Neville Turley

“For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.”  John 12:49 (NIV)

A religious correspondent who regularly interviewed ministers, missionaries and full-time Christian workers at their retirement, had a stock question, he put to all of them.

“After a lifetime of Christian service, what do you most regret?” The answer, time and again, was identical. “I wish I had spent more time praying.”

Many Christians would agree that they too, do not pray enough. John Calvin famously said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”  Pouring out one’s heart in prayer can prove extraordinarily difficult.

Human nature is ingenious at finding excuses for not praying – to busy, to stressed, to tired.  The devil will always supply a reason to form a barrier between us and our Father God, who is willing and waiting to hear our prayers. 

In teaching us the Lord’s Prayer, our Lord gave his followers the perfect prayer to pray, both privately and together in fellowship with other Christians.

When we pray, we must first and foremost give God priority praising, thanking and exalting our Father in heaven. Then we bring our own prayer list of needs, as well as the needs of others before God. After which, we confess our sins and seek our Father’s forgiveness in as much as we have forgiven others. We then pray for His protection from the evil within us and the temptations we face in this fallen world.

The Lord’s Prayer is the blue print on how we should structure our heart prayers.

If we allow the Lord’s Prayer to shape our daily devotions, we will be one with our Father in heaven and there is no better place to be.

Prayer:  Forgive us Father for all the wrongs in our life. May the Holy Spirit help us to follow the teachings of your son and bring glory to your holy name. This we ask for your love’s sake. Amen