Pray Like This

Matthew 6:9-14

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Our Father in heaven is holy, and His name should be spoken in reverence.  How often do we go before the Father with empty words, not words from the heart but from the mind?  So how should we come to the Father in prayer, look at what God said to Isaiah in chapter 57 and verses 15, “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” A contrite heart is also found in King David’s words,  “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17)  How often we approach the throne of God without having a broken and contrite heart, but that is not the heart attitude that is required by our Father.

When we pray should we not search our hearts, and do as Dr. Luke tells us in Acts 3:19 -20, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,” When we come before the Father in prayer, it should always be from a heart of thankfulness and repentance and not a false sense of not being accountable for our mistakes or sins.  Dr. Luke had this to say in Acts 17:30-31, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

I have discovered a tendency to think more of myself and want others to also do the same, and that heart attitude is an abomination to our Father, who loves us too much to allow us to be deceived, so he arranges things in our lives to bring us to repentance and   when we look into the mirror of our hearts and see Jesus, we understand the need to forgive those who have trespassed against us and then we can pray: Our Father in heaven.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice