Teach Us to Pray

Last Sunday, Pastor Marshall gave us four short prayers from Psalm 86. The second was, “Glorify your name.” He encouraged us that “our confidence that God will do anything is grounded on his ability to glorify his name.” In other words, if and only if God can and will achieve his ultimate goal, can we trust that he will meet our needs—for daily bread, for health and work and life, for our children, our spouses, and our loved ones.

And that gives us a new urgency to pray that God would glorify his name. My prayers, my needs, my worries—all these are part of the bigger and greater end of God’s name and God’s glory.

So, do you, dear friends, pray beyond the fenced in yard of your own needs?

The psalmist calls us to ask, “How can we guide our prayers beyond ourselves to God’s wider purposes?” Not merely, “O Lord, give my children salvation,” but, “O Lord, glorify your name by causing me and my children to delight in you all of our days.” Not just, “Save me from that insult,” but, “Show the world your greatness by creating in me a patient and loving response to that insult.” Not just, “Meet our needs,” but, “Please meet our needs so that we can testify to your greatness in the world.” Take your prayers godward, dear church. Expand them as deep as the history of redemption and as broad as the earth. Lead yourself deeper into God’s purposes, by praying beyond the horizon of our individual needs. 

And this reminds us of our need to confess our sins…

Prayer of Confession

Holy Father, just as the disciples asked, so we ask, “Teach us to pray.” We confess to you both our prayerlessness and the narrowness of our prayers. We ask you, please open our eyes so that we see and sense the eternal things taking place among us, and direct our hearts toward your purposes. Teach us, we ask, to view the world in light of your kingdom and glory.

Our weak prayers lead us to faithlessness. We confess, then, these and other sins, and ask that you lead us in a time of silent confession…