Welcome. Today we are going to talk about one of the most important and basic of all Christian activities: prayer. This is one of the most basic things in a Christian’s life, but yet it is the one most often overlooked, and not very often commented on.

Let’s face it, you have pray to even become a Christian right? Got to say the ‘Sinner’s Prayer’ and all that right? So this praying thing should just come naturally! Well, not always. Usually prayer is the first thing to go when we start losing sight of God. We forget to go to Him in prayer, and then before you know it, we’re not reading our Bibles, and then, in seemingly no time at all, our eyes are clouded once again by the world.

Then there are those that just don’t know how or what to pray for if there’s anything they should not pray for, and are just generally confused by the whole matter. Their heart is with God, and they might even be in His word, but they are not in prayer, so there is still a separation there. We are going to go to the Bible and learn all about prayer today.

Today, I’m going to be outright ‘preaching to the choir’ so to speak. If you are not a Christian, then I beg you to please consider changing that. I’ll give it to you in two quick verses: (Joh 3:16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (Rom 10:9) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Please think about doing that. It will change your life in a positive way like you can’t imagine, I promise you.

First let’s talk about the importance of prayer itself. Prayer: in worship, a solemn address to the Supreme Being, consisting of adoration, or an expression of our sense of God’s glorious perfections, confession of our sins, supplication for mercy and forgiveness, intercession for blessings on others, and thanksgiving, or an expression of gratitude to God for his mercies and benefits. A prayer however may consist of a single petition, and it may be extemporaneous, written or printed.

When should I pray then? (1Th 5:17) Pray without ceasing.

Now that we know what and when, let’s take a moment to look at the how part.

Where are we going to find out how to pray from? Well there can be no better source than Jesus Christ Himself! If you got a Bible and, or even need one, let’s say it all together. Matthew 6:9-13 (Mat 6:9) After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. (Mat 6:10) Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Mat 6:11) Give us this day our daily bread. (Mat 6:12) And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (Mat 6:13) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

There you have it. The Lord’s Prayer, though rightfully it could be called the Model Prayer too. It teaches us everything we need to know about being successful at praying.

The words themselves are not to be mindlessly repeated, that is not the intention God had. We know this from a few verses before the Lord’s Prayer which say: (Mat 6:7) But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

You see, Jesus was teaching us here, He did not give us something to blather over and over again mindlessly, He gave us a model to use, an example to lead us with.

How is the Lord’s prayer a model? We’ll let’s break it on down.

The very first thing to note is that our prayers are to be directed to a person. This is kind of an obvious point, but there is something serious to remember here. Jesus Himself endorsed prayer ONLY to the Father who is in Heaven. He did not endorse prayer to any other being, saint, mother, or manifestation. No, He prays to God the Father, and God only.

When we are talking about the ‘Father’ there is something implied, a relationship. This relationship is between a child and a parent. This gives both parties their position. We are the children, God is the Father, this gives us a reference point.

Now that we have the who, let’s take a moment to stop and look at the very first word there: ‘Our’. What does this mean? Does it mean anything? Yes it does. See, Jesus was not saying ‘our’ because He was demonstrating for the group. He meant to impart to us that we need to include the body of faith in our prayers and not pray so selfishly! We can see this confirmed in (Php 2:4) Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

We are to look after more than just our own, but pray for others as well, for the Father is the Father of us all.

Next we have where God the Father is listed. This is important because Christ is declaring God’s sovereignty on the throne of Heaven. We can have faith that God is in charge because Christ has declared His righteous position.

Next we have ‘hallowed be thy name’. This has a great deal of importance too, since it is once again declaring the greatness of God. What does this word hallowed mean? Hallowed: Consecrated to a sacred use, or to religious exercises; treated as sacred; reverenced. We are to hold sacred and revere what? His name. When you have reverence for God’s name, there is no other answer to Him other than ‘Yes, Lord’. There is no saying ‘no’ to God when you are hallowing His name. Nothing else fits respect to the point of reverence and sacredness than ‘as you will my Lord’.

What about the ‘name’ part? Yes God’s name is sacred and to be hallowed, but it is also a reminder for us that there is a name above all other by which we may be saved: (Act 4:12) Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

(Php 2:9) Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: (Php 2:10) That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; (Php 2:11) And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(1Ti 2:5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus was giving us this prayer so that after He had given His sacrifice, we would still be set. Let me tie this in and show you the power of that name. (Joh 10:30) I and my Father are one. (Luk 10:17) And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

There is power in that name! If the enemy, the devils themselves believe and quake, then we should come in all humbleness to the Lord! He is the great I AM and should be worshipped as such. Remember when you go to Him in prayer that He is the Almighty God.

So far we have learned to pray to encompass the family of faith with ‘our’ then we learned to pray just to the Father who we know is in Heaven. We are to hallow His name, for He is given a name above other names. Now what?

Now we begin with actions. ‘thy kingdom come’. This is a request for Jesus to return to the earth in His kingdom, as promised in the Book of Revelations.

Make this a personal request as in that Jesus would be the lead in your life, be the king of your bodily kingdom. (Luk 17:21) Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Ask Jesus to come take His rightful place in this kingdom.

Make this an evangelical request as well! Pray for the salvation of more souls, more and more ‘temples’ that will then be filled by the Kingdom of God! Pray for it also as a literal prayer, that the kingdom as revealed in the Book of Revelations come.

‘Thy will be done’ is the next piece, and is clear in its meaning for us. But it is also deep as in the fact that we need to keep in mind that we are praying for the will of God and not for our own. This means we should be praying to be in the Father’s will, and not in our own. For example, I might pray for this podcast to be successful. To pray that because I want the recognition would be wrong and out of God’s will. But if I pray for that to magnify and glorify the Lord, then that’s probably going to be in line with His will.

You see, prayer does not change God’s mind. He never changes. (Mal 3:6a) For I am the LORD, I change not. But prayer hastens His activities in this world.

If you pray in God’s will, and not against it, you get results: (1Jn 5:14) And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. The important part is to be fully submitted to God’s will!

Now that we’ve identified who we’re praying to, where this person is, and discovered we should submit to His will, we can start to look at the main section of a prayer.

You should seek physical needs. Jesus taught us this with the ‘our daily bread’ statement. Bread is needed for life, you have to eat, this is a physical needs. So it’s okay to ask God for physical needs.

God has given us these glorious promises in relation to our physical needs: (Php 4:19) But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Mat 7:7) Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: (Mat 7:8) For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (Mat 7:9) Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? (Mat 7:10) Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? (Mat 7:11) If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? (Rom 8:32) He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Another point we are to remember is to pray about what is needed now, and not worry about tomorrow. (Mat 6:34) Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Let the next day take care of itself.

I think we would also become overwhelmed by prayers for the various aspects of tomorrow or the day after, and we forget the points that need remembering.

After having prayed for our physical needs, we can also pray for our spiritual needs. More spiritual needs are listed because our spiritual lives needs more attention than the flesh.

The first thing mentioned is ‘forgive us our debts’. This is telling us that we need to seek forgiveness for our sins, or debts. (1Jn 1:8) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We need to ask the Lord to forgive us.

What about the ‘as we forgive out debtors’? Well, being unforgiving is a horrible condition for us to be in. (Heb 12:15) Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Not forgiving those around us is a good way to bring up a root of bitterness.

Revenge is not something acceptable. Society today might teach differently, but society is wrong. Love is the answer, as any true Bible believer or hippie can tell you.

We are never as close to being like God as we are when we are forgiving others. That is an act that just has to make God smile, since He sees His lessons are not wasted on us. (Eph 4:32) And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

As Christians, we’ve had a massive debt cancelled for us, one so large as to affect our eternal future. How much easier is it for us forgive others for something so very much smaller?

What about not forgiving, what if we say ‘as we forgive’ and we don’t forgive our debtors? When we choose to be unforgiving, we choose bitterness and choose to separate ourselves from the Lord, the absolute opposite of what we are trying to do with prayer!

If you refuse to forgive, you are playing God. (Rom 12:19) Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. (Rom 12:20) Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. (Rom 12:21) Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

You give forgiveness. Vengeance is for God.

Next is ‘lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’. This is tending to the spiritual side of ourselves, just like we have earlier tended to our physical needs with the bread.

Pray and ask God to deliver you from evil because believe me and your Bible, evil is real. The Dark One is looking to do anything and everything he can to you to challenge your faith and make you take your eyes off God.

So it only makes sense to look after your spiritual needs the same as you prayed for your physical ones. Remember that the adversary Satan is out there and ask for protection from the Lord, that’s always a good point to put in any prayer.

Now we come to the final part of the prayer. ‘For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.’ This is where the power for all of the previous verses comes from. God has the kingdom, the one true, eternal Heavenly kingdom, which is filled with His power and glory which last forever and ever. Amen.

God is the ruler over this kingdom, over the entire kingdom, including the dominion of Earth. It all belongs to Him, we’re just living on it. God has all the glory, glory to the point we could not even imagine.

Now this has taken us all the way through the Lord’s Prayer, or what I would like to call the Model Prayer, so now we know how to pray.

Let’s review. First we pray to the person God, who is in the location Heaven. He is the person with the power and the glory, and He is the person that resides over the kingdom of Heaven.

When we pray to Him, what is the first thing we do? We let Him know what we know who He is and give our respects for that. We let God know that we are giving ourselves to His will to the point that we are hallowing His name. When you respect someone at that level, when you are humbled that far, there is no refusal allowed. The only words that go with the hallowed word ‘Lord’ is yes.

So once we’ve given God the deep, deep respect and love He deserves, we declare we want His kingdom to come. We want things to be on Earth as it is in Heaven, we want God to rule over the world as he does Heaven, and we declare we want Him to rule over our very lives. We declare our desire for His kingdom at every level not just a governmental one.

Then we declare that we want His will done the same way, both here and as it is in Heaven. We know that God’s will is paramount in Heaven, we just pray that it become that way here as soon as it can. This also includes a desire to live a life acceptable to God where His will is the rule of our lives.

After this, speak on your needs, physical and spiritual. Bond with God. Be sure to listen, take some time to just be in prayer and close to Him. Close out by remembering just who you were praying to, and what all His attributes are.

Remember always to come to God with an open heart full of praise for Him. Jesus tells us that the first thing we should do after naming just who and where we are praying is to offer praise, worship, respect, and love to the Lord. Only after that are we supposed to move on to our own needs.

Prayer is a powerful thing. We will do an episode on the power of prayer because it is an amazing thing. It has moved things in my own life like you would not have believed. I think it is because a lot of you guys are praying for me and God hears you.

(Pro 15:29) The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous. Then I pray that all glory be unto God in thanksgiving for the wonderful blessings we receive through his Book.

(Pro 15:8) The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

We can easily wrap all of this into one small little saying, like school kids do. We can use the word FACTS to remember it all.

F stands for faith, without which we can expect nothing from God.

A stands for adoration, God must be worshipped

C stands for confession, our sins must be dealt with

T stands for thanksgiving, we must always be thankful to God

S stands for supplication, there is always room for our needs

Remember this, and it should help you in your prayer life. Until next time, God bless.

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