Great prayers of the Bible

This weekend at Crossroads we'll be looking at the greatest prayer in the Bible--the model prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples. We have much to learn from it. The good news is there are hundreds of prayers to learn from in the Bible. I've listed several actual prayers below. Each gives an example of someone talking to God about a particular issue...and each teaches us something unique about prayer:

Genesis 18: Abraham's plea for Sodom
Exodus 15: Moses' song of praise to God
Exodus 33: Moses meets with God
2 Samuel 7: David's response to God's promises
2 Chronicles 20: Jehoshaphat prays for victory
Ezra 9: Ezra's prayer for the people's sins
Psalm 22: A cry to God for help
Psalm 51: David's prayer of confession after committing adultery
Daniel 9: Daniel's prayer for the salvation of Jerusalem
Habakkuk 3: A prophet's prayer of acceptance
John 17: Jsus's prayer for unity among his followers
Colossians 1: Paul's prayer of thanksgiving

Happy reading! Remember, though, the best prayer you can pray is your own. Be real. Keep it simple. Keep it short (Jesus' model prayer is only 57 words in the original Greek).

Take a holiday...pray!

I stumbled on a great quote I'm going to use this weekend on prayer. Simon Tugwell writes: (in prayer) "God invites us to take a holiday, to stop being God for awhile, and let him be God...We can stop doing all those important things we have to do in our capacity as God, and leave it to him to be God."

As one who took a holiday (vacation) from Dec. 26-Jan. 4, I can say that holidays are good things. We got away for nearly 2 weeks and did NOTHING! We had no TV, no phones, no computers, and no worries. I had no sermons to write...no emails to return...no "water issues" or other issues to solve...no staff to manage...no meetings to attend.

Tugwell's point is that prayer is like a holiday. It's me stopping long enough to remind myself that I'm not God. The weight of the world is not on my shoulders. Prayer is me turning over to God the things that I cannot handle or change.

I invite you to join me right now and take a holiday...pray!