One thing that I suspect that most Christians agree on is that prayer is very important, but also that prayer is very difficult. This Sunday, 25 July we have been studying what Jesus had to say when the disciples said to him: "Lord, teach us to pray."We saw that in Luke's Gospel the prayer began with the single word "Father." That probably represented Jesus' much loved term for his Father, in the local Aramaic language: "Abba" - equivalent to the English term "Daddy."
The week before, I had been to Drayton Manor Park with my grandchildren. All around were small children playing. Their absolute trust in their parents - and their parents' love for them, were so much in evidence. That combination of love and trust should be the relationship at the centre as we pray to our Father .
As we pray for God's honour, for the coming of his kingdom, for our daily needs, for forgiveness, and for protection, may we do it with that same trust and confidence in our father's love that the small child has.
In the evening service, we discussed this further and shared our own and others' experiences of prayer.
