The Lord’s Prayer is an expression of faith. It assumes that human beings are not self-sufficient but dependent on God. It is not a sign of weakness to pray but a sign of our humanity. Prayer acknowledges our need for God. Prayer is surrender. In his book, The Reaffirmation of Prayer, E. Glenn Hinson says that “the key to human existence lies in surrender to God, putting one’s self and one’s affairs utterly and with complete child-like trust in God’s hands.” The concepts of need and surrender are at the heart of our prayer lives.
There is not one among us who would make the outlandish claim of be totally self-sufficient and without any need. Even more outlandish would be to pretend that we have no need of spiritual strength and nourishment. One of the keys to an effective prayer life is to become comfortable with need. This need pushes us toward God, and then He becomes the “go to” person for our deep and simple needs.
God can never become our “go to” person until we surrender our valued self-sufficiency. The surrender concept moves us out of ourselves and into the hands of God. When we are in the hands of God, we feel very comfortable to taking our every need to Him. Look again at the words of the Lord’s Prayer.
A Pastor's Thoughts 
Very nice. I lead a prayer group at my church, United Church of Christ in Warminster Pa. We discuss a topic related to prayer and then we have an open period of time to pray. I will share this post at the next meeting. Thank you.
I am glad you like this post. Thanks
Reblogged this on multicolouredsmartypants and commented:
I love love love Julian of Norwich’s words on prayer – she emphasises the working of the Holy Spirit prompting us to pray. Since I began this type of prayer, my life has changed. Now, I know that when I am prompted to pray, it is because the prayer will be answered. I think she writes something along the lines of ‘prayer is the deliberate and steadfast action of the soul’ i.e. it’s not just me having a conversation with God (which is a step forward from a list of requests), it’s a deep communion of my made-in-His-image soul. What a gift.
The best thing about faithfulness in prayer is not that God will hear us, but that we will hear God. And this need to hear God is something, I think, that God built into us at our making.