Christians should pray - and pray with the expectation that “the prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve” (James 5:16).

Most of us know prayer is important but prayer can also be frustrating. We pray, or know we should pray, but often find it less than powerful and often achieving little. We ask if prayer is even effective or, more personally, if our prayers are effective.

In the gospel records, Jesus makes a big deal out of prayer. He was a fanatic about prayer – short prayers, long prayers, public prayers, communal prayers, etc. And the people who followed him around every day- his disciples - noticed this:

“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Luke 11:1

These disciples followed Jesus around and they saw Jesus pray. And they saw good, life-changing things happen through the prayers of Jesus. So they wanted to pray like that too.

And so do we. So we will be exploring the way Jesus taught us to pray (commonly called the Lord's prayer) through six postures of prayer:

A Posture of WONDER (Our Father)
A Posture of EXPECTATION (Kingdom Come)
A Posture of OPEN HANDS (Daily Bread)
A Posture of HUMILITY (Forgive Us)
A Posture of OBEDIENCE (Lead Us not into Temptation)
A Posture of FREEDOM (Deliver Us)

A posture is not just an idea to think about or an emotion to force your heart to feel. A posture is a something you do. A way to position your heart, mind, and body and focus yourself on praying the way that Jesus taught us to pray.

So excited to enter into a season of learning, as a community, what it looks like to be fanatics about prayer as we continue to follow Jesus in this city of ours!

/dave