Prayer is a vital part of your Christian life; it is your invitation to God, asking Him to do something in your life. It is a moment of fellowship where you spend time finding out what God wants for your life. It is also a time where you express praise, thanksgiving, worship, and appreciation for all the wonderful things He has done for you. If you don’t pray and invite God into those areas of your need, He won’t get involved. If you don’t spend time asking Him for His guidance, you will wander around in life without His knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, and wisdom. If you don’t take out time to express your appreciation for all the awesome things He has already done for you, He will stop helping you with your present and future.

As you know, in “The Power Studies” through the study called: “How To Get The Power Life,” you went through The Lord’s Prayer, located in Matthew 6:9-13, and prayed each part of it, so you could be born again, as a child of God, so you could be in your heavenly Father’s family, and so you could be a citizen in His eternal Kingdom. Then you obeyed Romans 10:8-10 and learned how to confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raise Jesus from the dead. That gave you salvation and justification. Through salvation you were forgiven for all your past sins; through justification you were forgiven of all your present and future sins.

You are now learning how to pray The Lord’s Prayer for each day’s issues; and, you are learning how to use it to grow in each stage of your life. Jesus told you to pray His prayer called “The Lord’s Prayer;” it is a daily prayer that contains the foundational aspects that address your basic needs for each day. Then you will need to pray other prayers for your specific needs of that day. However, if you start praying this prayer everyday, some unhelpful things can happen to this time of prayer. So, Jesus has and is helping you look at His prayer from four different perspectives. Jesus already took you through the first one for being born again. Now, He is ready to take you into three more.

There are four studies on the Lord’s prayer. Jesus taught you, “How To Get The Power Life,” which is The Lord’s Prayer for becoming a Christian. It is presented in “The Power Studies.” The next three, are presented in “The Prayer Studies.” Jesus will take you through: “The Lord’s Prayer For New Christians,” “The Lord’s Prayer For Sinning Christians,” and “The Lord’s Prayer For Mature Christians.” Jesus took you through “How To Get The Power Life,” so you could become a child of God. Now He is helping you look at it from three different perspectives, so you can grow and mature into an adult child of God.

In the final study, “Talking With Your Heavenly Father,” Jesus teaches you how to have a conversation with your heavenly Father. Jesus will help you see some things about yourself, as He teaches you through the book of James. Jesus will use some prayers prayed by David and other great people of prayer in the Psalms. These are prayers you will need to pray to your heavenly Father after you have prayed The Lord’s Prayer for that day. They will help you with specific issues you face in life. Jesus will help you with certain aspects of your character and attitudes; that will help you have a clearer path into having a conversation with God.

Prayers you pray over your dinner, prayers you memorize and pray all the time, and praying The Lord’s Prayer can become a habit that is prayed without any real meaning or feeling. If it becomes just a ritual that you fulfill each day, because you feel you are supposed to, then you will do it just to get it out of the way. Prayer is too vital for you to just do it as a ritual. It is all about a relationship with your heavenly Father. He is listening and responding to every word you speak. Ritual prayer is like a person talking to you while thinking about something else. They are distracted, uninterested in you, and just going through the motions. No one likes talking with people like that.

God doesn’t want you doing things just because He told you too. Jesus gave you His prayer as a matter of vital need. As you wake up in the morning, you are going to be facing some real issues that can hurt and misdirect you. You can make decisions that you will suffer from for the rest of your life, if you don’t get God’s guidance and help. You can go through your day and not feel the wonderful relationship you have with your heavenly Father. You can either spend your day concentrating on all your problems, or, you can spend a lot of it praising and thanking God for all the awesome things He has already done for you.

Sometimes you pray prayers that are based on your own personal opinion. You haven’t consulted God; you don’t have all the facts; you have your mind made up; and you feel very strongly that this is really what you need in order to be happy or get a problem solved. Prayer helps you get God’s input during times, when you are about to force your way into trying to get something improved or changed. You can count on the fact that, if you do something, get something, or say something without God’s input, it will eventually turn out bad. All good things only come through God; everything else comes from some other source.

Jesus will be taking you through four courses on prayer, so as to help you learn to put your total faith in your heavenly Father. Jesus will be using “The Lord’s Prayer For New Christians,” “The Lord’s Prayer For Sinning Christians,” and “The Lord’s Prayer For Mature Christians” to give you three approaches to using His prayer for three major areas in your life. And, He will show you how you can make adjustments in the Lord’s prayer for other areas of your life. Jesus will be using “Talking With Your Heavenly Father” to give you prayers you will need to pray once you have finished “The Lord’s Prayer” for your day.