Praying the Lord’s Prayer with a Pause Button
March 20, 2009
Tonight we gather in the sanctuary for a “Concert of Prayer” from 6:30 - 7:30. For some, the words “concert” and “prayer” belong to two different worlds, so to dispel any imaginations of guys playing electric guitars on their knees, I thought I would share what we hope the hour to look like.
First of all, while “concert” can mean a performance, its more basic meaning is the unification or harmony of many different parts, as in, “they worked in concert with one another.” It is a fancy way to say that we are coming together to pray together, and that will take many different forms-speaking our prayers out loud, silent individual prayer, prayer in groups, and prayer led by one person.
The more important feature of this evening’s time is what we are praying. Most of us know the Lord’s prayer by heart and could pray it in 30 seconds or less. Yet this model prayer-Jesus’ primary teaching on how we should pray-is much more than a mantra. It is an entire paradigm of how we approach God, what we ask of him for ourselves and others, and what the point of our prayers is.
So instead of repeating “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” for an hour, we are going to break the Lord’s prayer into six sections and press the pause button after each section. “Our Father in heaven,” PAUSE. Then we will hear scripture texts about God as Father, focus our prayers on this reality, make sure our hearts are in a position of submission and trust toward him for his fatherly care, and enjoy the privilege of calling him Father through song. “Hallowed be your name…” PAUSE.
I hope you will join us this evening as we pray like Jesus taught us, only with a pause button. If God is pleased to meet us during this “Concert of Prayer,” I would venture to say that this will be the highlight of your week.
Praying with you,
Pastor Chris