Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever, Amen!

If you are having any trouble getting into a habit (and yes, it starts as a habit) of prayer, this is a great place to begin. Jesus taught His disciples to pray this way, so there must be great value in regularly praying this prayer. Maybe one way that you can live out the March focus on prayer is to commit to praying the Lord's prayer every day.

Some other suggestions:

~Get a prayer shirt - bring a cotton or cotton blend shirt to Sis. Dean, decide on a design, commit to praying for anyone who approaches you

~Keep a prayer journal - bring it with you to church in order to write down the spoken prayer requests

~Accompany your prayer with fasting for Lent - this begins on March 5 and lasts through Easter

~Read a book that will encourage your prayer life - I recommend "Fervent" by Priscilla Shirer, "Dangerous Prayers" by Craig Groeschel, "Prayer in the Night" by Tish Harrison Warren, "Prayer" by Richard Foster, "To Pray and to Love" and "To Love as God Loves" both by Roberta Bondi.

We don’t share a friendship with God because of our “spiritual” bent of mind, our special ability to commune with Him, or our supposedly stellar moral track record.

The simple truth is that God initiates a relationship with us.

He does the reaching out. He pulls us out of the muck of our sin. He offers us grace.

And He did all of that by sending Jesus to pay the price for our sin.

If you and I long for intimacy with God, let’s begin by recognizing that, in His sovereign grace, He chose us and made Himself known to us.

In today’s Bible reading, we see that we were dead until He gave us life. There’s next to nothing a dead person can do to secure life for themselves.

Knowing God intimately and personally begins when we recognize we bring absolutely nothing to the table. Very simply, the only reason we can be friends with God is that He offers us friendship. Take a moment to ponder these words from today’s Scripture portion: “But because of His great love for us, God… “ (Ephesians 2:4).

He is the initiator of that love relationship with us.

In recognizing our “deadness” and absolute helplessness in rescuing ourselves, we come before Him in surrender and awe, and there begins an intimate friendship with our Creator.

This is love—not that we loved God first but that He loved us. May we respond to His love.

Lean In

Father God, I come to You in wonder and awe. I come to You and say, “Jesus paid it ALL, ALL to Him I owe.” Because of one reason—Your great love—You rescued me and gave me life. Lord, as a response to Your love, I long to grow in my intimacy with You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.