Articles
Jesus Teaches Us To Pray: Part 1
Jesus teaches us to pray, part 1 "Our Father in Heaven..."
Luke 11:1-4; Matthew 6:9-15
In Luke, Jesus taught His disciples to pray in chapter 11
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
In Matthew, Jesus taught His disciples to pray in chapter 6
Pray then like this:
“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.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Among more notable and attention grabbing things, Jesus was a praying man.
He made time to pray as in Mark 1:35
"And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. "
Then again, after an exhausting day of preaching and feeding a multitude in Matthew 14:23
"23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,"
In Luke 11, it was the disciples who asked Jesus about prayer probably because He was consistently engaged in it. He didn't go into a lengthy explanation of prayer, He simply told them that their prayers should be like the example prayer He gave them.
Although they could certainly pray the same prayer that Jesus used as an example, those who only do this fail to realize that He was showing them a template, or pattern, of what an acceptable prayer to God would be like. If they never grew spiritually beyond simply repeating the exact words that Jesus used to instruct them, it would be like a child in school who gets an example of a paragraph in a grammar book and for the rest of his education, whenever he was asked to write, he writes that same paragraph each time. You would say, "You have missed the point of that lesson." and I believe those who pray by repeating these words over and over, every time they pray, have perhaps missed the point of Jesus' instruction.
So what can we learn from this example of prayer that Jesus gave to His followers?
- First He shows us that prayer is directed to God.
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name."
As fundamental as this is, yet I think that we can easily forget this. Sometimes in public prayers, the one who is leading that prayer uses that time to instruct the audience and makes God merely a witness instead of the one to whom the prayer is directed. The person leading the prayer in public must remember that he is praying for everyone present in the assembly and expressing not just his own requests, but the sincere requests of the congregation. Since we are addressing God we must remember that the LORD doesn't need to be reminded of the things of His word, neither should someone imagine that there is anything for which we can pray which God is not already aware of, so we should keep our words phrased as a request from Him. Because the prayer is for everyone to offer, we should keep our words framed in a generalized way that everyone can say "amen" to.
In our private prayers we can forget to whom we are speaking and become too casual or imagine that we are simply speaking to our equal. This is why Jesus wants us to remember that He is our Father IN HEAVEN. We are here and He is in heaven surrounded by unspeakable glory and worthy of eternal honor and praise.
Imagine that you walked into the office of a famous athlete or entertainer and covering all the walls were his awards, records and acclimations. Would you ignore all this and simply set down as if it were nothing to you? I think that we would acknowledge these things and sincerely compliment the person who is so highly acclaimed.
If you would do this for an earthly celebrity, why would you think that our Creator, the One who has given life to every famous person who has ever lived, is worthy of only a" casual, flop down on the couch," kind of respect or an undue familiarity. Yest there is an intimacy as Jesus taught in His sermon It is true God knows us in every molecular detail, it is not true that we know Him intimately in the same degree.
"Hallowed be Your Name,
Those who were ever in the military recognize that rank deserves honor and those who are in Christ' army must recognize that God deserves our highest deference. We must never forget, we approach with our petitions not our demands. He is our Father whether He grants our requests or in His wisdom, denies them He remains God and we remain His children. Isaiah the prophet wrote "…they will sanctify the Holy One of Jaocb and will stand in awe of the God of Israel." (Isaiah 29:23) Peter instructed Christians to "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,…" (1 Peter 3:15).
To sanctify or to make holy means to set apart. When it comes to God is means that we set Him ABOVE all else. In our hearts and minds we must be careful that we do not "idolize" celebrities, leaders or even fictional characters such as "superheroes". There truly is no one super beside God.
Because of the realism of movies and video games many Christians spend hours fantasizing about someone with superhuman power who saves the planet or even the universe. I ask you, is there something lacking in our God that causes you to seek such power in a character that you know is not real? Instead of sitting starry eyed staring at a screen and visual effects, spend even a fraction of that time contemplating the greatness of the God whom you approach in prayer knowing that His power is more than sufficient to answer all your needs.
You don't need to imagine some alternative universe, simply look around you and see that the world God created needs His power to reach into the lives of those who are suffering, lost and even dying without a savior. The only Redeemer who has purchased us by the shedding of His blood upon the cross.
When you bow your head in prayer remember it is to "Our Father who is in Heaven.." whose name is above all names.
Amen?
"11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12).
By Michael Franklin
