Part 2 Learning to Pray

1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Jesus gave the disciples a model prayer. It’s included in Luke and in Matthew. The two versions are different. That tells us that what Jesus told His disciples wasn’t something to be repeated exactly each time. It’s a pattern for praying that will make us effective in praying.

We’re going to look at the version of this prayer that Jesus taught in Matthew 6.

Is independent of style. It does not depend upon place or posture. Matthew 6:5

Is personal not public. Matthew 6:5b-6

It is focused on God alone. It does not call attention to the one praying.

It is concise. It does not require lots of words. Matthew 6:7

Plan:

Jesus sets for 5 elements we need to pray about.

1. Focus on the Father. Matthew 6:9

Matthew 6:9 NIV

9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

The foundation of our prayer life is our relationship with God our Father.

Prayer is a conversation with the Father.

Think about His greatness and holiness and lose yourself as you are in awe of His majesty. Delight that you are talking with God the Father. His character is impeccable. He is in a category above all others.

He is our Father. You have the same rights and privileges as all God’s children. We pray with others. We pray for others.

The only caveat here is you have to be in His family. We become part of God’s family by faith in Jesus death, burial and resurrection for us, by which he took away all our sin that separates us from God.

2. Humble your heart. Matthew 6:10

Matthew 6:10 NIV

10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Being a child of God has responsibilities.

Our responsibilities include honoring God by seeking His will in our life and in the world. We do this by humbling ourselves and submitting to His will. Do you want God’s will for your life? Can you say like the Psalmist,

Psalm 40:8 ESV

8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

Acknowledge His will is always best and seek it for the word and for yourself today. The world is broken. We’re so used to living in a broken world that we sometimes forget that. We are used to seeing sexual images, hearing people lie, watching violence in movies and games and the general acceptance of all kinds of behaviors the Bible condemns. This is so common we forget these are contrary to God’s will.

For the proper of order of things to be restored, God to reign as acknowledge King. We need to pray for God’s will to be done on earth and that has to begin with me, with us.

The question, “What is God’s will?” is often on our lips. The answer can be stated in general terms. It is any activity in which God is glorified, which reflects well upon God, shows Him in a good light.

Praying “your will be done” means in the world, our country, our state, our county, our city, our job, our neighborhood, our home, our family, our relationships, our words, our actions and our thought life.

Is it possible for God’s will to be done in all those places? Yes, and one day it will. For today, we can only do what we can control.

3. Pray for provision. Matthew 6:11

Matthew 6:11 NIV

11 Give us today our daily bread.

Prayer involves requests.

It is right and proper to ask God for everything we need. Ask God for what you need for today.

Don’t panic if you’re trying to live gluten-free, bread represents our needs. Needs include the basics of food, clothing, shelter, safety and health. But it includes much more than that. There are many intangible things we need such as wisdom in making decisions, grace in dealing with difficult people, discipline to carry on a task. Jesus tells us to ask for whatever we need.

There are two errors we when it comes to requesting things of God. First there are those who view God as a Genie in a bottle and ask for anything and everything. James condemns selfish requests when he says,

James 4:2–3 NIV

2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

The other error is to think we shouldn’t ask God for anything we can do for ourselves. In the same chapter James condemns those who act independently of God.

James 4:13–17 NIV

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

This person doesn’t think he or she needs God. We pray the way Jesus taught us when we depend upon God for what we need.

In the previous verse we decided we want our will to be aligned with God’s will. The result is that our request are aligned with God’s desires. It’s for this reason that Jesus says,

John 15:7 NIV

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

It’s also noteworthy that Jesus says our “daily” bread, it’s what we need for today. Much of what we worry about is in the future.

4. Confess and concede. Matthew 6:12

Matthew 6:12 NIV

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Prayer involves repentance.

This is the acknowledgement that we are sinners continually in need for God’s grace and forgiveness. We become a child of God by acknowledging our sinfulness and seeking God’s forgiveness by trusting that Jesus paid for our sin on the cross. Why is it we think we are so good now that we are a Christian?

I am a sinner. The evil inclination to sin that resides within me has the potential to tempt me to every wicked thing ever done. It is only with God’s help that I have managed any victory over sin. And often I don’t have victory. I get angry, I say things I shouldn’t say. I get lazy and don’t do things I should do.

I sin.

What do I do about it? Two things. First I seek God’s forgiveness by confessing my sin. I admit it by saying, “Father, I was wrong when I lied to my boss when I said the project was done. Father, I was wrong, when I went online and watched something I shouldn’t have watched. Please forgive me.” That’s the first thing I do.

The second thing I do is act like I’m God’s child and become a forgiver. You are a part of God’s family and in the family business. Part of God’s family business is forgiving.

Do you think it bothers God if we don’t forgive others? Yeah, a lot. It bothers Him so much He won’t forgive us when we seek it if there is someone we won’t forgive. That sounds a bit harsh, doesn’t it? Well, I didn’t say that, Jesus did. Jump down to Matthew 6:15.

Matthew 6:15 NIV

15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Please notice that Matthew and Luke use different words relating to forgiveness. Luke uses sin but Matthew uses debt. The idea of debt is unmet obligations. This is often a bigger issue than sins. An unmet obligation is when someone doesn’t do what you expect and you hold it against them.

This is very common. Here’s how to recognize this. What is it you complain about others? We complain about things we think people should do.

“Can you believe what she wore today?”

“He was so rude when he interrupted me.”

“She didn’t even say hello to me.”

These comments reveal people didn’t meet our expectations and we are holding it against them. Does this seem trivial? If it were trivial, why did it bother you?

Now there are much bigger issues such as if someone doesn’t follow through with something they promised you they’d do or if a person is blunt or harsh and hurts your feelings. We can easily harbor these feelings like a volcano that’s ready to erupt at any time. Do you know what I mean?

Or we can forgive.

Confess your sin and unmet obligations to God as wrong while you extend the grace of forgiveness to any who have sinned against you or haven’t met your obligations.

5. Brace for the battle. Matthew 6:13

Matthew 6:13 NIV

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Prayer requests reinforcements.

We are in a battle and we need help. When we pray we are to acknowledge the battle and that we need help.

Did you hear that the Pope has decided we need a different translation of this verse? He says it now should say,

“And do not let us enter into temptation but deliver us from Evil.”

That is good thing to pray, but that isn’t what this verse says. The problem is the word “temptation.” The Greek word is πειρασμός and it has two meanings. One is to

“an attempt to make one do something wrong, temptation, enticement to sin.”

The other meaning is “an attempt to learn the nature or character of something, test, trial.

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. About the Electronic Edition

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition (BDAG)

We have lots of words in English with multiple meanings. What does the word run mean?

To move quickly with legs. My dog loves to run about in the park.

To manage. She runs a very successful business.

To offer a service. The bus company runs a regular weekend service.

To use or work a machine. Don’t leave your car engine running/ try running the computer program and see if it works.

To understand what Jesus is saying we have to see this verse within the whole context of the Bible. James 1 says,

James 1:13 NIV

13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;

That’s pretty clear. Then we read this.

Hebrews 11:17 NIV

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,

The word “tested” is the same Greek word that is translated tempt in James. The word, πειρασμός sometimes means tempt to sin and sometimes test.

Think again about the word run. Does God run the universe? Yes. Does God run, like in marathons? No.

What then is Jesus telling us to pray? He’s telling us to ask for help! We need reinforcements if we’re going to win the battle. The Christian life is like a spiritual obstacle course. We face adversity and we have spiritual enemies that want to destroy us and our relationship with God.

God will help us as we seek His protection. Luke says “lead us not into temptation.” Matthew adds “deliver us from the evil one.”

The help we need depends upon the challenge we face. If the problem is Satan, we need to stand firm. If it’s the world we need to stop loving it and overcome it with our faith. If the challenge is the flesh we have to learn to die to the flesh by living alive to God. If the problem is a trial or test we need faith.

Whatever it is, whatever help we need, God is the one who will supply it. If we ask.

Action Steps.

Call to Action: Incorporate these elements in your prayer time.

Pray through the Lord’s pray as a pattern every day.

Take the time to sort through each of the five issues with God.

Don’t limit yourself to praying the Lord’s prayer.

We all need to incorporate the Lord’s prayer into our daily prayer time. We need to pray other things, too. There are many different prayers in the Bible, by Jesus and others that are different from this model. But we need to pray these elements regularly.

That ends in a success that looks like this.

Praying more effectively leads us to knowing and worshipping God better, knowing and doing His will, seeing God provide for our needs, experiencing God’s grace in being forgiven and forgiving others and being prepared for and protected during our spiritual battles.

That helps us avoid failure that looks like this.

Not praying the way Jesus taught will lead to selfish, uninformed prayers that leave us wondering why God doesn’t hear our prayers.

This is not the only way to pray. We shouldn’t only pray the Lord’s prayer. This model prayer teaches us the basic principles of prayer. Should we pray this every day? Why not? If you were to pray it literally, I would stop at each of the five points and expand upon them as we did during our prayer time today. It’s fine to say the words as Jesus said them, but remember, this is a model prayer. These words aren’t magical and won’t be any more effective than any other words you pray. Are the words your words? Do they express the passion of your heart? If so, pray them!

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