The Never Ending Prayer

One of the first things that Jesus taught His disciples to do is to pray.  

Matthew 6:5-13  (CSB)

Jesus began by teaching us how not to pray.

He connected our minds and our hearts. We pray to an audience of one. We are not to pray to be seen by others.  

5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. 

Truly I tell you, they have their reward. 

6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. 

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

He warned about praying mindlessly.   

7 When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. 

If God knows what we need, why pray? There must be another reason why we pray. 

    

8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.

9 “Therefore, you should pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,

Jesus taught about our intimate Father God.  He is both the God who is near, and the God who is mighty and great.  

It is easy to understand that God is great, but we struggle to comprehend our intimacy with Him as Daddy.

God is it possible that you love me like I love my kids?  Jesus says Yes! 

The God of the universe looks at you with love.  He cares for you like a Daddy.  

Jesus identifies who God is (our Daddy) and who we are (His kids).

your name be honored as holy.

What do we do to hallow anyone? 

It means to recognize someone's greatness.  He invites us to recognize the greatness of our God.  

He is the one and only. He existed before time, and will exist afterward.  He created everything with a word.  

He gave us His perfect Son to die for us. He is the one and only.  The truly great God.

Your kingdom come.

We submit all that we own and control over to Him.  Our time we surrender to Him.  Our words that leave our mouths must be surrendered to Him. 

In this moment we are pledging ourselves to Him. His kingdom is built by everyone who surrenders to His agenda. 

Not one time in this prayer does the word "my" enter.  It's not about our agenda, but His.    

Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
10 

This world is a mess.  God wants the ways of heaven here now to reflect heaven's realities.  

How does He do that.  It's through you!  

When I see something outside of God's will, I'll say that's not right.  I'll do something about it.  

When I see it's inside God's will, I'll say that's the way it's suppose to be. I'll support it. 

     

Give us today our daily bread.

Jesus goes from the biggest of things which is His kingdom to the smallest of things which is our need for bread.  

God lives outside of time, so He can hear all of our prayers.  He wants to be invited into all of our needs.  

When our prayers are answered, we give Him credit which gives Him the glory. 

If we don't ask, how does He get it. 

We pray for "Our" bread.  Not only do we ask for ourselves, but for others.

     

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

You and I make mistakes. We are in need of forgiveness.  God loves to forgive and yearns to do so.  

Some of us struggle with this.  One part of His nature is to forgive.  Once we are forgiven, we become the forgivers.  They are tied together.

   

And do not bring us into temptation,
12 

We recognize the fact that we can do evil to others.  Father, please lead us on a path which creates within us our best self.  We still have a choice which is to follow.  Father, please protect me from myself.   

but deliver us from the evil one.
13 

There is an evil one who is dedicated to our downfall. We are to call on God to fight for us behind heaven's curtain in the invisible realm.

This prayer is a model for prayer with no end.  We are to have an ongoing conversation with our Daddy, God.  

That's how Jesus taught us to pray.  This is a springboard to pray always.  This is our daily invitation into His presence.

Father, it is amazing how immense your love for us is.  

Please forgive me for my past. 

I open myself up to your love.  

I surrender myself to you, Jesus, as my king. 

I pledge to You my allegiance.   

Make your agenda come true in me.  

Keep me from temptation, and create within me my best self.  Protect me from myself and the evil one.   

Thank you for forgiving me and saving me.  

Notes taken from Steve Gilliam, Willowcreek Church