INTRODUCTION
Have you ever started praying and found yourself asking, “What should I pray for?” We know we should pray, and we want to pray, but what do we pray for? Or maybe you haven’t prayed and you’re scared of starting because you don’t know what to pray for. Or maybe you do pray but your prayers are meaningless mumblings and repetitive ramblings. Or perhaps you are super-organized, you have a prayer list as long as your arm, but its length puts you off praying or drains any pleasure from prayer. What should I pray for?Jesus gives us some guidance in the Lord’s Prayer.
BACKGROUND
We’ve been looking at prayer using different biblical images to teach us to pray:
- The cross: Taught us how to pray in Jesus name
- The throne: Taught us to pray with confidence
- The battlefield: Taught us to pray as in a war.
- The supper: Taught us to view prayer as communion
- The door: Taught us to pray for all our needs
- The window: Teaches us how to pray for perspective
- The schedule: Taught us about when to pray
This week, we are looking at the list, the prayer list, to learn what we should pray for. There’s no one passage in Scripture that answers this question, but the nearest we get to a prayer list, a list of what to pray for, is the Lord’s Prayer, so we’ll use that as our starting point.
What should we pray for first?
1. GOD IS FIRST IN PRAYER
The Lord’s prayer does not tell us everything we should pray for, but it does clearly establish that we should pray about God’s interest first.
Why pray God’s list before our own?
- God’s interests are more important than ours
- Prioritizing God will change our perspective and priorities
- We are encouraged to pray when we recognize and realize to whom we are praying,
- God’s interests and aligned with our own interests (though we may not see it at the time).
- This will change you and your world more than you realize.
What’s top of God’s list?
- His name. Take some time to lift up God’s name in praise and adoration to cultivate a worshipful spirit.
- His kingdom. Ask for God’s kingdom to advance throughout the world to kindle a militant spirit.
- His will. Pray for submission to God’s providential will and obedience to God’s revealed will for a servant spirit.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Change your prayers. God’s given us a list of what he wants to hear about first. There’s no “secret” to prayer. There’s no mysterious code word. It’s published in plain sight. God first: his name, his kingdom, his will. We don’t need to use the same words and phrases each day. Rather, each day we should refresh our prayers in these three areas with different words and phrases. Use the Psalms or books of set prayers to help you.
Prayer changes you. Putting God first in our prayers will not only change our prayers but it will change us. It will change our view of God, of ourselves, of our world, of our problems, of our ambitions, and so on. It will change how we pray, why we pray, when we pray, what we pray. When we focus on God first, we realize how much we need to be changed, how much we need the Holy Spirit to save and sanctify us. Prayer changes our prayers.
WE BEGIN PRAYER WITH
THE BEGINNER OF PRAYER
If God’s first, where do we come in?
2. WE ARE SECOND IN PRAYER
Although the general order of the Lord’s Prayer is God first and us second, we’ve seen how our interests are still very much integrated in the first half of the prayer. Similarly, God and his interests continue in the second part of the prayer. We don’t leave them behind. But we do move into prayers that are focused more on our needs, as well as the needs for others. The Lord’s prayer identifies four categories of prayer:
- Pray for deliverance from physical problems: Give us food, water, clothing, and shelter.
- Pray for deliverance from legal problems: We need forgiveness from the one we are praying to.
- Pray for deliverance from relational problems: Help us to forgive others and pray for others’ needs.
- Pray for deliverance from spiritual problems: Deliver from evil outside and inside. Stop it, help in it, end it.
Who is the “our” and the “us” in the Lord’s Prayer? Here are seven circles I’ve found helpful.
CHANGING OUR STORIES WITH GOD’S STORY
Daily prayers. We can’t pray for all needs in all prayers. We can’t pray for every circle in every prayer. We can choose to focus on a particular category of need (physical, legal, relational, spiritual), or a particular circle of need each day. Even in each circle of need, we can niche down in our prayers. For example, in the international circle, we can pray for a different nation each day. In the church circle, we can pray for other churches as well as missions and outreach ministries. In the community circle, we can pray for our neighbors and friends, but also for our schools, businesses, hospitals, emergency services.
Prayer helps. You might want to use a checklist, or a prayer journal, or a Prayer App (e.g. PrayerMate) to help you organize your prayers. The key is to balance the help of organization and system with the beauty of spontaneity and relationship with God. Too much focus on organization can produce mechanical and legalistic prayers. Too little organization can result in chaotic and thoughtless mumblings. A mixture of general structure and particular spontaneity will serve us and God best.
GENERAL STRUCTURE
+ PARTICULAR SPONTANEITY
= FOCUSED AND FELT PRAYER
SUMMARY
A NEW CHAPTER
Gospel prayers. God-centered prayers will keep us Gospel-centered in prayer. We’ll see more and more his sufficiency for our insufficiency, his supply for our need, his power for our weakness, his salvation for our sin. Remember Christ’s perfect prayers cover all our pathetic prayers.
Know yourself. If you are inclined to legalism, give yourself the freedom of spontaneity. Test your grip of the Gospel by not praying for certain things some days. If you are disorganized and indisciplined, then use a list, a journal, or an App to bring some structure, focus, and drive to your prayers.
Prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.