My Prayer Lessons Treadmill (Poem)

See the Prayer and Praying series here

‘Your will be done’, we are taught to pray.

The FIRST request in The Lord’s prayer template,

Before other requests we relay.

To Him, this gives our prayers merit.

 

But in my life, and perhaps in yours,

From this order I have often slipped,

Forgetting what The Lord underscored.

From my prayers, this FIRST part, I stripped!

Then…

At my prayers’ end, I learned to add,

‘Your will be done, just as in Heaven.’

But when mine wasn’t done, I became sad.

Since then, I’ve learned some precious lessons!

 

Lesson #1: Pray always! 

Lord, how with this can I align??

‘J!, By this, don’t be stupefied.

Across the table of your mind, 

My seat is ALWAYS occupied.’ ¹

 

‘As unto The Lord, do all things.’ ²

Thinking is our most persistent thing! 

Take time to ponder what that means,

He previews what’s on our mental scene.

 

Lesson #2: To Whom to pray.

Pray to The Father, in Jesus’ Name,

That’s the prayer order Heaven respects.

Yet when we don’t, whom do we blame,

When our errant prayers, Heaven rejects??

 

‘Thoughts and prayers’ we send each other,

In times of our dire need and crises.

That’s violates Heaven’s prayer order!!

Oh the depths of our ‘prayer follies.’

 

Lesson #3: Whose will preferred??

In our prideful nature, ‘we know what’s best.’ 

So The Lord transforms that into life tests.

When we fail them, our lives become a mess!

Yet next time still, our pride is not suppressed!

 

Now it’s Artificial Intelligence on which we lean,

The aggregate of human intelligence, so it seems.

Ignoring THE AGGREGATE of WISDOM, seen and unseen,

We’ll continue to miss ALL blessing that Heaven esteems. ³

 

Lesson #4: Distinguish ‘believing‘ versus receiving’ faith.

In Mark 11, Jesus admonished us,

To believe that we receive (present tense) when we pray.

That is how we can avoid becoming anxious,

Anxiety is evidence that faith has decayed!

 

When faith decays, doubt rules our heart and mind,

And it chokes Heaven’s supply line to us.

With devils’ thinking, we then align.

They and Heaven know …our faith was bogus!

 

Re-praying the same prayers in a loop,

Causes our anxiety to increase.

Then asking others to join in our bloop,

Reveals our lack of prayer expertise.

 

Praying to Him Who, to you, is unseen,

Demands faith to believe His Word is True.

Believing you receive when you pray means,

You’ll need faith to receive answers to you!

 

To escape this awful scenario,

Pray. Then express faith that you have received,

Either your will, or the BEST one God knows.

Then TRUST what unfolds is what He conceived.

 

Your faith to receive will be tested,

By Heaven and devils that scout.

They’ll know if it’s real and protected,

By what will come out of your mouth. ⁴

 

Lesson #5: Requesting Prayer

Be strategic re. who you ask to intercede,

Lest you recruit willing saints who just might impede,

That for which you have prayed and, by faith, have received.

Ask them to AGREE with you that God’s best, you have received. 

 

Godly faith is an interim stand-in,

For what we prayed, and by strong faith, received.

It’s like a ‘spiritual substance twin’,

With which all of Heaven is very pleased. ⁵

~~~

Friends,

The Lord gave us many tips about prayer,

One of which supersedes all the others:

Prioritize The Father’s will, lest we err.

So our prayers will not be censured. 

  

When we prioritize His will over our own,

We’ll avoid a war of conflicting wills.

If to such, you our someone you know may be prone,

Join me on my …‘prayer lessons treadmill’.

 

Like you,

I’m still learning and re-learning…

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¹ See: Two Prayer Challenges (Poem).

² See: Colossians 3:23.

³ To enhance our ‘decision-making prowess’. See: Which AI for You?. 

  Jesus is the AGGREGATE of ALL wisdom according to Colossians 2:1-3. 

⁴ See: Matthew 12:34. From whatever is in your heart in abundance, your mouth will speak either (a) your profession of faith, or (b) re-praying the same prayer loop, or efforts to recruit potentially uninformed others to pray with or for you to receive what you thought you had received when you first prayed.

⁵ See: Hebrews 11:1.