“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.” (Matthew 6:9)
Jesus was teaching the disciples on prayer. Then He says “after this manner therefore pray...” It was not His intention that we memorize and repeat the Lord’s prayer. Although reciting it isn’t what Jesus intended, if we recite it with understanding and sincerely, it’s a good prayer. What happens most often though is that we’re just reciting words and are not even aware of what we are saying. That is the danger of reciting prayers. Jesus warned us against such practices which were part of the prayer practices of the Pharisees. (Matthew 6: 5-8)
Jesus said not to show off praying to impress others. The Pharisees prayed so that others could see them. Their reward was not the response to their prayers, but that others noticed them. “...They have their reward.” (Matthew 6:5) Jesus said, to pray privately to the Father. (Matthew 6:6) He is the One Who can answer our prayers. He is the One Who can change circumstances. He is the merciful One Who has pity on us. He is the One Who loves us and wants the best for us. Those who hear us cannot do anything except join and agree with us in prayer. This is the power of corporate prayer. This is an intentional gathering to agree in prayer and petition together for the needs. But individual prayer is directed to the Father only.
His other stipulation was not to use vain repetitions. Repeating a phrase or a word doesn’t get heard any more than just speaking a word once. God is not deaf. He heard us the first time. There is no example in the Bible that is an example of this. This is the practice of foreign religions that repeat a mantra. It’s the practice of the heathen. What happens is not spiritual and not from God. Human emotion gets stirred up. And that’s flesh. Jesus warns us against doing this because anything of the flesh or of this world is not godly. It also leads to pride. Can you see that if our many repetitions are successful, we can believe it was our much repetition the cause of our answered prayer? But it is not. Answered prayer is the merciful response of the Lord. It’s the response of His love for us.
The Lord knows what we need. The question some may have is, then why do we have to ask? We ask because He is the Giver. Everything and all is under His control. When we say that we get into another situation. If God is in control of everything, why doesn’t He stop evil in the world? The answer to that is that He could, but man has chosen to follow the one who destroys, and the world is reaping the consequences of that choice. The Lord has given man free choice. God will not overstep our will. He wants us to choose Him, not to be forced to obey Him, but to obey Him because we want to and because we love Him. Then He will move heaven and earth to answer our prayers. But the world loves darkness, loves sin and disobeys God’s commandments. He has chosen how he wants to live.
So, returning to the original question. Why do we have to ask? We ask because God can and will move heaven and earth to do what is best for us, best for our life here on earth and best for our eternity. And most times, we don’t know what is best for us. We are leaning on limited knowledge and flesh desire most of the time.
Jesus gives us the pattern to follow in prayer. In prayer, we are entering into the presence of the Father Who sits on His heavenly throne surrounded by saints and angels who praise Him continually. If we were to go to London and have an audience with the king of England, we wouldn’t just barge in and begin to sound of about what we want. There is protocol and respect of the position. We must bow to show our recognition of his position. In prayer we are entering into the presence of the King of kings and the Lord of all that exists. Divine creatures praise Him continually. Although we are His children and the Father wants us to come to Him to be embraced by Him, He is God. The place where He resides is holy. Our love and reverence is shown to Him as we enter His presence with praise and worship. “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10)
There is some housekeeping that needs to be taken care of before we ask the Father for anything. The same goes here on earth. If we’ve offended our dads disobeying them, rebelling against them and we want to use the family car, we’re going to have to apologize for our actions and make things right before we ask for anything. “Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:11-12) In other words, I have this need. Forgive me in the same manner I’ve forgiven others. Forgiving others is very important to the Lord. So, there is that stipulation. If there is someone we haven’t forgiven, we have that against them. And how can we expect God to look the other way when we are asking Him to forgive us as we have forgiven. Now we must interject a few things here. Our sins were forgiven at the cross. But unconfessed sin puts a wall between our relationship with the Father. On earth, how can our dad on earth lend us the family car when we still are resentful over mom’s demand that we put our dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and we refuse to do it. Can you see how in the natural that makes sense. In the spiritual, it’s even more so.
We have another petition. Keep me from falling into the sin we are being tempted to sin. This is His Will, that we resist temptation. “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:13) We have to do our part. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” (James 4:7-10) When we pray for the Lord to keep us from falling into temptation, we are submitting to Him. We are saying that we will do what He wants in order to keep from falling into sin. We go to prayer, drawing near to the Lord because we have no power or strength to resist. It’s His power and might that will help us resist. We ask the Lord to cleanse us from this flesh desire (temptation). We mourn and weep that we can’t without the Lord’s help keep from sinning. We humble ourselves completely before Him. And the Lord will give us victory, lift us above the temptation, above the flesh and deliver us from evil.
And we worship Him again. We worship that the Lord’s made His kingdom available to us. We worship the Lord because He has all power above all that exists. And we worship Him because He is worthy of glory. This is the pattern Jesus taught His disciples to follow. We are His disciples, His followers, believers in Him as Lord and God. Jesus spoke to us also.
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