Pray like Jesus prayed

The prayer of Jesus is famous all over the world.  He teaches us how to pray.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray, saying:

⁹ “Pray, then, in this way:

Jesus’ prayer was a model for us to learn from.  It need not be said each time we pray.  It is more like a blueprint for how to build our prayers.  Jesus shows us in one prayer — what an effective prayer will often have in it.

Sometimes a prayer is focused on one thing: a request, a need, praise to God, worship.  The important thing is to go to God.  God says to call on Him.  He wants us to pray.  He cares about us and our needs.

“God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him.”
1 Peter 5:7 Contemporary English Version

Jesus said, “Pray, then, in this way:”
__________________
‘Our Father who is in heaven,

Prayer implies a relationship.  We pray to “Our Father”, “Abba”, an endearing, very personal name (Galatians 4:6; Mark 14:36). He invites us to come into His very presence – through prayer.

…in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him [that is, our faith gives us sufficient courage to freely and openly approach God through Christ].  – Ephesians 3:12

Have you established your relationship with God as your Father, through His Son Jesus?  Have you acknowledged God as your Father?

Prayer begins with a humbling.  Our prayer attitude must be one of respect.  We address a mighty, holy God. He is on His all powerful throne in Heaven.  And we?  We are His created ones.

God, Jesus Christ, did die to save us, which makes us of immense value and importance in the universal scheme of things! But, we are not gods (nor will we EVER become gods, as the Mormons teach).  We are His creatures. Prayer acknowledges this with a humble heart.

Prayer comes out of your heart.  God sees your heart.  He does not weigh your sins nor shut you down because you come to Him all dirty and unclean.  He sees past our unworthiness.  He even died for each of us “while we were still sinners.”  He does not wait for us to get our act together before accepting us!  He got over our sinfulness a long time ago.  He wants our heart to be His.

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:6
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

__________________
Hallowed be Your name.

There is way too much disrespect in our society as a whole.  Are you a part of that? Saying…

• Oh my god!
• Oh Jesus!
• What in Jesus name did you do?!
• God!

On the contrary, His name is to be highly respected, “hallowed”. We say His name, yes, but — with respect.

Respect for God is not a religion thing. It’s a “universe consciousness” thing. He is holy.  He is the most powerful entity in all the universe.   It does not make sense strategically, to make light of the name of The One who will hold court at the end of time.

The practice of blasphemy is so commonplace. I have to be careful to guard my thoughts and speech, to not conform to the practices so prevalent around me. SEE: Do you OMG all the time?

^{__________________
10} ‘Your kingdom come.

In prayer there is an expectancy of a coming kingdom, a desire to be with Him. Jesus said,

“I will come back again
and I will take you to Myself,
so that where I am you may be also.”
–John 14:verse 3

The promise of His imminent return motivates us to live in constant communion with Jesus.  What would it be like to be living in sin — and have Him return, like – tomorrow?!  Contrast that with being found by Him while living for Him.  There is no fear when we live near.  See: Keeping Sin

__________________
Your will be done,

It is so easy to live with my will in mind, always.  But the prayer of Jesus shows us a different focus: His will be done, not ours.  We have a life, we have desires, and we make plans (and that’s good) — but “a follower” is always looking to God for His will in all of it.

__________________
On earth as it is in heaven.

In Heaven, how much of God’s will is done? A constant 100%, you think?

On earth it takes a lifetime to learn to always seek His will in all things.  I’m still working on that!

Maybe we should reword this part of the prayer, to say, “Your will be done, in my life as it is in heaven.”

^{__________________
11} ‘Give us this day our daily bread.

“Our daily bread”, in the context of that day, was: Give us this day …all that we need to make it through the day.

“So do not worry about tomorrow;
for tomorrow will ^[a]care for itself.
^[b]Each day has enough trouble of its own.
– Matthew 6:34

See: 2 Corinthians 3:5; 2 Corinthians 9:8; 2 Corinthians 12:9;

“Regardless of my circumstances” …I approach each day by faith in Him, believing that He Himself is my sufficiency.  All I need is Jesus!  Through Scripture I teach myself confidence, peacefulness, contentedness, and self-sufficiency.  I am content – because I believe Him.

^{__________________
12} ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

When I sin, I am in debt.  I owe something because sin is against someone or God.  Jesus’ prayer acknowledges this. I ask God to forgive me, and bring me out of my sinfulness, and back into my closeness of humbleness with Him.  And in turn I can more easily forgive others when they sin against me.

Forgiveness.  It’s an attitude.  According to Jesus, if we cannot forgive other’s sins, we have not truly repented of ours.  Repenting of our sinfulness – gives us an attitude of forgiveness of others (Mark 11:26).

^{__________________
13} ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Part of this prayer of Jesus is to ask God to deliver us from temptation and evil.

Temptation “seizes” upon us, no matter how spiritual one may be . It will always be right around the corner. But God strengthens us and actually guards us from what would be too much to resist (1 Corinthians 10:13).

If we do not keep alert, always keep “a watchful eye” on our ways, then we can easily be tempted to fall.

Galatians 6:1
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin,
you who are spiritual
[that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit]
are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness
[not with a sense of superiority
or self-righteousness],
keeping a watchful eye on yourself,
so that you are not tempted as well.

Luke 22:40
When He came to the place, He told them, “Pray that you will not enter into temptation.”

John 17:15
I am not asking that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one.

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide an escape, so that you can stand up under it.

2 Thessalonians 3:3
But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

2 Timothy 4:18
And the Lord will rescue me from every evil action and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

__________________
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’“

We should pray a lot.  A lot!  We should often go to God.  Pray something like this:

Lord, Father, I bow my heart before you

A prayer of praise to God

Not all prayers are equal.  We should avoid not-so-effective prayers.  It’s easy to fall into habits of ineffective prayer:

• telling God how it needs to be done, thinking we know and He is there to do what we ask;
• the “I want more”, greedy, give me this prayers; or
• delusionary prayers of conceit, disdain for others (Lord thank you that I am not like this Publican…):

Prayer is effective if we pray according to His will.  Would God go against Himself – to answer our misguided prayer?  I don’t see that happening.

Knowing the Bible helps us know God’s will.  So then we can pray “according to His will”.  God teaches us to pray: Pray Biblically.

There is no magic formula by God.  He has taught us to come humbly before Him, seek Him, tell Him our need… and He will answer from Heaven.  If we are born again, then His Spirit lives inside us, as He makes our body His temple… so in essence He answers from within us, from His throne in our heart!

He wants us to come to Him often.  There is no fear of THAT kind of God.

FOR MORE:

Pray Biblically

Prayer in the Bible… passages on prayer

God Is Not Distant

Talking to Jesus

Conversations With God

Prayer of Repentance

Peaceful Easy Feeling