Read text: Matt 6:9-13
Normally, the unbelievers do not have any idea of prayer to God until they face great dangers, fatal illness, or sudden disasters in their lives. After being disappointed at themselves and at their last resort, they cry to any “gods” who are able to help them in hopelessness and helplessness. Sadly, they are rarely concerned for the salvation of their souls. The Bible confirms that there is no salvation outside the Saviour Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).
In Jesus’ days, our Lord rebuked the hypocrites who loved doing religious duties including praying before men to show off and give an impression that they were religious or godly (Matt 6:5; 23:14). Our Lord did teach His disciples how to pray properly as we see in Matthew 6 and in Luke 11. Then what proper attitudes you and I should have in prayers?
Proper Attitudes in Prayer
With an Obedient and Needy Heart. Why should we pray? Some believers who are weak or lazy in praying think that God is all-knowing and He knows all their needs, so it is fine if they trust in the Lord and just sometimes come to the Lord in prayer when they have big problems or difficulties. Are they correct? Only God is correct, but they are wrong. Prayer is not just to come to the Lord for our need but it is a means to keep us in touch with God, who is our life and strength. Prayer is our spiritual breath. No one can survive without breathing. Besides our action of prayer in the morning, before meals or at night, we are commanded to have a constant attitude of prayer in our hearts wherever we are, “Pray (keep on praying) without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17).
Even the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, said that He could not do anything independently of His Father (John 5:19, 30), and He kept in touch with His Father through prayer. The Bible says, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he (Jesus) went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35). Jesus’ prayer life is recorded in the Bible (Matt 14:23; 11:25-27; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:29; 11:1; John 11:42; 12:27-28, etc.), even His prayer as a High Priest (John 17), His fully submissive prayer in the garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:36), His forgiving prayer on the cross (Luke 23:34), and so forth. Jesus taught that “men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows that we need Him and without Him we cannot live a holy, godly and victorious life. Then, we pray because we obey God’s command and because we realise our weakness, “Watch and pray, (Keep on watching and praying) that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt 26:41). If we do not pray we will not get God’s blessings, “ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:2). Only when we pray is Satan afraid and he departs from us. “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me” (Ps 56:9).
Praying is communicating with God. We are to listen to what God speaks to us through His Word the Bible and we respond in our prayers. If we refuse His Word, He will not answer our prayer (Prov 1:24-31), and “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination” (Prov 28:9). Since we need God all the time and day by day, do we listen to His Word and talk to Him in prayer? How do we pray?
With Humbleness, Reverence and Faith in Jesus’ Name. We have learnt that the humble, sincere and repentant prayer of the tax-collector is accepted while the proud and self-righteous prayer of the Pharisee is rejected (Luke 18:10-14).
The Bible says, “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few” (Eccles 5:2). God is our Creator and Maker while we are His creature. God is holy and righteous while we are sinners. We are to humble ourselves before Him as “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6).
How can we come to God in prayer? Without the Lord Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection and His intercession for us, we cannot stand before the holy God. The high priest only entered the holiest in the temple once a year to communicate with God, and always brought with him the blood of the sacrifice, the shadow of the sacrifice and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord gave up His spirit on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom, opening a living way for everyone to come to God through His Name and His blood (Heb 10:19-20) Our Lord Jesus says, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13; cf. 16:24). Then what does it mean to pray in Jesus’ Name?
Praying in the Name of our Lord Jesus means praying in His merits and in His own righteousness (He died for our sins and rose again to justify us). We need to realise that we are undone and that we and our prayers are accepted to the Father only in and through the Lord Jesus. Regardless of who we are or what we have done, every time we come to God in prayer, we are to trust in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Praying in the Name of our Lord Jesus also means praying just as the Lord Jesus prayed with faith and full submission to His Father’s will (Heb 11:6; Matt 26:39). If you and I pray improperly or wrongly according to our own lusts (James 4:3), we are taking Jesus’ Name in vain!
With a Thankful, Pure and Forgiving Heart. Praying is also a part of our worship, giving thanks and praise to the Lord (Ps 100:4; Phil 4:6). It is a good time for us to examine ourselves and confess our sins so that we may be forgiven and cleansed (Matt 6:12; 1 John 1:9). If we do not repent and forsake our known sins, our prayer will be rejected, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Ps 66:18). And as we have received forgiveness from the Lord, we are to have a forgiving heart so that our prayer may not be hindered (Matt 6:14-15).
Follow the Lord’s Model Prayer
Our Lord Jesus teaches us how to pray to God properly with this model prayer:
| “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.” |
Be Born Again: only when you and I are born again by the Holy Spirit may we cry to God, “Abba, Father” meaningfully (Rom 8:15). If not, the first step is to cry unto the Lord for forgiveness and salvation. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13).
Acknowledge God’s Sovereignty: To express “Our Father which art in heaven” means to acknowledge our Father is above all things. He is our Creator and Maker, the living and true God, who is all- knowing, all-powerful and all-present and who is in control over all things. With this knowledge and conviction, we will come to our Father with trust, humbleness, reverence and submission.
Seek God and His Kingdom First (Matt 6:33). What do you and I have in mind first when we come to God in prayer? Do we have great needs, problems, troubles or difficulties? Here, we are taught to put God first, “thy name,” “thy kingdom,” and “thy will,” not ours. This is our worship in prayer. God’s holy Name must be our concern in our prayer, our motives, our lives and our ministry as well as our desire that all people would honour and revere our Father’s Name. God’s kingdom must be our expectation and longing and while looking forward to the coming of our King and Saviour Jesus Christ to establish His millennial kingdom of peace on earth, we are to be watchful and prepared to meet the Lord and labour hard to accelerate His coming (Matt 24:14; 2 Peter 3:11-14). Furthermore, no matter what our needs, our plans, our desires may be, we are to submit ourselves to God’s will and pray, “Thy will be done” not only in our lives but also “in earth as it is in heaven.” The Bible says, “if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14). To know God’s will we are to read God’s Word and submit to it. When our strongest desire is God’s will instead of our will, our will will be like God’s and as the Lord Jesus says, “If ye abide in me (with your full submission and dependence), and my words abide in you (with your full submission and dependence), ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).
Present Our Daily Need. Then we present our daily needs to our Father, both spiritual and physical needs. It means we trust in His loving care and provision just day by day and we are to be contented and thankful to the Lord for each day.
Ask for Forgiveness. The next prayer item is to ask for God’s forgiveness through our repentance and confession as we might have not loved, obeyed, nor glorified our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength, not to mention what we have said and done might not be according to God’s will and Word. Receiving the forgiveness from the Lord, we are to willingly and wholeheartedly forgive those who have wronged us personally (Matt 18:25).
Ask for Protection. “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” (James 1:13), but He did allow Satan, the tempter, to tempt and test Job and our Lord Jesus Christ (Job 1:12; 2:6; Matt 4:1-11). Realising our weaknesses, we pray that God protects us and delivers us from Satan, evil and sins (Jude 1:24-25), but we must submit ourselves to God and “resist the devil” (James 4:7) and “abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thess 5:22).
Praise the Lord. Our prayer starts with God first and ends with our praise to Him. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Conclusion
My dear friends, it is a great privilege for us to speak to and keep in touch with our living and true God, our heavenly Father. We do need Him and His grace, His strength, His guidance, His provision, His forgiveness, His protection and His blessings. Praying is more than just asking, it is our worship, thanks, and praise to the Lord, who is our Life and All we need. Prayer is our spiritual breath. Let us keep on praying without ceasing. Amen.
(Message delivered by Pr Hien Nguyen)
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