Character-driven prayer ∙
Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few. – Ecclesiastes 5:2
Matthew 6:8-10
8 Your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!
9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
10 May your Kingdom come soon. May your Will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
“Friday Night Lights” is an American sports drama television series. It follows the lives of a football-driven community in rural Texas. Set in the fictional town of Dillon, it portrays the dreams, ambitions, and challenges faced by relatable characters associated with the local high school football teams, the Dillon Panthers, and, in later seasons, the East Dillon Lions. The Dillon Panthers have earned a reputation as one of the nation’s premier high school football teams, led by their head coach, Eric Taylor, one of America’s best high school football coaches.
The series boldly shows heartfelt, authentic prayer, which enriches its authenticity and relevance. It presented people living out their faith, albeit somewhat imperfectly. It showcased how a godly man, although not an overtly religious one, could serve as a role model and mentor, a builder of character, a friend that sticks closer than a brother, with the moral compass to do what is right. His commitment and values are consistently reflected in his prayers.
In the series finale, “Always,” Coach Eric Taylor offers a prayer before the state finals. It’s a simple prayer. It is memorable because it does not focus on self-serving and self-aggrandizing victory. Instead, it focuses on talent and unity.
Dear Heavenly Father, keep us and protect us tonight. Please allow us to take the talents you have given us and use them to the very best this evening. As a family. As one. Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Coach Eric Taylor models character-driven prayer that focuses on maximizing abilities rather than short-term outcomes. His ultimate goal is to shape and develop people of character and integrity.
REFLECT & PRAY
Our commitment and values are seen through prayers.
Father my heart be right in Your own eyes. May prayers be more and more character-driven and reflective of a heart that is pleasing to You.
INSIGHT
What should be our attitude when we pray? How does it reflect our character and walk with the Father?
The Psalms offer many models. They are God-centered, not man-centered. They are character-driven. They overflow with thankfulness and gratitude. They highlight particular qualities of the Father that are attractive, desirable, and worthy of worship.
Psalms 107:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
Through the centuries, many have attempted to follow these models. They are often seen in prayers offered at mealtime.
The most ancient examples are the Jewish Brachot (Blessings) before eating.
Special Brachot – benedictions – are traditionally spoken in Hebrew before eating food or drinking any beverage.
Each benediction begins:
Baruch atah adonai elokeinu melech haolam
Blessed Are You, God, our Lord, King of the World.
The endings depend specifically on what is to be eaten or drunk:
For Bread:
… Hamotzie lechem myn ha’aretz.
Who brings forth bread from the ground.
For Wine & Grape juice:
…Boreiy pree hagafen.
Who creates the fruit of the vine.
The Common Table Prayer was first published in 1753 in a Moravian hymnal.
Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest and bless what you have bestowed.
There is also the Catholic Table Prayer.
Bless us, O Lord, And these thy gifts,
Which we are about to receive, from thy bounty,
Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
For small children
God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our food.
By His hands, we all are fed. Thank you, Lord, for our daily bread. Amen.
How can we develop a character-driven prayer life?
It all begins in our hearts. We must get them right with the Father.
Proverbs 16:7 When people’s lives please the LORD, even their enemies are at peace with them.
If our hearts are not right with the Father, what will happen?
Psalms 66:18 If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
The English word translated as regard comes from the Hebrew word roeh. Roeh is a common Hebrew word that means to see. Psalms 66:18a is literally translated as “If I had seen iniquity in my heart.”
It has thus been translated as “If I had cherished iniquity” (RSV), “If I had ignored my sins” (TEV), and “If I had not confessed” (NLT). Some translations take an even more pejorative tact. “If I had thought about (doing) evil” (TOB); “Had I an evil thought and in my mind” (NJV); and “If I had had wicked intentions” (FRCL). The sense is, “If I turned my head from my sins,” “If I had shut my eyes on the evil I had done,” and “If I had put deaf ears on my sins.”
The point is, if we don’t get it right about sins in our hearts, our prayers will not be right either. We are only deceiving ourselves if we think they are.
Psalms 66:18 states what would have happened if the psalmist had not been aware of and confessed his sins; God would not have listened to his prayer, that is, God would not have done what he had asked God to do” (UBS).
How do the children of the King get it right? Ask the Father to point out unknown sin within and confess it.
Psalms 139:24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Follow the advice of the Lord Jesus Christ on how to pray.
Matthew 6:5-7
6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
7 When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.
“If we refuse to admit to some sin, despite the conviction of the Holy Spirit on our heart, we can have no confidence in prayer and no right to expect a divine “yes.” God blesses obedience, not stubbornness” (Stanley).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 11-17-1
© Dr. H 2024
Dr H Reflections 
Thanks Dr H… this was a “GOODIE”!….. Psalm 139:23 & 24…..in TPT “strummms” my heart strings…. “God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I am walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way – – – the path that brings me back to you.”
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What a delightful translation.
I thought you might find this discussion helpful of the many of these words.
Thanks Dr H… this was a “GOODIE”!….. Psalm 139:23 & 24…..in TPT “strummms” my heart strings…. “God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I am walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way – – – the path that brings me back to you.”
Psalm 139:23–24
The psalm concludes with a prayer for Yahweh to search the psalmist and try him (that is, put him to the test) in order to discover if there is any wicked way in him.
The two lines of verse 23 are parallel and synonymous, but without intensification. This verse uses much of the language found in verse 1. My heart in line a is parallel with my thoughts in line b; the word translated thoughts is found elsewhere only in 94:19a. The repetition in verse 23 serves to emphasize how important the psalmist’s request is.
In verse 24 it is not certain what the word translated wicked means. Depending on which root it may have come from, it may mean either “injurious, hurtful” or “idol.” If taken in the first sense, it is to be decided whether the “hurt” is felt by God (so NEB “that grieves thee”) or by the psalmist (so other translations).
In support of the notion “idol” is the use of the word in Isaiah 48:5 in that sense, and the translation in the Targum; this is adopted by FRCL and Dahood. SPCL translates the line “See if I am walking the path of evil.” It seems best to understand the word to mean a sin, or fault, that is harmful to the psalmist.
In verse 24b the word translated everlasting may mean “ancient” (so NEB), as in Jeremiah 6:16; 18:15. The everlasting way is God’s way, the one he has set out for all time as the way his people should go.
Many languages will be able to maintain the parallel usage of wicked way and way everlasting, as do RSV and SPCL; “Look at me and see if I am going on the road that wicked people take; guide me on the road that leads to you” (as GECL has it).
Robert G. Bratcher and William David Reyburn, A Translator’s Handbook on the Book of Psalms, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1991), 1132–1133.
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