Slideshow image

Good Morning Meadowbrooke,

Jesus prayed all the time during His earthly ministry.  Every opportunity He had to get alone to pray, He took it.  For Jesus, prayer was fundamental to the success of his mission.  After one such time when Jesus had finished praying, He was approached by one of His disciples and asked if He could give them all a lesson on how to pray.  So, Jesus gave them an example on how to pray, not a mantra to repeat over and over again, but a model to be followed: “Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation” (Luke 11:2-4).

 

Within His prayer, Jesus provides us with six reasons why we pray.  During the month of May, I will share two of the six reasons why we pray in my weekly e-Letter leading up to the Praying Life study course that will be offered in our Connection building every Sunday morning during the first service beginning June 8th.  Each of those Sundays, you will be able to participate in the A Praying Life study as well as attend the second service at Meadowbrooke.  

 

Offering a class like A Praying Life during one of our worship services is something new we will be trying with the hope that we can offer more courses like this in the future.  More importantly, the Elders, staff, and I are convinced that God is calling us to become more serious about developing a culture of prayer at Meadowbrooke.  Each of us have already read (and re-read) the book, A Praying Life, by Paul Miller; this book has had a profound impact me personally as it has deeply affected the staff and elders.  It is my prayer and hope that you will seriously consider signing up for this class.  

 

In closing, consider Jesus’ prayer life and why it was so important to Him:

“And in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and prayed there for a time.” (Mark 1:35)

 

“Now it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer with God.” (Luke 6:12) 

 

“After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone.” (Matthew 14:23) 
In Hebrews 5:7, we are given a glimpse into the prayer life of our Lord: “In the days of His humanity, He offered up both prayers and pleas with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His devout behavior.”  So, why should we pray?  I will explain each of the following six reasons given to us in our Lord’s prayer in the weeks to come, but for now, here is the list we are given:
  1.  We pray because God is our Heavenly Father.
  2.  We pray because God is God.
  3.  We pray because God’s kingdom is coming.
  4.  We pray because it is God who provides for our needs.
  5.  We pray because of our failures and God’s faithfulness. 
  6.  We pray because Jesus is our great and glorious advocate. 
I look forward to seeing you this Sunday as we jump back into Psalm 23 as we will consider what it means for our Lord to prepare a table before His sheep in the presence of their enemies.  

 

Grace,

Pastor Keith