PC |Day One: Lord, Teach Us to Pray
Day One of the 5-Day Prayer Challenge
Welcome to Day One!
Are you ready to begin with the challenge?
The goal of this challenge is to help you to see that praying can, and should, come easily to you.
If you’re in a hurry -
click here to jump to today’s challenge
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Each day will have a different action lesson to complete. How long they take will be up to you. However, they are designed to take no more than 15-20 minutes. If you feel compelled to spend more time, you certainly will not be harmed by doing so. Enjoy! ☺
Acts 17 contains one of my favorite passages in scripture. Paul is at the Areopagus in Athens. He sees “the city full of idols”. One altar in particular stands out to him – the altar “To an Unknown God”. Paul proceeds to tell Athens about this God they do not know. In the powerful sermon, he declares the glory and authority of the One God. Yet, he also expresses how loving and near this One God is.
Acts 17:26-28 reads, “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”
In this challenge – THIS is the God we are going to pray to. HE is the God who is waiting for us to reach out. Notice how the verse says that we grope “though He is not far from each one of us”? We have to reach, stretch, grab, hold on tight – because WE think He is far away. We are the ones standing afar off. God is RIGHT THERE.
This God who is waiting to hear from us, He gave us a great gift! Prayer! Not only has He told us to talk to Him – but His Son TAUGHT exactly how to begin!
So, THIS, is where we will begin, at the beginning.
In Matthew 6:7-15 and Luke 11:1-4 Jesus’ disciples asked Him the same question that is being asked today – “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus gives a basic example for the disciples.
Remember back in elementary school when you learned how to write a letter? You are going to get a refresher course right now! Because the prayer that Jesus laid out for the disciples is in the same form as writing a letter.
Think about it – formal correspondence takes time, energy, and focus. Writing a letter vs sending a text – there is a time and place for both, but the letter will be something we will likely hold on to for years. It means something to us that someone put that effort into sharing their thoughts with us. Shouldn’t we approach God with the same time, energy, and focus?
I have included a handy graphic that compares these two texts side by side. (You can also find it at the end of this lesson with the other downloads.) Print it out and put it where it can remind you of what to include in your prayers.
Quite simply, Jesus told the disciples to:
GREET the Father with reverence and recognition of His holiness
Then begin by recognizing that the Father is a keeper of His promises, and the most important of all is that of His kingdom, the church. The disciples in Jesus’ time were still looking forward to that fulfillment. We are on the other side of that coin for this promise was fulfilled in Acts 2:36-42 when the church was established and God began adding those who believed and were baptized to it.
Don’t forget to recognize God’s authority over you!
Now ask that your physical needs be met.
Acknowledge that you have spiritual needs that only He can fill AND recognize that the relationship we have with Him is reflected in our relationships with other people.
Ask for His protection – focusing on the spiritual. Also give thanks for protection already given.
Finally, end by offering praise that again recognizes His ownership of you and authority over you.
Close with “Amen”.
Amen means “in agreement”. When we say “AMEN” we SHOULD be indicating that we mean and believe every word we have said. Saying “AMEN” isn’t just an ending like “The End”. It signifies our sincerity and the intention we brought to the “conversation”. It’s not just talking to talk. It’s speaking because we have something to say. (According to Ephesians 5:20 you could also include “in Jesus name” as part of your closing.)
That’s it! See how simple that is?
Your challenge for today is to write a prayer that has the same elements as that of the one Jesus gave to His disciples when they asked for guidance.
As we will see over the next few days – not every prayer may have every one of these things. Prayers of praise don’t have requests in them. Prayers of supplication on behalf of someone else may not spend a lot of time in praise and thanksgiving. You certainly will never go wrong though if every prayer you have has these things. How could you? It’s the Jesus approved method after all!
I have included a Basic Prayer Worksheet and an Outline Prayer Form for you with this lesson. Your challenge is to use one of the forms to write a prayer.
It doesn’t have to be lengthy, Jesus’ example was not. It doesn’t have to say exactly what was in Jesus’ example either. Just write in the same format. Have a greeting, the body of the letter, and end with a complimentary close (yes, I took that from a rubric for writing “friendly” letters for school age kids). Since you are physically writing it down, it wouldn’t hurt to include the “heading” which would indicate the date and where you are at the time of writing. If you keep these kinds of things, it might be nice to look back and see what you wrote when you were in this city on that date. It will remind you of what was going on in that time of your life. It may also remind you of how God answered your prayer when you look back at what you have written.
A couple of hints for success during the challenge –
1. Schedule time for prayer. This helps to develop habits and shows your intention.
2. Do not allow anxiety to stop you. Pray about it! Anxiety fits into both physical and spiritual needs!
3. Do not overthink it. Yes, we are to focus our attention on this challenge. But the focus is on God, Who He is, and What He has done for us. Focusing on those things should open up things to express to Him in response to that knowledge. If not, put Jesus’ example into your own words.
I will see you tomorrow!
Enjoy!
PS – Please share your thoughts and ask questions in the comments below. Let’s start a conversation about prayer and encourage each other.
Here are all the downloads for today’s lesson:
You can choose which ones you want to use and which you don’t. You can always write out the challenge on plain old paper or in a cool writing tablet like a reMarkable (my most favorite writing tool). Your study, your way.
PDF of Day One Lesson and Challenge
Diagram of a Prayer from Matthew and Luke
Bonus - Matthew 6:6-13 Bookmark