Winning Ways: Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Kristin Harley works in a Minneapolis music store, so she frequently has to field strange requests from the confused parents and grandparents of young music students.

The strangest--and most frequent--question?

"Who wrote the lyrics to The Lord's Prayer?"

Um, that would be the Lord.

Before it was a song, it was a lesson. In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus taught us those familiar words. Most of us still recite it from the old King James Version:

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

Note four things about the prayer model Jesus gave us:

He taught us how to address God: He is our heavenly Father.

He taught us how to begin our prayers with concerns for God’s glory: It is “thy name,” “thy kingdom,” and “thy will” we ask God to glorify.

He taught us how to continue our prayers with concerns for our needs: We plead "give us," "forgive us," and "lead us."

We’re taught how to end our prayers: In the traditional ending to the prayer we dedicate our lives to God’s kingdom, in God’s power, and for God’s glory forever.

We're in a four-week series on prayer at Hillcrest. You can catch up with the series at www.HillcrestAustin.org. Just go to the “Resources” menu and click on “Sermons.” This Sunday we'll look carefully at the instructions Jesus left us for our prayer life.

Connection Countdown

Mark your calendar for Sunday, October 2. Jon Randles will be our guest speaker and the Chris Clayton Band will lead worship. The morning session will take place during the 10am worship service and the evening session will take place at 6:30pm. This special day will start our countdown toward Connection Sunday (October 16). You’ll learn more about “Connection Countdown” in the next few weeks. For now, make plans to be at Hillcrest morning and evening on October 2!