The Lord's Prayer

Have you ever had some much to pray about you simply don't know where to start, or a heart so heavy that it's impossible to find the words necessary to lift things up to the Lord?  God knew that would happen!  So He gave us this simple prayer:

  9 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
 11 Give us this day our daily bread.
 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The Lord's Prayer, King James Version (KJV) Matthew 6:9-13

I was in a life threatening situation with my three young children once.  There was no safe way out.  The only thing that came to mind was this prayer - and I prayed it over and over and over until help came - through a very different stranger.   I must have witnessed to him, though I don't remember ever using any particular words.  Turns out, he was being indicted for a white collar crime and spent a couple of years in jail.  One evening the phone rang and his mother introduced herself.  She said that he had just committed suicide, but had asked her to find me if anything happened to him, and to let me know.  I was stunned, to say the least, about the news, and that our chance encounter several years before had left such an impression.  I believe God's hand was in it all, and that it was God who witnessed to him somehow through me.

The Lord's prayer is a powerful, powerful prayer.  They are God's own words, so of course they'd be powerful!  But they are ours to use when our own minds fail us.  They are so familiar that it's like a healing balm when they are said out loud.  These words say it all...