Matthew 6.5-14
Does prayer work? Most people can point to places in their life where they've felt like prayer doesn't work - things we've asked for, prayed diligently about, and pleaded with God to do have not happened. What do we make of that? In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus urges us to make our needs known (give us this day!), but also shows us where personal requests fit in the larger work of prayer. We're not making requests of a genie in a bottle but of our good and trustworthy Father, and expressing our needs comes after we've aligned ourselves with his kingdom and will. The flow of the prayer is intentional, and as we learn to follow it we'll see that indeed prayer always works!
January 19, 2020 - Steve Hart