Lord, Teach Us to Pray

• Who can find a virtuous woman? her price is far above rubies
• She openeth her mouth with wisdom...

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray...(Luke 11:1a, KJV)

The first time I ever received any teaching about prayer was when I was eleven years old. I had gotten saved during a revival at the church where I attended Sunday School, and the pastor held a little class for all of us that had gotten saved during the revival. I think I was the only young person among several adults, including my mother. I don't remember a whole lot about what he told us, except that we should pray every day, starting with 15 minutes a day and gradually increasing the time.

The Prayer (or Praise) Sandwich

The next teaching that I remember was in Sunday School, where we learned to build a praise sandwich. We were studying the version of what's commonly known as the Lord's prayer from Matthew 6:9-13. The teacher brought a sandwich to class with meat, cheese, lettuce and tomato on toasted bread, cut in half and held together with toothpicks so that we could see the layers, and we were taught that to build a well-rounded prayer-life we should try to include the different types of things that Jesus illustrated when he told the disciples "pray like this" (my paraphrase!)

• Bread--Praise--"hallowed be thy name"
• Meat--Intercession for the needs of others and the world--"thy kingdom come, thy will be done"
• Cheese--Petition--our needs--"give us this day our daily bread"
• Lettuce--Repentance--"forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"
• Tomato--Guidance--"and lead us not into temptation"
• Bread--Praise--"for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory"

I used the praise sandwich off and on for years, not necessarily every single time I prayed, but often enough that I used it to check myself to be sure that I wasn't falling into a pattern of just using prayer as a gripe session or "shopping list" of needs.

ACTS

Later I came across a slightly simpler technique, using the ACTS acronym as a reminder:

• A-Adoration (praises to the Lord)
• C-Confession (confessing and repenting of our sins)
• T-Thanksgiving (giving thanks for the Lord's blessings)
• S-Supplication (praying for the needs of ourselves and others)

This is another one that I've used off and on--again, just a tool to help maintain balance.

PART

Another acronym you can use is PART--as in, God is sovereign and will do His part, but I need to do my PART:

• P-Praise
• A-Admit (repentance)
• R-Request
• T-Thanks

Five Finger Prayer

This is one I've read about but never used myself, there are a couple of different versions of it, but the basics are to use your hand as a reminder:

• Your thumb is closest to you, so start by praying for those close to you--family and friends.
• Next is the index or pointer finger. Pray for those who teach—whether at home, school, church or other places
• Next up is your tallest finger. Pray for those in authority over you--government officials, supervisor at work, etc.
• The fourth finger is usually the weakest. Pray for the weak among us--the poor, the suffering, the troubled
• And last is the pinkie, the smallest of the fingers. Use it as a reminder of our smallness relations to God's greatness and glory and spend time praying for our own needs and giving the Lord praise.

This is not deep theological stuff, and isn't meant to be an all-inclusive list of prayer methods and techniques--but they are simple tools that you can use as you pray to kelp keep your prayer time balanced and God- and other-centered, rather that self-centered.

What tools and techniques do you use when you pray?

Until next time...