Let's begin this study in prayer...
Psalm 23:1-6The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
In our previous study we saw what our attitude should be in prayer.
Namely, we should humbly come before Him knowing that He is well
aware of our needs. To see this let us read Jesus' instruction to His
disciples from,
Matthew 6:5-8
With this background, our Lord Jesus Christ now provides us a model
(i.e. example) of how to pray. And so, let us move on and continue
our reading from,
Matthew 6:9-13
In order for us to better understand this example let us now go back
and expand upon some of the key elements... OK? And so let us begin
with,
I. OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN
In order to better comprehend who the Father is and to Whom we are
praying let us look at some of His attributes.
A. HE CREATED ALL THINGS
Let us take our scriptures from the Psalms,
Psalm 33:6-9
B. HE IS SOVEREIGN
To see His sovereignty, let us go and read from,
Psalm 103:19
C. HE IS UNCHANGEABLE
We find this attribute of God when Balaam explains to Balak that
he must bless Israel.
Numbers 23:18-19
D. HE IS UN-SEARCHABLE
1. SOME OF HIS WAYS AND ACTIONS ARE NOT FOR US TO KNOW
Deuteronomy 29:29
2. HIS GREATNESS IS BEYOND OUR COMPREHENSION
Psalm 145:3
E. HE IS OMNIPRESENT(i.e. EVERYWHERE)
In order to see this, let us go and read what the Holy Spirit
through Paul said to the men of Athens.
Acts 17:24-28(a)
F. HE IS OMNISCIENT(i.e. ALL KNOWING)
To see this, let us return to Psalms and read from,
Psalm 147:4-5
and now let us read from,
Proverbs 5:21
But in addition to all His Majesty and Power and Magnificence, we
also find that:
G. HE IS LONG SUFFERING
To see this let us go and read the prayer that the prophet
Nehemiah once made concerning the disobedience of Israel and
God's long suffering.
Nehemiah 9:28-31
H. HE IS FAITHFUL
To see this let us read from,
Isaiah 51:6-8
I. HE IS LOVING
There is no better testimony of God's love for us than the fact
that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to save us. To
see this, let us read from,
John 3:16-17
QUESTION: When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour,
what happens to us? In order to find out, let us read from,
John 1:10-13
QUESTION: What happens to us when we became a child of God?
Well, we find out by reading what Jesus taught Nicodemus about
being born again.
John 3:1-8
Namely, we receive the Holy Spirit.
Now as a child of God with the Holy Spirit living within us, we
find the following to be true,
Romans 8:15
and so we can pray, "Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your Name"
II. YOUR KINGDOM COME
QUESTION: What are we asking for here?
Well, we are asking for Christ's return and for His enemies to be
placed under His feet so that He can restore the kingdom back to God
the Father. In order to see this, let us first consider the following
Psalm that was given through David.
Psalm 110:1
Now when this happens, we find that the kingdom will be restored. To
see this, let us now read from,
1 Corinthians 15:20-28
Hence, we will be living in the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 21:1-5
III. YOUR WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN
QUESTION: What are we asking here? What is the implication of this?
Well we are praying for God's will, not ours to be done... just as it
is in Heaven.
To see this importance of this, let us first explore what happens
when we, as Christians, pray to satisfy our own evil desires and
lusts. We find this instruction given to us in,
James 4:1-3
However, when we are yielded to Jesus and do what He commands, we
receive what we ask for.
1 John 3:21-22(a)
IV. GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD
Notice we are not instructed to pray for riches or material
prosperity or worldly status/power. In other words Jesus is
instructing us to pray in a manner consistent with what He said in,
Proverbs 30:7-9
V. FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGAVE OUR DEBTORS
I do not know how many times I repeated this verse and never really
realized what I was saying until Jesus related it to what He said in,
Matthew 6:14-15
In order to further illustrate the significance of the issue here,
let us read the parable of the unmerciful servant,
Matthew 18:21-35
Pretty Sobering .... huh?
VI. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION
QUESTION: Why? Why does our Lord instruct us to ask our Father not to
lead us into temptation?
Well, to find out let us seriously consider the following incidents,
A. THE INTERCHANGE IN HEAVEN CONCERNING JOB
Job 1:6-12
and,
B. JESUS' CONVERSATION WITH SIMON (i.e. PETER)
Luke 22:31
In other words what we have seen is the truth of the following
Proverb,
Proverbs 20:24
Hence our prayer, "Father .... lead us not into temptation."
Finally, Jesus asks teaches us to ask our Father to,
VII. DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Notice we are to ask God for deliverance, look for His direction and
not to take matters into our own hands. To see this, let us first
consider the situation relative to the persecution and affliction. To
do this, let us read about the,
A. PHYSICAL AFFLICTION OF PAUL
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Notice vs 7 (the purpose of the thorn)
8 Paul pleads with God three times.
9 However, relief was not God's will
for in this case God was using Satan to
prevent Paul from sinning.
However, we evil comes around for the purpose of enticing us to sin,
it is God's will for the evil to flee. In order to receive this
deliverance, let us review,
B. THE PROPER ORDER OF THINGS
James 4:7
Notice (1) Submit, i.e. pray/look to God.
(2) Resist, i.e. do not give in.
Then,
(3) The devil will flee!
Now with all these things in mind, let us return and close our study
by reading again our Lord's model for the way we should pray.
Matthew 6:9-13
Let's end this study in prayer...
Ephesians 1:15-19aFor this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.
Read the book by John Sweet, Jr.
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