Monthly Archives: October 2025

A WALK THROUGH THE LORD’S PRAYER – 4

Prayer, ,

Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“…Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

‭‭

As in His own life, so Jesus taught His disciples that their first consideration should be the Father’s business…His kingdom and His will. Prayer, after all, is His idea and is about Him. Our wants, needs, and human frailties must always take second place to His will and purposes. 

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭33‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We start with the bigger picture. God’s design was to create a place for the crown of His creation, humans, to live and to serve their apprenticeship for their ultimate role as co-heirs with Jesus and co-rulers of the planet. His plan was to join earth with heaven, so that He could always be with His family in union and communion. 

Although the first man blew God’s intention out of the water, God had already devised a rescue plan before the disaster happened. He planned that humans would work with Him to restore the earth to its original purpose, and to restore His image in the people on it, by conforming them to the image of His Son and His pattern for living. 

Prayer is God’s chosen way of communication between the Father and His sons and daughters.  Through our Mediator, Jesus, and our Helper, the Holy Spirit, and the many facets of prayer…worship, adoration, meditation, intercession, petition, etc…that enable us to draw near to God, He plants His seed, His word…His promises…in our spiritual “womb”. Through our faith and patience, He brings them to birth in His time and in His way. 

God always works through His word, and He guarantees that His word will always accomplish His purposes. He uses our declaration of His word in our prayers as a bridge between heaven and earth to carry out His will on earth. 

God values this partnership in prayer since it is His way of including His family in His redemptive work on earth. As we recognise, acknowledge, and submit to His authority, we bring to Him, in prayer, the issues that concern us in our “world” of circumstances and events. 

He gives us, in response, His solution, His word which is the expression of His will. Now let’s look at the Scriptures that show us how this works. 

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

‭‭2 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This is God’s blueprint for prayer. His promises are His way of telling us what His will is and what He plans to do. How do we implement His plans on earth?

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Amen” means “Let it be as you have said.” Can you see how simple God has made it for us to partner with Him? He speaks His promises in heaven…He authorises us to speak His promises on earth…and His word does the work on earth through two agencies…

His power, 

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4‬:‭12‬-‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

And our participation, 

“Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

‭‭James‬ ‭5‬:‭14‬-‭16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did you get the impact of James’ final statement?

Prayer…powerful and effective…speaking God’s word to accomplish His will on earth.  However, the key to this transfer is faith!  

Now, Jesus told us, in a nutshell, how to transfer heaven’s will to earth’s needs by the bridge of His spoken word. 

“The Lord gives the word, and a great army brings the good news.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭68‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak,”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What a world of possibilities, adventures, miracles, is contained in Jesus’ simple prayer. When we 

harness God’s word as Jesus taught His disciples to do, God releases His power on earth to move His redemptive plan forward wherever

A WALK THROUGH THE LORD’S PRAYER – 2b

Prayer, ,

“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Before we move on to the next facet of this prayer, we need to look more closely at the words Jesus used and their impact on His disciples. 

“Our Father” immediately connected the disciples with one another on a new level. They were much more than a group of individuals chosen by Jesus to walk with Him. They were family! 

In Jesus’ words, He stated God’s intention, before time began, to have a family… sons and daughters resembling Him…living and working together with Him to administer His earth under His authority. 

This meant that they would enjoy the bonds of family love and family unity in their allegiance and submission to a loving Father. “Fellowship” was what this family was all about. 

“We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This fellowship with the Father would be brought about by the Holy Spirit in them, centred in Jesus, and experienced within the circle of the Trinity. Maintained by honesty and transparency with one another, their love and unity would tell the world that Jesus had come from the Father to set things back in order on earth. 

“…In heaven…” speaks of the reconnection between heaven and earth. Adam’s defection had shattered the oneness God had planned. His spirit realm is everywhere since God cannot be confined to any particular space, but humans have lost that awareness and live as though God does not exist. 

“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭23‬:‭23‬-‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

David clearly stated God’s intention…

“…What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels (“God”, the original meaning), and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭8‬:‭4‬-‭6‬, ‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Bible is the story of everything God has done to restore that connection so that He and His people can live in fellowship and function as one in His universe. 

Revelation reveals the end of the story. 

“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭21‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In Jesus’ prayer, then, we are constantly reminded that God functions in a realm that is all around, as near to us as our breath, but separated from us by our fallen humanity. We draw near to Him as we acknowledge who He is, our Father, who we are, His human family, and where we function, our earth joined to His heaven to do His will on earth as it is done in heaven. 

A WALK THROUGH THE LORD’S PRAYER – 2a

Prayer, ,

I used to think, when I was much younger, that Jesus taught His disciples to pray a prayer in the secret place instead of showing off in public like the Pharisees or babbling like the pagans. 

As a lonely teenager, I prayed the Lord’s Prayer in a hotel room, first, because my family was without a home while our new home was being built and, second,  because I didn’t know how else to pray… and God answered my prayer by saving me a few weeks later! So, that’s what I prayed as a new believer, but I dutifully prayed the Lord’s Prayer like a recitation, as often as I remembered, which wasn’t that often, I must admit.

However, I have come to realise, as I have grown in my knowledge and understanding of prayer, that Jesus didn’t say, “Pray this,” but He did say, “Pray like this.”

“This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This is a “pattern” prayer, with great truths expressed in seed form, each new thought loaded with the truth that grows, like a seed, as we meditate and pray each thought. 

Let’s start at the beginning. 

“Our Father in heaven…” Imagine the reaction of the disciples to this simple address. They would have been raised on the prayers recorded in the Tanach, and particularly in the Psalms which were the personal expressions of faith and cries for help written down for posterity. Their prayers were mostly the repetition of the prayers of others. 

To utter a simple two-word address to the great God of heaven must have been unfamiliar to them, to say the least! To address God as Father would have been equally unfamiliar.  

One of Jesus’ purposes on earth was to teach His people to know God as Father. John’s gospel, in particular, is peppered with this truth that God is our Father and we are His children by the miracle of new birth…and by faith in Him, Jesus!

Again, Jesus has also come to reconcile the Father’s children to the Himself through His death. 

Look at this !

One of the first things Jesus said to Mary after His resurrection was…

“Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

‭‭John‬ ‭20‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Brothers…my Father and your Father…the status of the disciples had radically changed. As the writer to the Hebrews explained…

“Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In the dispensation of the Old Covenant, and especially in the ritual worship of the tabernacle/ temple, a holy God could only be approached through sacrifice and  the priesthood as the people’s representatives. His people prayed to Him, yes, but in the awareness that He was not obligated to answer because of their sin. In fact, on many occasions, God refused to answer their prayers because they stubbornly defied and disobeyed Him. 

“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What, then, had made the difference between the then and the now? Was Jesus saying that His people were entering a new dispensation when they would no longer need to go through animal sacrifice and human mediators to reach God… that He would no longer be to them a far-off deity but a loving Father? 

What would happen to make the difference to them in this life-changing transfer from Old to New Covenant?

Again, the writer to the Hebrews gives us the answer…

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭19‬-‭22‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Did you notice the words, “confidence” and “full assurance”? The disciples, at that moment, when Jesus uttered those words, “our Father in heaven”, were still under the  old dispensation but He was introducing them to a new status. They were standing on the threshold of a radically transforming event. The God who had held them at arm’s length, so it seemed to them, was in fact, the God who embraced them as sons and held them close to His heart because of His own Son. 

All barriers had been destroyed. The debt of sin was paid. They could step right up to God’s throne, in the heavenly realm He reigns over as King of His kingdom, and  whisper, “Abba, Father!” and be heard. 

A WALK THROUGH THE LORD’S PRAYER – 1b

Prayer, ,

Jesus’ first warning, in the preamble to His pattern prayer, was not to pray for attention, for people’s reward, but to pray in secret for the Father’s reward…

“And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV

His second warning was not to babble like pagans. This is more than using many words in prayer. Prayer, of necessity, is expressed in words, as one rabbi said, “Prayer without words in not prayer because being human involves speech.” God hears our “thought prayers” but our problem is that our thoughts are often random and wandering. 

There are two problems associated with pagan prayers. 

First, true prayer is the expression of a relationship between  a Father and His children. Pagan prayer is a delusion because no such relationship exists between gods and people. 

Second, pagans use words in prayer as mantras, believing that their god will hear them if they mutter the same words repeatedly, for example…like praying the rosary. 

Jesus said, ”Don’t do that because you are talking to a real heavenly Father who knows everything about you without your saying a word.“ 

However, this warning goes even deeper. The pagans’ mantras are about their preoccupation with “things”. Without God, material and physical things in life matter most because things take up all the attention of godless people.  Again, Jesus said, 

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” 

Matthew 6:31-42 NIV

The real issue is…our prayers must be concerned with what is most important to the Father and what He has mandated us to do on earth…

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭31‬-‭33‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Everything else about us comes under the banner of a father’s responsibility towards his children.  A normal child never nags a parent about the next meal even if the fridge and the pantry are empty. He entrusts that concern to his parents. So, Jesus said, “Take care of God’s business and He will take care of yours.”

Notice, however, the order of Jesus’ promise…The Father doesn’t initiate our obedience, He reciprocates to our faith in who He is. If we consistently trust Him to be father, and submit to His authority, He will act as a good father, meeting all our needs. 

A WALK THROUGH THE LORD’S PRAYER – 1a

Prayer, ,

I think that most nations or cultural groups within a nation have some overriding issue, characteristic, or consideration  that controls their lives or that occupies their attention. Take Israel in Jesus’ day, for example…

Israel was a religious nation, with their leaders being representatives of their religious system, but with pagan influences because of its occupation by Rome, a pagan nation. 

How did this play out in their daily lives? The temple and temple worship, together with its rituals and sacrifices, played a central role in the beliefs and behaviour of its leaders and which filtered down to the ordinary people. 

The Jews were traditionally God’s covenant people. They had a history of rebellion and disobedience to the covenant which bound them to the God who had rescued them from Egyptian slavery and had led and settled them in their own Promised Land. However, they failed to honour the terms of His covenant. 

After centuries of conflict between themselves and their God, their religion had become one of rule and ritual with little heart, exemplified by their rulers, the scribes and Pharisees. The people were expected to follow their leaders slavishly and, when they didn’t, they were “cancelled” in the eyes of their superiors. 

Jesus came to restore to them the reality of the God who loved them, who was a Father to them, and who wanted a relationship with them as His sons and daughters. He hated the hypocrisy of their leaders who taught one thing but did the opposite. He set out to correct their belief system by teaching and modelling the truth of a Father/Son relationship. 

Jesus’ first task was to teach His disciples about the way His kingdom would operate on earth. He had to dispel the false beliefs that had crept into the minds and lifestyles of His people through the control of their religious teachers and leaders.

Matthew’s version of “the Sermon on the Mount”, recorded in Matthew 5 to 7, is a sample of the way Jesus taught His disciples to live as God’s family under His rule. He had to correct “Halakah” –  the way to behave based on the Talmud which regulated the lives of the people. 

“In simple terms, the Talmud is the central and authoritative text of Rabbinic Judaism, a vast collection of Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, and lore that serves as a guide for Jewish life. It is composed of the Mishnah, a codification of oral laws, and the Gemara, which is a commentary and elaboration on the Mishnah and the rabbis’ discussions about it.” (Source: Google)

For the ordinary Jew, life had become burdensome and almost impossible to live under the religious system their leaders imposed on them.  

Jesus offered them His alternative, His yoke, …., a life of rest and freedom from suffocating rules by trusting Him and following His way….

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

…in place of the heavy religious and heartless yoke of the Pharisees. 

How would Jesus, the Son of God, initiator and representative of a new covenant in which prayer was to be the centre of their experience of God, set the record straight? 

Through the mystery and miracle of prayer, personally interacting with their Heavenly Father, they would get to know Him. They would throw off the burdensome, man-made laws imposed on them. They would learn to partner with Him in the administration of His heavenly rule which Jesus had come to restore. 

The first step was to correct the wrong practices of Pharisees and pagans. 

The Pharisees loved to be noticed, their obedience to the law acknowledged and praised. They were the model for the ordinary people and revelled in the attention they received. 

So, Jesus warned…

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus used the terms ”Pharisees” and “hypocrites” interchangeably because that was what they were… play actors who wore masks to hide their true identity. 

“That’s not the way to receive your Father’s reward,” said Jesus. Man’s reward is empty and worthless… God always rewards those who pray with the right attitude and motive…

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11‬:‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, according to Jesus, God rewards the sincere prayer of His children, directed in faith to Him, obviously by answering us, but it’s much more than that…

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

‭‭John‬ ‭15‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Fruit! Union with Jesus bears fruit. What kind of fruit? 

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The character of Jesus produced by the Holy Spirit, becomes woven into our lives as we gaze at Him…

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

 …which is exactly God’s purpose…

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭29‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, if we pray only to impress people, that’s all the reward we will get!

To be continued…