Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer - a day when everyone remembers to set aside a few minutes and pray....John & Denny talked about how we have that opportunity 24/7/365....so why don't we take it?
A direct line of communication with the author and finisher of our faith, our creator - the one who wrote the owners manual....and we set it aside....we say "all we can do is pray."
That's GREAT! Prayer is very powerful.
My cousin's college roommate had a poster on her ceiling so that it was the first thing she saw when she got up in the morning. "Prayer should be our first resource, not our last resort."

In the devotional I'm reading, right now we're on prayer - the prayer of Daniel, the Lord's prayer - what it means, and just how we need to be praying, to invoke the power of God's name and to trust that what we ask in His name, under His will is DONE.

I'm not much on canned prayers - but when I was at St. Bonaventure, the prayer of St. Francis was drilled into us - and I really like the words:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.


A good thought to keep....and of course, let me close with the words of our Lord, as He taught us:
5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.[a]' 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 6:5-13, NIV