Praying Jesus style
Today I have read Matthew 6:5-15
Prayer is simply you talking to God. We believe that our walk with God is all about relationship. Again just like giving it’s not meant to be a shout it from the roof tops look at me kinda thing. I get the impression that the people who were around during the time Jesus was, were religious and wanting to draw attention to themselves. No that’s not what we are about.
It’s also not about a magic formula, right I have prayed a really great sounding prayer, so now I will repeat the same thing over and over again. No religious repetition is also not the way to go.
Jesus reminds us that God already knows our needs before we even come to Him, he is not like Santa we don’t have to write Him a list.
Very early on in my walk with God I was shown by the Holy Spirit how to approach prayer through reading and reflecting upon Jesus words here in Matthew 6:9-13.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. This is all about praise, recognising who God is and that He is worthy of our praise. Praise is expressing our gratitude.
Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is all about surrender. It’s not about telling God what you want or think should be done but actually seeking and desiring His will to be done in whatever situation you are praying about.
Give us this day our daily bread. This is all about provision. Recognise that everything we have and need comes from God. It’s easy to forget that and become complacent; used to the fact that our wage come in every month or our parents bail us out. No it is God who provides and we need to trust in Him for everything we need.
And forgive is our debts as we have also been forgiven our debtors. This is all about confession and forgiveness. In our prayer we must come before God and ask for forgiveness, it’s not a matter of saying well I said the prayer 10 years ago, so now I am ok. Although we are now saints saved by grace we are still not perfect and may get it wrong and our prayer time is the place to bring it before God and ask for His forgiveness and help. At the same time we need to forgive those that have wronged us in life, we can’t expect God to forgive us if we wont forgive others and through this forgiveness and confession we experience great freedom. God works on our heart and character shaping us into the people He has called us to be, this involves working on our weaknesses as well as our strengths. It’s not always an easy ride, but one that is worth taking.
And lead us not into temptation. This is about protection. From experience I would much rather not be led down a bad road. For example I would much rather be told that I shouldn’t put my hand in the fire and trust that advice, than to put my hand in the fire and realise that it burns from experience. The key word here is trust, will we take God at His word or will we learn the hard way, it’s all down to choice.
But deliver us from evil. This is all about deliverance. To some this word sounds a bit exorcist and heavy. To me it’s actually quite the opposite. You see all we can do is trust and believe in God, transformation, saving, healing, provision is all Gods job not ours, deliverance for me is a word that describes God taking us from a place we don’t need to be to a place where we need to be. The great Postman, sounds corny but it’s so true. Its saying God I know I am not in the right place but I can’t get to were I need to be without you, I trust you and know that you can, I surrender and leave it to you. Our only job is then to surrender everything and trust!
- Praise – Telling God why you are grateful
- Surrender – Trusting God for everything in your life
- Provision – Realising it is God that provides all your needs not wants
- Confession – Keeping it real with God and coming clean when you mess up
- Forgiveness – Keeping it real with others
- Protection – Trusting God wants the best for you and taking Him at His word
- Deliverance – Realising that it is not about what you can do but what He can do to move you forward
May you enter into a relationship of praise, surrender, trust, confession, forgiveness, protection and deliverance. And may you continue to move forward in the plan and purpose that God has for you.
