Take The Words Right Out Of His Mouth // Jason Souza

Once a month, I’ll be writing you a blog post about one of the various spiritual disciplines referenced in the Bible, explaining its importance and relevance, and giving a suggestion or two on how to practice it.

This month, let’s take a look at prayer. 

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Prayer may be the most problematic of all the spiritual disciplines. Problematic in that it is something we all know we SHOULD do, and yet so few of us actually do - let alone do well. This results in a practice which should draw us closer to God, but ends up - by making us feel guilty - actually separating us from Him.

For many of us, the problem is that we don’t know what to say or how to say it. And so we say nothing at all. We stumble over:

     who we’re talking to (God? Jesus? The Holy Spirit?), 

     what to call Him (Lord? Father? God? Jesus? Yahweh Jehovah Adonai {?), 

     what to tell Him (I mean, He already knows, right?), and

     what and how to ask (what if I don’t know what He wants and I’m asking for the wrong thing?).

Well, take heart brothers and sisters! You’re not alone. Even Jesus’s disciples had to ask for some instruction on this.

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 

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     "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."

     Luke 11:1 (ESV)

In other words...

     “Jesus! You’re really, REALLY good at this whole praying thing, and we’re really, REALLY not. Could you teach us to do it the way

you do it?”

And so he did. For them and for us. But he didn’t give us the Lord’s Prayer to parrot. He gave it to us as a primer. A place to begin. An example to learn from. 

This month I want to encourage you to think about praying the Scriptures. Find a scripture that speaks to your current situation, reword it, and return it to God as your offering and your prayer.

One that I return to, frequently, is Psalm 16:8-9

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Father,

     I have set my sights on you.

     I will follow the path that always leads to you.

     Because You are always at my side, nothing will disturb me or distract me from You.

     Because You are my focus and goal, I am filled with a joy that inhabits my thoughts, my words, and my actions.

     Whatever happens, I know I will be okay.

     Amen


In time, you will find your prayers composed of words flowing from within rather than borrowed from without.

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Think about it.
Pastor Jason