soul-talk
The Prayer Jesus Taught Us to Pray
N.T. Wright, Dallas Willard, and Richard Foster on the Lord’s Prayer as invitation, framework, and homecoming (Footnote by John Ortberg).
What about the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray? N.T. Wright encourages Christians to think of The Lord’s Prayer not so much as a command but as an invitation—an invitation to share in Jesus’s prayer life and to enter into the very life of the Trinitarian God.
And Dallas Willard explains how The Lord’s Prayer became the foundation and framework of his personal prayer life. He reports moving from mere repetition to a slow, meditative, and expansive conversation. The prayer became a powerful means to speak intelligently and lovingly with God about the common life they share. i
Richard Foster adds that prayer is the heart-home to which God calls us. It’s the door through which we enter into intimacy with and acceptance by him—no matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done before. And it’s a central means of our transformation into the likeness of Christ.
i. I am struck by how often in talks Dallas would speak of “working through” the Lord’s Prayer or the 23rd Psalm when he awoke in the morning. I was thinking how I wish he were around to ask what exactly that ‘working through’ looked like or consisted of. Then I followed the link in this SOUL TALK item. What a gift!