Before technology became ‘the’ way to communicate, face to face exchange and personal, handwritten messages managed to hold an ever-expanding society together for millennia. The spoken word was invaluable. The handwritten word, a close second. Both have been employed extensively as prayer testament and personal record of mankind’s relationship with God down through the ages. The honesty and intensity we encounter in historic prayers can still help us, today, in creating freedoms in, and developing habits of, prayer for ourselves.

1.    A few words from those gone before us:

1.    Martin Luther (1483-1546) – a _______________________________ road

•    Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) – first and _________________________

•    Agnes Sanford (1897-1982) – a pair of ____________________________

•    André Louf (1929-2010) – superabundance _______________________

•    A sampling of 3,000-year-old prayers:

1.    Psalm 31- deeply hidden, _____________________________________________

•    Psalm 46 – powerful help, _____________________________________________

•    Psalm 116 – compassionate listening, __________________________________