In Brevity Lies the Spice

Take a moment before reading this to calm your heart before God.


Mathew 6:5-6, NIV "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. ⁶But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

As a Junior High student, praying in front of people can be a little scary!  Sometimes when I am leading it is like pulling teeth to get a student to pray for us.  Luckily for all you guys a few people have stepped up at most small groups and pipelines.  I must now give them mad props for their courage and willingness to pray infront of others:  Molly Srour, Shayla McMurry,  Ross Madenwald, Daniel Molsberry and Brandon Pritzcat. (5 students from all my years of junior high teaching!)

Although praying to open pipeline and small groups is very important, your personal prayer life with Jesus and how you pray every day maters a whole lot more.  As Junior Highers you should start to open up your prayer life more by periodically through out the day checking in with God.  " BUT KEVIN HOW DO I PRAY TO GOD?!?!? I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY"-(in a puberty crackling junior high voice)  Wow that was a great question!  Jesus gives us the perfect example of how to pray in the Lords Pray:

  'Our Father in heaven,
   hallowed be your name,
 ¹⁰your kingdom come,
   your will be done
      on earth as it is in heaven.
 ¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
 ¹²Forgive us our debts,
      as we also have forgiven our debtors.
 ¹³And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.^[a]'  
¹⁴For if you forgive men when they sin against you,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  
¹⁵But if you do not forgive men their sins,
your Father will not forgive your sins. ( Mathew 6:9b-15, NIV)

I love the Lords prayer! It's simple and to the point.  It's okay that your prayer isn't some long speech!  BUT also don't feel like it has to only be two sentences.  If you want to pray for an hour....then pray for an hour! Whatever is on your heart give it up to God.

CHALLENGE:  I memorized the Lord's Prayer when I was in 3rd grade...Now if I can memorize it as a 3rd grader you can easily master it!  Memorize the Lords prayer, also click on the Youtube link below "What a Friend we Have in Jesus"-  I believe this old hymn is perfect peek into how awesome it truly is to pray to our savior.  AMEN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLAg2NDcOt4&fmt=18

-Kevin Thomas Cox :)