Hey everyone! As usual, I pray that all is well and all will be well in your lives.
Jesus taught us how to pray in Matthew chapter 6 and Luke chapter 11. A lot of people refer to this as the lord’s prayer, but it really isn’t. The true lord’s prayer is when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. We will also study that prayer later as it too is important in teaching us how to pray.
In these chapters Jesus’ teachings on prayer starts before and continues after the famous text/prayer everyone is so familiar with: “Our Father in heaven…”. These entire passages are instructions on how to approach God the Father. Most importantly, prayer is not something that is rehearsed or a recital of words. As noted in the previous post, prayer is communication with God; you are having a conversation with Him. It’s insulting to Him to treat prayer like it’s some kind of chant, incantation or spell casting. And, this includes the words Jesus taught us to say!
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. — Matthew 6:7 (NIV)
I’m in no way telling you not to say them, but if you say them, they need to be understood and heart felt (are they your words or someone else’s) as you talk to God. If you just repeat them as a prepared text word for word when you kneel, you’re going to bore and annoy God. How would you feel if you were sitting down with the person you loved and instead of them talking to you, they started answering with chants and rehearsed speeches? Personally, not only would I get very annoyed, I’d probably leave. In God’s case He’s just ignore you.
Am I speaking for God? No, I’m speaking from experience. For prayer to be effective it needs to be sincere and come from the heart otherwise you are wasting both God’s and your time. It is more effective to have a 5-minute prayer from the heart where you get a hold of God than it is to sit for an hour rambling on. If you did not break through to God with your prayer then you need to do it again. What is it to break through? While or after you are done praying you should feel a weight lifted, clarity and/or peace about what you prayed for or being in communion with God.
To some this up, say what you truly have to say to God; do not say stuff just to say it. Also ask yourself the question: “why am I praying?”, and be honest with yourself. Don’t give an answer that you want to be right. Most people pray because they want something from God. Well, that’s literally what it’s for 🙂 But, it can be and is so much more: it’s a time of intimacy. Webster defines intimate as: “marked by a warm friendship developing through long association”.
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. — Matthew 6:6 (NIV)
“This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” –Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)
When Jesus said this is how you should pray, he gave us a template. Instead of just repeating the words, understand the meaning and purpose of each part. Again, it’s fine and I encourage you to say them in prayer, but it needs to be heartfelt.
When I read the prayer, I see five points:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”
This is an acknowledgment of who we are talking to. The first part is a softness and a personal familiarity, and the second part sets Him aside as the deity. At this point you should feel like you’re in the throne room before God. It’s scary to say “add to” when it comes to things from God, but in respect of this being a template, personally I start adding in my thanks and praise when I pray.
“your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
This part is both prophetic for the future, as well as submission for the redeemed. It is submission for the redeemed, because we should not only be living in His will/commandments, but our prayers should also be in-line with them. My personal addition to the template is more thanks and praise, but centered around salvation and redemption. This is also where I pray for others like you reading, my brothers and sisters in Christ, the souls of the unredeemed and the state of the world.
“Give us today our daily bread.”
God is a parent; He will provide for us. He knows what we need whether we ask for it or not. So, this sentence isn’t so much about making a petition to God, but it’s about sharing our concerns and feelings with him. He wants to know and hear about ALL the details going on in your life directly from you. In my personal template, this is where I start praying from myself. As I pray, I keep in mind that I need spiritual bread. It’s fine to ask for material things, but it’s more important to have spiritual ones.
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Not only is this point very clear, it’s also something that we need to take action on beforehand and come prepared. Asking for forgiveness from God is easy and simple (if sincere), but it is 100% shut down if we do not forgive others. In fact, the entire prayer can be shut down. Do not minimize this portion of the prayer! Jesus ended the teaching singling out and talking about this part.
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. — Matthew 6:14-15 (NIV)
I pray formally at least twice a day: in the morning when I wake up and before I go to bed. This part is most important to me at the end of my day. While I don’t go around blatantly committing sin, I’m still human and therefore not perfect. There may have been something I did wrong or a person I wronged during the day. I reflect on that and ask God for His forgiveness if there is, and most of all to reveal it to me so I can make it right; that’s the true repentance.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
This sentence has been the crux of the prayer for so many people. God cannot lead us into temptation, yet Jesus says it here. To best understand this last point, you have to refer back to the second point: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.
This last point is asking God to guide and keep us in his perfect will and not let the flesh take over or rise up, which the devil will absolutely attempt to use. That is God can give you something that you ask for, but how will you handle it? If in the natural God gave you a ton of money, would you pay your tithes and an offering on it? Would you feel independent from God and thus have a rift, because of the comfort it would bring? Or if spiritually He were to give you a gift, insight or revelation would you be puffed up in pride? Would you become self-righteous, a bigot or fanatical because of it. God will give these things to us if they are in his will, because we ask him. However, it is still up to us to ask for his guidance and help in managing them so that they do not corrupt us.
Now, I beg of you, if this is the only thing you remember from this post, DO NOT make prayer a chore! If you feel forced to pray or drag your feet to do it you will burn out. Please do not confuse that with not knowing how or what to pray for. You should always have some kind of craving to be alone with God even if you don’t have anything to say. It is in that time of craving where you will get the best results from your prayers. If during that time you only said: “Thank you for this day” and “Please help me through this day”, it would be more effective than sitting for an hour doing a prayer as a task.
Take the template Jesus gave us and fill it in with the deepest yearnings from your heart.
May God bless and keep all who read this.
May God bless and keep all brothers and sisters, new and old, in the faith in his name.
With his love and mine,
Chrom
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For something even more in depth, the late Kathryn Kuhlman had a great series on the “The Lord’s Prayer”. You can find the series here: