And so looking to the future and mindful of our frailty we
pray that GOD will not lead us into "temptation" or trial, without at
the same time providing a way of deliverance from the assaults of
evil. The prayer customarily ends with an ascription of praise and
glory to GOD.
That is the type and model of Christian prayer: and prayer is truly
Christian just in so far as the spirit and temper of the Lord's Prayer
inspires it. We can only pray rightly in the Holy Spirit. "We know not
what to pray for as we ought: but the Spirit helpeth our infirmities."
As for the technique of prayer, a man, on kneeling or standing to
pray, will do well to spend a short time first in silence and
recollection, waiting in stillness upon GOD, remembering His presence,
His holiness, His love, and His responsiveness to His children's cry.
Let him next make an act of adoration, spoken or unspoken, and invoke
GOD the Holy Spirit to enable him to pray aright. Then let him pour
out before GOD all that is in his heart, his troubles, his anxieties,
his perplexities, his sins: let him ask for forgiveness: let him give
thanks: let him pray for the coming of GOD'S Kingdom, in its various
aspects: commending to GOD'S guidance and protection all right causes
and aspirations in the world, in things both social and political and
international, in things ecclesiastical, in things moral and religious
and missionary: let him add personal and private intercessions for
those near and dear to him and for those whom he meets in the daily
intercourse of life: and let him end as he began, in a few moments of
quiet waiting upon GOD.
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