“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:9-13
There is no better model for prayer than the one Jesus gave us. As we begin a six week series on prayer that will take us through the key phrases of this prayer, here is an outline of where we are headed:
- January 30 – “Our Father in heaven” – prayer is a miraculous relationship
- February 6 – “Hallowed be your Name” – prayer is worshipful communion with our Holy God
- February 13 – “Your Kingdom come” – prayer is total surrender to the King of Kings
- February 20 – “Give us today” – prayer is asking for more of Jesus, the bread of life
- February 27 – “Forgive us our debts” – prayer is experiencing grace in order to share that grace
- March 6 – “Deliver us from evil” – prayer is spiritual battle, confident in Christ
In his helpful book, Praying with Paul, Don Carson describes two common errors we fall into in prayer.
- Magic – We can believe that prayer is about getting the right words, or the right number of minutes or the right number of people having the right amount of faith. But Jesus explicitly rejected this view, which was how the Pharisees approached prayer: “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:7-8).
- Fatalism – Our confidence in the sovereign power of God can lead us to the opposite error – resigning ourselves to a predetermined fate and therefore not praying much at all. But knowing that God is in control should not keep us from praying, it should motivate us to pray, trusting that our Almighty, All-wise God has woven into history and into our lives the exact moments we should pray in order to include those prayers in the accomplishment of His predetermined plan. Why else would Jesus have instructed his followers to pray? “ 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. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11:9-10).
What, then, is prayer? Carson says prayer is a mystery wrapped up in a relationship with our all-sovereign, all-loving heavenly Father. Or as Richard Foster wrote in his classic, A Celebration of Discipline: “the disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so He can transform us.”
“Of all the spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with the Father… To pray is to change… In prayer, real prayer, we begin to think God’s thoughts after him: to desire the things he desires, to love the things he loves, to will the things he wills.”
A Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
Another common misunderstanding about prayer is that it is telling God our laundry list of requests. God is omniscient. He knows every detail of our lives. Prayer is not informing God, it is inviting God to help us with the needs of which He is already aware. Prayer is repenting of our independence and self-sufficiency and humbling ourselves enough to ask God for His guidance, His power, His love, His grace…
So prayer is not primarily talking it is primarily listening, trusting, resting, responding. Prayer is RELATIONSHIP. It is communion. The Lord’s Prayer guides us on the journey of prayer to this destination: an experience of the love and power of our heavenly Father. The order and progression of the phrases immediately corrects the “prayer as laundry list” approach. “Give us today our daily bread” is the fourth phrase of the prayer (and a closer look at the meaning of that prayer also shows us that prayer is not demanding, it is depending).
So as we take this six week exploration of prayer, let’s apply the principles by setting some additional time aside to draw closer to our Father in heaven! By the infinite grace of Jesus the way is open to the glorious throne room of God!
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16