“Our
Father in heaven, hollowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be
done on earth as in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive
us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into
temptation, but delivery us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Matthew 6:8b-13
The
model prayer. The ideal way, according to Jesus, by which we approach the
Throne of Grace. We know the prayer and can easily recite it (in
Elizabethan English, of course), but do we really understand it?
Before
Jesus introduces the prayer itself, He is encouraging us to look more deeply
within maybe to determine our real motives for the things we do. He
begins by speaking of acts of charity (6:1-4) and the need to keep it low
key. There is no need to get our picture in the paper doing some
remarkable charitable thing lest we become more interested in the glory we
receive (even if we try to mention The Lord in our acts!) rather than just
doing it because it needs to be done and doing it without any fanfare.
Then
Jesus moves into the prayer itself, and the guiding principle is pretty much
the same. There is no need to put on a big show with big and grand words
in order to gain the attention and admiration of those around us. Rather
Jesus encourages us to “go into your room … and shut the door”. In
other words, shut out the busyness of life and living and give the Father your
undivided attention. Then with the assurance of the God who knows what we
need before we ask, Jesus says to pray.
Prayer
is perhaps the single, most intimate form of worship there can be because if we
follow Jesus’ advice, there will be no one else involved in that moment.
Of course we must pray together and we offer prayers in worship and in other
gatherings, but this is that moment Jesus is teaching that we can have with the
Father, the Almighty, the Creator of all that is! We can even be bogged
down with the many “types” of prayers and when and where these are important, but
Jesus seems to throw those categories out the window. There is no need
for a list, and there must be no fear or concern that we may forget someone or
some thing.
The
ultimate act in prayer is worship. The Lord is the center of our
attention. And in that private moment when the door is closed and the
world is shut out, Jesus is also assuring us that our Father is
listening. When we give ourselves completely to The Lord, we can be
assured that The Lord is giving Himself completely to us.
There
is much more in this lesson than proper prayer format. It is the whole of
theology in that if we really want The Lord’s undivided attention, we must give
The Lord our undivided attention. Only then can we fully know of the
Father’s will for our lives, our families, and our churches.
“Your
Father already knows what you need”. Would we dare to ask what the Father
needs from us?
Blessings,
Michael
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