Why Your Mind Goes Blank
Lesson 1 of 6 · About 12 minutes
Why Your Mind Goes Blank
What is the four-line shape that gets me through any public prayer?
Four moves that Christians have used to pray aloud since the first church in Jerusalem, and why knowing them keeps your mind on God.
01
The question in front of us
Luke says that one of the disciples asked Jesus about prayer just after watching him pray: “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus did not give them a talk about prayer. He gave them words: “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.'” In Luke’s Gospel the whole prayer takes about half a minute to say aloud.
Being asked to pray in front of other people is harder than praying alone, because two things happen at once. You are speaking to God, and people are listening. The listeners pull at your attention. Jesus warned about one form of that pull, the people who “love to stand and pray” so “that they may be seen by men.” The same pull works on someone who only wants to get through it without embarrassment. In both cases the speaker’s attention has moved from God to the people.
A shape brings it back. When you know the four moves, you do not have to invent a prayer while people watch. You have four short lines to fill, and each one is addressed to God.
The short answer. Since the first church in Jerusalem, Christians have prayed aloud in a simple four-part shape. The prayer names God. It says one true thing about him. It asks for one thing. It closes in the name of Jesus, which also tells everyone when to say Amen. If you know those four moves before you stand up, you have something to say even when your mind goes blank, and each line you say points you back to God instead of to the people listening.
02 · Attend to Scripture
What is the four-line shape that gets me through any public prayer?
Now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.” When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:29–31 · World English Bible
03
The four moves
The first Christians in Jerusalem prayed aloud together soon after Peter and John were arrested and threatened. Luke gives the prayer in Acts 4. It opens by naming God and saying who he is: “O Lord, you are God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them.” It recalls what God had already said through David. It asks for one thing, the thing they needed that day: “grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness.” And it ends “through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.”
Those are the four moves, and you can use them for any occasion.
1. Name God
Begin by saying whom you are speaking to: “Father,” “Lord God,” “Lord Jesus,” “Almighty God.” It turns everyone in the room toward God, and it reminds you who is listening.
2. Say one true thing about him
Add a phrase about who God is or what he has done, chosen to fit the moment: “you made the heavens and the earth,” “you know what we need before we ask,” “you have brought us safely to this evening.” Scripture is the best place to find these, because its words are already true.
3. Ask for one thing
Ask for what this gathering needs: wisdom for a meeting, a blessing on a meal, comfort for a family. One request is enough. If you can say why you are asking, add it: “so that we…”
4. Close in Jesus’ name
Jesus told his disciples, “Whatever you will ask in my name, I will do it.” Christians have ended their prayers in his name ever since. A closing such as “through Jesus Christ our Lord” or “in Jesus’ name” also tells the room that the prayer is ending, so everyone knows when to say Amen.
Scripture
Acts 4:24–31
Lines
Four
Length
Under a minute
04
Four lines for an ordinary evening
Here is the shape filled in for a church committee meeting on a weeknight:
Four lines
Father, you know what we need before we ask. Give us wisdom tonight, and patience with each other, so that what we decide serves you and the people in our care. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
An opening prayer for a meeting
The first line names God and borrows a true thing from Jesus himself, who told his disciples, “your Father knows what things you need before you ask him.” The second and third lines make one request and say what it is for. The last line closes. Said slowly, it takes about twenty seconds.
Nothing in it is clever. What matters is that the room can follow it, because the people listening are meant to pray it with you. Paul made the same point to the church at Corinth, asking how someone listening could “say the ‘Amen’ at your giving of thanks, seeing he doesn’t know what you say?” A plain prayer is one that everyone present can say Amen to.
05 · Historical witness
The same shape in the Prayer Book
Churches that pray from written books have used this shape for centuries. Near the start of its service of Holy Communion, the Book of Common Prayer has a prayer it calls “The Collect.” Here it is as the American Prayer Book of 1928 prints it:
From the Book of Common Prayer, 1928
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Order for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion
“Almighty God” names him. “Unto whom all hearts are open” says one true thing, and it is a good thing to remember when you are nervous: God already knows what you mean to say. “Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts” is the one request, and “that we may perfectly love thee” is its purpose. “Through Christ our Lord” closes it. The whole prayer is one sentence.
06 · A question people ask
Isn’t a planned prayer less sincere than one from the heart?
Jesus did not think so. When his disciples asked him how to pray, he gave them words to say. The Psalms are written prayers too, and the Jerusalem church quoted one of them, Psalm 2, in the middle of the prayer in Acts 4.
What Jesus warned against was “vain repetitions” and the belief that people “will be heard for their much speaking.” Preparing four lines usually means you will say less, not more. It is a way of taking the people and the moment seriously. Sincerity is in meaning what you say, whether you thought of the words that morning or someone wrote them centuries ago.
07 · A practice for today
Write your four lines
Ten minutes
- Think of one real occasion when you might be asked to pray aloud: a meeting, a meal, a class.
- Write four lines for it on an index card or in the notes on your phone: name God, say one true thing about him, ask for one thing, close in Jesus’ name. Keep each line to one breath.
- Stand up and read it aloud twice, at the speed you would use in the room.
- Keep the card. Lesson 6 comes back to it.
A prayer before you pray aloud.
Lord, you gave your disciples words when they asked you.
Give me words when I am asked.
Keep my mind on you and my heart on the people in front of me,
and make what I say simple and true.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Sources and further reading
- World English Bible
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A., 1928), Standard Book printed by D. B. Updike, 1930: The Order for the Administration of the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion (1928)
Paintings
- Follower of Rembrandt van Rijn, An Elderly Man in Prayer, 1660s or later. Cleveland Museum of Art (1967.16), Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund. CC0 (Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access).
- Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), The Agony in the Garden, ca. 1504. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (32.130.1), Funds from various donors, 1932. CC0 (The Met Open Access).
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain.