6. “Thank You, Father, for Dying for Us on the Cross”
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“Thank You, Father, for Dying for Us on the Cross”
I actually heard a church staff person use those words in the opening prayer of a morning worship service. Obviously, he wasn’t prepared to pray and probably had been drafted at the last minute. I’ve been in worship services where the pastoral prayers were on TV monitors facing the pulpit, and all the pastor had to do was read them with sincere feeling. While that might seem to some to lack the supposed authenticity of spontaneity, it’s better than hasty prayers that confuse the persons of the Godhead and promote other doctrinal aberrations.
Charles Spurgeon once told his ministerial students to follow his example and prepare their pulpit prayers, by which he meant thinking them through (not necessarily writing them out). If we prepare our messages and make outhnes to guide us, why not prepare our prayers as well? At least then we can focus on the Lord and remember that when we pray, we say, “Our Father …”