Continuing on with some reflections on prayer which I'm titling "Lord, teach us to pray once again."  (I would encourage you to read/pray through my post "May we learn to value the blood bought privilege of prayer" in addition to this one.)

Lord, we heard You, Good Teacher, while You were in the flesh here, fully God and fully man, tempted as we are and yet without sin...warning us that we always ought to pray or else we would lose heart and become faint:

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

Lord God, You have already taught us to pray...
Yet we are so slow to learn...
Father, have mercy on us.
Forgive us, for Jesus' sake.
Though we are slow to learn we come to You and ask us to teach us.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

Father, Son and Spirit,
We confess we often find ourselves losing heart.
We confess we often find ourselves fainting.
We confess we so often busy ourselves with so much activity,
but not so often are we busy with the activity of prayer.
Forgive us, O Lord God.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

Because we are Yours by grace through faith,
because we are adopted into Your family,
because we are of Your Kingdom,
because we are not of this world,
in this world we have been promised opposition,
in this world we have been promised persecution.

When taunting arises (and it certainly will!),

When opposition arises (and it certainly will!),

When persecution arises (and it certainly will!),

When taunting and opposition and persecution arise...
when we are not rightly rooted in You,
when we are not rightly rooted in prayer,
whenever the winds begin to blow,
whenever the storm comes,
whenever the rocking comes,
we will find we will too easily lose heart,
we will find we will too easily faint
because we are not firmly rooted in prayer
because we are not firmly established in You
because our hearts are not firmly settled on You
because our minds are not steadfastly fixed on You
because we have not followed Your command to pray always
we end up losing heart,
we end up faint,
and our faith is capsized.

How can we expect to fight the good fight apart from Your means?
How can we expect to fight the good fight apart from persevering in prayer?

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

We confess we have not continued to abide in the true Vine.
We confess we have not tarried in prayer.
We confess we have continued to go back to you again and again with our requests.
We confess we have not sat and listened for Your still small voice.
We confess we have not obeyed Your command to pray as we ought.

Forgive us, Father, for Jesus' sake.
We long to be able to pray so we might not lose heart or faint.
Strengthen us with Your Spirit so we might be able to pray as we ought.
What good are we in the battle if we end up losing heart there?
What good are we in the battle if we end up fainting there?

How can we expect to fight the good fight apart from Your means?
How can we expect to fight the good fight apart from persevering in prayer?

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
We confess we may pray about something only a few times, but not persevere like the widow.
You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
We confess we find it oh so hard to cease our activity, our doing and pray again and again.
We confess we find it oh so hard to cease our activity, and actively engage ourselves in prayer.
We confess we find it oh so hard to stop and speak to You.
We confess we find it oh so hard to pray without ceasing.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
We confess we may pray about something only a few times, but not persevere like the widow.
You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
We confess we find oh so hard to cease our activity and stop and speak to You.
We confess we find it even so much harder to cease our speaking to You in prayer
and to sit in Your presence and be silent and listen to You...
and then to sit longer when You have been silent and wait on You to speak to us...
and to keep coming back and sitting and listening again and again.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

You have told us to pray without ceasing so we will not lose heart and faint.
Give us ears to hear You.
Help us to listen to You,
not to listen to our own speech,
not to listen to our own thoughts,
not to listen to our fears,
not to listen to our own wisdom,
not to listen to our own lusts,
not to listen to our own ambitions,
not to listen to the devil's lies,
not to listen to the temptations of the world,
not to listen to the praises of our friends,
not to listen to the taunts of our opponents.
Stop our ears to all else but Your still small voice. Open our ears to hear only You, O Lord.

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

We can only have strong hearts,
we can only persevere without fainting,
as we abide in You and Your words
(how can we abide in You and Your words if we never take time to be silent and listen?)
as we sit and wait upon You in prayer
as we continue to dwell with You
as we fix our eyes on You
as we fix our thoughts on You
as we fix our minds on You,

Good Shepherd, have mercy on us, we are the sheep of Your pasture.
We confess we wander away from You and we do not pray as we ought.
Lord, teach us to pray once again so we might "not lose heart" & "faint."

Continuing on from my post "May we learn to value the blood bought privilege of prayer" with some reflections on prayer which I'm titling, "Lord, teach us to pray once again." I would encourage you to read/pray through that post in addition to this one.

Lord Jesus, we saw You, Immanuel, while You were in the flesh here, fully God and fully man, tempted as we are and yet without sin...intentionally slipping away, purposefully taking time to withdraw alone so You might pray and commune with Your Father.

Lord God, You have already taught us to pray...
Yet we are so slow to learn...
Father, have mercy on us.
Forgive us, for Jesus' sake.
Though we are slow to learn we come to You and ask us to teach us.

We confess we so often want to busy ourselves with working and doing,
but we forget that one of main works You call us to is the work of prayer.
Lord Jesus, You keep seeking Your Father's face in prayer, should we not do the same?
You died on the cross so we might come into Your presence and pray.

We love You, but we confess our love for You is so weak and incomplete.
We know there is no way we can follow Your devotion and dedication in prayer about from Your power to do so.
May Your Holy Spirit place into our hearts a deeper love for You.
Put into our hearts a deeper desire to know You so we might pant, hunger and thirst after You.
We confess we so often pant, hunger and thirst after things in this world.
We confess we often do not make that time to arise very early in the morning.
The next thing we know it is very late at night and we have not prayed, not really prayed as we ought,
but we have spent time doing so many other things, even good things.
O, we may have prayed, but have we really, really prayed and met You in deep fellowship?

O, Lord God, You are the center of our lives.
Without You we are and we have nothing.
Without You we would be lost, but now we have been found.
Without You we were not a people, but now we are a people.
We are the people of God; You are our Father.
Yet how often do we act childish and not come to You in prayer.
Restore to us childlike spirits, so we might seek Your face constantly.

Your Spirit dwells in us and has given us the Spirit of adoption so we might say, "Abba, Father!"
Yet, how often do we say those words?
Do we save "Abba, Father" only for our times of dire need and desperation?
How foolish we are. Every moment, every day of our lives is a time of need.
Apart from Your Spirit showing us, we see ourselves as rich and needing nothing.
Show us our poverty and our neediness.
We are poor and needy, and we have nothing apart from You.
We are poor and needy, and we can do nothing apart from You.
You are to be the center of our lives.
You are to be the center of our days.
You are to be the center of all we do.
Just as You placed Your holy tabernacle in the center of all the tribes of Israel,
You are to be placed in the center of the Church, in the center of each of our lives.
Forgive us when we put other thing in the center rather than You.
Teach us to number our days and to make the most of the time we have here.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Lord, teach us to pray once again.

I've been reflecting on prayer, and, Lord wiling, I hope to post a series of reflections on prayer. (Edit 1.27.10 - Some of those posts will be titled/tagged "Lord, teach us to pray once again." )

This post serves as a general introduction to that series of posts...

I've been reading through the book of Hebrews and would like us to reflect on the great privilege and responsibility of prayer which Christ purchased for us.

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Our Father,

Many times we do give You thanks and praise for Your great salvation through Jesus Christ. We give thanks and praise that Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sins in His body on the cross, and so we should do so. But how often do we give You thanks and praise for the privilege we have to come to You in prayer? And how often do we avail ourselves of the privilege? How often do we see prayer as a chore or a burden rather than a blessed fellowship and holy communion with You? How often do we manage to find ourselves engaged in and all other things but prayer. How often do we forget that prayer is our very life, our very breath? How can we expect to live the life You have given us if we do not avail ourselves of the means You provide for us to do so. And one of those means is through prayer.

O, Lord God, we are truly miserable and despicable creatures, and yet You still love us in spite of such attitudes, for Your Son Jesus' sake. May we never forget that our Lord Jesus Christ came not only to take the punishment for our sin, and not only so we might live forever with You in heaven (oh, yes, those are wonderful and amazing gifts You have poured out to us at Calvary by grace through faith!), but also that Jesus took on flesh, came to earth in the form of a servant and went to the cross in our place, He suffered and died for us so we might dwell with Him (and You) in heavenly places in the here and now, so we might enter into Your very presence today! We confess we do not truly understand this but we do know that if we are in Christ, we have Your Holy Spirit indwelling us and we have fellowship with You today. We have been united with Christ. You have told us we have already been seated in heavenly places with You. Eternal life begins in the here and now. These things are above our comprehension, we admit, yet we can say that we know You and we know that You know us! And how blessed it is that You have made us Your children and we can now call You, "Abba, Father." We need not fear you. There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus! What a wonderful privilege we have. You are our Father and You are waiting to hear us. And You are waiting to speak to us...if only...if only we would take time to listen. You are the one and only holy and perfect God Who would be perfectly just in wiping us off the planet and sending us to burn in hell forever, but yet in Your forbearance and love for us You made a way for us not only to escape the punishment we deserved by punishing Your only begotten Son in our place, but then You made a way for us to have fellowship with You and Your Son through Your Holy Spirit. You adopted us as Your children. You loved us when we were Your enemies. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. O, how we so often fail to reflect on the wonder of these things and the privileges we have as children of God. We throw around the word "fellowship" but we don't really consider what it means. Do we really even try to understand the privilege we have from You?

We who are unworthy have been made worthy! We who were not a people are now the people of God! We who were paupers alienated from You by our sin are now invited to come boldly into the presence of the King of kings! We who are the created are invited to fellowship with our Creator! We who were mired in the pit of our sin are invited do commune with the Holy One who lifted us up and out of all that! We who were powerless can come before Almighty God!

Jesus' body was broken and His blood was shed so we might enter into the presence of God! O that we might consider it! Consider Him! Consider the privilege we have! O, that we might consider His blood shed for us in our place! O, that we might consider His body broken for us! O, may we take the time to consider what He has done. O, may we consider Him, consider His blood, His cross, His sacrifice, His selfless life, His perfect obedience. O, that we might consider Your love and mercy and grace poured out on us who were totally undeserving and unworthy! If we were to consider these things, certainly we would run to prayer, run into Your presence, much more often than we do now. Our Lord gave Himself on the tree, the King became a servant, He was the ransom set forth our sin-filled souls, the spotless Lamb became sin for us, so we might become the righteousness of God and have full and open fellowship with God! O, we confess before You how seldom we avail ourselves of that glorious fellowship. How seldom do we bend our knees and rend our hearts before You in prayer! And yet we have the invitation. The way has been opened through our Savior's body and blood! How often do we persist in doing, doing, and more doing, being busy, busy and more busy, instead of seeking the best part, instead of seeking Him, instead of sitting at His feet and communing with our Lord in prayer? O, may we never forget You alone are our portion, our strength and our life, our all in all, and apart from You we are and can do nothing whatsoever. All our activity in the world may look very good on the outside, it may be commended by many, but it will all be fruitless and in vain unless it flows from our time of communion, our time in prayer, with You. May we the branches continue to abide in true Vine so we might bear much fruit as You send us out into the world as You sent Your Son into the world.

Our Father, teach us to value prayer. Unless we truly value the blood-bought privilege of prayer, how can we say we value Your love, mercy and grace You showed us in sending Your Son to die for us? How can we say we love You? How can we say we love You unless we love to pray?

Lord Jesus, teach us to value prayer. Unless we truly value he blood-bought privilege of prayer, how can we say we value You and Your sacrifice for us? How can we say we love You? How can we say we love You unless we love to pray?

Holy Spirit, teach us to value prayer. Unless we truly value he blood-bought privilege of prayer, how can we say we value You and the ministry You have interceding for us? How can we say we love You? How can we say we love You unless we love to pray?