Prayer

I taught Sunday school today. The lesson was based on Ephesians 3:1-13. We talked about what makes a church welcoming, and I told them a few stories of churches across our conference where I had been made to feel welcome and at home. We talked about what makes a church welcoming, and how we can sometimes, without even realizing it, do something that makes people feel excluded (Sorry, JtM, I didn't mention the fortress-doors.)

It was a hard lesson to plan, but we got through it.

I noticed as I was planning the lesson, that there is a great prayer starting with verse 14. I used these verses as a closing prayer:

I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.

Isn't that a great prayer?

I mentioned before that I am relying less and less on prewritten prayers when I lead prayer for a group. There are drawbacks to that -- sometimes I just ramble around and don't make any sense.

Reading the prayer that I've quoted above today in class, I noticed a drawback to reading pre-written prayers. I could hear my voice get "sing-song," -- kind of like an old fashioned preacher. I was enjoying the prayer; it is beautiful, but with that sing-song voice, I wondered if it sounded sincere. I tried to stop, and to just pray and prayer, and I suppose that helped. Something for me to keep in mind, though.

Image: Rose from Ritter Park last night