Prayer Revolution: A 14-Day DevotionalExemplo

When we are left to ourselves, the gravity of our fallen nature draws us into self; like the wood shaving of a carpenter’s plane, life tightly curls into a little circle. In contrast, Jesus’ prayer sends our hearts upward and expands them outward. No matter which part of the Lord’s Prayer I focus on, I recognize the need to empty myself of selfishness and to ask to be filled with His greater life and Spirit.

As our prayers constrict, they tend to be sparse on praise and focused on limited requests. For example, at various Bible studies and meetings, invariably the time comes for prayer requests. Most requests start with a narrative of someone’s health crisis and the request is for physical healing. Yet, we seldom begin our prayers with extended times of meaningful worship. We become problem-centered, neglecting to focus on the joy of prayer, which suffocates its effective prayer. 

Without guidance and good teaching, our prayers seldom escape the gravity of our small world, even though we have many other important things we should be praying for. That is not to imply that we should not bring our troubles before the Lord. However, we should also take the time to pray for events beyond the confines of our day-to-day lives. 

We have no better way to make a joyous and fruitful disciple than to teach them the deep meaning and practical use of the Lord’s Prayer. The issue is critical. When God is growing His church and bringing salvation to the world, He always raises up strong men and women of prayer. If we hope to raise up a new generation of harvest workers, we need to set before them the life-changing mandates of kingdom prayer. Advancing the kingdom begins when we make disciples through prayer. As we multiply leaders, prayer and prayer meetings will take expression in the church, the home, the public sector, places of education, and the government.

For example, in recent years, I, along with my church and our prayer ministry, have served a larger faith-based public-housing organization in Vancouver called More Than a Roof. In ten housing projects, this ministry serves new immigrants, single parents, people in drug and alcohol recovery, and those struggling with mental illness. The staff and volunteer team are careful about sharing their faith—they do only if they are asked—but they are free to pray for one another and for their tenants. They asked our prayer team to help them overcome discouragement about unanswered prayers. Their earnest petitions for significant needs were not always answered, and some were becoming discouraged. The director asked us to address the issue of answers to prayer.

We asked the participants to consider a few simple questions:

1.  What are you asking God for? We understand that the answer we get will depend on the requests we make.

2.  What will answers look like if you pray the requests of the Lord’s Prayer?

As we helped these leaders discuss and pray through the Lord’s Prayer, a whole new world opened. Moving beyond the crises of health, finances, mental illness, and addiction, they were learning to put God first, to aim vertically, to rest in His love, to worship Him in holy joy, and to seek His kingdom and will. Deepening in our joy of God’s presence and rejoicing in His work was the answer of all answers. When we ask for God first, our prayer is always answered. He delights to give us Himself in the gift of the Holy Spirit (see Luke 11:13).

Continuing the sequence of the Lord’s Prayer, we moved from vertical prayers to praying for one another. This led to practical requests for daily bread, reconciliation, forgiveness in their community, bold prayers for justice, and requests for deliverance from evil. This expanded the horizons of their requests to kingdom proportions. Discouragement about unanswered prayer was simply being expelled by this new focus.

When a prayer group discovers the immensity and majesty of God’s kingdom purposes, we find that people begin to raise the roof in earnest, united prayer. Once you change your perspective, prayer transforms from a chore (“I have to pray”) into a blessing (“I get to pray”).