A Prayer Yet Much More
It is recorded by Matthew the apostle that Christ gave instruction as to how to pray. The Lord's prayer as commonly known is the example Christ gave. It is recorded in Matthew 6:9 to 13. It goes as such with the initial instruction: "After this manner therefore pray ye: 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, forever. Amen."
If one looks closely and studies the example Christ gave, they will find several elements involved in the prayer. They will find, first, an initial recognition to His Maker and Father. Secondly, a recognition and statement of reverence, honor and praise. Thirdly, they will find several requests, some with condition and some without. Fourth, they will find a request for deliverance and guidance. Fifth, they will find another statement of reverence, honor and praise. Last but not least, a one word statement stating, "Let it be so."
In an effort to better see and understand the example, let us take each piece at a time and digest it just as a bite of each meal is eaten and digested to make us strong and healthy. Initially, Christ recognizes God by saying "Our Father which art in heaven." Here Christ is acknowledging God and recognizing Him as the Father over all. Next, He promotes the recognition of God as supreme by acknowledging that Hallowed (or Holy) is His name. This realization can only come from the heart and when it does, it brings reverence, honor and praise with it to produce hope and confidence in the Maker of all to assure the answer to requests that are requested. That brings us to the several requests Christ made as examples. First, He is concerned with God's will and not His own and thus asks God the Father to fulfill His (God's) will first. It is noted in "Thy kingdom come and they will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Christ's first request was that God's kingdom would come. His following statement ensured how it would come....."Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." Let us think for a moment. Is there any possibility that God's will would not be done in heaven? Is there even the slightest possibility that it would not or could not be done in heaven? Nay, nay, nay! God's will will be done in heaven without the slightest exception. It would be impossible for God's will not to be done in heaven, thus it is an absolute that God's will will be done in heaven. Then Christ requests that God's will is done in earth as in heaven. My oh my, what a request! Christ is praying or requesting God to assure that God's will is done in earth exactly as it is in heaven. He is requesting what many would think impossible yet was Christ a fool to request the impossible and then tell us to do the same? Never! The phrase "in earth" gives it away. Was not man made from earth or the ground of the earth? And so Christ said "in earth" and meant that God's will was to be done in earth or in man as in heaven. He was saying that God would work IN man meaning his heart and thus God's will would be done as in heaven. So it is that God's will is done in heaven just as in earth or in earth just as in heaven. Do you see? The two parallel identically! To recapture these thoughts for a moment, we have Christ acknowledging the Father, honoring Him and making two requests of the Father that involved the will of the Father and not his own will. Next, Christ proceeds to his own will with requests. They are several or four...."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." First, in asking for daily bread each day, he is asking the Father to provide all that is needed in every way whatever that might be in every situation. It might be a need for food, clothing, knowledge, wisdom, patience or anything thing one can think of in any way. He asked for God to give us all that we need. You see in so little, he said so much if we think and God is doing as he requested. He also asked the Father to forgive us with condition. That condition is simple and places a responsibility on us. It is this..."Forgive us as we forgive." Wow! We will be forgiven as we forgive! No give, no get! Give and get! Plain and simple.....what an awesome principle! Next, he also asks God to "Lead us not into temptation." At first thought, this request seems absurd. Would God lead a person into temptation to do wrong when the very salvation of God is to deliver us from doing wrong? Never! Through thought, it is best understood what he was saying when we look at it this way. "Lead us not into temptation" means do not allow us to be tempted or guide us away from that which will tempt us. That makes sense...agreed? We now come to the fourth request that involves us and our will. It is "Deliver us from evil." My friend, show me anyone or someone who has not made a mistake or error which is nothing more than sin and I will show you a liar. We have all sinned or errored or made a mistake. It is these that creates the evil (meaning struggle, pain, suffering and conflict) that we need deliverance from. We need help. We need to be delivered from our own error as well the error of others that affects us and the error of each of us that affects others. It is the great error of man, small or large, that is making the evil or struggles persist and we need deliverance from it. The answer to deliverance is understanding and wisdom so we do not make the errors and mistakes that create the trouble in the first place. Again to recapture what Christ was saying in "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," we can see that Christ was instructing us as to what was important to pray with regards to our own being and relationship to others. He was asking the Father to provide, guide, help and deliver us from our own shortcomings so peace IN earth can be found and so God's will would be done ON Earth because it was done IN earth which is the heart of man. Christ concludes the prayer as our example with two things. First, he says, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever." Here he reaffirms his confidence and trust in God the Father and recognizes God's sovereignty and thus praises, honors and reverences Him for it. In conclusion he says, "Amen" which means "Let it be so!"
Let me ask you one question. When you look at the example Christ gave in how we should pray, how could we not have hope, trust and thankfulness in our heavenly Father if we believe and do what he said?
If a person studies their bible, they will find various or many commands which exemplify and encourage us to pray with various requests. Most of these commands as we might call them were made by men who walked and talked with Christ on a daily basis and thus are first hand experience as they understood. It does not mean these are the only things to pray for but are a guide line within reason as they understood. Helpful they are and yet there is more to the study of prayer and we will get to the more later. Let us look first at a short list of guidelines:
* Pray for those who despitefully use you. Matthew 5:44
* Pray for laborers in the harvest. Matthew 9:38
* Pray one for another. James 5:16
* Pray for the afflicted. James 5:13
* Pray for the sick. James 5:14
* Pray that you enter not into temptation. Matthew 26:41
* Pray for a brother's life (a sin not unto death). I John 5:16
* Pray for forgiveness. Acts 8:22
* Pray for your self and others to be filled with the knowledge of His (God's) will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Colossians.1:9
* Pray that others do no evil. 2 Corinthians 13:7
* Give thanks in everything. I Thessalonians 5:18
* Pray for a good conscience. Hebrews 13:18
* Pray for the authorities. I Timothy 2:1, 2
* Pray that men pray everywhere. I Timothy 2:8
* Pray in the spirit. Ephesians 6:18
* Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands. Isaiah 45:11
My friend, there are so many things a person can request in prayer that they are too numerous to mention without a very long overwhelming list. The above is just to stimulate thought and stir the interest. Let's move along to promises in prayer. Throughout the bible, a person will find many statements that provide hope or promise. They are statements based on facts that the writers had experienced and were confident worked. Some statements were made by Christ which are absolutes if what he said was recorded properly and others is the word of men that walked and talked with Christ and so they wrote as they understood. Let's look at a short list of what we will call promises.
*Mark. 11:24 What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
*Matthew. 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
*I John 5:14, 15 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
*II Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
*St. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
*St. John 8:31, 32 If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
*Romans 8:28...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
*St. John 14:12 to 14 ...He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Looking at the above, a person should gather hope and confidence yet even more so...faith and assurance in the God and Maker of man individually and collectively. Let us look to our Maker and make the requests as we have been instructed to do by the Savior of all, Christ.
Returning to a former statement of "we will get to the more later" and in conclusion, I will state the following. There are basically two kinds of prayer. They are the ones God hears and the ones He does not hear. Your next question might be, "How do I know if He hears mine?" Good question! I will sum as best as I can. True prayer is a thing of the heart. It is not chanting words and making requests to satisfy our own selfishness. You see, there are many and most who dabble in religion and prayer so they feel assured they will not go to hell but rather so they can be assured they will go to heaven. The motive in the whole of it is selfishness and is not concerned with God's will being done in their life, thus it is error and they are not heard. What motivates true prayer of the heart is love. It requires love. When a person loves God (with ALL their heart) they can be confident and assured their prayers are heard. A Father of love will hear their every thought, word and deed because love flows between the two "unconditionally." When love flows unconditionally, a person's words and deeds, and actions will be as they ought because it will be love that ensures it. Because this love exists in the heart for its Maker, the person need not bow day by day and moment by moment and try to assure themself of their position before God because their heart is in continual and ongoing second by second of each minute crying out to God even as an infant rests in its parents arms and knows so little yet knows it is safe in the arms of its parent yet cries at any moment of need and so is assured that the parent hears and responds. So it is with he or she who loves their Maker. They are in constant prayer and all of the requests that can fill the heart and mind are in constant motion between the two meaning Maker and the man or woman who loves their Maker with all their heart. The heart of a true man of prayer will never be silent yet it will seldom need to utter a word because it is of the heart that love flows and so our Maker works as we rest and pray silently with words that cannot be said because they are utterable. So it is with prayer. We understand so much yet we understand so little. Let us enter into a love relationship with our Maker that will remove the words we seek to offer and elevate us to where words cannot be spoken as two who fall in love and intimacy is without words yet it does exist in such a way that no one can know or explain! This is true prayer that needs not to be uttered! It is truly a way of life and so prayer is ever ongoing at all times, every moment both consciously and unconsciously.