7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
“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 also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
How do we pray? The above section is taken from Chapter 5-7 of Matthew. These three chapters have been entitled, the Sermon on the Mount. It might be said that this is the ONLY complete sermon we have of Jesus’ teachings. It takes about twenty minutes to read. It is spoken to the disciples, but in front of a crowd (Matthew 5:1). The sermon has 111 verses. It contains some of the most practical teachings in the entire Bible. The above passage speaks about how we pray. Although many denominations quote the above passage in a ritual manner, the instructions about how to pray actually forbid that. The nation of Israel had turned to ritual worship. The Pharisees (probably in the crowd that day) taught rituals. Jesus is not actually telling us “what to say” in this section (although it is certainly proper to pray Scripture like this back to God). Jesus is telling us how our prayers should be constructed. Here are seven principals of prayer life we should follow:
1. (V. 7) - Pray without Empty Repetition - we are not to simply utter words for the purpose of uttering words. Especially a lot of words so that others are impressed with our prayer.
2. (V. 8) - Pray with the Presumption of God’s knowledge - we are to not sound like mankind, but in our prayers focus on God’s omniscient power.
3. (V. 9) - Pray with Adoration to God - we are to recognize in our prayers that God is holy and awesome and over the entire heavens.
4. (V. 10) - Pray with Submission to God - we are to pray not for our wills to be done but that God’s will for us in heaven will be completed by us on earth.
5. (V. 11) - Pray with Supplication to God - we are commanded to ask God to meet our NEEDS. He invites us to do so.
6. (V. 12) - Pray with Confession to God - we are to confess to God our sins and ask for forgiveness for those sins. This freedom from sin is directly proportionate to our practicing of our faith in forgiveness to others.
7. (V. 13) - Pray for relief from Temptation - God is actively in our life to free us from temptation. He wants to and can deliver us from evil but we must be humble to ask Him and realize we cannot do this on our own.
In this brief section Jesus is telling His followers how to pray, not what to pray. As we come to God we should come boldly in this way. He invites us to do so.
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