I believe this prayer should cover a wide variety of topics. As God's people, we should be praying for each other and all the nations of the world and every sector of society and all creation. After, all our God is God over all, and Jesus Christ is King of the universe. So I try to include a lot of things in my prayers: prayers for particular people with specific needs in and around our congregation, prayers for our local church and the worldwide church, prayers for our community and our nation and the nations of the world, prayers for creation. And based on the types of prayers we read in Scripture, I don't just want to bring a bunch of requests, even if many of those requests are for others. I also want to praise God for who He is and thank Him for what He's done and express trust in Him and confess sins and lament evils. I try to vary my prayers and highlight different things from week to week. I'd like to model good prayer habits and encourage my congregation to broaden their own prayers.
But the whole thing can make me self-conscious. I'm afraid that at times I'm hypocritical. I understand that public prayer and private prayer are somewhat different. I really am working on expanding my own private prayer life to include a wider variety of prayers. But I'm certainly not always as balanced in my private prayers as I am in public. I definitely become self-centered in my own prayers at times. When I lead public prayer, I try to pray things I really mean and avoid rambling, but I know that I do ramble at times, especially when I'm under-prepared or nervous. For now I think the best I can do is to keep working on my praying—both public and private—and ask God to help me grow in speaking honestly and boldly yet humbly before Him. And maybe a little bit of nervousness is a good thing if it makes me a little more reflective and intentional about what and how I pray.
Grace and peace,
BMH
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