“Let us strive to make the Lord’s Prayer our model and pattern in all our approaches to God. Let it suggest to us the sort of things which we should pray for and pray against. Let it teach us the relative place and proportion which we should give to each subject in our prayers. The more we ponder and examine the Lord’s Prayer, the more instructive and suggestive shall we find it to be.”
~ J.C. Ryle
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 2 , [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1998], 6, 7.
I’ve spent so long thinking about offensive prayer (what I want, need, want to see happen), that defensive prayer took me by surprise when I finally understood it. The idea of praying against temptation and backsliding takes a certain strength of desire for holiness. A desire for holiness that keeps us alert, even when all seems fine. It keeps us in defensive prayer, even when the enemy is not in sight.