On March 5th, at 6:30 PM, we will begin a six week study on the key phrases of The Lord’s Prayer. Our resource book will be Lord, Teach Us to Pray. This study will serve as our Lenten study. In particular, the resource will help us to capture the essence of spirituality that exists in The Lord’s Prayer. We will spend time studying important ideas about prayer such as: How to come close to a holy God; What is the Kingdom and the Kingdom to come; How we can glorify God in our daily life; What place does self - sufficiency have in the Christian life; What does the reality of forgiveness say about our treatment of others; and, how to respond to the enormity of evil in the world.

     All of these issues are practical, real issues that we face or have to consider regularly. I think it will be interesting to talk about these issues using as a backdrop the curtain of prayer, and, in particular, the one prayer that Jesus taught to those who were following him. Looking over the topics of discussion, we might find ourselves challenged to consider how it is we pray. Often, we are guilty of praying for what we want or praying for a desired outcome. Jesus’ prayer, properly understood moves far deeper into conversation with God than wants and desires. Jesus teaches those who would follow him to pray for what God will unfold and to be faithful and trusting to go where God leads and act toward others as God has acted toward creation.

     If we are able to adopt that attitude of praying, then our relationship with God will be deeper and our treatment of others will reflect the holy relationship that God is growing. In other words, we will experience a depth and breadth of spirituality that makes us accessible to God rather than fixated on self. It’s not an easy task to pray like that. As a matter of fact, it’s quite difficult to develop that discipline.

     But, lent is a good time to think about our prayer life and the discipline of spirituality. As we journey, not only through our study of The Lord’s Prayer, but as we journey the six weeks of lent we will find ourselves amazed by God’s deep desire to remain in covenant with us. Jesus experienced the highs and lows that God’s deep desire sometimes bring. During both, Jesus was a model of prayer. The highest model begins like this, “ Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. ” Come and find out what others think, come and share what you think as we spend time drawing near to the Holy God who saves us, calls us, redeems us, and claims us as God’s own. From there, everything else will unfold, and  maybe, just maybe, we will glimpse the face and the voice of God in a new way. The chance of that happening makes the journey worth everything it requires of us.