Tag Archives: When you pray

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Prayer, ,

THE LORD’S PRAYER

MATTHEW 6:9-13

Jesus sat down on the hillside;

His disciples gathered round;

He had many things to teach them —

Simple things, and yet profound.

“When you pray unto the Father,

Don’t be like the hypocrite,

For he loves to pray in public,

Wanting man’s praise, every bit.”

“Go into your inner chamber,

Close the door, pray secretly:

Talk to God, He is your Father;

He’ll reward sincerity.”

“For God knows you, He will answer

Every cry wrung from your heart;

He will give you grace and wisdom

As you quietly come apart.”

“God desires your submission,

For He knows your deepest need.

He will satisfy your longing

If you let Him take the lead.”

“Do not mutter like the heathen,

For they think they will be heard

For their mindless repetition,

Piling word on empty word!”

“Pray like this,” the Master told them,

“Come to God as He has shown,

Through the courts with adoration,

Boldly to His holy throne.”

“Let the words that I have taught you

Be the pattern for your prayer:

Simple words, yet as you pray them

God will meet and bless you there.”

“Abba, Father, dearest Daddy,

What a joy to come to you!

You’re a father to your children,

Ever faithful, ever true.”

“Can there be a heart more tender,

Overflowing with pure love?

Can there be a Dad that’s kinder

Than you, Father God above?”

“Let your rule of peace and justice

Grow and increase on the earth;

Let your kingdom come in power,

Bringing people to new birth.”

“As your will is done in heaven;

Holy angels haste to do

Gladly, joyfully, your bidding,

For they trust and honour you…”

“So, dear Father, let your people

Do your will down here on earth:

Let your glory, shining through us,

Mirror everywhere your worth.”

“Father, as I kneel before you,

Trusting you to meet my need,

Give me, daily, bread from heaven;

Body, soul and spirit feed.”

“Daddy, how I need forgiveness.

Wash me, cleanse me from my sin;

Let the precious blood of Jesus

Make me pure and whole within.”

“If I gladly free my brother

From the debt he owes to me,

Only then will your forgiveness

Take my debt and set me free.”

“Keep me from the hour of testing;

By myself I cannot stand.

Lest temptation’s lure ensnare me,

Hold me in your powerful hand.”

“Cover me with your protection;

Save me from the devil’s snare;

Keep my feet from slipping, stumbling:

Of his wiles make me aware.”

“Lord, to you belongs the kingdom;

Yours the pow’r, the glory too!

Joyfully I kneel in worship,

Lift your name and honour you.”

JESUS’ TEACHING ON PRAYER

Christian Life, ,

JESUS’ TEACHING ON PRAYER

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites….And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans….this then is how you should pray.” Matthew 6:5,7,8.

Although Jesus gives specific teaching on prayer, the whole of the Sermon on the Mount is interwoven with principles which apply to our prayer lives e.g., unforgiveness blocks our fellowship with God, as does a critical and judgmental spirit, broken relationships with people, greed, worry etc. and even our attitude to Jesus’ teachings. Since most of us learn to pray by listening to and copying other people, we need a complete mind shift about prayer.

In Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus clears the ground by using the illustration of two classes of people who had become role models for the ordinary people; religious people (whom He called “hypocrites”) and pagans (nationals or Gentiles).

Hypocrites (play actors) were people with more than one face, playing an assumed character to an audience. People who are praying to an audience are more aware of the people around them than of God. The antidote to people-awareness is solitude. Get away from people so that you can focus on God.

Gentiles were idol worshippers. Their problem was to get their gods to hear them. (e.g., Elijah and the prophets of Baal). Since their gods were deaf and dumb and without understanding, they had to use many words in their prayers.  Jesus called it “babbling” from the Greek word “to stutter”. We also easily fall into the trap of thinking that we must explain or repeat ourselves as though God were either deaf or retarded. Prayer is not about words. Prayer is about awareness.

Because we have the wrong idea about prayer, we think that the purpose for prayer is to make God aware of our needs. Words and needs are connected. We must use the right words to make sure God understands our needs. This concept of prayer is erroneous for two reasons. It ignores the fact the God is our Father, and it forgets that God knows our needs before we ask Him

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus teaches us how to view our needs. He said, “Take no thought…” This does not mean worry. It means do not allow thoughts to consume your mind to the exclusion of everything else. Your basic human needs are to be the concern of your Father, not yours.  You are of greater value than birds and flowers.  Let God fulfil His role as a true Father without your taking that from Him.

You are to have a different spirit from the Gentiles whose whole life is taken up with meeting their own needs. God’s way for us is to take care of the needs of others.  Then He will take care of our needs.

The first step in understanding what prayer is, is to recognise that prayer is not about words or needs but about becoming aware of God and moving into the environment of our Father’s knowledge and care of us. We should never approach our God in the same manner as the hypocrites or pagans who use their gods to suit their own ends. W come to our God one His terms as the great sovereign of the universe and we as His subjects.

PRAYER – NOT WORDS OR NEEDS

Christian Life, ,

PRAYER – NOT WORDS OR NEEDS

“And when you pray, do not keep 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).

Prayer is a part of most people’s lives. What is true prayer and what makes Christian prayer different from all other prayer?

In His preamble to what we know as “The Lord’s Prayer”, Jesus explained that prayer is not about performance, or about words or needs. If we take those three things out of our prayers, most of us will have nothing left! What did He mean? For the believer in Jesus, prayer arises from the invitation and the need to have fellowship with a loving heavenly Father. Prayer is not about trying to get God to do what we want or to meet our needs; it is about getting to know Him, worshipping Him and growing in our confidence in Him, that He is a holy, loving and good Father and that He keeps His promises. Prayer is, first, about changing our focus.

Jesus warned, “Don’t be like the hypocrites. Their prayers go no further than the street corners where they like to perform. That’s all the reward they will get.” Prayer is not a showcase to impress either God or our fellow pray-ers.

His next comment comes closer to home; “Don’t babble like the pagans.” Most of us are guilty of thinking that we must explain our needs to God or instruct Him in detail about what He must do. Does that make us any different from the pagans?

This brings us to what Jesus gave us as the heart of prayer; “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” If prayer is not about words or needs, what is it? Words and needs arise out of our all-controlling self-absorption. Our world is centred on us and our needs and wants. If all we do in prayer is make God aware of those needs and wants so that He will do something about them, we are no different from the rest of the world.

Jesus taught us that prayer is not about us but about God and our awareness of Him. He honours us with the invitation to be part of His big story and to take our place in the bigger picture. We can only become fully ourselves when we lose ourselves in His story. To pray, therefore is, first of all, to become more aware of God and who He is than of ourselves. Jesus put it this way, “Pray like this: Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Self-awareness shrinks our vision of God and places our focus on our needs. God-awareness opens us up to all He is and increases our confidence in who He is and what He can do.

So, when we pray, let’s start there. Let’s grow a big vision of God, our Father by gazing at Him. (LAC)

WHEN YOU PRAY

Christian Life, ,

WHEN YOU PRAY

‘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 men… And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words…” Matthew 6:5, 7.

“When you pray…” Once again Jesus assumed that His disciples would pray. As children of God and followers of Jesus, it is impossible to live our lives as He intends if we do not communicate regularly with Him. Unfortunately many of us have degraded prayer to nothing more than asking God for things or telling Him what to do, but that is not what prayer is about!

Firstly, we must understand that prayer is the privilege of God’s sons and daughters. In the model prayer Jesus taught His disciples, we are to address God as Father. That means that, unlike people who worship idols, we have a unique relationship with Him. Fathers care for and protect their children, and children submit to, obey and serve their fathers in preparation for their role as adults.

Jesus said we are not to use prayer to show off how “religious” we are. If all we want is people’s admiration, that’s all we will get.

Secondly, prayer is not about informing God, instructing Him or making demands of Him. God is God and we are not. He knows everything about us far better than we do. When we focus only on our needs and wants, we feed our selfishness. God wants us to be involved in much bigger things than our own little lives.  

If prayer is not about wants and needs, what is prayer?

  1. Prayer is worship.

Worship is about putting God where He belongs, in the centre of our lives. Instead of looking at God through all our issues and problems, we must stop and gaze at God first, who He is and where He is. Prayer is not about getting God to come into our world. It’s about stepping in His world where He is God Almighty, All-knowing, All-powerful, All-wise and All-loving. When we look at Him first, everything else will assume its right perspective.

  • Prayer is recognising our role in God’s kingdom.

God wants to rule over people’s hearts so that He can put righteousness and truth back where they belong in the world. He does it through us when we live in obedience to Him and share His message of love with the world. We are not here to get what we want and live for ourselves. We are here to show the world what God is like and to invite people back into His family as His dearly loved children.

  • Prayer is submitting ourselves to God to be changed into the likeness of Jesus.

We still have a long way to go before we resemble Jesus, our elder brother. Two things get in the way; our unwillingness to forgive and our selfishness and greed. Jesus knew that it is not the devil who is our real problem. We are. He taught us to pray that God would save us from ourselves. When we look at the things people do to offend us, we only see how big their offences are. He wants us to see how big God’s mercy is. Then we will forgive the little that people do against us because we have been forgiven much that we have done against God.

Do you pray? As a disciple of Jesus is it an honour and privilege to be intimate with God.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.