Our prayer series has taken us into some uncharted territory for some of us.  When we talk about prayer, most of us either feel conviction because we know we aren’t praying enough or we don’t understand how God could want to talk to us based on how we live.  Simply stated, prayer is the most important tool of our Christian life.  Think about it – prayer changes our heart towards the people we pray for.  It changes our direction when we aren’t moving the way God is.  It causes us to love people who are unlovable.  It release the power of the Almighty God in my life.  He doesn’t need my permission to act, but many times He waits on my permission to enter.

The last couple weeks we’ve started walking through the Lord’s Prayer line by line.

Matthew 6:9-13 says “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.  Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us today our daily bread,  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen”

These few verses give us the model for prayer in the life of a believer.  It is a clearly marked path for us to follow.  I don’t believe Jesus ever intended us to quote this word for word, but I do believe He wants us to follow His lead.

• Your name be honored as holy – Our lives should honor God in every aspect, but we forget to honor Him when we speak to Him.  So many times we just jump right into our needs, wants, and requests to help us out of trouble.  We might even throw in a request to help someone else, but we don’t take time to show Him the honor He deserves.  I realize some circumstances require us to state the facts with no lead in, but most of the time we have plenty of time express our love, appreciation, and adoration for Him.  HE IS WORTHY!  We don’t express our adoration for Him to help Him – He doesn’t need us to complete Him – We express our adoration for Him to help us – We need to honor Him to keep the proper perspective on things.
• Your Kingdom come, your will be done – The fact is, God’s kingdom does not exist here on this earth – at least not yet.  I acknowledge He has a plan for my life, and even though I live in an imperfect world, I want His plan more than anything else.  His plan is perfect, and I want perfect.  My plans are “adequate” at best, and I don’t want adequate.
• On earth as it is in heaven – His kingdom does exist in heaven now – I want His plan to exist in me just as it is meant to.  I don’t want to put Him in my little box, or hide Him in some seldom used corner of my life.
• Give us today our daily bread – We have to learn to distinguish our needs from our wants.  A need is something I absolutely can not live without – water, food, shelter, relationships (God and people).  A want is something I can live without – a cell phone, a large TV with hundreds of channels, your absolute favorite foods, entertainment (movies, great apps, social media, sporting events, concerts, etc) and more.  Honestly, most of us don’t know how to pray for needs.  We have the basics covered in 2014 America. There are people who genuinely need these things, but most of us have them already.  We tend to place our favorite things in the “want” category in the “need category.  The danger of “needing” things we don’t really need is it makes us unappreciative and arrogant when we don’t get everything.  Let me challenge you to regularly write a list of what you have, and what you need – really need.  I think you will find your needs are very few.  So pray for the needs of others, and just simply say “thank you” for the blessings of your life.

More to come!

WG