Prayer is the most important yet least used gift a Christian has available.
Jesus’ disciples, recognizing this and noticing that his power came in direct proportion to his life of prayer, asked him one day, “Lord, teach us to pray?” (Luke 11:1) In Matthew’s gospel chapter 6, Jesus begins by first telling them what not to do,
5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. Matthew 6:5
5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. Matthew 6:5
Some people, especially the religious leaders, wanted to be seen as "holy," and public prayer was one way to get attention. Jesus saw through their self-righteous acts, however, and taught that the essence of prayer is not public style but private communication with God. There is a place for public prayer, but heartfelt personal prayer is not to be heard by others but by an audience of One.
Beginning this Sunday at Celebration Community Church Hays we are beginning a four week series simply called “Pray. There are four components to this church wide initiative:
1) A Sunday morning message delivered by one of our teaching pastors on how to develop a personal and productive prayer life.
2) Dig deeper questions you can use to discuss with your family or small group.
3) The daily devotion you are reading now on how to pray using the Lord’s Prayer as model.
4) A church wide 24 for 24 campaign to enlist our congregation to pray in our Prayer Room behind C3’s Worship Center 24 hours a day for 24 straight days (September 10th through October 3rd Sign up for an hour each week in the Lobby of C3)
Your pastor and partner in ministry…AND prayer
Kyle
Go see WAR ROOM at the Mall Cinema in Hays
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