Jesus says, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye:
‘Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.’”
1. Jesus teaches us that we must treat prayer as intimacy between us and God (Matthew 6:6).
Jesus prayed by Himself (Matthew 14:23 & Mark 1:35, & Luke 5:16, 6:12), thus we are called to pray by ourselves.
We are not called to treat prayer as something for us to boast about, for it is not. We boast about the grace of God, but not our relationship with Him. As with any relationship, there are parts you show to the world and there are parts that are kept hidden behind closed doors. This should be the same of your relationship with the Lord. Prayer is a part that we should keep between us and Him.
2. Jesus teaches us that we must be intentional with our words when we pray (Matthew 6:7-8).
When we pray, sometimes we can ramble on about nothing in particular. This can throw us off course of what our prayers were even about to begin with. We can lose our passion, compassion and meaning behind our prayers when we aren’t being intentional.
Jesus warns us not to babble like fools, for the Lord knows our prayers before we even voice them to Him.
Learning to be more intentional with our words, gives us more free time to be the listener when we pray… Prayer is a mutual communication with God. It’s not only a time for us to speak, but to listen. Thus, in becoming more intentional, we also learn when to close our mouths and open our ears instead.
3. Jesus teaches us that we must worship God in prayer (Matthew 6:9, 13).
Jesus praised God the Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Matthew 11:25.) The Lord is responsible for everything that happens on earth. Should He not be praised for the work of His hands? We are called, with every prayer, to worship and praise Him; especially prior to asking Him for something. We must come to Him with gratitude and praise and then we shall ask for our heart’s desires (Psalm 37:4). And because of our grateful attitude, our heart’s will be renewed and alined with God’s will.
4. Jesus teaches us that we must pray God’s will (Matthew 6:10).
Jesus prayed to be relieved of His burdens, but in the end for God’s will to be done (Luke 22:42).
God’s will is always greater than our own; His plans are always greater than ours. Jesus saw the cross and, of course, wanted to be lifted of that burden. But God, the Father, saw the sacrifice, the blood, and the atonement Jesus would be for all of the children of God. Without Jesus praying and submitting to God’s will, we never would have been saved through His blood.
There may be times we will pray for trials and tribulations to leave us; for our burdens to flee; for our lives to be turned around for the better; but this may not be the Lord’s will. Sometimes the Lord works through our adversity. Perhaps He may be hoping for another to see how we (as Christians, with God’s amazing grace) will react in our seemingly terrible circumstances. Perhaps He is testing our faith, making sure we will pray for His will above all, for His will is far greater than anything we could ever want or even imagine. Thus, let us pray for His will to be done and not our own.
5. Jesus teaches us that we must seek our spiritual wealth/wisdom/discernment during prayer (Matthew 6:11).
Part of the Lord’s prayer is asking for God to give us our daily bread. I understand this to mean our spiritual nourishment for the day. We are called to pray for this every day, for every day is new, thus every day brings new spiritual battles.
When we begin our day seeking our daily bread, our day is able to be filtered through the eyes of Jesus. But if we don’t pray for our daily bread, we miss out on the beauty in the world, and we stumble and fall as we try to lean on our own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 warns us not to do this. For we must lean and rely on God, the only One who can provide us with the wisdom we need to get us through our days. Remember, Satan never gives up. He is constantly seeking ways in which he can fool us and sneak his way into our hearts. Thus, we need to pray daily for the wisdom to be able to discern the devil’s plans. We need to pray for God to walk with us, and guide us on the straight and narrow path towards Heaven with Him.
6. Jesus teaches us that we must ask for forgiveness (Matthew 6:12).
Jesus asked for forgiveness for the ones who put Him up on the cross (Luke 23:34). He tells us, also, to ask for forgiveness for ourselves, for we are sinners, and we must repent of our transgressions against our Holy Lord.
Jesus tells us that we must ask for forgiveness after we forgive our transgressors. We must forgive the ones who have sinned against us, even if they aren’t sorry or they don’t have the opportunity to apologize. If you struggle to forgive, consider this: how could you seek forgiveness for your many transgressions against the Lord, yet not be willing to forgive another for their few transgressions against you? If we aren’t willing to forgive another, why should the Lord forgive us? We are called to be like Christ. If He is gracious enough to forgive, we must be just as gracious.
7. Jesus teaches us that we must pray for God to lead us away from temptation (Matthew 6:13).
One night, Jesus went with His disciples to pray. When He was done praying, He found His disciples sleeping. He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Luke 22:46).
The amount of times that it is written that Jesus went and prayed to the Father, is a great indicator of the kind of man Jesus was. We know He was holy and pure and never sinned, which was why he was able to be a sacrifice for us. I believe that Jesus shares with us a powerful way in which we can be more holy and pure like Him, and that secret is within how many times He prayed.
Ceaseless prayer takes away any sort of temptation to sin, because how could we sin when we are conversing with our Heavenly Father whom we love? How could we possibly fall into temptation if our minds are constantly set on our Father in Heaven?
We must follow in Jesus’ ways of ceaselessly praying and we must listen to His warning to pray so we do not fall into Satan’s traps.
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