Praying with Jesus

Jesus taught us how to pray, saying:

When you’re praying, do not use meaningless phrases as others do when they think they’ll be heard because of their many words. Do not act like that for your Father knows what you need before you ask. Pray then like this:

Our Father in heaven, Holy is Your name.
May Your kingdom come and Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us for intruding on others
as we forgive those who intrude upon us.
And do not bring us into times of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.
For You have the kingdom,
and You have the power,
and You are the glory forever. Amen.

If you forgive people for wronging you, our heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive their wrongs, how can things be right with you and our Father?

©2013, Mary Harwell Sayler, prayer-a-phrase of today’s Daily Bible Reading in Matthew 6:7-15

Note from Mary:

Most church denominations and most Christians know a traditional version of the Lord's Prayer or Our Father. Although we might not interrupt some scriptures in the same way, this prayer holds us together as One Body of Christ, united, as we pray all around the world in all time zones, day and night, without ceasing in the Name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Our Father Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For Thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever. Amen.



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The Holy Spirit prays for us!

“Likewise the Spirit also helps our weakness for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercession for us with sighs too deep for words. And God who searches the heart knows the mind of the Spirit, who makes intercession for the people of God according to God’s will,” Romans 8:26-27


Holy Partner in Prayer
by Mary Harwell Sayler

When our hopes recede
and faith weakens,
and we do not even know
how to pray as we ought,
the Holy Spirit
intercedes for us
with sighs too deep for words.

And God,
Who searches our hearts
and minds, finds
the very prayers heard
to align with God’s Own will
when the Holy Spirit
prays for us – right then –
and is praying still.

© 2013, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved, prayer-a-phrase poem of Romans 8:26-27

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