Seedplots

Sounds selfish, I know.   But consider the Lord’s pattern for prayer (Lk 11).  We begin by praying for his name to be honored and his kingdom to come, then we focus on our own daily needs (”our daily bread“).

Yes, as a spiritual leader, I am to pray for others, but first, I pray for myself. I know from experience that I need help doing that.

That’s why the suggestions I ran across recently on “Praying for your Pastor” seemed so helpful, not just to use in praying for my pastor, but also for helping me know how to pray for myself, day after day.

Great stuff in that list; 17 suggestions – all insightful.  I printed them off and pasted them in my prayer journal.  Check it out – here’s the link.

Those who lead God’s people need to pray. That’s a given.

I’ve been writing weekly posts Jesus’ pattern for daily fellowship with God in the Lord’s Prayer. Interestingly, there’s no direct mention of Intercession (i.e. praying for others) in the Lord’s Prayer. Certainly that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant.  Intercession permeated the ministry of Jesus and the apostles.  See John 17 for an example.

I think the reason is because daily fellowship with God and intercession are two different kinds of prayer.  I find it helpful to separate the two, beginning the day with fellowship with God patterned after the Lord’s prayer, and setting aside a separate time in the day to specifically focus on the work of Intercession.

I listened to this week a talk given to a group of  pastors in Scotland on Intercession.  It was excellent – the best talk I’ve ever heard on the subject.  I commend it to you.  It’s worth taking the time to listen to.  Here’s the link:  The Labour of Prayer

In previous postings we’ve looked at the pattern for daily prayer that Jesus taught his disciples.

This posting “puts it all together” by suggesting a how we can put Jesus’ pattern for prayer into practice daily.

Adoration and Praise
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name . . .

Pray for an open, obedient heart as you fellowship with the Father. Greet him, enjoy being in his presence, sing to him, worship him, praise and adore him. He is your Father; He is Almighty God; You belong to His people!

Submission to God’s Will
Your kingdom come, your will be done . . .

Lord, may your kingdom come. May the knowledge of the Lord, the knowledge of how glorious you are, cover the earth. Lord, I give myself to you today, wanting your will to be done in my life, just as it is in heaven. Fill me with your Spirit. Equip and enable me to do your will – in your way, in your order, and in your strength. Help me love you with all my heart, and serve others in your strength.

Colossians 1:9-10
Lord, today please . . .
. . . Fill me with the knowledge of your will
. . . Help me live worthy of you and please you in every way
. . . Enable me to bear fruit in every good work
. . . I want to increase in the knowledge of the Lord today
. . . Strengthen me with your power; give me great endurance and patience

Petition
Give us this day our daily bread . . .

Pray boldly and base your prayers on God’s promises. Lord, here are the worries and concerns I carry into today. I know fear and worry hinder fellowship with you. They reflect my self-centeredness. I give my worries and concerns to you. Help me move from fear to faith. Enable me to trust you for each need. Bless me with your favor and “establish the work of my hands.”

Confession and Forgiveness
Forgive us our sins as we also forgive. . .

Lord, I confess to you . . .

Spiritual Warfare
Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from the evil one

Lord, protect me and my family from the evil one today. Help me to keep in place the “belt of truth,” the “breastplate of righteousness,” and the “shoes of preparedness” that come from the gospel of peace. Help me to use the “shield of faith” and the “helmet of salvation” when Satan tempts me to doubt you and trust instead in my own resources. Help me use the “Sword of the Spirit” to honor you and help others today.
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“and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil” Matt 6:13

Finally, Jesus tells us to pray for spiritual victory.

The word “evil” in this verse occurs a definite article.  Probably the idea is not evil as an abstract form, but “the evil one.”

Jesus is instructing us to pray for Spiritual victory.  “Father,”  he is praying,  “don’t allow me into a situation where I will be overcome with temptation and fall into sin.”   “Lord, instead of this, deliver me from the evil one.”

A similar thought is present in 1 Cor 10:13,

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Conclusion

In this series on the Lord’s Prayer, we’ve considered 5 areas we are to pray for in our daily practice of prayer.

Each of these areas is based on our concept of God.  We pray properly when we have an accurate understanding of who our God is.  As we know God better our prayer life deepens. Jesus has given us a pattern for daily fellowship with the Father in prayer.  Meeting God daily in prayer helps us know the Father better, and that in turn enrichens prayer.
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“and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” Luke 11:4

Jesus, in the “Lord’s prayer,” gave His disciples a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer.

We learn from this prayer that daily repentance and confession of sin is God’s will for us and needs to be an integral part of our daily prayer life.  A good way to think of this spiritual habit is to compare it with washing our hands before a meal.

Repentance and Confession

When we repent our our sins and confess them, God has promised forgives us and washes us clean from sin’s defilement (1 John 1:9).  He does this on the basis of Jesus death on the cross for our sin.

Forgiveness of those who Sin against us

As part of our daily fellowship with God, we are instructed to consider who has has offended us and then forgive them.

This is especially important for those who are married. 1 Peter 3:7 commands married couples to live in harmony…“so that your prayers may not be hindered.”

If we’re having trouble praying, it is helpful to ask “Is there someone I’m not willing to forgive or am bitter against?”  If that is the case, we are to first go to them and be reconciled with them.  Then we are in a position to continue praying (Matt 5:23).
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“Give us this day our daily bread” Matt. 6:11

Jesus, in the “Lord’s prayer,” gave His disciples a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer.

Once we’ve given up our plans and rights and have submitted ourselves to God’s rule in our lives we have the right to look to God for His provision of our needs.

Jesus promises that in Matthew 6:33 that we “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness all these things (i.e. our daily needs) will be given as well.”

We pray and ask God for our “daily needs,” i.e. “for this day,” or “for the coming day.” Life as a follower of Jesus is a life of dependence on God.  As an expression of that dependence, God calls us to live one day at a time. We pray to our Father in heaven and say, “God, here is what I need today…”

I often hear people say, “God helps those who help themselves.” But the Bible teaches just the opposite. God helps those who can’t help themselves—the weak, the powerless, the helpless.

Growing in the knowledge of God means becoming more and more dependent on Him. A simple test we can use to see how much we are depending on him is to ask ourselves, “What am I worrying about?”  Our answer to that question reveals those areas where we are having trouble trusting God.

Those areas are what we pray about, the “daily bread” we are instructed to ask God for.  Pray, make your requests and wait for God’s answers.
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“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” Matt. 6:10

Jesus, in the “Lord’s prayer,” gave His disciples a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer.

Our tendency is to be preoccupied with our needs and concerns instead of God and his plans. Jesus turns this around and begins with God and his concerns:

• Hallowed by your name.
• Your kingdom come
• Your will be done

After praying for God’s glory, i.e. for His name to be hallowed, we turn our attention to God’s kingdom.  May it come, O Lord! we pray.

This prayer has a two-fold sense.  It is, of course, a prayer for Jesus’ return and the establishment of God’s kingdom in all its glory.  When that happens, the Father’s will actually will be “done on earth as it is in heaven.”

But the prayer also has a present dimension.  It is a prayer of submission to God and His will. Jesus is my king. His kingdom or rule is present in my life. Lord, we pray, Let your will be done in my life today. This requires a giving up my will and submitting to God’s will for us.

Each day, when we meet with God, we begin with Worship and Praise.  Then we submit our will to His.

“Heavenly Father,” we can say, “in my life, in what happens today, I want you to be praised. I want people to see who you are and how great you are.” “In my life today, and in the lives of people I come into contact with today, I want your reign to come, to be made manifest.” “In my life, in all I do today, I want your will to be done, not mine. Whatever you wish, let it happen, just as it happens in heaven.”

Day after day come to God in submission, lay down your will and submit yourself to Him.  “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33)

Last week I wrote a short post on Jesus’ teaching us to pray “Hallowed by your name.” It ended with a challenge to make this prayer an important part of our own daily prayer life.

Today I noticed a great posting on the same verse by John Piper.  I reproduce it here…
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“The most important prayer is that the most important person in the universe do the most important act in the universe.  That’s why Jesus put this request at the beginning of the Lord’s prayer: “Hallowed be your name.”

God is the most important person in the universe. More important than all others put together.

All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness” (Isaiah 40:17).

The whole-souled act of hallowing God’s name is the most important act in the universe.

To “hallow” means to “sanctify” which in God’s case means to set apart in your mind and heart as supremely great and beautiful and valuable. “Hallowed be your name” means,

“See to it that your name is hallowed. Use your infinite power and wisdom and love to stir up billions of hearts and minds to admire you and prize you above all things.”

We ask him to fulfill this promise:

I will sanctify [hallow] my great name, which was profaned among the nations…. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord…when I shall be sanctified [hallowed] in you before their eyes.” (Ezekiel 36:23)

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” (Isaiah 48:11)

Ask the Lord to help you make the most important prayer your most common prayer.  And the one you desire most to see answered.”

(Here’s the link: The Most Important Prayer Request in the World)

“… hallowed be your name” Matt. 6:9

Jesus, in the “Lord’s prayer,” gave his disciples a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer.

This pattern, as I understand it, includes five types of prayer:

1) Worship and Praise
2) Submission to God and His will
3) Petition, i.e. requests for our daily needs
4) Repentance and forgiveness
5) Prayer for spiritual victory.

Notice that Daily Prayer begins with a Godward focus.  Even though He is my loving Father, even though he cares about meeting my needs – my initial focus is not be on me, but Him.

We begin our daily prayer, Jesus teaches us, by focusing on God’s interests. What God is most concerned about is that He receives glory from his creation, i.e. that His name be hallowed. Hallowed means to be regarded as special, separate from all else, exalted.  Are you praying for this daily?

We begin our time of daily fellowship with God in prayer by “Hallowing His name” ourselves.  We tell Him how great, awesome and majestic He is. We praise Him for who He is and for what he has done. Then we pray that others would come to see Him for who He really is; that others would praise and worship Him too.
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“Our father who art in heaven” …

These well known words begin what we call the “Lord’s prayer. When Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples, it was given not primarily a prayer to memorize and repeat but as a model for his followers to follow as they learned the habit of daily prayer (what some call a “spiritual discipline”).

I’ve written about this in an earlier posting.

Notice how it begins – with a focus of our attention on God as our father. In a world as God intended it, a father is not someone who distant and uninvolved but someone who is near, someone who loves, someone who protects and someone who provides for his child.

The description of Jesus praying in Mark 14:6 actually includes the Aramaic term that Jesus used when addressing God (abba). The use of this term must have made an impression on the disciples for them to include the actual Aramaic term along with its translation. Abba is the endearing term used by a little child for his or her father.  We might say “Daddy.”

This is what daily prayer is meant to be like. Not cold and formal, but very warm and personal. Lest we object,

But Jesus had a very special relationship with God. That’s too personal for us!

Scripture actually tells us that as followers of Jesus, we too can pray “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).  God’s gift of the Spirit makes this possible.

We too can come to God daily as a freely as a child runs to his loving, caring father and be assured that He will receive us with open arms.

The Lord’s pattern of daily prayer then goes on to give us a pattern for daily fellowship with God in prayer. This daily cycle, as I understand it, includes five types of prayer: 1) Worship and Praise 2) Submission to God and His will, 3) Requests for our current needs, 4) Repentance and Forgiveness and 5) Prayer for spiritual victory. I’ll develop these in further postings.

Scripture provides examples of many different kinds of prayer.  Two of the most pronounced types are prayer as a daily spiritual habit, and prayer in critical times in life and ministry.  Both types are important for those who lead God’s people.

In the Gospels, there are 17 references to Jesus at prayer.  We read that Jesus prayed a critical junctures in his ministry:

• at his Baptism (Luke 3:21),.
• before deciding to leave Capernaum on his first missionary tour of Galilee (Mark 1:35-39).
• before he chose the apostles
  (In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve… Luke 6:12-13).
• before Peter confessed him as the Messiah (Luke 9:18).
• at his Transfiguration (Luke 9:29).
• before the cross in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46).
• and on the cross (Luke 23:46)

In my own experience, prayer as a daily habit has been more of a challenge than praying at critical times in life and ministry.  When we are desperate and have nowhere else to turn, it is natural for us to turn to God in prayer.

We also see Jesus praying as a part of his daily schedule.  In Luke 11:1 we see Jesus returning from a time of daily prayer.  His disciples  notice, are impressed by Jesus’ prayer practices and ask him to teach them to pray – “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.^“

What follows is what is usually called “The Lord’s Prayer.”  This prayer, recorded in Luke 11:2-4 and Matthew 6:9-15, is actually a “model” for daily prayer.

Jesus tells his disciples, “Pray like this…” (Matthew 6:9).  He had just finished warning them against “heaping up empty phrases” (verse 7), so he certainly didn’t expect this prayer to be used as a “mantra” to be repeated over and over.

I take it to be a pattern for daily prayer because of the context of Matthew 6, where three Jewish “disciplines” (alms, daily prayer and fasting) are being taught, and because of the reference in the prayer to asking for God’s provision of our daily bread (vs 11).

I’ve found the pattern of the Lord’s prayer very useful to use in my own practice of  “daily prayer.”  My mind often begins to wander when I pray and using the Lord’s prayer as a pattern helps bring back my attention and focus to prayer.  I’ll write more about this in another posting.

How do you practice the discipline of “daily prayer?”