Here
are a few suggestions Martin Luther makes on prayer to a friend. They come from the wonderful book Luther's Prayers.
1.
Let
prayer be the first business of the morning and the last business at night.
2.
Be
careful not to allow things which seem more important to crowd out prayer.
3.
Use
biblical tools to jump start your praying.
Luther would use the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’
Creed and the Psalms as a way to help him when he felt cold and joyless about
his praying. It is very difficult to come to prayer and not have anything to
direct your thoughts. Let God’s Word
guide your prayers and give it some direction. Luther then goes on to describe
how he prayed through these different portions of God’s Word.
a.
He
would first look at a particular portion of God’s Word and ask what it was
teaching him.
b.
Then
he would give God thanks based upon that passage.
c.
Then
he would confess his sin based upon that passage.
d.
Then
he would pray that God would help him to obey what that passage required.
For example he does this with the first
commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” First, this passage teaches
us to trust in God alone and not in anything or anyone else. Second, it teaches
us to give thanks for God’s fatherly kindness. Third, it leads us to confess
that we are ungrateful for all of God’s kindnesses and we too easily worship
idols. Finally, Luther ends with a prayer asking God to help him learn,
understand, and live by God’s commandments.
4.
Prayer
requires discipline of mind. Luther said
it is the hardest work. Most of us do not reap the blessing of prayer because we are not willing to put the time and energy into that God requires.
David
McIntyre in his book The Hidden Life ofPrayer says that prayer usually requires the following:
1.
A
Quiet Place
2.
A
Quiet Hour
3.
A
Quiet Heart
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