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)