I must confess that I do not take time out of my nearly enough to pray. I could sit here and try to make excuses, but that would take entirely too long and nothing could justify it. Anyway, over the past twenty-four hours I have really put a lot of thought into this subject. Through that thought and some television watching, I have found four simple steps that could help me, and hopefully you, take those precious daily moments and make them count.
First thing you need to do is focus on about 13 seconds of a popular reality by the name of Duck Dynasty on A&E. The show is funny, entertaining, touching, often ridiculous and always deeply rooted in the Robertson family's faith in Christ. It's that aforementioned 13 seconds that, to me at least, mean a lot more than the other 29 minutes and 47 seconds. The following are the three steps that I have identified to make daily prayer not only possible, but pretty easy as well!
Step 1: Recognize the greatness of God!
Start with a simple statement of God's greatness and the things that you know to be true. It's often manifested by Phil Robertson through words like, "Heavenly Father, Creator of the Cosmos," "The one who gave us life through His Son, Jesus Christ..."
It really is just that simple. All you have to do is recognize that He is first, that He is number one and that He comes before all else. All you have to do is make it your own, make it sincere and recognize Him and what He has done for you!
"Our Father who art in Heaven, halloweth be thy name..."
Step 2: Ask for the Basics
Usually, in the show, they are praying over their food and asking for God's blessings over it. Pretty simple, right?
All you need to do is ask for the basics that He graciously provides you on a daily basis like the air you breath, the roof over your head, the food on your table, etc. and, if you're sitting there reading and saying, "He doesn't provide that, I do!" then you are fooling yourself! Who do you think provides you with the talent and ability to work at that job to provide for you and your family?
"Give us this day, our daily bread..."
Step 3: Specifically Pray for What You Need
You don't have to be shy about asking for what you need. God is good, always. You may not have your prayer answered when you would like or at all. But, we live on His time and His dime, not our's.
If you need something, or know someone who does, then you just simply ask for it! Got a friend with an illness? Ask for his healing. Your dad has fallen on hard times and is not handling it well? Ask for a little divine intervention on his behalf!
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespassed against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Sensing a pattern here?
Step 4: Wrap It Up With A Nod To God!
Simply restating God's greatness as you did in Step 1 will suffice for your prayer's end! One of the Robertson patriarchs will usually close with a statement like, "In Jesus' name we pray," or "We ask this in Your great name," with a collective "Amen" to fade into a humorous rant by the crazy Uncle Si.
Whatever you feel, is what you should say.
"Fore thine is the Kingdom, the power and glory, forever. Amen."
In conclusion, we all fall incredibly short on a daily basis of being the person or Christian we want to be or feel that we should be. And, that's OK as long as you realize that and you continue to reach and climb toward that goal of being closer to God. That close relationship with you is what he desires most. With a simple start we can begin that ascent to being closer to God. Hey! There's prayer número uno, asking for some prayer insight in order to grow closer to Him.
I must say that I didn't go and pull from any version of the Lord's Prayer, so the verbiage may be a little off or the versions may not match quite right. I was shooting straight from the hip as I watch the kids play by the pool. So, please excuse any errors and be more so impacted by the content!
Thanks for stoping by and God Bless!
- Ray
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