thats not praise. Praise is about God Once we get the hang of adoration or praise it is beautiful. . Show you a Psalmpsalm 103. This is a beautiful Psalm that has shares many wonderful qualities of God. You can use it as a Praise Psalm. This week I had the privilege of visiting Karen Gasche in the hospital. Karen is Cathy Smiths sister. She has shingles. While I was in the hospital I read psalm 103. As I read it I know that both of us felt the power of these words come over it. Reading this Psalm slowly is a wonderful calming experiencing. When I was done we had a moving conversation on the qualities of God that we appreciate. SLIDE Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits Who forgives all your iniquity, Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems you life from the Pit, Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, Who satisfies you with good as long as you live. Adoration is praising God for a quality of God. We praise you God for _________ ..

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The second part of ACTS is confession. When I pray I always reflect on the previous day and confess the times that I messed up. I know that many of us might look at confession as feeling bad about ourselves. Confession is a form of release. Its really being honest with God about whats wearing us down. Confession is so important because it prompts us to be honest. If I cant be honest with God with whom can I be honest. If I cant be honest with God how can I be honest with Amy, or Hannah, or you? Were freed through confession. We can release what is wearing us down. Through confession I receive forgiveness from God. I can release the burdens of what I have done. For me confession is a form of growth. I ask God for help the next time. Im a better person today because I frequently confess. If I cant think of a time that I messed up during the previous day, I confess pride. The third part of ACTS is thanksgiving. When Im doing well the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is give thanks for the gift of the day, and my family, and the call to this church. I love waking up with a spirit of thanks. Its a wonderful say to start. When I pray I always try to give thanks for at least three things that happened during the previous day. Sometimes its easy to be thankful. Sometimes its hard. Sometimes I find myself thanking God for something very trivial. I might thank God that I did not go hungry. I thank God that I didnt get in an accident. Being thankful is important because it prevents me from being complacent about all that I have. The last part of ACTS is supplication. We know this as petition. This is often the easiest part of our prayer life. When I pray I pray for each person in my family, I pray for particular people in the church, I pray for people listed on the prayer sheet, I pray for issues in the world, I

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pray over each part of my day. I pray for issues in the worldI pray for peace. I believe that if all seven billion people in the world were praying for peace we would discover peace and end all the wars in the world. ACTSAdoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. Most of allhave fun with our prayer life. Prayer is not meant to be a burden, but its an opportunity to spend time with God. What better way to spend our time than to spend it with God. Spending time with God is a preview of heaven. In heaven we spend eternity with God. While we are living on earth we pray with God. In his book on prayer, Philip Yancey interviewed a woman who shared this story: SLIDE My own prayer life has been through many changes over the years. As a young mother, I had a five-year old, a three-year old, and a one-year old, and I found the only time I could really pray was literally in the middle of the night. If I woke up then, I would pray. As the kids grew older, I began to get up at 4:30 in the morning to pray. I still dont have ideal conditions for regular prayer. As a mother of three teenagers and working full time, I sometimes get too tired to pray, but most days Im able to work in some time for quiet prayer. SLIDE Because of my changing schedule over the years, Ive asked myself, Just what does God expect of me in my prayer life? The answer I come up with is he wants a love relationship. He doesnt want a hired servant; he wants a bride. A true love will always find a way. It may not always be the same way, or the prescribed way, but it will be a way that reflects love. Thats what God wants from me. God wants a love relationship. Id like to ask each of us to stand up again. Remember that person you talked to earlier? Would you do one things? SLIDE 1) Make a commitment to pray this week for the person and the persons prayer life 2) Ask the person how you can pray for them this week. If you want, say a prayer with them.