I am a firm
believer in prayer. I’ve been asked over
the years to lead others in prayer, whether it was for a company function or a
family get-together. Many times, I
stumble over the words, or my syntax is garbled, or I get too flustered to make
a ‘smooth-sounding’ delivery. I sometimes
worry that my prayers aren’t effective if they aren’t concise, that I’m not
praying the ‘right way’. But in my
reflection on the Scriptures today, I think that attitude might change. At least, that’s my hope. My Lenten reading today led me to reflect on
the question, how should we pray?
If we don’t
have the words, we needn’t worry, the Holy Spirit will interpret them for us to
the Father. What is in our heart is what’s
important. Hence, there’s no wrong or
right way to pray. Jesus left us an
example of what should always be in our heart when we pray. We all speak with different words and
different languages, but God knows the heart and He listens. We just need to train our hearts to always
pray as Jesus taught us.
The Lord
promises that the Word that comes from His mouth will be like the rain
and snow that come down from the heavens [Isaiah 55:10]: Our Father who art in
heaven. God’s fruitful Word gives bread
to the one who eats: Give us this day our daily bread. God’s Word will do His will: Thy
will be done. God’s Word won’t return to Him void:
Thy
Kingdom come. God’s
merciful Word changes our hearts: We forgive those who
trespass against us.
God’s Word achieves its purpose: Deliver us from evil.
“If you forgive the faults of others, your
heavenly Father will forgive you yours. If you do not forgive others, neither
will your Father forgive you.” [Matthew 6:7-15]
The
Scripture is blunt and clear. “The
measure with which you measure will be used to measure you” [Matthew 7:2]. Our eternal forgiveness and salvation depend
upon whether or not we’ve forgiven those who have wronged us. Yet we’re only
human, and our sinful nature inherited from original sin makes forgiveness
impossible from a human standpoint. Apart
from Jesus, we can do nothing, particularly when choosing to forgive [John 15:5].
Therefore, we must constantly beg the
Lord for the grace to forgive “seventy times seven times” those who have harmed us [Matthew 18:21-22].
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