The Lord’s Prayer is often called the model prayer. If you find it difficult to know how to pray, you are not
alone as Jesus gave The Lord's Prayer in response to the disciples asking Him, "Lord, teach us to pray. Jesus
also taught His disciples how not to pray! He warned against praying with long, empty prayers filled with
eloquent language in the hopes of impressing people, rather than speaking directly to God from the heart.
Through Jesus, God invites us to boldly approach Him through prayer, stripped of any pretense or
performance. He has given us a perfect model to follow. As we build a life of prayer, our conversation with
God will flow from the heart, and there is no better place to start (or even to continue) than with Jesus' own
words.
The Lord's Prayer
Part 3 >>
January 24, 2021 • Chan Mitchell
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Without Ceasing
A Bold Prayer
March 21, 2021 • Chan Mitchell
The normal human response when caught doing something wrong is to run away and hide. We see it clearly in Adam and Eve who tried to hide from God in the Garden of Eden after taking a bite from the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3). But God sees all things and knows all things. We cannot pretend we are something we are not. He knows us inside and out. Nothing is hidden from His sight. Instead of creating fear, this truth should liberate us to share a remarkable degree of intimacy with the Lord. Therefore, we must be willing to overcome our natural inclination to cover up sin. If our desire is to follow Jesus wherever He leads us, and to become more like Him every day, then the only way to be transformed is by inviting Him in to search our hearts, reveal our fears, uncover our sin, and lead us to everlasting life.
Praying In Secret
March 14, 2021 • Chan Mitchell
We are busy people who live in a noisy world and often manage hectic schedules. It is extremely difficult to find quality time to spend with our friends and family, much less quiet and private time to spend with our Heavenly Father. However, in condemning the Pharisees for their outward appearances of righteousness, Jesus taught that we are to go to a “place of privacy” to be alone with God in prayer. Praying only for the purpose of receiving outward praise and recognition leads to rewards that are earthly, temporary and meaningless. The Gospels indicate that Jesus often retreated to lonely places to pray to His Heavenly Father. The promise for praying in secret is that our Heavenly Father will see us in secret and give us rewards that are eternal, spiritual and transforming to our soul.
Praying Together
March 7, 2021 • Chan Mitchell
There is something powerful about a group of people coming together for a common cause. It’s true for sports teams that win together, for military troops who fight together, and for the Body of Christ who prays together. There is both a strong biblical history and church history that establishes the priority of the Body of Christ coming together in unified prayer for the sole purpose of seeing God's glory and power go on display. Even a casual glance through the book of Acts reveals that the early church was serious about praying together. They prayed together in the temple and in their homes, when they were sick and when they were filled with the Spirit, at mealtimes and in times of persecution. Throughout modern history we can find numerous examples of Christians devoting themselves to praying together. And today as the Church shines the light of Christ in the places where it is planted, it must not neglect the most important work of corporate prayer.