May 2, 2022 - Good Morning! It's Monday, May 2.
This Thursday at noon there will be a National Day of Prayer event in front of our historic courthouse - in the "center of Center". I'm coordinating this half-hour event that will include the singing of the National Anthem, and prayers for our country, our schools, our churches, our military, our first responders, etc. If we have at least 100 people attend, we'll end the half hour with a human prayer chain around the courthouse, singing "Amazing Grace"! I invite all of our faithful daily devotion readers to come down and join us, as we come together to pray this Thursday at noon. Today we'll begin a brief series on prayer in preparation for the National Day of Prayer.
When it comes to the subject of prayer in the Bible - what's the first thing you think of? I imagine it's the passage that we call "The Lord's Prayer". We find two versions of it - a longer one in Matthew and a shorter one in Luke. Some people call this prayer "The Our Father". I like to call it "The Model Prayer" because it's not a record of Jesus praying, it's a record of Him teaching His disciples, and us, how to pray. I think that the real "Lord's Prayer" is found in John chapter 17. Jesus has completed the teaching lesson that He shared with the disciples in the Upper Room, and then, just before they go out to the Garden of Gethsemane where He will be arrested . . . Jesus prays.
It is a prayer that it is remarkable because of its very personal language, its intimate connection with God. In verse 10 Jesus prays, "All I have is yours, Father, and all You have is mine". And it is remarkable because, even though Jesus is about to face an unimaginable test, His prayer is almost completely directed outward. He's not praying for Himself, He's praying for His disciples, He's praying for me and you.
"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as we are one. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent me and have loved them, even as You have loved me."
A selfless prayer. A prayer for others. A model prayer.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
