How Should We Pray? Pt. 2
Back to the Basics • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 9 viewsNotes
Transcript
There was a powerful statement I came across some time ago that I don’t think we give enough thought to. It says, “The devil saw me with my head down and thought he'd won...until I said Amen.”
Satan does not want us to pray.
He will give us excuses for why we should not pray.
He will corrupt and distort what prayer should be.
He knows that when believers begin to pray, God moves in miraculous ways.
However, I believe many of us still do not understand what it means to pray and how we should pray.
Read Matthew 6:9-13
Last week, we looked at the first part of the Lord’s Prayer, and we should understand that the first part of prayer, and the most important part, is an attitude of WORSHIP.
If we do not recognize God for who He is, then, in my opinion, any other prayer effort is wasted.
Worship is not only recognizing who God is but also having a heart of complete submission to Him.
Prayer is Submission
Prayer is Submission
‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
When we pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we are simply acknowledging the need to see and do things the way God intended.
Mary Frances and I have done a lot of traveling over the years, and often those trips take us through a large city.
Now there are two different ways to navigate through the city.
You can take the on-ramp of a major highway and get through the city in a straight line, or you can go into the city and make turn after turn down small roads and alleyways to get to the other side.
God has given us an on ramp to see His Kingdom and His will be done, but unfortunately too many of us decide we know better and, instead of staying on the Highway, we exit and try to navigate the city of life on our own, causing more time and pain in the process.
The reason for this is that we make prayer about ourselves only, but really our prayer should be about what God wants to do…
Notice the first words, “Your Kingdom Come.”
We must understand two things about God’s Kingdom.
First, Christ will one day rule not only in Heaven but also on Earth.
Revelation 11:15 prophesies this event
Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”
However, this is not yet fully realized, so we hope for it to be so with great anticipation.
For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
The first part of “Your Kingdom Come” is understanding that it is in the works, that it is coming and will soon be here.
Therefore, we are to live our lives with hope and expectation of that wonderful day when Christ reigns.
Secondly, it is our job as citizens of heaven, as Christians, to recruit and spread the gospel to others so that they too will become part of the Kingdom of God.
This is building God’s Kingdom in a real and tangible way here on earth at this moment.
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Part of seeing God’s Kingdom Come is for you and me to do our job, to be ambassadors of Heaven, sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those who are lost.
So when we pray “Thy Kingdom Come,” it is not only a passive statement of anticipation but an active call to redeem our time here on earth by seeking out those who are lost for the Kingdom of God.
Let’s look at the next statement… this is where it gets personal and where true submission fits in on our end.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
Let me define the word “Will” for us. It means having an attitude of mind, especially one that favors one alternative over others.
Let me explain… When we pray specifically that Your will be done, meaning God’s will, we are agreeing and understanding that God’s will is comprehensive in nature. He does what He wants, where He wants, and when He wants it to be done.
We are saying that we are in complete agreement with everything God thinks and everything God does, even if it is different from what we would do or want.
When we think of God’s will, we must understand that it is comprehensive; nothing has escaped God’s sight or preparation since the beginning of time.
For example:
The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand,
“For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
Staying in the book of Isaiah…
“Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”
So we see that God’s will is completely comprehensive. There is absolutely nothing outside His control or His knowledge.
If God determines that something will happen, there is nothing any man, beast, or spirit can do about it.
For example, when God in the beginning said, let there be light (Genesis 1:3), there was no conversation about it. He didn’t consult the angels. His will determined to create light, and it happened.
Let’s go a little deeper, because it is so important that we understand what the Will of God is.
We must understand that while God’s will is comprehensive, there are two facets to God’s Will.
He has His unconditional (sovereign) will, which is absolute and comprehensive and happens regardless of human choice.
That is what we just talked about… if God determines something, like creating light, nothing can prevent or change His will.
Christ is going to reign; that is the will of the Father.
Man, Satan, and demons will do everything they can to prevent it, but ultimately they will be squelched.
God’s Word says in Phil 2:10-11
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This will happen, even for those who never believe. This is God’s Sovereignty (meaning He has the right to rule). Therefore, God’s sovereign Will will be realized, and nothing will prevent it.
Within God’s Unconditional Will, He has allowed for a conditional will.
This is what we call God’s (desirable) will. This will requires human participation, usually through prayer and obedience.
These are things that God desires to happen, but they may or may not happen depending on how people respond.
For example:
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
Clearly, not everyone around us is saved. Many will live this life, having heard the truth, but never chose to place their faith in Jesus.
God’s desire, that is, His conditional will, is that as many as are willing will be saved.
Which, by the way, is the complete opposite of the thinking presented by many who state that God chooses some and not others.
This is not Biblical.
God wants all men to be saved, but they must make that choice.
Let’s take this one step further.
For those of you who are believers, God’s word, as stated in Col. 4:12, tells us that His desire is that all believers become spiritually mature.
However, this is clearly not the case.
We have believers in this Church and around the world who may have been saved years ago, but they are still in diapers spiritually because they have not chosen to mature in Christ!
Within God’s conditional will, He has given us the freedom to make choices within His will.
Deut 30:15-20, God says you have a choice; you can choose life or you can choose death.
He desires us to choose life, but he will not force it..
When we pray “Thy Will Be Done,” it means understanding that God has not only His unconditional will, but also His conditional will, which requires you and me to align our thinking with His!
Sticking with the traveling and driving analogy I started with at the beginning, most modern cars now have a built-in GPS system. Either that, or we will use our phone map systems to go where we want to go.
Have you noticed that when you take a wrong turn, a GPS recalculates based on your desired destination or your preference in any particular situation?
God’s will is not a tool to recalculate around your destination; it is the ultimate destination itself.
Praying "Thy will be done" means handing over the driver's seat and trusting the route, even when it looks like a detour or a closed road.
When we do this, it is at this point that we begin to see the last part of verse ten.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.
In heaven, God rules completely. The angels do not question Him; they worship and serve Him daily.
If we want to see the Kingdom of God in a real and tangible way while we are here on earth, it begins with complete surrender and submission to God’s will, including His sovereign, conditional will, and obedience within His conditional will.
Let me be very clear about this…
God’s will will be done.
The question is whether you are going to join Him in doing what He wills or get in the way.
But be warned.
Even if you get in the way of God’s sovereignty and the areas of His unconditional will, these things will come to pass whether we agree with them or not.
Let me conclude with this illustration.
The Woven Tapestry:
From the back, a hand-woven tapestry looks like a chaotic mess of tangled, mismatched, dark threads. You only understand the design, the color, and the beauty when you walk around to the front and see it from the weaver's perspective. Life's circumstances often look like loose, painful threads on the back side, and "Thy will be done" is trusting the Weaver's hands.
My friends, I understand that life sometimes doesn’t seem fair from our perspective.
Sometimes loved ones are healed, and sometimes they are not.
Sometimes our jobs go well, and other times it seems like a constant uphill battle.
Sometimes we do all we can to build relationships, but the other person constantly rejects them.
This is where we dig in. This is where we come to our heavenly Father in complete surrender and pray, “Thy Will be Done.”
We understand that God, the great designer and master of the tapestry, has a beautiful picture that one day we will see in its perfect glory as we worship our Lord and praise Him that His Will was done and not ours.
In the meantime, I am reminded of Isaiah 41:10, which says:
‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
God is in control. Will you submit to His conditional and unconditional will?
He is called the Alpha and the Omega for a reason.
He is from the beginning and is already at the end. He has the completed story of your life and the world around us… Let us therefore submit to His Will.
Let’s Pray
