This page contains:
-
Prayer Notice Board
-
A Five Finger Model of Prayer
-
Using Others’ Prayers or Prayers / Psalms from the Bible
-
The Lord’s Prayer
-
Arrow Prayers
________________________________________________
Prayer Notice Board
Pin up onto a notice board photographs / names of people or situations to remind you to pray for them. I put names and specific items for prayer on notelets and rotate them daily, so that each person is prayed for regularly. You could also pin up other pictures / images of Jesus / newspaper articles / poems / words of songs / Bible verses to inspire you to pray.
________________________________________________
A Five Finger Model of Prayer
Here is a way of praying for others by using your fingers to trigger you into thinking about different groups of people. Thumb: Those furthest away – missionaries, persecuted Christians, friends and families overseas. 1st finger: Those people who lead and guide us, pointing the way (ministers, teachers etc.) 2nd finger: The strongest finger – those people with power and responsibility (governments etc.) Ring finger: Those people we love – family, friends. Little finger: Those who are ill, weak, infirm, old, poor, helpless… Whole hand: Pray for yourself finally, offering your hands to God to serve Him as praying and serving hands for all the people you meet.
________________________________________________
Using Others’ Prayers or Prayers / Psalms from the Bible
If you find it hard to think of your own words when you pray, use someone else’s! There are many books of prayers available from Christian bookshops, which are often categorised by theme.
There are also set prayers for certain times of the day used by communities such as the Northumbria Community (visit www.northumbriacommunity.org for their ideas).
The Bible itself has some great prayers in it. Sometimes these prayers are specific to a particular character in an immediate situation, but other prayers can be used by anyone to express particular feelings.
The book of Psalms is really a book of prayers. It covers all sorts: from praise and thanks, through guilt and confession, to anger and despair. It’s reassuring to know that the writers of the psalms had ‘real’ feelings like you and me, and weren’t afraid of expressing them to God!
Of course, there’s the Lord’s Prayer (found in Matthew 6), which is Jesus’ own model for prayer. More on that next week…
________________________________________________
The Lord’s Prayer
An obvious place to start when we pray, but surprisingly we don’t always think of it! Jesus gave us a brilliant model for prayer: it’s a good idea to read the whole passage in Matthew 6: 5-15, where Jesus advises his listeners how to pray. It can be very easy to repeat this prayer parrot-fashion because many of us have been taught it at an early age, and perhaps haven’t really thought about its meaning! However, this brilliant prayer includes all aspects of prayer: praise; thanks; praying for God’s will; confessing sins and asking for forgiveness, and help to forgive others; asking for what we need, and for help in situations of temptation.
Why not take some time to 1) read each phrase, and 2) think about it. 3) You could even re-write each phrase in your own words…
e.g. 1) ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’
2) Praise God that we have a Father Who is Lord over all earth and heaven, and worship Him for all that means and all He has done for us…so you could re-write this as something like,
3) ‘Dear Lord, I thank You and praise You for all Your creation. Thank You that You are my perfect Father, and love me more than even the best earthy father ever could. Because of all this I want to praise Your name!’
You will probably come up with something different, depending on what aspects of the phrase stuck out for you personally. Have a go with the rest of the prayer. You should find you never pray the Lord’s prayer parrot-fashion again!
________________________________________________
Arrow Prayers
An ‘arrow’ prayer is simply a quick prayer to God, like an arrow shooting up to heaven! It is a good way of praying a simple thought, especially in the middle of a busy situation or if you find long wordy prayers difficult. God is just as willing to hear short bursts as great long eloquent prayers: He is always listening! An example might be, ‘Lord, please help me be patient with (name of person) right now!’ or ‘please let me know what I can say / do to help (name of person) in this current situation’. (N.B. It would be wise to discern when to pray these out loud with the person in question and when to keep them silent, between you and God!)
________________________________________________