Today in my Bible study I was reminded that God’s people in the Old Testament would pray the Shema (Deut. 6:4-9) twice a day at 9:00am and 3:00pm.

You may recognize those times as the morning and evening sacrifices. You may also recognize those times as when Jesus was put on the cross and then died on the cross.

The early church continued this practice by adding the Lord’s Prayer to their routine.

What stands out to me about the prayer in this season of my life are the words “we”, “us”, and “our”. The prayer was meant for community. Even if you were alone at the times of the prayers, you could know other believers were praying along with you.

After a few years, the early church added in the 12:00pm prayer time.

9:00am, 12:00pm, 3:00pm

Those are the same times I put on my phone alarm this past year to remind me to stretch my hamstrings. My chiropractor made me do it. She says I’m woefully tight. My coworkers knew what it meant when my alarms would go off. Sometimes you could hear “Stretch!” from another room in the office.

I think now it’s time I added the Lord’s Prayer to my stretch time. My prayer life needs more stretching anyway. Will you join me?