Read: Matthew 6:5-15 KJV
"And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray to stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye, therefore, like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. 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 thy is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:5-15 KJV)
Before we go to the text let me ask you some questions:
“Have you ever prayed to God yet nothing seems to change?”
“Have you ever slept in your prayer or do you find prayer as a boring task?”
“Does prayer really make a difference?”
“And why should we pray?”
“What is prayer really all about?”
1. What is prayer really all about?
“But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” (Matthew 6:6)
So this is the promise of God. When we spend time with Him in our relationship with Him in our communion, then He will answer our prayers openly. Prayer really isn’t manipulating God. It is having a relationship with God. It is having communion with Him. It is having communication with Him. Through prayer, we are aligning our hearts into His heart. It is the expression of our faith to Him. That as we are really sworn as we have known Him, we can really express our hearts aligned to His heart. And that’s really prayer. It is not manipulating God. That is the confidence that we have. That when we pray, we will ask and He will answer because that’s His promise. That is the invitation of God to us, to change the course of this world. What a privilege right?
2. What does the Bible say about prayer? And how should we pray?
The first part is, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.”
- That means that we recognize God as our Father and we are His children as well. That we have that kind of relationship with Him.
The second part is, “Hallowed be Thy name.”
- That means that we recognize Him as our God and we as worshippers.
The third part is: “Thy Kingdom come.” - That means that He is sovereign and we are His subject.
The next part is more on provision and more on our needs that we ask of Him. “Thy will be done.”
“Give us today our daily bread.”
- That means to say that we’re recognizing God as our provider and we are the beneficiary of God’s provision.
“Forgive us our trespasses.”
- Meaning to say we’re recognizing as a Savior of our sins and we are sinners and we are those people that need forgiveness.
“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
- That means to say that He is our Guide and He is the pilgrims of this world.
“For Thy is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory.”
- That means to say that He is our God and we are God-created beings and we declare that in our lives that His kingdom is coming, the power and the glory is His.
That’s His promise. It means to say that it’s also available for us.
Now, let’s dive in deeper.
1. "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.”
That means that we recognize God as our Father. He is not just our boss, our boss. My God, but the God of all. Meaning to say, when you pray to Him, we cannot afford to become selfish in our prayer. Because we recognize that He is God for everyone.
2. “Hallowed be Thy name.”
Sometimes, when we go to our prayer, we go directly to our provisions. But God wants us to postpone, to defer our request so we can focus on Him first. Why? Why does God want us to focus on Him first? Because as we recognize Him as who He is, our Father, our Provider, our Healer, then our hearts become aligned to what prayer is really all about, to what the things that we really focus all about in prayer. Meaning to say, our will becomes God’s will. Or should I say, Our will becomes aligned to God’s will – to His desires. That's why God wants us to focus on Him first. We praise Him, we recognize who He is, and we focus on who He is in our lives.
3. What should be our priorities?
“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done.”
Sometimes, it’s easy to pray for provision, it’s easy to pray for healing, and pray for breakthroughs in our lives. But is it really aligned to the will of God for us? Sometimes, we tend to compare. Sometimes we tend to complain. But when we align our priorities with God, meaning to say that we believe that His Kingdom is coming to our lives, then that part of our lives becomes align to His purpose. That’s the kind of prayer that God really can afford to answer. Because it’s not selfish, it’s not focusing on ourselves anymore. It’s not solely focusing on ourselves but on His will.
“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done.” We declare that in our lives because it is true.
1. Provision and relationship and protection part.
This part focuses more on our request. So after we focus on God’s attributes and nature, then we align our hearts to His will. After that, that’s the only part where we can really ask God, seek God, and knock on what our request is because we are already assured that it is already aligned to God’s heart. What are those things that God wants us to pray for? God wants us to pray for provision. “Give us this day our daily bread.”
2. “Forgive us our trespasses.”
Meaning to say, sometimes we are so focused on ourselves that we want to be forgiven by God of our many sins. But sometimes, it’s hard for us to forgive others. That’s really selfish. That’s why God said to ask this as you will be forgiven as you forgive others. Meaning to say, sometimes, it’s easy to ask for forgiveness and we don’t want to give forgiveness ourselves. God wants us to become what we ask for. That’s what God is saying, as we ask for forgiveness, we are to give forgiveness to others as well. How do we forgive? It’s really unconditional. As God has forgiven us with unconditional forgiveness.
3. “Lead us not into temptation”
Meaning to say, there’s always a way out when temptation comes. There’s always a way out and we have no excuse that when temptation comes, “Lord, it’s so hard. It’s so hard to resist.” But the Lord is saying, I’ll always provide a way out. So, we have to recognize when that time comes, when God already provided a way out. So, we should also be praying, “Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.” God is promising us that He will always provide a way out.
4. “For Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory, forever, Amen.”
We focus on God’s promise again. We focus on His perfect will and His finish work. God is saying that all power and glory belongs to Him already. We just have to ask it, to seek it. If you cannot seek that person, then knock. It’s like God is saying, “Have you ever got a friend before that when you tried to contact him asking to lend you something?” It’s the same as this. Ask. Seek. Knock. God said in the Bible that we should ask, seek, and knock. First of all, when we ask the person and maybe he was not able to open the message, what would you do? You will seek. You will go to the person’s house. You seek the vicinity of his house and look for him. Sometimes, we are so focused on our own needs, our provision and we tend to forget to seek the person himself. God is saying to us that we should not only be focusing on our request but also on the Giver of our request. Knock. If you cannot find me from the vicinity of my house, then maybe I am inside the house. So you just have to knock. After you seek him and you cannot find him, then you have to knock on the door and surely, he will recognize that you are there.
God is saying to us that we should be like that in our prayer. If you ask and he has not yet received your message, seek that person personally and seek him himself. God is inviting us to that kind of relationship. We are not focused on the gift, or our request, but to Him, to God Himself. What a privilege!
5. Prayer prevails much.
When you read the Book of James, God says there that the prayer of a righteous person prevails much. That if you have that kind of relationship with God, there’s nothing that could really hinder you to receive that prayer because God can afford to answer your prayer. And that is really the blessing of prayer. Not just that we are receiving our request, our concerns, but we are becoming the person that God can entrust the answer. That’s what God is developing in our lives – to become people to whom He can entrust the answers because one day He is going to answer all of our prayers. But sometimes, God cannot answer our prayers because the answer can destroy us. For example, if we are not mature enough and we are asking for a car, and you are 8 years old yet and is not yet matured to drive the car, and God has given you a Lamborghini or something really fast. If God gives you that, the blessing of God is the one that will kill you, the one that will destroy you. Sometimes, God really is not answering our prayers because we’re not ready yet. Sometimes, it is also because He doesn’t want the blessings that will destroy us. That is why, God is maturing us in the process that during in times prayer, He is showing us what still needs to be developed and what we still need to mature-on in our lives.
Prayer is understanding that when God said that we should pray for this, He’s 100% committed to answering that prayer. When God tells us that we should ask for our bread, every time that God is telling us to pray for forgiveness, to deliver us from temptation, then He is 100% committed to answering that prayer. He will bring an answer.
The greatest blessing of prayer, as I said earlier, is not receiving the answer itself but becoming the person that God can entrust the answer. That’s what God’s word is all about. That’s why He is giving us His word. So we can grow up with all things unto Him.
Maybe right now you still don’t know if God will answer your prayer. But we already read in our word that God can answer our prayers as long as it is aligned to God’s will, as long as it is aligned to God’s heart. If we are aligned to God’s will, surely, He will answer. And it will be a boring task anymore because it is an invitation of God to change the course of this world, to change the course of other people’s lives because we are aligned to His word.
Conclusion:
God is inviting us to have a relationship with Him. Sometimes, our communication seems to be a boring task because we don’t have a relationship with that person. It’s like having a friend that you are not close with. Sometimes, you think that it is hard to communicate with Him because you don’t have a relationship. God is saying, “Have a relationship with me through my Word. Try to know me.” God is saying that if you seek Him with all your heart, you can find Him. That is exactly what God is saying. God is inviting us to have a relationship so our communication will become natural. It’s like talking to our close friend, it is more organic. God is promising us that we can have that relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. And our prayer will not be a boring task anymore. Let me comfort you with this.
“When you pray, even though sometimes you fall asleep, I think it is okay with God. If you are a father and you are talking to your child, while you are talking with each other, and he fell asleep, would you scold your child? You will be happy even though He fell asleep because you are having a relationship with God. So don’t be condemned when you fall asleep when you pray. But sometimes, you have to find time to really talk with God. It shouldn’t be always like that, you always falling asleep. Sometimes, maybe, the problem lies in your schedule. You don’t go to your father and always fall asleep, right? Sometimes you go to your father and have a coffee. What I am trying to say is if we can afford to have conversations with our friends for an hour because it is exciting to talk with him because we are close to him, then maybe we can do it also with God.
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