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Prayer | Lutheran Life Fall 2020

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Lutheran Life 13 Continue reading about how you can lead a more faithful prayer life by making time to pray, preparing to pray, and more in 5 Things You Can Do to Have a Faithful Prayer Life. Find this title and more from this magazine at cph.org/llresources. 5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HAVE A FAITHFUL PRAYER LIFE Luther suggested that each of these points be applied especially to the Lord's Prayer and the three articles of the Apostles' Creed. (Beyond this, it is certainly just as valuable to apply them to the Ten Commandments.) Here is an example of how it might look when praying the First Petition of the Lord's Prayer, "Hallowed be thy name": ADORATION Father, Your name is truly holy above all other names. Though there are many enemies of Your name who would seek to usurp Your glory, they will all fail. You alone are almighty. At the name of Your almighty Son, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess His lordship, to Your glory. Hear me now as I humbly pray to You in His name. CONFESSION I confess that though Your name is truly holy, I have not always treated it as such. I have used Your name frivolously. I have cursed and sworn in Your name. I have lied to others and deceived them in Your name. I have appealed to other gods beside You. Worst of all, I have not trusted in Your name above all others. For the sake of Your dear Son's shed blood, forgive me for my sins. Have mercy on me for His name's sake! THANKSGIVING I thank You, Father, that You have heard my prayer and have given Your Son to die for me. What is more, You have made me Your own by placing Your name on me when I was baptized. I thank You that you continue to reveal Yourself to me by name. I do not deserve such favor, but You are pleased to shower it upon me. For this I thank You, dear Father. SUPPLICATION For Jesus' sake, I ask now that Your name would be found holy in my life. May Your name be found on my lips in all times of trouble. Help me to give You praise and thanksgiving for all the good gifts You have bestowed upon me. Please give me boldness to proclaim Your name both into the ears of my fellow saints and into the ears of those who do not know You. Especially be with my dear friends who do not yet have faith. Put Your name on my lips so they may know of Your salvation. I ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. These are not prayers you have to use. Certainly, your prayers do not have to sound this formal. Your prayers should come from your heart. But you can see how praying in this way helps us to talk about God's Word with Him. He has spoken to us, and the A.C.T.S. outline allows us to engage with what He has said. 11 w 11 Excerpt taken from 5 Things You Can Do To Have a Faithful Prayer Life, pp. 71–74. Your turn! Use this model to craft a prayer to God. You can pray through part of the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments, or use this structure to share what's on your mind. ADORATION CONFESSION THANKSGIVING SUPPLICATION

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