What’s your most common type of prayer? I use both conversational and formal prayers every day to keep me on track in my faith walk.
My most common type of prayer is random, sprinkled throughout the day. A sentence or two, here and there. It’s not very formal. My prayers are mostly like a conversation with a close friend.
But sometimes, I need the structure of a formal prayer. Do you feel that way too?
The Bible tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17), to be faithful in prayer (Romans 12:12), and to pray with unwavering belief (Matthew 21:22). God wants prayer to be a natural part of our everyday walk with him.
I like to mix conversational prayers with three different formal prayers, because they serve different purposes. Your faith can benefit from formal prayers like these.
The Lord’s Prayer
Jesus gives us a model formal prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer. Maybe you use the Lord’s Prayer every day. I usually pray it in only in church services. I associate The Lord’s Prayer with praying alongside others, which is not a bad thing at all.
Yet I do use portions of the Lord’s Prayer in my daily walk. The portions I favor are these:
Give us this day our daily bread.
This passage shakes me out of complaint mode. I stop feeling self-pity for what I don’t have and ask God to provide just what I need to get through the day. This is a prayer he always answers in his mysterious ways.
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
I hold too many grudges. When I’m tempted to dig my heels into a place of judgment, Jesus’ words ring in my memory. Since I have trespassed his godly boundaries many times over, who am I to judge those who have trespassed against my boundaries? I must forgive, and this prayer helps me do so, sometimes many times in one difficult day.
Mealtime Prayer
This common Lutheran table prayer unites me to the three previous generations in my family who prayed it over every meal. To me, it’s a cue for blessing the meal and giving God thanks for our food. This is how it is spoken in our family:
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let thy gifts to us be blessed. Amen.
This prayer unites me with other Lutherans in my area, which helps us feel a sense of community. It also helps me envision Jesus sitting with us at our table, which is a wonderful reminder to season both my food and my words with salt as I enjoy fellowship with others.
Confessional Prayer
The other formal prayer I use is for confession. I repeated this in every church service growing up. There is a danger of disconnect in memorized prayers–I want to acknowledge that. But I also think there is great value in formal prayers, because they provide special focus.
Here’s how I use the confessional prayer. I’m often tempted to judge and criticize, myself first but also others. When I get caught in a web of criticism, I stop and pray the formal prayer from the Lutheran order of worship, slowly so I focus on the individual words.
This prayer reminds me that I am sinful by nature. It’s not something that will never go away in my life on earth. I confess that all my sins are against God, as David did in Psalm 51. My sins of both commission and omission, meaning both active and passive, need to be confessed. I fail to love myself correctly and I also fail to love others. I deserve punishment, right now and for eternity, for my sins.
But I can receive mercy and forgiveness due to Jesus’ sacrifice. He can help me walk in a new path to bring him greater glory.
After I pray that prayer, knowing that I’ve prayed it thousands of times before, I feel calmer and cleaner thanks to God’s forgiveness.
It’s not the prayer itself that holds redemptive power. It’s connecting with God in that same path, over and over again, that reminds me I’m loved, forgiven, and treasured. That I have a second chance (or a seven thousandth chance) to start over. That I can only be saved because of what Jesus did for me.
Questions for reflection:
Which formal prayers strengthen your faith most?
What changes, if any, do you need to make to enliven your prayer life?
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