Review. Last week I kicked off the Writing Life Challenge! The purpose of the challenge is to build an online community of people dedicated to encouraging each other daily and challenging each other to grow in our faith in Jesus. You can read more about my vision for the challenge here. Each day of the challenge has a bit of Bible-reading and prayer—and, ideally, communication with each other in the form of blog comments or Instagram posts using #writinglifeaugustchallenge.

On Day 1, the challenge topic was Thankfulness & Prayer.
On Day 2, the challenge topic was Praise & Prayer.
On Day 3, the challenge was Watchfulness & Prayer (my favorite so far!)
On Day 4, the challenge was Devotion & Prayer.

Today’s Inspiration. We’re continuing with the same verse for our inspiration, Colossians 4:2:

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. (NIV)

Now that we’ve intentionally practiced using prayer to be thankful, to praise God for who he is, and to be watchful, and now that we’ve explored what it means to devote ourselves to something, we’ll take a step backward. We’ll examine how to pray, and take instruction from the best person to teach us this: Jesus.

Today’s Challenge. First, prepare to read God’s word by praying: pray that God will quiet your mind, help you to concentrate, help you to understand, and teach you what he wants you to learn today. Then read one or both of the accounts of the Lord’s Prayer in the gospels: Matthew 6:5-15, Luke 11:1-13.

As you read, write down things you notice about how Jesus instructs us to pray. Then dedicate a few minutes trying to pray as he instructs us to.

Today’s Participation. What did you notice or learn about how to pray as you read through the Lord’s Prayer? Tell us! Write about it in the comments below, or visualize it and write about it in your own Instagram post using the hashtag #writinglifeaugustchallenge. (I’ll see all posts made on public accounts, but not private accounts.)