Praying Properly
Matthew 6:9-15 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10] Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11] Give us this day our daily bread. 12] And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13] And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 14] “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15] But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:9-15 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. 10] May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. 11] Give us today the food we need, 12] and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. 13] And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. 14] “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15] But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 6:9-15 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10]‘Your kingdom come, Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11]‘Give us this day our daily bread. 12]‘And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment]. 13]‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]’ 14] For if you forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15] But if you do not forgive others [nurturing your hurt and anger with the result that it interferes with your relationship with God], then your Father will not forgive your trespasses.
The Pattern Prayer
It is noteworthy that Jesus pinpointed two people whom we must avoid patterning our prayer after. They are the hypocrites, otherwise known as Pharisees, who act out all religious rites and duties for a show. And the gentiles or unbelievers who delight in the repetitive ordering of words.
One reason for this prayer showmanship is not far from the intent expressed in the opening line of the pattern prayer: “Our Father in heaven.” In the old testament era, God was a sovereign God. He was not seen as a social Father who can own children and can fellowship with them; can talk with them all, and have sons to Himself. In fact, one reason why the Pharisees - the avid bible scholars of Jesus' days - loath Jesus was His claim to be the Son of God. This, in the clearest of their views and to the best of their understanding, was blasphemy. Because claiming to be the Son of God meant asserting equality with God. Therefore, not having a Father in the God who is in heaven, so many misconceptions about this loving, caring, and merciful God prevailed. And having no one to stick out his neck out in correction of all else, this became a norm such that the way to know who is praying on the street without seeing their faces was to just listen out. While the hypocrites will take to the street corners to be seen, one would only need to hear a supposedly ordered rendition of repetitive prayer to know a total unbeliever is praying to his deaf God in heaven.
But Jesus stresses that although He is in heaven, He is a Father. He is not a God up there. He is a Father who sent His First Son to rescue His younger ones. He is a father who goes all the way to give His all to redeem the lost. He is a Father who knows the need of His children before they ever approach Him to ask. Do not let the distance from the earth to heaven deceive you. Though He is far away in the skies, residing and inspecting, yet He is so near. This thus necessitates a need: the recognition of God as a Father. Until God is known as a Father, prayers to Him will amount to a show in expectation of reputation in response.
Our prayers, therefore, must be patterned after that of the Son - Jesus -who has a Father in heaven. Not the Pharisee nor the unbelievers.
The praise in prayer
The humility of our God is worthy of unreserved appreciation. He could have made the heaven of heavens His own alone. He could have decided not to share it with men. But to factor man in, He made Himself so accessible that He could be that same God of Heaven uncompromising in faithfulness, justice and mercy yet a Father so close. This is His costliest adventure. He didn’t cost Him much in creating the earth as it cost Him in restoring man to Himself as His very own. And whose name is to be hallowed? That our Father in heaven. How shall we call the name of a person who will do not know?
Though God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jesus would not have His disciples, who are fellow Israelites pray along those lines. He would not have them plead the names of the patriarchs but pray as though Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had much access to God as do I. For this too, His name must be hallowed. Because of this singular fact, we can number ourselves among the living. For God is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who Jesus claimed are the living. Grateful to God should we for being numbered among this crowd of the faithful.
- Hallowed be your name, my Dad who resides up in heaven but does not sit up there unburdened with my cares and concerns!
- Hallowed by that God who should be busied by the assurance of the numerous complex functioning affairs of the world, yet has my audience!
- Hallowed be the Father of all who does not forget a worm-like you and I!
- Hallowed by the Father in heaven who speak to you mouth-to-mouth as with a friend!
- Hallowed by the name of our Lord who gave His best to save a wretch! Hallowed by the name!
- Hallowed to the God in heaven is He who descended low to me as a Father in heaven!
- All other means, ways and views of men and gods may be hollow and shallow, but hallow, o, hallow be thy name!
How wide hallowing the Father’s name flings open the gate of heaven to them to whom the God of heaven is a Father!
The palace for Prayer
Not only does God of heaven come down to the low state of man, but he also wants that territory in the heavenly place to become the prevalent art and ways of the earth. He, therefore, hopes to be a Father who art in heaven and also rule on earth. This was His chief aim of creating the world and placing man in it as His own image - that all may, conform to Jesus, who during His time on earth, gave the Father unhimdered access to rule through His obedience. That is, He wants to be the Father in heaven and the God on earth.
What is a kingdom? A kingdom, unlike a federal or democratic system of government, localizes the ruling power around the crown prince of a nation. The will is at the centre and circumferences the obedience of others who make up the subject of the state. Likewise, the kingdom of God is a kingdom where the will of God reigns supreme, and I am a mere actor of His resolutions as the angels do without a single objection in heaven. Jesus tells us when this prayer of thy kingdom comes is answered, the kingdom is situated in our hearts1. And when in our hearts, it shall flow to direct our lives, since out of our hearts flows issues of life2.
Thus the kingdom’s palace is our heart, and it, therefore, drives our heart’s circumstance into becoming our physical states or realities - mobile or stationed. Thus, this kingdom is our state of affairs where the rule of God begins essentially with us. The kingdom of God when it has come into our hearts is a foretaste of His coming physical kingdom. If, however, God finds a heart where His will reigns supreme that is heaven to Him. We talk about heaven on earth. Such a case also exist for God for a change of environment, especially when He feels at home in a man’s heart wielding the sceptre of leadership and commanding his obedience as does the angels in heaven while praises and hallowing of the Father’s name proceed from us for all circumstances in which we find ourselves3.
The provision for prayer
The mind is full and the heart is joyed by the fullness of God in His majesty for taking a humble position to make a manger-like heart of mine His throne. God would fain to take care of other parts of this carcass which made up His earthly kingdom. To reach out and nurture every other parts of this mobile palace of His, the soul inclusive, He goes through the belly. Hence, ask, “Give us our daily bread." As a caveat: redemption is, essentially of the soul and not of this physical earth and the body made out of it. The earth remains cursed, thus the cursed placed on it of it being scarcely productive and hardly able to satisfy man4 except by stress and sweat, still holds. Therefore, not the material prosperity but the sustenance of the Christian is guaranteed and must till and toil to feed. We need to ask for our daily bread.
However, two pieces of bread sustain man: one goes to the body and the other to the soul. Both are aimed at satisfaction. Thus, God said man shall leave by these two pieces of bread when He said,“man shall not live by bread alone5" . Otherwise, one may not become a bodily host of the kingdom of God. If the bodily bread (i.e. belly-bread) is all that fills man, he becomes a living dead soul. He becomes satisfied by the nourishing of his body but with a void that never can be filled by anything else but the presence of God, causing him or her inner dissatisfaction. Such will attempt to quell this longing for the occupancy of his Creator in this His bowels by indulgences and involvement in numerous engaging and “fun-filled” activities. Yet, a the time when the pinnacle of fun is supposedly reached, it hollows out another depth of dissatisfaction.
On the other hand, the soul can be well-nourished and the body malnourished so that the Spirit is willing sometimes, and the body is weak. But this in itself is not as worse as a nourished body with a pale soul. On the graounds that to our earthly body, nourished by earthly food, shall surely perish6. But as far as the inner self is being renewed, which is the eternal one, one may pay little attention to the part taken from the dust, for it will surely go back to the dust. Yet Jesus gives us the liberty to ask for both, ask for your daily bread consisting of the physical and the spiritual.
Oh, how this soul’s bread makes prayer a lasting and worthwhile venture and the provision of belly-bread dissolves anxiety!
Prayer and Pardon
14] “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15] But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Since our belly-bread provision lies in the hand of our Lord and our soul has tasted and is used to the bread of life, which is the taste of the nature of God himself, we ought to be able to act like Him. Our being subsists by feeding on Him. We need not go about grabbing the throats of those who owe us funds with which we carter for our daily belly-bread. We owe our duty of forgiveness of mankind to the reassuring faith in the providing ability and the abundant resources of a known heavenly Father. Of all prayer items, none of them is conditional. Nor does any stipulate some expectations from us except forgiveness. Here we are expected to act up to the knowledge we have of our heavenly Father. Is it not mercy that paves our access to God the Father through the blood of Jesus? Should mercy not pave the way for others through our acts of forgiveness to God? When, like Him, we are merciful, we inspire Him! Otherwise, we inhibit Him! We stop His flow of mercy towards us. It is here that God brings me to the sense of my responsibility to mankind.
Moreover, this is the key to the kingdom of heaven with which, if we express forgiveness to others, we open the kingdom of heaven to them, else we shut them out. This is a key of the kingdom of our heavenly Father; are we rather using it well? The original text even more forcefully: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you lose on earth shall be lose in heaven7." However, with forgiveness, whoever you bound in unforgiveness on earth is bound in heaven as well as yourself. What futility is it for a professed Christian who is supposed to grow into being full of the Holy Spirit to operate under closed heavens, from where the dwonpour ought to descend! How many there are who unforgiveness has turned the heaven over them to brass! No rain with much hard perspiration! And an acute specimen of boring, blasphemous Christians are they who loaf about alleging their affiliation with Christ but possessing barren bowels of compassion.
Protective prayer
Temptation on the part of the Christian man is real. As earlier mentioned, we are saints living in a sin-cursed world but headed for a heavenly city. However, on our way up, there is always an imitation city called temptation into which we could be led. The line “Lead us not into temptation," could also pass for lead me out of temptation. Many are the deception the Christian faces daily.
He sees a fake kingdom of God; he is exposed to tempters needing forgiveness up to 490 times per day per tempter; he is tempted not to forgive. He is moved to place higher importance on belly-bread than the living bread. He is tempted to lean toward the leanness of his soul by the fatness of His body. He is induced to do his will in place of the Father’s will. He is tempted to pray, “Grumbling be your name,” in place of “Hallow be your name,” when tried. He is tempted to pray “Our Father sleeping in heaven,” to show his frustrations from the unanswered or delayed answer to prayer. He is tempted to see no sense in praying behind shut doors. He is tempted to make a show of His charity. Oh, he is tempted to erect his own kingdom when he should live for the pursuit of the establishment of God’s. He is tempted to misappropriate eternal resources as much as he is tempted to be grumpy.
With these, we understand the Psalmist’s rendition that reads, “Many are the affliction of the righteous…8" But the Lord will deliver from all temptation as He will deliver from a few or one9. The Lord needs to deliver us from all these, else by the barrage of our numerous temptations, we might be tempted to despair. But recognizing that the Kingdom we have received and operate in is His and not ours. And undersatnding, therefore, that the power of its sustenance belongs to Him as well as the glory thereof, should rouse the faith in us to the believing of His endless ability to deliver us out of evil till He comes again, Amen.
