Essentially, prayer is just talking to God right? And He knows your heart, so there is nothing we shouldn't talk to Him about, no matter how big, small, or embarrassing. Prayer is a necessity in this life, something we should never stop doing. That way we'll always have our eyes on God (Eph. 6:18). It is the will of God that we pray continually (1 Thess. 5:16-18). So when Jesus tells us how to pray, (with the well-known 'Our Father' prayer), He isn't simply telling us our prayers should be short and always sound exactly like that. I think we overlook this prayer so often. There are so many things you can get from these few verses.
Matthew 6:9-"Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be thy name." God is our Father. We're given permission to have more than just a servant/master relationship with Him. Is that not awesome that we can call Him daddy! And we should always have this kind of relationship with Him, and always praise Him with each prayer.
10-"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." Though it's a struggle sometimes, we should always be seeking out His will. And it's beyond important to have the state of mind each day that reminds us that this life/world isn't it. That one day we'll all be in Heaven and absolutely everything we see now will no longer exist. Whenever I remind myself of these things it definitely helps encourage me to continue being persistent in my walk and not give up, even when I really just want to.
11-"Give us today our daily bread." We need to have faith that God can really provide all we need even when times get rough. Another verse that's been really on my heart lately is Proverbs 30:8+9-"Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God." I know from experience that when things in my life start going really well, I tend to forget the Lord more, and when things don't go so well, I tend to get tempted more.
12-"And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."
13-"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." I know there are probably tons of sins I commit each day that I don't even realize. I think this last part is really important cause we need to pray to actually grow in our walk. To realize what we're doing right and wrong, so that we can allow God to work on it with and through us.
1 comments:
A note on forgiveness...the verses you refer to are Matthew 6:14-15: "For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions." I do feel God will forgive us all our transgressions if only we ask. But what He is saying here is how can we be so prideful to expect him to forgive us if we, just little people aren't willing to forgive those who have hurt us. He is asking us to look into our hearts and forgive. Without forgivenss in our hearts, we are bitter. And with bitterness in our hearts, the enemy has an in.
The only unforgiveable sin is told to us in Matthew 12:30-32: "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven. ANd whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in the age, or in the age to come."
SO, all of our sins except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is forgiven, but we must ask.
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