In our daily meditations, we continue looking at what Jesus taught His disciples in what’s commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. Today, we look at what Jesus taught His disciples about prayer in Matthew 6:9-11. It is possible the disciple’s prayer was meant as a model or an outline for our prayer life. There are five parts to the prayer. To keep this meditation to just three minutes, let’s just look at the first two today and return to the prayer tomorrow to look at other thoughts about this prayer. The five parts are as follows:
1) Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
2) Your kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
3) Give us today our daily bread.
4) Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
5) And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
One can approach God by elaborating on each aspect of this prayer, such as the following:
1) Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
All prayer to our God should, first of all, look upward. To come into His presence begins with a focus on the Lord Himself.
a) Picture yourself coming before a loving Father who has loved us with an everlasting love.
b) Think about the fact that He has drawn us into a close, intimate relationship with Himself, calling us His sons and daughters; there should be a sense of wonder that He is our Abba, our Daddy.
c) Our Father is in heaven, and He has called us into this relationship with Him for Eternity, and the glories of heaven are ours!
d) His name is to be hallowed or set apart as consecrated and sanctified. To hallow means to set apart as holy or to reverence Him as the Creator of all things. Just as there is a sense of awe when one walks in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem or when one goes to the site of the Twin Towers destroyed on September 11, 2001, in the same way, His name on our lips should be hallowed. We are cut to the heart when we hear His name spoken in vain.
e) There should be a sense of thankfulness and praise for Who God is and what He means to you. You may want to sing to Him at this time when you are entering His presence:
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name (Psalm 100:4).
2) Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
The second part of the prayer again looks upward with a prayer for the Kingdom of God to come to Earth, focusing on God’s will to be done and not ours. In this part of our time of prayer, we focus on the following:
a) Pray for the furtherance of the Gospel in your nation as well as the missionary enterprise to other countries. Pray for Satan’s kingdom and his influence over people and nations to be broken.
b) Pray that God’s kingdom will come to all those around you. Take time to pray specifically for individuals that God has placed on your heart, i.e., those you sense He wants to do something in their lives with needs, such as healing.
c) Pray for your spouse, your children, and other family members.
d) Pray for your pastor and for those who lead you in whatever church or house group to which you belong.
e) Pray for the kingdom of God to come to you in a personal way, i.e., for you to be filled, controlled, and led by the Spirit of God. This approach to God involves putting ourselves on the altar, i.e., offering our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1). God can only use us to the level that we abandon ourselves to Him.
f) Pray for the leaders of whatever country in which you live that they would allow the Gospel to be freely communicated without hindrance.
1I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone– 2for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
Prayer: Father, please continue to teach us how to pray effective and powerful prayers. Amen. Keith Thomas
This meditation is from the complete study found at the following link: https://www.groupbiblestudy.com/engsermon/4.-the-heavenly-rewards-of-the-believer