“Pray Then Like This…” By Katie Hill
“I couldn’t have said it better myself!” Sometimes we think about prayer like that, particularly
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when we hear someone pray aloud and marvel at how wellcrafted their prayer sounds. Perhaps we even struggle at times in the quiet of our bedroom to put the words together that adequately communicate to God what we’re thinking. Let’s face it…there are definitely times when it’s difficult to know what or how to pray. Thankfully, while we have the amazing freedom in Christ to come before our Father and pray with words of our own choosing, there are many wonderfully written prayers we can draw from to give us direction. From the very words of Scripture, to believers throughout the ages, to our pastors, we are blessed with numerous sources of prayers. Such prayers are gifts from God to help us as we pray. As a convert to Lutheranism I have rediscovered the tremendous value of at-the-ready prayers. For a time, in an effort to shed my Roman Catholic upbringing, I had disdain for such prayers—thinking that they were mechanical and not truly heartfelt. I assumed the only real prayers were ones that I came up with on my own. How wrong I was! I even thought the recitation of pre-written prayers was exactly what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 6 when He said, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for
