Listen to Charity Gayle and Joshua Sherman sing, “Amen. Amen.”
Have you ever been to a prayer meeting where one or two people dominated the prayer time with long prayers that seemed to be never-ending? We used to call them, “round the world” prayers. One writer who had endured such an event once commented, “After about ten minutes we were all thinking, ‘Will somebody please say, Amen, for that person'”?
Jesus invites and loves for us to pray, both privately and corporately. But he also set some practical boundaries to our prayers that were being ignored by the “religious” of His time with this admonition:
“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” – Matthew 6:7-8 NLT
Then Jesus gave them an example of how to pray, just in case the Pharisees in his Sermon on the Mount audience didn’t get it at the first passing. The result was the most famous prayer of all time that has been repeated by millions of people in all walks of life, in all kinds of events and circumstances. We know it as, “The Lord’s Prayer” or if you happen to be Catholic, “The Our Father.”
Depending on the translation you may use, it contains no more than 65 words and takes less than 45 seconds to repeat, even for the most pious! Now that was a tough criteria for those to follow who were used to praying publicly and in their synagogues, “where everyone can see them” (Matthew 6:5).
The Lord’s Prayer makes just seven simple petitions, three for the glory of God and four in behalf of His children (Matthew 6:9-13 NLT):
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May your name be kept holy (vs. 9).
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May your Kingdom come soon (vs. 10).
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May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (vs. 10).
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Give us today the food we need (vs. 11).
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Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us (vs. 12).
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Don’t let us yield to temptation (vs. 13).
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Rescue us from the evil one (vs. 13).
Now how’s that as a model for your next prayer meeting? Can I get an “Amen”? Maranatha!
