Praying the way Jesus taught us to Pray!

I will never forget the memories of seeing my dad praying by his bedside as I walked down the hallway to my own room.  I knew he prayed for me not only with me but for me and he was an incredible example to me of faithfulness and commitment in every way.  I recognize also that I had more of a dad in the 21 years that I knew him than some have in a lifetime and I have always cherished that.  

Prayer is a universal thing.  Jesus was quoted as saying “When you pray”  It was just understood that people would recognize that there is something and Someone who is so much more infinite and eternal beyond us.

Prayer is a form of communication.  All of our relationships are based on communication and prayer moves us in to that place where God becomes so real to us.

Christian prayer is simple in that a child can pray the way Jesus taught us; however we also recognize that prayer can be demanding in the moment of difficult decisions or dark moments as we see from the life of Jesus when He prayed in Gethsemane and when the Psalmist often cried out to God.

Let's look at the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6

Remember there are rewards for prayer -  listen to this.  Matthew 6 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Also…

Prayer isn’t meant to be hard.  Circumstances are hard, situation are difficult, family members are tough; however remember the Father is looking for honesty and simplicity.

7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

The Lord’s Prayer is about going to the very heart of God’s honor and glory.  It’s about the real experience of God’s kingdom in heaven being made real here on earth.  It is about fulfilling our Father’s heart by being a tangible expression of heaven’s values and mindset in a world filled with chaos and lack of meaning.

This prayer is so Jesus-specific, it is not a generalized prayer about an unknown deity although it became that for so many who recited it.  It was meant to be so much more.

When it comes to prayer, Jesus told us to pray in this way, not 3 times a day using these exact words.

Our Father

We start with Abba Father.  It is a very intimate word, the most intimate word between a Father and his or her child, daddy.

Hallowed be Your name”   We are saying God we want Your name lifted high in all the world around us.  You are so worthy to be exalted and Your Name is set apart from all other names!  There is no one like You.   We are called to honor His name and seek that His presence would be made holy in our lives.

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

This prayer is saying I want to be part of Your kingdom movement Lord.  Jesus was a living embodiment of this very prayer.  He was the one going around feeding people, He was the one who was forgiving people their sins.  Jesus was the one who inaugurated God’s kingdom.

We are called to live in this very tension, in that place of overlap between heaven and earth. 

Give us this day our daily bread

He is the One who ultimately meets our every need, not our jobs, not our spouses, not our investments, not our retirement plans.  He is our confidence.

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

Forgiveness is huge and so important in our lives.

When we choose not to forgive we allow a root of bitterness to grow in us and develop some very nasty roots and  bitterness to eat away at our very well being  as Hebrews 12:15 states.

Have you ever reached for the potatoes in your pantry or wherever you store them and they are covered in sprouts, even worse if they have got soft and started to leak their ugliness!!  Wow, do they ever stink… well that is what unforgiveness is like, it sprouts up with ugliness in our lives and we start to carry that around in our lives.

Forgiveness is a gift we give to ourselves as well.  We remind ourselves that we are not going to be controlled by the situation and we are going to give it over to the LORD.

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

He is the one who is capable of handling our ultimate enemy and our most difficult situations.

Using Scripture In Prayer

Praying Scripture over those we know can be a powerful experience when we place their name in the prayer.  Example – Philippians 1:3-11

Using the  Psalms for the cry of our own heart.  Psalm 95

It can be a way to enable us to enter in to the place of prayer, but if it becomes ritualistic, it can turn into “deadwood” and just become a rote exercise for us.

Reading a passage over and over as a way of focusing in and really meditating on His Word.  Psalm 23; John 15

N.T. Wright in Simply Christian writes,

For some, praying in tongues is a way of lifting things and people up to God when we don’t know what their particular needs are, or perhaps when the need is all too blindingly obvious and we are so overwhelmed with it that we don’t know what to say.  For some, silence- difficult to attain for many, can, like the best sort of darkness, become the soil in which seeds of faith, hope, and love can germinate unseen.

We are also thankful that when we don’t have the words to pray, it is God’s very Spirit who intercedes for us.  Romans 8:26,27  The Spirit of God meets us in that place of pain.

Through Jesus we have access into God’s presence by faith and we are welcomed by the grace we stand on. Romans 5:2

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:11

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.  Numbers 6:24-26