Prayer is speaking to the Lord God!
Christians sometimes take prayer so much for granted that we forget those who don't know how to pray, who don't really know this God that we know, and who so desperately need and appreciate spiritual leadership in times of crisis and stress.
Leading others in prayer can be a dry exercise in formal holiness, or it can be a doorway into the presence of God. This sort of prayer does better without "thee's" and "thou's" .
Christians sometimes take prayer so much for granted that we forget those who don't know how to pray, who don't really know this God that we know, and who so desperately need and appreciate spiritual leadership in times of crisis and stress.
Leading others in prayer can be a dry exercise in formal holiness, or it can be a doorway into the presence of God. This sort of prayer does better without "thee's" and "thou's" .
Informal is the key!
It's better prayed informally with "Our Father" or "Dear Lord" rather than to some distant Deity. Much better are honest expressions of our feelings and needs expressed from the heart than the carefully crafted petitions from a prayer book.
People really need to know they can talk to God themselves.
While we can't substitute our faith for someone else's, we can lift them up through our prayers so they can see God as we see Him, so that in our prayer they can talk to Him as we have learned to talk to Him.
The experience of seeing God from our eye-level can be transforming.
We need to learn to lead in prayer. How many Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are bereft of their special significance for lack of a Christian who offers to lead out in a holiday prayer?
Prayer lifts our hearts and minds to God!
One person leading the family can lift hearts and minds to God. Without prayer leadership, family members are left to fend for themselves spiritually on these special days. Sadly, they seldom know how to turn to God, though their emptiness has often created a spiritual hunger which responds warmly to an opportunity for intimacy with God.
You don't have to be a pastor to lead in prayer. If you aren't, so much the better, since your prayer will be that much more real and unexpected. You don't have to be eloquent. The simpler the better, since the people with whom you are praying need to be able to place themselves within your prayer.
Keep it simple!
The more complex your prayer, the more they feel they could never come to God like that. Your family at home, too, needs someone to model prayer for them day by day, to learn how to lift their concerns before the throne of God.
While we shouldn't be pushy, we need to be lovingly bold like our Master. Respectful, sensitive, but unwilling to be intimidated by the profanity and lack of faith which surround us. We need to be willing to lead. Leading others in prayer is a way of taking their hand —
if only for just a moment — and placing it into the hand of God. Who knows?
They may like the feel of that strong hand, and reach for it again themselves some day soon.
It's better prayed informally with "Our Father" or "Dear Lord" rather than to some distant Deity. Much better are honest expressions of our feelings and needs expressed from the heart than the carefully crafted petitions from a prayer book.
People really need to know they can talk to God themselves.
While we can't substitute our faith for someone else's, we can lift them up through our prayers so they can see God as we see Him, so that in our prayer they can talk to Him as we have learned to talk to Him.
The experience of seeing God from our eye-level can be transforming.
We need to learn to lead in prayer. How many Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are bereft of their special significance for lack of a Christian who offers to lead out in a holiday prayer?
Prayer lifts our hearts and minds to God!
One person leading the family can lift hearts and minds to God. Without prayer leadership, family members are left to fend for themselves spiritually on these special days. Sadly, they seldom know how to turn to God, though their emptiness has often created a spiritual hunger which responds warmly to an opportunity for intimacy with God.
You don't have to be a pastor to lead in prayer. If you aren't, so much the better, since your prayer will be that much more real and unexpected. You don't have to be eloquent. The simpler the better, since the people with whom you are praying need to be able to place themselves within your prayer.
Keep it simple!
The more complex your prayer, the more they feel they could never come to God like that. Your family at home, too, needs someone to model prayer for them day by day, to learn how to lift their concerns before the throne of God.
While we shouldn't be pushy, we need to be lovingly bold like our Master. Respectful, sensitive, but unwilling to be intimidated by the profanity and lack of faith which surround us. We need to be willing to lead. Leading others in prayer is a way of taking their hand —
if only for just a moment — and placing it into the hand of God. Who knows?
They may like the feel of that strong hand, and reach for it again themselves some day soon.
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