Our Father in heaven,
When you pray, call on God according to your relationship with Him. If your relationship is far from God, then He is just God but as you know Him more closely, He becomes King, master and then as you love Him more, He adds you to His family and becomes your Father.
Hallowed be Your name.
Let your praise arise to Him. God is enthroned in our praises. He is worthy of all glory. Let your heart be filled with adoration and awe before His name.
Your kingdom come.
The Kingdom of God is anyplace where God rules as Sovereign King. So as we enter into prayer, let us ask for God’s Kingdom to be established in our midst, that our gathering will be a place where God rules in His glory
Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Humble yourself to allow the Glory of God to come in your midst. As the Bible says in 2 Chronicles; If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray. Then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins and heal their land. Our prayer should be about seeking and praying according to God’s will. This is why Paul teaches us in Corinthians that we should pray in the Spirit as we do not know God’s will on what we should pray for but the Spirit who knows the heart of God will guide us. Our model and example is Jesus and we see Him praying in the Garden of Gethsamane to the Father saying,”Not my will but Yours be done”!
Give us this day our daily bread.
The Lord understands that we have physical needs and not just the spiritual. So as we finish establishing our relationship with God, praising Him and humbling ourselves before His throne, we are now ready to petition him for our need. The bible teaches that our Lord knows all our needs, even before we say a asingle word. But God likes us to be vocal about our faith and trust in Him. Therefore, He asks the blind man whether he would like to see and the paralysed man, if he would like to be healed and Martha, if she believes her brother will come back to life. He knew that these are things they longed for but he needed to hear from them their words of faith and trust.
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
This is big. Even as we have prayed so far, we are still in the outer court experience. Jesus teaches us that we should not come to pray unless we have forgiven our brother and sister. Before we can go into the Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God, we need to receive forgiveness from God. This is the Holy place experience. At this place, instead of a physical sacrifice, we invoke the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Hebrews teaches us that we enter the presence of God in boldness because we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, .that takes our sins away and clothes us with righteousness.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
This is the place of jubilation. This is where we enter into the Holy of Holies, in the very presence of God. Most of us think, this is where our prayer ends. But this is the beginning of a conversation with God. As you enter the Holy of Holies, God starts to speak and you begin to listen. The model prayer by Jesus is just the preparation or an introduction to a longer conversation with your Father in heaven and does not finish at Amen. We enter this place with a heart full of worship and adoration.
Friends, Jesus said when you pray, pray in this manner to his disciples who did not know how to pray and who had not received the Holy Spirit. But we, having the Holy Spirit as our counselor and guide to the truths of the scripture, are no longer bound to a specific format of prayer but are now led by the Spirit, in freedom, to a life of constant prayer.
SHALOM!
When you pray, say the Lord's prayer as Jesus commanded us.
ReplyDeleteLuke 11
1And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
2And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
3Give us day by day our daily bread.
4And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
The Lord's prayer, i believe, is John 17. Luke 11 is a pattern for the disciples who did not know how to pray except for their traditional liturgy. Jesus also follows this pattern in His prayer in John 17.
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