A Living Prayer

9/28/25

Message; “A Living Prayer”

Scriptures: Psalm 100, Luke 11:1-13 and Ephesians 1:15-23

Psalm 100

(1) Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

(2) Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

(3) Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

(4) Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

(5) For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Luke 11:1-13

Jesus’ Teaching on Prayer

(1) One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (2) He said to them, “When you pray, say: ” ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 

(3) Give us each day our daily bread. 

(4) Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”

(5) Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 

(6) because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’

(7) “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 

(8) I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

(9) “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 

(10) For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him

who knocks, the door will be opened.

(11) “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 

(12) Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 

(13) If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Ephesians 1:15-23

Thanksgiving and Prayer

(15) For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 

(16) I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. (17) I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 

(18) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 

(19) and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 

(20) which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 

(21) far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 

(22) And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 

(23) which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

This is the word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

 Our message today, I have titled; ”A Living Prayer “. In our text today, Paul prays and reminds us that if we are to become “A Living Prayer”, that the eyes of our hearts must be enlightened. He writes;“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,”. In Ephesians 1:18.

 In my preparations this week I found a prayer that needs to be prayed to, and for all of us and especially our leaders, so that we may have the eyes of our hearts enlightened. So that we may know God’s will and help us become, ”A Living Prayer “.

Pastor Joe Wright of Kansas was asked to lead the Kansas State Senate in prayer. They were expecting the usual formal prayer to open the session but that is not what happened. The pastor used the moment as a confessional and prophetic opportunity. As he prayed there were some senators who got up and walked out. When Paul Harvey (a nationally known radio news

and editorialist) got a hold of the prayer and read it on his program he got more requests for copies of it than any other thing he had ever done.

 Here’s what Rev. Wright prayed: “Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance.

 We know Your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. 

We confess that:

• We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.

• We have worshipped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.

• We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

• We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

• We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

• We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

• We have killed our unborn and called it a choice.

• We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

• We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

• We have abused power and called it political savvy.

• We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.

• We have polluted the airwaves with profanity and called it freedom of

expression.

• We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it

enlightenment.

 Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state. Grant them Your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your will….Amen.”

 Also while preparing the message for this week, it brought to mind the song titled, ”A Living Prayer”, written by Ron Block. Many of you may have heard it as recorded by Alison Krauss.

Today I invite you to listen to or least read the words of that song.

”A Living Prayer”.

In This World I Walk Alone

With No Place To Call My Home

But There’s One Who Holds My Hand

On The Rugged Road Through Barren Lands

The Way Is Dark, The Road Is Steep

But He’s Become My Eyes To See

Strength To Climb, My Grief To Bear

The Savior Lives Inside Me There

In Your Love I Find Release

A Haven From My Unbelief

Take My Life And Let Me Be

A Living Prayer, My God To Thee

Through These Trials Of Life I Find

Another Voice Inside My Mind

It Comforts Me And Bids Me Live

Inside The Love The Father Gives

In Your Love I Find Release

A Haven From My Unbelief

Take My Life And Let Me Be

A Living Prayer, My God To Thee.

Take my life and let me be, “A Living Prayer”, my God to Thee, because in your love, I find release. 

 Isn’t that what all Christians should be praying?

In our reading in Psalm 100, The Psalmist reminds us that we are to give thanks for what God has given us in the past, the present and the future.

In our Gospel reading in Luke 11:1-13, Jesus teaches his disciples, and us how to pray and how to become “A Living Prayer.” He knows that being “A Living Prayer” can be expensive in so many ways. So Jesus continues to teach His disciples and us , that all we need to do is to ask. In Luke 11:9 and 10, we read: ”So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and

you will find; knock and the door will be opened do you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

 In Ephesians 1:15-16 Paul tells us: “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the Saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

 Maybe the most enlightening knowledge we need to learn, accept, and cherish is that all Christians are Saints! In the New Testament, every believer was a “saint”, even those Christians Paul disagreed with.

“Saint” means: One who is set apart for God’s use. As Christianity evolved into the early Middle Ages, Christians began to define a saint as an extraordinary believer who could be identified as such only after death. Thus Christians abandoned the exciting New Testament reality that we’re all saints.

 In the New Testament, “saint” seldom refers to the dead. It means those whom God uses in this world, those who live by God’s power here and now. Who have become, ”A Living Prayer“.

 Christians won’t claim the gifts Jesus died to give if they think that living close with God and living wondrously for others is something for an elite few called saints — most of whom are dead.

You are a Saint! And when you become the answer to another’s prayer, you become, ”A Living Prayer “. God gives you great things to do and the power to do them, as Paul writes;” his incomparably great power for us who believe”(Ephesians 1:19).

 In English, the words “power” and “possibility” both derive from the same Latin word that means “to be able.” So, also, the Greek word that Paul repeats for power means basically “to be able.” Jesus has granted you God’s power to be useful in God’s cause, to be able to bring about or to prevent change.

 Our ascended Lord makes you able to forge new possibilities in your personal life with God, in your relations with family and friends, and in your job and neighborhood as well as your church.

 God bestows upon you power to live as Jesus did. To become “A Living Prayer“.

 In this week’s epistle reading, Paul writes to the Ephesian community but he makes his words applicable to all who might receive it. It is directed to the community of disciples, to those, whose faith has led them to have a “spirit of wisdom” and a “heart enlightened.”

 Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 18:2; ”I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

 So what does that spirit of wisdom look like to a child? How can the eyes of our hearts be enlightened as children?

 Robert Fulghum was a feature writer for The Kansas City Times. I’m not sure he’s still there, because he has written a runaway best seller entitled, “All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten”. That book is an expansion of an article he wrote for The Kansas City Times a few years ago. It was this article that launched his writing career.

Let me share with you portions of it:

“Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to be, I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

“These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don’t hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don’t take things that aren’t yours. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody…

“Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that…

“Think of what a better world it would be if we all the whole world had cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and cleaned up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”

 Because of faith in Christ, Paul declares that the faithful know the “hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance”.

 That is, a new life among the Saints! Those who become, ”A Living Prayer “. His thankfulness is for the faith of those who confess a commitment to Christ and live life based upon that commitment.

 The power of Paul’s teachings is not simply about what has occurred, the death and resurrection of Christ, but is about what is occurring and what is coming to a family of faith that gathers together and works together and faithfully keeps that working relationship alive, minute by minute, hour by hour, day after day and year after year as, ”Living Prayers “!

Hold hands and stick together! Remember you who believe are “Saints”! 

“A Living Prayer”!

In His Service,

Pastor Joe