The Prayer Hack

Praying is easy. It's literally just talking to God. Sometimes we set fancy nursery rhymes and poems around them. Sometimes we hand it off to that guy who seems to beautifully word it every time. But praying is easy. Sometimes I'm asked to lead a prayer, often times I start the group on our family dinner prayer. But when I pray alone, my prayers are not sonnets. It's more God bless this person, and oh yeah, help so and so through this ordeal they're dealing with and um, thank you for my job and the continued blessings it comes with. Thankfully I have the Holy Spirit who intercedes on my behalf and puts them in a much more presentable package to my Heavenly Father and gives Him the true yearnings of my heart. But when we want to pray among others it can be intimidating especially it on the fly.

But our society loves life hacks, and prayer has one too, and it goes back to the Bible. Jesus commands us to pray the Lord's Prayer. In Matthew 6, Jesus 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.' 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.”

I don't think anyone would judge you for outright citing the Lord's Prayer, but it probably wasn't what they had in mind when they asked you to give a prayer for whatever situation. So what we do is we dissect the prayer and format it to the situation it applies. So let's construct a prayer together and you can see how easy it is. Let's pray for a sick person named Jack. "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy name." This part is easy, "Heavenly Father,"

"Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it in Heaven." Here's where things can become tricky because these next few parts can become interchangeable and sometimes will sound better that way. In fact this line often sounds best at the end of the prayer. So we would use this line in this way, "And if it is Your Will, please restore Jack back to health and lead him to remember that you are in control of all things."

"And give us today our daily bread." During a dinner prayer this may be an appropriate place to thank God for His continued gift of food on the table and especially this meal. But God gives us many different blessings, in the case of Jack we'd say something like, "And thank you for your gift of medicine and bless the doctors’ skills as they look over Jack."

"And forgive us our trespasses and we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation." This is a good spot to actually diverge a little and focus on Jesus, and we should, remember, that while God works for us for our good in all things so that we may go home to be with Him, He is still our God and we love and respect Him. It's a good place for thanksgiving and all prayers should include this. We would say, "Thank you Lord, for the gift of your Son, who you sent to be with us, to live perfectly and die for our sins, so that we may have eternal righteousness."

"For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, Amen." Simply, stated, "Amen."

So let's look at our prayer now,

"Heavenly Father, we come to you on behalf of Jack, who will be undergoing treatment for his disease.

Thank you Lord, for the gift of your Son, who you sent to be with us, to live perfectly and die for our sins, so that we may have eternal righteousness.

And thank You for Your gift of medicine and bless the doctors’ skills as they look over Jack.

And if it is Your Will, please restore Jack back to health and lead him to remember that You are in control of all things.

Amen."

There you have it, a nicely worded prayer, that conveys everything that you’re in need of prayer for that looks to Jesus for inspiration. We thank Jesus for His gift of prayer that allows us to come directly to the Father in all things. Amen.