When We Pray
What does your prayer life look like? Are you taking advantage of the access you have to God’s power through prayer? Jesus understood the power of prayer and the Bible records Him praying often. In Matthew 6:5-15, He taught His disciples how and what to pray, so they too could access the power that they saw in Him. Lord, help us to pray in the Father’s will for His power to operate fully in our lives. Amen.
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. 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. 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 6:5-8)
Jesus wants us (his disciples) to have a genuine relationship with the Father. When we go to Him to ask for what we need Him to do, our prayer should not be performative. We should not be focused on putting in a show for others, but our focus should be on connecting with personally with God. Jesus further made the point that the Father already knows what you need. Therefore, He is more interested in your heartfelt relationship with Him than what you say in your prayers.
“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)
Jesus’ model prayer begins with us having the proper reverence for God (hallow His name) and understanding our position relative to His (He’s above us). We ask that God’s will would be done (not just what we want). We ask God to supply our needs for this day (daily bread) so that we learn to depend on Him each day. And we ask God to have the same forgiveness for what we have done wrong against Him that we show to people who’ve done wrong to us. Finally, Jesus told us that we are to ask God to keep us from the temptation of the evil one and to deliver us from him (Satan).
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)
Jesus stressed the importance of forgiveness. He made it clear that our forgiveness from God is conditional upon our forgiveness of others who have sinned against us.
What a blessing we have from Jesus through this prayer. Through this response to his disciples’ query on how to pray, Jesus is still teaching us (His disciples) how to pray. He is still teaching us to approach the Father relationally and to recognize positionally that we must give honor and reverence to the Father. He is still teaching us to pray for God to help keep us from temptation and deliver us evil forces. He’s still teaching us to seek God daily for that which will sustain us in that day. He’s still teaching us about the necessity for us to forgive if we want God to forgive us. We have received from Jesus (the Master Teacher), the model for how we should approach God in prayer (reverence) and what we should ask for (His leading, guidance, provision, protection and forgiveness) on a daily basis. This model prayer has all of the essential elements we need in our prayers to the Father, and even though it is profound in its simplicity, it is loaded with spiritual power. Jesus has modeled the way for us to get beyond superficiality in our prayers…. so that when we pray, we can get to the real relationship and power that we need in our lives!
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
