Day 6-The Circle Maker Prayer Challenge

We are continuing our 21 day prayer journey based on Mark Batterson’s book, The Circle Maker. Check out the first post in this series to get a daily email in your inbox from National Community Church. I pray that God will continue to bless us all as we Dream Big, Pray Hard, and Think Long and begin to draw prayer circles in our lives.

Over the years I’ve developed a handful of prayer mantras that I regularly repeat. By prayer mantra, I simply mean a prayer that gets into your spirit and you fell led to pray over and over again!  It obviously must meet the two-fold litmus test of every other prayer: it must be IN the will of God and FOR the glory of God.  But it can be a prayer of praise, a prayer for help, a prayer of surrender, a prayer of confession.

One of my prayer mantras as a preacher is simply: “Help me help people.”  It’s my way of reminding myself how much I need God’s anointing. People don’t need to hear a word I have to say, but everyone needs a word from the Lord. I find myself repeating that prayer as Iprep for messages.

One of my prayer mantras for my kids is a prayer blessing I’ve taken from Luke 2:52: “May you grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and with man.”  I’ve prayed that prayer thousands of times.

My newest one?  This past week I found myself praying “whatever.”  It’s a simple expression of surrender to the Lord–I’ll do whatever you want me to do! Whatever. Wherever. Whenever.  For the record, I think one-word prayers can be some of the most powerful prayers. God responds to a heartfelt cry for “help” when we don’t know what else to ask for!

There is something powerful about prayer mantras that we pray repeatedly.  You have to make sure they don’t become an empty incantation.  And prayer mantras are not some abracadabra that work like magic. After all, God doesn’t respond to our words as much as He responds to our hearts.  God is not a genie in a bottle and our wish is NOT His command.  His command better be our wish!

The most powerful prayer mantras are biblical.  It’s as simple as turning the word of God into a prayer.  You can even pray the prayers of Peter or Paul. Or the prayers of Jesus.  Isn’t that what we’re doing when we pray The Lord’s Prayer?  Just make sure that you own them andthey own you.  Otherwise you’ve giving God lip service!  But something powerful happens when you take someone else’s prayer and it explodes in your heart and you give expression to it. I often close conference sessions with this prayer mantra and I pray it with all of my heart because I know it was Jesus’ prayer:

“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”

*Taken from National Community Church. Day Six.