Elmer Towns says our prayer lives can be transformed once we start using the Lord's Prayer as the springboard for our conversations with God.
Towns, author of Praying the Lord's Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough, prays the model prayer provided by Jesus throughout the day, beginning the moment he opens his eyes in the morning. He uses the prayer as a guide for his personal worship of the Lord, in confession, in prayer for his needs and the needs of others.
"I wrote this book to change your life," says Towns.
It was Dr. Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world's largest church in Seoul, Korea, who first gave Towns the idea in 1978. Towns had asked Cho, whose church features prayer, how to be more effective in prayer.
Cho replied that he prayed the Lord's Prayer several times a day.
"When I say the Lord's Prayer touches every type of petition, I mean you will worship, ask for guidance, yield to God, ask for petitions, ask for forgiveness, seek victory over sin and end up in spiritual warfare in which you ask for protection from the evil one," Cho says in his forward to Towns' book.
While Cho uses the prayer as a guide, he does not stop there. He continues in intense prayer for a couple of hours a day, interceding for many things.
Many of us learned the Lord's Prayer when we were very young. The prayer, given by Jesus as a model to his followers in Matthew 6:9-13, has been a staple of the Christian church for many centuries.
It is so familiar that it is tempting to rhyme it off by rote without thinking.
However, Towns treats it differently. He lets his mind dwell on each aspect of the prayer. And he applies it to his daily activities and the people he will meet.
For instance, the words "our Father" prompt him to think about God who loves him like a father loves his child. The word "our" reminds him that Jesus is with him as an intercessor as he approaches God.
The opening phrases in the prayer lend themselves to worshiping God and giving him glory. Sometimes, Towns will react by singing in gratitude to the Lord.
The opening of the Lord's Prayer helps us "begin by focusing on God and his agenda," he says.
Towns takes just a minute to pray the Lord's Prayer when he's climbing out of bed in the morning. That's enough time to think about each phrase as he prays.
He uses the prayer as template during the time he sets aside for his daily devotions. And he prays the prayer at other times when he has a moment or two during the day.
"You can pray the Lord's Prayer as you drive the expressway or as you ride to or from work on an elevated train," he says. And he adds that it's better to spend a minute with God in prayer than dreaming of a period of hours in prayer and doing nothing.
"Do not give a speech to God. Do not just read words from a book. Tell God what each of the seven petitions (aspects of the Lord's Prayer) means to you, and what you want him to do for you."
Towns says we will find real benefits to praying in this way:
Towns, author of Praying the Lord's Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough, prays the model prayer provided by Jesus throughout the day, beginning the moment he opens his eyes in the morning. He uses the prayer as a guide for his personal worship of the Lord, in confession, in prayer for his needs and the needs of others.
"I wrote this book to change your life," says Towns.
It was Dr. Yonggi Cho, pastor of the world's largest church in Seoul, Korea, who first gave Towns the idea in 1978. Towns had asked Cho, whose church features prayer, how to be more effective in prayer.
Cho replied that he prayed the Lord's Prayer several times a day.
"When I say the Lord's Prayer touches every type of petition, I mean you will worship, ask for guidance, yield to God, ask for petitions, ask for forgiveness, seek victory over sin and end up in spiritual warfare in which you ask for protection from the evil one," Cho says in his forward to Towns' book.
While Cho uses the prayer as a guide, he does not stop there. He continues in intense prayer for a couple of hours a day, interceding for many things.
Many of us learned the Lord's Prayer when we were very young. The prayer, given by Jesus as a model to his followers in Matthew 6:9-13, has been a staple of the Christian church for many centuries.
It is so familiar that it is tempting to rhyme it off by rote without thinking.
However, Towns treats it differently. He lets his mind dwell on each aspect of the prayer. And he applies it to his daily activities and the people he will meet.
For instance, the words "our Father" prompt him to think about God who loves him like a father loves his child. The word "our" reminds him that Jesus is with him as an intercessor as he approaches God.
The opening phrases in the prayer lend themselves to worshiping God and giving him glory. Sometimes, Towns will react by singing in gratitude to the Lord.
The opening of the Lord's Prayer helps us "begin by focusing on God and his agenda," he says.
Towns takes just a minute to pray the Lord's Prayer when he's climbing out of bed in the morning. That's enough time to think about each phrase as he prays.
He uses the prayer as template during the time he sets aside for his daily devotions. And he prays the prayer at other times when he has a moment or two during the day.
"You can pray the Lord's Prayer as you drive the expressway or as you ride to or from work on an elevated train," he says. And he adds that it's better to spend a minute with God in prayer than dreaming of a period of hours in prayer and doing nothing.
"Do not give a speech to God. Do not just read words from a book. Tell God what each of the seven petitions (aspects of the Lord's Prayer) means to you, and what you want him to do for you."
Towns says we will find real benefits to praying in this way:
- We will glorify God and be rewarded with his presence in our worship;
- We will live with godly principles, bringing his principles into our lives;
- We will receive God's guidance in our situation as we pray for his will to be done;
- We will receive more answers as we pray correctly with all our heart;
- We will feel clean as we ask for his forgiveness for our misdeeds;
- We will obtain victory as we ask God to keep us from situations that would destroy us; and
- We will receive protection as we pray "deliver us from the evil one".
This strikes me as a good way to keep my mind dialled into God and how he wants me to pray.
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