|
Christ, having been asked by
His disciples how to pray, gave them an outline of a way
that they could use to formulate a prayer. People refer
to it as the Lord's prayer, but it rightly is an example
of how we can structure our prayers. Jesus gave this
prayer to His disciples when asked how they should pray.
Matt 6:5-9 states that we should not pray
as the hypocrites do,
for their only reason for prayer is to try to impress
worldly people. They do this by standing on street
corners and in churches, praying out loud for others to
hear. Instead we are instructed to go into an inner room
and shut the door behind us. This would mean we then
have private prayer with God and God only.
By us praying with open
minds and hearts, praying to God asking not only for the
blessings for others but for ourselves, God sees all and
knows all. He looks into our hearts and minds where He
finds our true motives.
Therefore to pray in vain repetitions, as the heathens
do, is an abomination in the sight of God. The people
that do this type of open display of fruitlessness only
makes a fool of themselves. They do their best to
impress those around them for they think that they shall
be heard because they talk and talk with as many words
as they can conger up trying to impress those who are in
ear shot of them. They are saying look at me, I am good
and I know this and that. God sees their frivolous
attempts to impress others. God will reward accordingly.
Even before we ask, God knows what we need and even what
we are going to say next. It has been our experience
that often God has seen our hearts and answered our
prayers before we even pray for them aloud to our
Father.
We need to keep in mind what
John 14:15 tells us. It tells us if we keep His
commandments, that is a
sign that we
love Him. We know that
God cannot look on sin. Therefore as we are all sinners
and we deserve nothing. We cannot
earn the right to be called His child.
The only way to approach Him is through His Son
Jesus Christ who's blood was shed for our sins past,
present and future, admitting to Jesus that we are
sinners asking for forgiveness for our sins, pleading to
Jesus to come into our hearts and take control of our
lives. We will not be denied this appeal, for this is
what God wants us all to do. When we have done this
simple act of obedience, God then gives us the Holy
Spirit to live within us forever. The Holy Spirit
encourages us to do the things that will help the rest
of His children. God does not force us to do anything
for He wants us all to come to Him through His Son Jesus
Christ.
One of the things God has
given us is a free will, meaning we can choose what we
will do. We can elect to follow the path He has laid out
for us in His word, the path that leads to eternal life
in His companionship, where we find peace and are free
from pain and suffering; or we may chose to follow the
path of destruction that leads to Hell and everlasting
pain and suffering in the lake of fire.
Most of us feel that we are
lacking in the area of prayer. We may feel clumsy as we
approach our God,
as to what we
should say. Most of the time if we would just tell God
what is on our hearts and in our mind, that is what He
wants to hear. Even though God knows
before we ask what is best for us, He still wants us to
ask. The prayers of most of us will
start out with petitioning for something that we want.
Too many of us begin with our selfish goals. We seem to
center around I, I or me, me. We are looking to gain
something, normally some worldly cravings. When we go to
God in prayer we should begin with appeals of
intercessions, not only for ourselves but for others
first. Our goal should be to serve. We are told in
Matthew 28:19-20, one of Jesus Christ's last
commandments before His ascension to be at the right
hand of the Father was to go and make disciples of all
the nations. We are to baptize them in the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The verse speaks to us saying we are to observe all of
His commandments. He ends this statement with a most
important thing, telling us that is He will be with us
always.
God has given us, through
His Son Jesus Christ, the only way to the prevention of
our sins. That is life in Jesus.
Then we are not condemned to eternal Hell that awaits
those who reject Him. We should pray from our hearts.
Even Jesus, when seeking help from
the Father prayed as we see in John 6:11. Jesus took the
five barley loaves after He had given thanks to the
Father, Jesus distributed the loaves among the people.
Jesus displayed an act of
faith right in front of us setting an example to us.
Matthew 21-22 tells us that all things we ask for, when
we believe, will be given to us. We need to note here
that the key word is believing without being doubtful of
the outcome. We also observe that we are to include in
our prayer our own needs and desires. And pardon us for
our debts, as we too have forgiven our debtors. Matthew
6:12.
Do we want to be treated the
same way we treat others? Think hard, do we always treat
others the way we claim? How about sister Jane who is
overweight. Do we point a finger at
her, or brother Donald who never dresses the way we
think he should? Just what are our hang-ups? You know
what is being said here. Are
we the one that is always looking
for faults in others? Some comments I have heard from
people who are looking at others are, wow, are they ever
heavy. There they go again lighting cigarettes. Don't
they know that the body is the dwelling place of the
Holy Spirit? Often times they are speaking over their
own enormous waistline. Just because we may have
overcome that particular flaw in our life does not mean
that others are bad.
Jesus gave four instructions
to guide us in our praying. We must pray earnestly from
the bottom of our hearts. If we should repeat a prayer
over and over again that does not always make it an
ineffective prayer. It would be if we are just blurting
out words for the sake of making sounds. See Matthew 26:
36-48 where Jesus Himself repeated prayers. Paul
repeated his petition. See Corinthians 12:7-8. An appeal
to God is only vain repetition of words when it is a
conglomeration of words or memorized prayers. See 1
Kings 18:26. The mere reciting of memorized prayers can
be vain repetition. The Gentiles had such prayers in
their pagan ceremonies. A prayer request becomes a vain
repetition if it is only a babbling of words without a
sincere heart's desire to seek and do God's will.
It is our Lord's prayer, it
is of His composing, of His appointing. The prayer
contains a wide range of concise meanings and at the
same time it is very informative with compassion and
empathy for our weaknesses, lack of strength and charter
flaws. The Christian religion is to promote
prayer. We disciples of Christ must
be praying people. The example in the prayer tells us we
must pray, not only for others, but also for ourselves.
Even as hard as it is to pray for someone who has
brought harm to us, we must pray for them also.
Our government leaders have been
placed in the positions they are in by our God. We must
pray for them, even when they are obviously doing what
is wrong. Yes, even when we ourselves suffer under them.
Even the most evil person can be turned around by the
power of prayer. Think it through. The reason why all
men are to be prayed for is because there is only one
God and our God wants that no one be lost, but that all
would turn to Him and be freed from the pits of Hell.
Ezekiel tells us that God would like all men to turn
from their evil ways. See Matthew 23:37. Some don't know
that Christ is the way, the truth, and so He is the
life, unless we tell them. He would like it if all would
be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
To be saved in the way that He has appointed. We
who have asked Christ into our lives, to be our master,
are under grace, not under the covenant of innocence,
but under a new covenant: He gave himself a ransom.
Observe, The death of Christ was a ransom for all of us
sinners. We deserved to have died but Christ died for
us, to save us from death and hell; He gave himself a
ransom voluntarily, a ransom for all. He put himself
into the office of Mediator between God and man.
God said that if you love Me
you will keep My commandments. How will we know what His
commandments are unless we read His love letters to us?
The bible. Does Satan interfere
with you when it is time for you to spend time with God?
Those who are saved must come to the knowledge of the
truth, for this is God's appointed way to save sinners.
Without knowledge the heart cannot be good nor will we
know the truth without reading His words. We must pray
in faith without doubting (James 1:6)
Click
Here to print this document
Back to top
Jim Brown |
