A
LIFESTYLE OF PRAYER
Matthew 6:5-15
Peter Greig writes in How to Pray: A
Simple Guide for Normal People:
I was stranded in Chicago. An Icelandic
volcano eruption grounded all airplanes, and I couldn't get home to England. I
asked God how he wanted me to use the interruption. Several American friends
had already been kind enough to invite me to stay, but as I prayed, I found
myself thinking about a particular friend who lived 150 miles west in Madison,
Wisconsin. "Hey, I'm in Chicago," I e-mailed. "Can I come crash
on your couch?"
I didn't know that Joe had just received
terrible news, nor that his worried wife had asked, "Who do you wish you
had on your couch right now?" Those had been her exact words. Nor that he
had replied, "I wish Pete were on my couch, but I know that's crazy
because he's in England, and he's never even been to our home."
The prophet Malachi says that "those who
feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard"
(Mal. 3:16). Sometimes God listens to our casual conversations and receives
them as prayers. Within hours of Joe's throwaway line, I found myself on his
couch."[1] That is
precisely what a prayer should be like for all God's people: a normal
conversation between two close friends. Nothing magical or mystical about it.
Tyler
Staton, in his book "Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools describes
prayer as an invitation to learn to listen to God before speaking, to ask like
a child in your old age, to scream your question in any angry tirade, to
undress yourself in vulnerable confession, and to be loved—completely and
totally loved, despite everything. And yet most people, even most Bible-believing
Christians, find little life in prayer. Prayer is boring, obligatory,
confusing, or most often all of the above."[2]
How can we overcome a misguided understanding
of prayer and cultivate a vibrant, rewarding prayer life? How could we enter
into a conversational relationship with God, where we talk to Him, let Him talk
to us, and allow Him to guide our lives to His purposes? We will turn to our
Lord Jesus, who taught His disciples to pray and modeled prayer by praying
regularly at set times throughout the day and at times all night. The only way
to learn to pray is by praying. We will explore the modeled prayer, often
called the Lord's Prayer, in Matthew 6:5-15.
The 24/7 prayer team, founded by Peter Craig,
divided the Lord's Prayer into two sections. The first section lets us into
God's World, and the second lets God into ours. I thought it would be an easy
way to get a broader understanding of this model prayer. Part I.
I. Entering into God's World through Prayer.
Matthew 6:9-10: This, then, is how you should
pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, Your Kingdom come,
your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus begins the prayer
not with "My Father" but with "Our Father." Can you imagine
the impact of this phrase?
During the time of the last prophet, Malachi,
the Israelites had forgotten that they belonged to God's covenantal family and
became unfaithful to one another. The last prophet called them back to God, saying,
"Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Mal 2:10. Jesus
picked up where Malachi left off and called people to return to God their
Father. Every time we pray, "Our Father in Heaven," we are connected
to God's Worldwide Family.
Hallowed be your name. The
word hallowed means "to make holy," or "to set apart, sanctify,
consecrate, dedicate." The closest commonly used English word is probably
"honor." Our Father reminds us of God's intimacy;
"hallowed" reminds us of His separateness, His majesty, and His
incomprehensible greatness.[3]
We call God our Father, but we also worship, honor, respect, and obey Him as He
is the all-powerful and sovereign God of the universe.
Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. In the earthly realm, the most powerful
people are kings, presidents, etc., but God is greater than them. Deut 10:17:
"For the LORD your God is God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great
God, mighty and awesome." King David declared, "The Lord reigns; he is robed in
majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed
with strength; indeed,
the world is established, firm and secure." Ps 93:1
Daniel prophesied about God's everlasting
Kingdom. Dan 2:44: "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set
up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another
people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end,
but it will itself endure forever." The implications of "Let your
Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven," are that
the rule and reign of God's Kingdom begin in our lives and throughout the
earth. It also calls us to adopt a servant's attitude: We are ready to do our
master's will.
Once we take the posture of the Lord's
servant, as Staton notes, we clearly ask that God's Kingdom come where it is
absent—friends outside a relationship with Jesus, needs in our city and world,
challenging circumstances, and physical or mental illnesses. Ask for Jesus to
come—anywhere and everywhere you know God's Kingdom of love and peace is
absent."[4] Part
II.
II. Inviting God into our World through
Prayer
God
is not only concerned with heavenly matters but also deeply involved in the
mundane matters of His Children here and now. The second part of the prayer
invites God into our world, where He will address our daily needs,
relationships, and fears. We pray to our Father, "Give us today our
daily bread." We will learn how God will provide another time, but
for now it is sufficient to know we can boldly ask our heavenly Father to
provide for all our needs.
Ample
biblical and historical records show how God has met people's physical needs. God
provided for over 6000 people in the desert for 40 years with food, water, and
clothing, to teach them daily reliance on Him. ( Deut 8:3-5). George Müller was
an English evangelist. During his lifetime, he cared for over 10,000 orphan
children by relying on God.
"For example, on one occasion, they gave
thanks for breakfast while all the children sat at the table, even though there
was nothing to eat in the house. As they finished praying, the baker knocked on
the door with sufficient fresh bread to feed everyone, and the milkman gave
them plenty of fresh milk because his cart had broken down in front of the orphanage."[5]
Matthew 6:12, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." In Greek, sins are designated by two words: one translated here as debts and the other in v. 14 as transgressions. Here, sin does not refer to the original sin of Adam, which results in eternal death and only Jesus could forgive. Rather, these are minor offenses, faults, and willful overstepping of boundaries. If we want God to forgive our offenses, we must forgive those who offended us from our heart. For more on forgiveness, I refer you to Tim Keller's book, "Forgive."
Matthew 6:13: "And do not lead us into
temptation, but deliver us from evil one." God doesn't tempt people (James
1:13). He may subject His children to trials and testing. Even if He does, He
will not test us beyond what we can bear; He will also provide a way of escape
(1 Cor 10:13). So, our prayer is less about testing and more about protection
from the evil one, Satan, since we are no match for Him. Jesus concludes the
prayer by reminding us that ultimately the Kingdom, the power, and the Glory
belong to God alone now and forever. Amen!
III. Cultivating A Lifestyle of Prayer.
When
it comes to prayer, who should pray, and how often should we pray? It is like
asking which of you wants to live and how often you should breathe. Just as
oxygen allows us to live, our spiritual lives depend on prayer. For that
reason, Scripture advises us to pray continually. 1 Thess 5:17. We need to be
disciplined and intentional in our prayers.
In the Bible, we find several prayers and
models of disciplined men and women of prayer. Daniel prayed three times a day
(Daniel 6:10). Like many Jewish people of that time, Jesus and the disciples
observed the rhythms of morning, noon, and evening prayers. On the way to a
3:00 P.M. prayer meeting, Peter and John healed a lame beggar and were arrested
(Acts 3). I can give you many examples, but you get the point. For Jesus and
the early disciples, prayer was not just a one-time event but a lifestyle. Here,
I suggest we practice the Lectio 365 Plan.
