The Lord's Prayer

Every Thursday, a friend and I lead the high school girls small group. Last night, I decided to talk about prayer and really dig into the components of the Lord's prayer. Too often in my own prayer life, I find myself complaining or asking for things. I forget that there can be so much more to my prayer life. I forget that my prayer life is what sustains my personal relationship with Christ! Matthew 6:9-15 says,

9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.^[a]' 14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

The first thing I addressed was the fact that the Lord gave this to us as a template or model of what our prayer life should look like. This was not meant to be a restrictive prayer. Even Paul, later in Luke 11, quoted this prayer but not word for word.

I gave the girls an acronym that basically follows the Lord's prayer. This is something I use often in my own prayer life; it keeps me focused on what is important. ACTS.

• Adoration - Praising God for who He is
  
• Confession - Confessing our sins and asking for forgiveness
  
• Thanksgiving - Thanking God for everything in all circumstances
  
• Supplication - Praying for others and yourself

Last night, we dissected each part of this acronym and why they are each very important. In the next four posts, I am going to dissect them with you. Prayer is a huge passion of mine. One of the girls in my youth group laughs because any time she comes to me with a problem, I always ask, "Do you want me to pray with you?" In this lesson with the girls, I have learned alot about prayer and I cannot wait to share it with you!