How to Pray the Lord's Prayer: And Really Mean It!

By Lauralee Holsing

How to Pray the Lords Prayer . . . and Really Mean It!
This book is intended to give instruction on how to use the
Lords Prayer as a framework, a system of sorts, for a daily quiet
time. As such, it is both a devotional guide and a book for
personal growth. Each of the short chapters examines a phrase
of the Lords Prayer, gives anecdotes, and offers scriptures that
will ignite a conversation with the Lord. The book is not
excessively doctrinal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781493111282

Lauralee Holsing

LAURALEE HOLSING is the Director of Education at Parkview Evangelical Free Church in Rapid City, South Dakota. Her passion for teaching and applying Gods Word is apparent whether shes leading 4 year olds Sunday School, elementary Super Church, midweek AWANA, an adult Bible Study or a prayer group. Ms. Holsing has held seminars for womens groups and has been involved in Christian Education for all of her adult life. Lauralee lives in the beautiful Blacks Hills of South Dakota. She has three grown children and 3 grandkids living in the United States and Canada. This is her fi rst book.

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Copyright © 2013 by Lauralee Holsing.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 10/17/2013

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Contents

Foreword

Introduction   How Not To Pray

Chapter One   My Father In Heaven

Chapter Two   Hallowed Be Your Name

Chapter Three   Your Kingdom Come

Chapter Four   Your Will Be Done

Chapter Five   Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Chapter Six   Forgive Us Our Debts As We Forgive Our Debtors

Chapter Seven   Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Chapter Eight   Deliver Us From Evil

Chapter Nine   For Thine Is The Kingdom And The Power And The Glory Forever

Chapter Ten   Making My Requests

Endnotes

Appendix A   How Can I Find Acceptance With God?

Appendix B   God’s Pattern For Prayer

FOREWORD

S ome years ago, I stumbled upon the notion of using the Lord’s Prayer as my daily devotional guide. The thought occurred to me that the phrases of this prayer could be useful as a framework to direct my thoughts and keep me focused on the areas that Christ considered important enough to outline for us.

I have always been a person of structure and design, but within a structure, I want variety, lots of variety! This Lord’s Prayer system seemed to work for me because of my need to be methodical while exploring the inexhaustible truths of God’s Word. The structure is simple, basically, and requires only a Bible, a good concordance, and a notebook for journaling.

Each morning as I meet with the Lord, I use His pattern for prayer to frame our time together. So even though the procedure itself is predictable, variety abounds since the scriptures He directs me to are different each day.

It works like this. Each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer serves as a talking point between God and me. I allow Him speak to me through His Word, then I respond.

• The phrase Our Father who art in heaven reminds me to pause and ponder whose I am.

• Hallowed be thy name is a stopping point to honor God by considering his vast holiness and divine character.

• Thy kingdom come prompts me to contemplate the reign of God and of Christ Jesus on this earth and in my life.

• Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven causes me to evaluate how I am living out God’s will for my own life.

• Give us this day our daily bread permits me to enumerate the needs of today.

• Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors provides a time for confession and repentance.

• Lead us not into temptation presents an opportunity to assess my areas of weakness so that I may rely more fully upon God’s strength.

• Deliver us from evil is a stark reminder that there is an enemy and this is war.

• For Thine is the power and the glory forever and ever serves as a doxology and a time for lifting up my voice in praise to God.

Only after contemplating each of these phrases and talking with my Father do I present my requests to Him.

In the chapters of this book, I mull over each of the phrases found in the Lord’s Prayer and offer scriptures that may help to jump-start your conversation with the Lord. I share my understanding of some of the principles of the Word, which the Holy Spirit is teaching me. A good Bible concordance or chain-reference Bible will assist you in expanding on what I have begun. Use the tools to answer the questions that are sure to arise during your devotional time. You will no doubt find, as I have, that one verse will lead to another and another and another. Your devotional time will become a continual prayer that is indeed a two-way conversation between you and God.

This method has been shared with women’s groups in a seminar format and with my energetic middle-school Sunday-school class. Some of the comments and discoveries of these eager youth have been woven into the pages of this book. I am grateful to my students for their contributions to this project. Students of all ages, males and females, new and seasoned Christians can benefit from using the method of study outlined here.

Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle in Brooklyn, New York, writes, Christians who spend time with God in prayer are often blessed with spiritual vigor and effectiveness in service. Prayerless believers—and congregations—rarely see lives transformed. It is God’s presence and power that make Christianity vital, and that depends on this New Testament command: ‘Come near to God and he will come near to you’ (James 4:8).¹

My prayer in writing this book is that you will find joy in coming near to God each day and that His Word will become a source of strength and a basis for daily communion with Him. May intimacy with your Lord transform your life.

INTRODUCTION

How Not to Pray

T hough not a bona fide Bible scholar, I am quite certain there is something significant about the choice of the word to instead of a in Luke chapter 11. And though I don’t pretend to know Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic, I have a hunch the difference between teach us " to pray and teach us a prayer is huge. My recollection of English grammar tells me that to pray" is a verb phrase,