A while back, I was having a hard time in my prayer life. I felt like I had to force everything that came out of my mouth. Everything seemed stagnant, stale, and impersonal. At this moment, I realized I needed an infusion in my prayer life. I needed God to breathe a fresh breath on our relationship, and I knew it would only come through prayer. As I began to pray for God's help to rekindle our communication line, He showed me something that was hiding in plain sight all along. The following reawakened my prayer life, and put the focus back on our relationship. This week our church is joining together for a week of prayer, Let us all pray for a deeper love relationship with our Father God.
Matthew 6:9-13
New King James Version (NKJV)
9 In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.[a]
Take it Personally: The first thing Jesus teaches us to do in verse 9, is connect to God relationally. So often we greet Him with distant, impersonal names. We punch out prayer greetings that we hear other people pray, but never put thought in to who God is to us. He wants this to be a name that is spawned from your affection to Him, not a prefabricated name that is impersonal.
Name Tags: Look at the next thing to consider after you establish your personal relationship, your greeting, and the benefit you have in honoring God's names. We call Him righteousness and remember that He is the one that has made us righteous. Jesus teaches us to honor God's name's, in which He has many, each expressing a different facet of His magnificent being. In Verse 10, Jesus let us in on the real secret to our relationship with God- In other words, we need to pray and seek God's agenda first. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done", does not suggest that we come to God with our laundry list of request first. We have to align our lives with God's will and then we won't ask for things that He doesn't want for our lives. We will be connected to His plan, if we ask for HIS will to be done first.
Fresh Bread: Ask god to meet our needs. To provide his presence and provision in every area of our life. We should depend on Him for everything! Bread gets stale and spoils if not eaten. We need to ask for fresh bread daily. In Psalms 121 its expressed in this way "I look up to the mountains . . .does my help come from there?My help comes from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth."
Shockproof: Where Jesus takes us next is a touchy area. Verse 12 exclaims that if we want our hearts to be propelled by God's breath, then our hearts must be right with God and other people. Our culture has become desensitized and shockproof, our consciences become looser and more self-justifying. The word of God states this truth-"You'll will be forgiven to the degree you forgive other people" Matthew 6:14-15. Most of us are looking for God to move, before we are willing to move. This thinking won't get us far.
Fighting Words: God does not tempt us, this is us asking for His help to endure temptations the devil brings to us. Sometimes we think of our prayers as a pleasant, dreamy meditation, but sometimes our prayers should be more like a street fight! we need to attack the devil using the weapons God has given us. 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.Ephesians 6:10-11,18
We must take back what the devil has stole from us!
Happy Endings: We must have faith in God's ability to act. This phrase reminds us that God can do anything, and He has what He needs to get it done.14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
1 John 5:14-15
We must have complete confidence that our Father can do what He says He will do.
Luke 11:9-13
English Standard Version (ESV)
9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
11 What father among you, if his son asks for[a] a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
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