Prayer: The Lord's Prayer

How Not to Pray

V. 5

When we pray it is not about getting anyone’s attention or praise. This verse is not saying that public prayer is bad, their are times for communal prayers. We see communal prayer in Acts 4:31. This scripture is saying when you pray do not do it in order to get people’s praise or to please people, but to honor God and to worship God (Galatians 1:10). So when asked to pray in church do not worry about what others may think, just be yourself and talk to God like you always do.

V. 6

This verse makes it clear that our prayer relationship with God is a one on one deal. you do not have to go through someone else to talk to God. You can talk to Him one on one. You don’t have to go through a priest, a saint, etc. You do not have to pray according to a specific formula. Your talking to God it is your business how y’all talk.

V. 7-8

You do not have to be wordy. Just because you are repetitive or lengthy does not mean you are going to be able to persuade God to do something He has ordained not to be. God knows what we need, but He wants us to pray and ask for it for our benefit. Prayer helps us grow spiritually. Part of what i take from this is don’t be a crybaby and keep whining thinking eventually you gonna convince a parent to cave. If God knows it does not need to happen he will not answer that prayer. Now with that being said their is nothing wrong with praying long term for something. You see it in scripture, really it comes down to the condition of the heart asking. We saw in Nehemiah the other week he prayed for three months. David in 2 Samuel 12 fast for 7 days. as you pray examine your heart and ask God to purify your heart and give pure motive (2 Timothy 2:22).

The Lord’s Prayer

Some call it the disciple’s prayer or kingdom prayer since it is a prayer designed to teach us how to pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name

So when this prayer first gets started for verses 9 and 10 the prayer is focused on God, worshiping Him. Prayer should always have an aspect of worship to it. God is worthy and realize God did not have to open a dialogue with us. Realize how much of a blessing it is to have this open dialogue with God. Our life should be a continual overflow of worship from a grateful heart.

Your kingdom come

In prayer we realize our place. We live in God’s kingdom not our own. We have violated the laws of his kingdom. We don't set those laws we follow them. As we realize the marvelous-ness of our relationship with the King even though we have messed up so many times it is humbling and drives a heart of worship. prayer is shaping us to be kingdom minded people.

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven

God already knows His will, so why do we pray? One to benefit us. Prayer helps us learn God’s will. helps us focus our mind on what God is doing. Also asking keeps us from becoming spoiled brats just expecting God to do something for us rather we act or don't. In scripture several times we see people ask for something before God acts (Exodus 15, Numbers 11, 1 Samuel 1, & 1 Kings 18-19). I found this quote by this guy, i do not know much about him but i like how he responds to why we ask things in prayer.

We must never presume God will grant us apart from prayer what he has ordained to grant us only by means of prayer. - Sam Storms

Prayer is also is not a time of trying to impose your will upon God.

Something in your spiritual life may be seeming off and you cannot figure out the issue the simplest place to start is asking God to move and supply the need. You may be stuck just because you have not asked. 1 John 5:14-15 stresses the importance of asking according to God’s will. So if prayer’s are not being answered, evaluate. Ask yourself, am i praying according to God’s will or am I praying out of a selfish tainted heart. Keys to praying according to God’s will is staying in Scripture. Surround yourself with wise counsel (Psalm 1).

Give us this our daily bread

pray for God to meet your needs. Kind of connects to the previous point. Some of your needs may be unmet because you have not asked. You may ask about the believers around the world starving to death. You may be like how is God good by not meeting their needs. If you were here Wednesday night we talked about that. The problem does not lie with God but with us. World produces enough food to feed 10 billion while not quiet 8 billion exist but yet almost a billion people are starving in the world. So some needs go unmet because of poor management on the part of humans. Then sometimes the need has been met but we miss or refuse the answer. James 5:14 is a good one to look at when talking about prayers and their answers.

James 5:14 ESV

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

Have you ever heard of people being anointed with oil while being prayed for? While their is nothing wrong with it scriptural. But to use this passage to do so is wrong. Why? In the Bible you see different types of oil mentioned. When talking about anointing with oil there is a spiritual anointing, but also it is used for medical anointing. 1 Samuel 16 shows spiritual anointing as do other scriptures. the word though used here in James 5:14 more than likely refers to medical anointing. They used this oil for all sort of medical treatment. So in other words pray, and let God work through natural things, medicine, and the technology God has blessed people with the knowledge to design. Sometimes that is the way God chooses to answer prayer.

And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors

As earlier we mentioned part of prayer is realizing who God is. As we realize who God is we begin to realize the true messed-up-ness of our state as we come to realize who God is. We realize how messed up our sin has made us and how undeserving we are of God’s grace. As we have been forgiven that gratefulness should over flow out of us into those surrounding us. If we have accepted that forgiveness we cannot but help to show it to others. If we cannot show forgiveness we are either hypocrites or liars. If you hold un-forgiveness in your heart, your prayer life will be hindered (Ephesians 4:32). Sin in your life hinders prayer (Isaiah 59:2 ). James 4:17 makes it clear if we know what is right and do not do it we are sinning.

We also see the issue of forgiveness addressed further in verses 14 and 15.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil

We know God does not tempt us (James 1:13) . So why did Jesus say to pray this? God allows us go through trials to test our faith and to help us learn things. In essence it is a prayer for God not to lift the hedge of protection he has around us and allow the devil to tempt and try us, as happened to Job. We should pray for wisdom and guidance and counsel. We much rather learn and grow through the Word and mentoring. And ask God to deliver us from trials. God promises their is always a way out of trials (1 Corinthians 10:13). We got to trust God to bring us through. When we are allowed to go through a valley let us always keep our eyes on Christ as we continue to press forward.

7 Takeaways

Pray humbly not boastfully

Let prayer be an act of worship

We pray in anticipation of kingdom expansion

Prayer is not a time to try to impose your will upon God

Pray and trust God for all your needs

Don’t let bitterness hinder your prayers

Pray for God’s protection