Pray. Part 2.
(5 minute 13 second read)
In my last email, I talked about how my prayer life struggles led me to do a deep dive into the study of prayer.
If you haven’t read it, then I’d recommend that you do as this one is piggy-backing off of the first one!
Read it here:
If you’re like me, and prayer is something that you struggle with… Keep reading.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Jesus continues the second half of the prayer by highlighting specific, earthly needs.
Pray for your daily bread.
It’s a simple expression for daily provision; day by day.
Enough for each day and no more.
Proverbs 30:8-9 “Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, So that I will not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” And that I will not become impoverished and steal, And profane the name of my God.”
“And forgive us our debts (sins), as also have forgiven our debtors”
We are to forgive others as we have been forgiven!
I find it interesting here that as Christians our sins are already forgiven, yet, Jesus asks us to continue to ask for forgiveness!
Hebrews 7:26-27 | Hebrews 10:10 | Matthew 6:8 |
“For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens; who has no daily need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people…because He did this once for all when He offered up himself… | “By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.” | “For do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” |
We’ve already been forgiven, yet we’re to ask for forgiveness continually and Jesus instructs us to pray this way.
The reason we pray to “forgive us of our debts” is not because we’ve fallen out of a state of grace and need to be “re-saved.”
Routinely confessing our sin reminds us that there is more to us being saved than just a 1-off time of forgiveness.
Jesus paid it all, but once we’re saved there’s an ongoing process of becoming more like Christ.
We learn things through prayer and understand new things through prayer.
What is our approach when we pray?
Do we approach prayer with the expectation that unless we get what we want from the experience… that it was a failure?
What I’ve come to learn is that God seems always to answer prayers.
But sometimes that answer is “No.”
And sometimes the answers are deep and complex and beyond the scope of our understanding in the present moment.
But one thing I’ve noticed is that prayer causes us to reconsider our desires, and whether they are a part of God’s will, or ours.
Not to pray for riches or fame, but for God’s fame and our daily provision.
Not praying for revenge on our enemies, but remembering our own sin.
Rather than seeking our own plan on earth, seeking His Kingdom come.
And as we come to know God and see His will manifest in our lives, he receives glory.
Isn’t it interesting that God’s way is always the best way?
Jesus concludes the prayer with:
“Lead us not into temptation…”
This is a Greek figure of speech, which is why it reads in the reverse way.
What it simply means is “God, let us be faithful to you in the face of temptation.”
We know God does not tempt us (James 1:13).
We know we are enticed by our own desires (James 1:14).
It’s a petition for God to strengthen us against ourselves.
To endure.
To pass the test when temptations come.
This should be the most sincere cry we have when fighting sin in our lives!
We’re prone to fail in temptation, and that is why we need the Lord’s strength!
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The last thing I want to share with you is what I believe Jesus was modeling and sharing when he laid out the prayer in this way.
Did Jesus expect his disciples to put aside other prayer to adopt the words captured in this account in Matthew/Luke?
To put aside other prayer in favor of this prayer to recite?
What was the purpose of the disciple’s question to Jesus?
“Teach us to pray.”
It wasn’t “teach us a prayer.”
They desired to learn something they felt was crucial to their walk in life.
Jesus was a carpenter. If his apprentices came up to him and asked him how to frame a house, wouldn’t we expect Jesus to teach them the essentials of the task and use examples of the principles?
Reading the blueprints, swinging a hammer, taking the measurements…
It would be after these things that Jesus would then frame the house.
Would Jesus tell his apprentices to go and build the same house again and again?
The teacher’s point is to teach through a model, but not to expect the students to memorize the specific example.
In math class in school, the teacher taught us how to think about the model, not to memorize the example given to teach that model.
This is especially true in the case of prayer.
Prayer is a dialogue with God.
An opportunity to learn from Him and to ask Him to respond to our needs — if we always bring exactly the same words to that experience…
What are we going to learn? What kind of dialogue will that be?
I don’t believe the words of this prayer were meant to be recited over and over, and was not intended to be mindlessly spoken. (Not that you can’t say this exact prayer… That’s not the point.)
It’s interesting that just prior to this example, Jesus speaks ill of this idea:
Matthew 6:7-8 “And when you pray, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”
When the prayer becomes a mantra or chant, it changes from a dialogue to a monologue.
This isn’t to say that meditating over the Psalms or written out prayers is a bad thing.
I know Christians who really enjoy those.
My only point, and I think Jesus’ point, was that this was a model of prayer.
And when we partake in prayer that turns into thoughtless repetition, we ought to be careful!
Finally… This was the most important takeaway during my study of prayer I found.
What is our attitude when we pray?
Do we see prayer as an attempt to justify ourselves through our “good works” rather than a sincere effort to learn God’s will and be conformed to it?
Jesus teaches us to seek the Father, seek His will, seek His goodness, seek His word, and to do so in an open heart — to engage in a dialogue to strengthen our relationship with him.
Our audience is with God.
When He works His will, we can give him glory for answering our prayers, that were according to His will.
There’s more to prayer than what was talked about in the confines of this newsletter…
But I hope you got a sense of what prayer is if you didn’t know already.
I honestly wrote all of this to preach to myself.
But I hope you got something out of it too.
Thank you.
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