Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19)
When it comes to what it means to pray, even the disciples aren’t clear—or, at least, they aren’t clear about how Jesus understands prayer. In Luke 11, they said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray!”
Then, as now, it seems that in its most basic understanding, prayer is a communication conduit between a person and God. That’s a basic take. But prayer can confound even the most faithful of people.
The closing verse to Psalm 19 above may come in as a handy occasion for grace and freedom, as we—those of us who pray easily and naturally, and those of us who don’t—think through the act of prayer. Humility mixed with confidence might be a way of thinking through prayer.
This message is an excerpt from the Bible study “Let us pray” by Anna Madsen in the July/August 2018 issue of Gather magazine. Today is the 25th Sunday after Pentecost and Veterans Day. We remember Martin, bishop of Tours, who died in 397, and Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, teacher, who died in 1855.
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