Undivided Attention – Prayer

Undivided Attention – Prayer reminds that our attention needs to be on one place, Jesus. We actually get to talk to him!  That’s call prayer.  Prayer doesn’t come naturally.  Our relationship with Jesus is a miracle of the Holy Spirit.  Nothing about our spiritual lives is natural.  Today we’re going to focus on one aspect of our spiritual life, that’s prayer.

Prayer Practice

Jesus doesn’t say this, but this lesson could be learned by reading about his life – prayer takes practice.  The first sermon I preached was terrifying, but I survived.  The first prayer that I lead for a family was no less terrifying.  My Aunt and Uncle who lived in Milwaukee had me over for dinner.  There were other guests too, friends of their family.  They asked me to say the blessing before the me.  I was a seminary student.  I had heard my Uncle lead his family in prayer many times, but he was trying to honor me.  I was caught off guard and in our fellowship the common table prayer is, Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed.  I was very nervous so I drew a blank and said, Our Father, who art in heaven… and you can’t stop, so we all said the Lord’s prayer.  And by that point, my mind was working again.  And we said the common table prayers too!

Fail Boldly

I tell you that story because, while it was a little embarrassing, it didn’t really matter.  That wasn’t a sin.  I would rather that you lead your family in prayer and that you mess up a little.  It’s good for your children to see that dad and mom are human and makes mistakes too.  What’s important is that they see you pray.  Remember, no make how badly you butcher a prayer, public or otherwise, for Jesus sake, God still hears it and promises to answer.

Plan Prayer

The average person spends 4 minutes in prayer each day – that counts bed times, meal times, devotional times.  Clergy aren’t much better – 7 minutes.  Martin Luther woke up at 4 AM to start praying about his day.  On the really busy days he would spend even more time in prayer.  Carve out time in your life for prayer.  Plan it!  Because that’s what we do for the most important parts of our lives.

Want to hear more?  Watch this week’s message taken from the Gospel of Luke, Undivided Attention – Prayer.