HOW TO PRAY
Let's clear up one thing quickly. Jesus is not here insisting that we recite this passage word for word on a regular basis. He is not teaching “what” to pray, He is teaching us “How” to pray. So He's not giving us a rote script to read, as some churches do.
Matthew 6:9-15
[9] “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
First and foremost, Jesus wants us praying to our Father. We need to remember our relationship. We worship Him, not the other way around. We need to begin prayer by remembering who He is. We enter this prayer relationship as His children, in a worshipful loving manner. We can be bold in prayer without being disrespectful. So we come in prayer remembering who He is, where He is and we do so in humble reverence as He is our creator.
[10] ‘ Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
The second part of our prayer is a humble submission to His will. It is a form of Jesus’ prayer, “Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” Many times in prayer we come to God convinced that what we want is synonymous with God's will because naturally, He would want what we do. But sometimes the “good” we pray for is not what He wants. Jesus hoped in the garden that if there were some way to attain His Father's will without going through the agony of the cross that that is what He desired. But the answer was no.
Sometimes the answer is no because God has another in mind for the task. Sometimes the answer is no because the timing isn't right. But for whatever the reason, we should submit. Our prayer being, “Lord, I want to accomplish this for you, Nevertheless not what I want but what you want.
[11] ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
We are His children and have the right to ask for daily sustenance. Note this is after we have prayed for His will to be done. Our Father knows what we need and there's no reason we should be shy or wary about asking for it. The problem is that there's been two generations of spoiled kids who grew up incapable of distinguishing the difference between a WANT and a NEED. And these spoiled individuals spend all their time blaming God when a WANT is not met immediately.
[12] ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
One of the main issues with people in today's churches is the concept of going to God thinking they have no debts because they lived right. The truth is we all are indebted to God for what He's done for us and in living our Christian lives we forget to extend the same forgiveness that we received to others.
As my New Testament professor, Glenn Bourne would say frequently, “The gospel is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” When we come to God in prayer we need to remember that the debts we owed are forgiven, so we too should extend that forgiveness to even those who owe us personally.
[13] ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. ’
Remember this, God knows our hearts. Satan doesn't. Satan is ever present in our prayer lives. He is bringing memories of the way you used to live. He is condemning you, tempting you away from God's presence. Individually, we don't have the power to resist. If we come into every temptation or test under our own power, we will fail. But with God's power we cannot fail. Jesus is telling us to pray in His name to avoid temptation. But not only to avoid the temptation, but to perhaps escape those temporary consequences our sin brings into our lives.
14] For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Uh-oh.
[15] But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.
Yeah He really said that. If we go to God in prayer and yet withhold forgiveness from someone who hurt us, do we ever consider the things we have done to hurt others? Or what we did to God?
Because here Jesus is telling us that if we don't forgive others, God won't forgive us. That might be a problem for those who just refuse to forgive others for whatever reason, because that's not an option for us. And you may ask yourself, what if I can't?
What if I can't forgive the drunk who killed my family member(s)? What if I can't forgive my attacker? God knows about your struggle, TELL HIM! End your prayers with “Lord, I don't believe I have the heart to forgive him/her. Please give me the power to do so because I don't believe I can. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”
Let's clear up one thing quickly. Jesus is not here insisting that we recite this passage word for word on a regular basis. He is not teaching “what” to pray, He is teaching us “How” to pray. So He's not giving us a rote script to read, as some churches do.
Matthew 6:9-15
[9] “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
First and foremost, Jesus wants us praying to our Father. We need to remember our relationship. We worship Him, not the other way around. We need to begin prayer by remembering who He is. We enter this prayer relationship as His children, in a worshipful loving manner. We can be bold in prayer without being disrespectful. So we come in prayer remembering who He is, where He is and we do so in humble reverence as He is our creator.
[10] ‘ Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
The second part of our prayer is a humble submission to His will. It is a form of Jesus’ prayer, “Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” Many times in prayer we come to God convinced that what we want is synonymous with God's will because naturally, He would want what we do. But sometimes the “good” we pray for is not what He wants. Jesus hoped in the garden that if there were some way to attain His Father's will without going through the agony of the cross that that is what He desired. But the answer was no.
Sometimes the answer is no because God has another in mind for the task. Sometimes the answer is no because the timing isn't right. But for whatever the reason, we should submit. Our prayer being, “Lord, I want to accomplish this for you, Nevertheless not what I want but what you want.
[11] ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
We are His children and have the right to ask for daily sustenance. Note this is after we have prayed for His will to be done. Our Father knows what we need and there's no reason we should be shy or wary about asking for it. The problem is that there's been two generations of spoiled kids who grew up incapable of distinguishing the difference between a WANT and a NEED. And these spoiled individuals spend all their time blaming God when a WANT is not met immediately.
[12] ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
One of the main issues with people in today's churches is the concept of going to God thinking they have no debts because they lived right. The truth is we all are indebted to God for what He's done for us and in living our Christian lives we forget to extend the same forgiveness that we received to others.
As my New Testament professor, Glenn Bourne would say frequently, “The gospel is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” When we come to God in prayer we need to remember that the debts we owed are forgiven, so we too should extend that forgiveness to even those who owe us personally.
[13] ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. ’
Remember this, God knows our hearts. Satan doesn't. Satan is ever present in our prayer lives. He is bringing memories of the way you used to live. He is condemning you, tempting you away from God's presence. Individually, we don't have the power to resist. If we come into every temptation or test under our own power, we will fail. But with God's power we cannot fail. Jesus is telling us to pray in His name to avoid temptation. But not only to avoid the temptation, but to perhaps escape those temporary consequences our sin brings into our lives.
14] For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Uh-oh.
[15] But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.
Yeah He really said that. If we go to God in prayer and yet withhold forgiveness from someone who hurt us, do we ever consider the things we have done to hurt others? Or what we did to God?
Because here Jesus is telling us that if we don't forgive others, God won't forgive us. That might be a problem for those who just refuse to forgive others for whatever reason, because that's not an option for us. And you may ask yourself, what if I can't?
What if I can't forgive the drunk who killed my family member(s)? What if I can't forgive my attacker? God knows about your struggle, TELL HIM! End your prayers with “Lord, I don't believe I have the heart to forgive him/her. Please give me the power to do so because I don't believe I can. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”
HOW TO PRAY
Let's clear up one thing quickly. Jesus is not here insisting that we recite this passage word for word on a regular basis. He is not teaching “what” to pray, He is teaching us “How” to pray. So He's not giving us a rote script to read, as some churches do.
Matthew 6:9-15
[9] “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
First and foremost, Jesus wants us praying to our Father. We need to remember our relationship. We worship Him, not the other way around. We need to begin prayer by remembering who He is. We enter this prayer relationship as His children, in a worshipful loving manner. We can be bold in prayer without being disrespectful. So we come in prayer remembering who He is, where He is and we do so in humble reverence as He is our creator.
[10] ‘ Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
The second part of our prayer is a humble submission to His will. It is a form of Jesus’ prayer, “Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” Many times in prayer we come to God convinced that what we want is synonymous with God's will because naturally, He would want what we do. But sometimes the “good” we pray for is not what He wants. Jesus hoped in the garden that if there were some way to attain His Father's will without going through the agony of the cross that that is what He desired. But the answer was no.
Sometimes the answer is no because God has another in mind for the task. Sometimes the answer is no because the timing isn't right. But for whatever the reason, we should submit. Our prayer being, “Lord, I want to accomplish this for you, Nevertheless not what I want but what you want.
[11] ‘Give us this day our daily bread.
We are His children and have the right to ask for daily sustenance. Note this is after we have prayed for His will to be done. Our Father knows what we need and there's no reason we should be shy or wary about asking for it. The problem is that there's been two generations of spoiled kids who grew up incapable of distinguishing the difference between a WANT and a NEED. And these spoiled individuals spend all their time blaming God when a WANT is not met immediately.
[12] ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
One of the main issues with people in today's churches is the concept of going to God thinking they have no debts because they lived right. The truth is we all are indebted to God for what He's done for us and in living our Christian lives we forget to extend the same forgiveness that we received to others.
As my New Testament professor, Glenn Bourne would say frequently, “The gospel is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” When we come to God in prayer we need to remember that the debts we owed are forgiven, so we too should extend that forgiveness to even those who owe us personally.
[13] ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. ’
Remember this, God knows our hearts. Satan doesn't. Satan is ever present in our prayer lives. He is bringing memories of the way you used to live. He is condemning you, tempting you away from God's presence. Individually, we don't have the power to resist. If we come into every temptation or test under our own power, we will fail. But with God's power we cannot fail. Jesus is telling us to pray in His name to avoid temptation. But not only to avoid the temptation, but to perhaps escape those temporary consequences our sin brings into our lives.
14] For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Uh-oh.
[15] But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses.
Yeah He really said that. If we go to God in prayer and yet withhold forgiveness from someone who hurt us, do we ever consider the things we have done to hurt others? Or what we did to God?
Because here Jesus is telling us that if we don't forgive others, God won't forgive us. That might be a problem for those who just refuse to forgive others for whatever reason, because that's not an option for us. And you may ask yourself, what if I can't?
What if I can't forgive the drunk who killed my family member(s)? What if I can't forgive my attacker? God knows about your struggle, TELL HIM! End your prayers with “Lord, I don't believe I have the heart to forgive him/her. Please give me the power to do so because I don't believe I can. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.”
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