As Father\u2019s Day approaches, I find myself reflecting on one of my greatest embarrassments in recent memory.<\/p>\n\n\n
(But it led to a simple new habit which has deepened my prayer life like no other, so I willingly share the story here with you.)<\/p>\n\n\n
A year ago, I preached the shortest sermon ever!<\/p>\n\n\n
I stepped up to the pulpit of Sardinia Baptist Church to preach on Luke 11:1-13, a well-known passage about approaching God as our Father. It begins with Jesus teaching His disciples\u00a0 \u201cThe Lord\u2019s Prayer\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n
Our Father which art in heaven,<\/p>\n\n\n
Hallowed be thy name.<\/p>\n\n\n
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n
Give us this day our daily bread.<\/p>\n\n\n
And forgive us our sins; as we forgive those who sin against us.<\/p>\n\n\n
And lead us not into temptation,<\/p>\n\n\n
But deliver us from evil.<\/p>\n\n\n
Upon reading those words out loud to the congregation, I suddenly found myself unable to continue. I was overwhelmed by my own hypocrisy – my own prayer life was largely weak and ineffective. I apologized tearfully and sat down.<\/p>\n\n\n
These days, I\u2019m glad to say, my prayer life is on the upswing \u2013 in large part because that failed sermon motivated me to make The Lord\u2019s Prayer a daily habit.<\/p>\n\n\n
Not\u00a0 just a mindless recitation, of course. Rather I pray through slowly, lingering over whichever phrase happens to catch my attention any particular morning. And as I go, I repeat the disciples\u2019 request: \u201cLord, teach us to pray\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n
After a year, it\u2019s a practice I desire to share with as many others as I can – including YOU.<\/p>\n\n\n
I can now personally testify: The Lord\u2019s Prayer is much deeper than I ever gave it credit for. And I believe I have much more yet to learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As Father\u2019s Day approaches, I find myself reflecting on one of my greatest embarrassments in recent memory. (But it led to a simple new habit which has deepened my prayer life like no other, so I willingly share the story here with you.) A year ago, I preached the shortest sermon ever! I stepped up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6169,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions\/6169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}