WHY DO WE PRAY?

Do your prayers seem hurried and disjointed? Does your mind tend to stray? Are your prayers superficial, void of true meaning? Are you wondering if you will ever be able to commune with God on a truly personal level? Can you ever expect to feel a sense of closeness to the Lord when you pray?

Matthew 6:9-13 in God's Word gives us an example of prayer, as set forth by Yeshua Himself. Almost everyone who goes to church on occasion has repeated it. It is called the Lord's Prayer. Many of us have even memorized it, just as we may have memorized the "Pledge of Allegiance"; and when we repeat it, we convey about the same lack of sincerity! Usually we just want to finish with it and get on to whatever is next! If we were to take a closer look at it though, dissecting it, personalizing it, and expanding each portion to include the various instructions in other areas of Biblical text, we would be amazed. We would find that this exemplary prayer represents a structural pattern to embrace every possible need we could bring before the Lord. Let's take a closer look at this most beloved prayer one small section at a time, and expand upon some thoughts that we might employ in relation to each part.

What a beautiful sentiment. It encompasses God's holiness and encourages (if not demands) our tribute to Him as acknowledgment through reverence. Dwell upon it for a moment. When we pray, God wants us to be so very aware of Him, to focus on Him in all His majesty! We should praise Him, exalt Him, glorify His name! Pause contemplate His holiness with fear and awe, thanking Him for the privilege of being allowed to come before His throne! We should express our love to Him (even when we don't feel like it!) We should thank Him for who He is, for His sacrifice to secure our eternal life, and for all the blessings He has given us, is giving us, and will be giving us - being specific. A heart of love and gratitude is a necessity as we approach the throne of our Hallowed Father. If our hearts aren't ready to pray in love and thankfulness, we should stop immediately and settle it with God before proceeding.

We are to pray for the Jewish people, for their protection and their salvation. We are to pray for all of mankind. God tells us in II Peter 3:9 that He doesn't want anyone to perish! We should, therefore, pray for the salvation of all people, particularly our friends, relatives, and loved ones. We are to pray for our churches, our pastors, and our missionaries, as well as for the ability and desire to do our part to spread the gospel message. We are to pray for revival in the hearts of all people in order to further God's Kingdom. We should pray for our nation to turn back to God, and that our fellow Christians would likewise be inspired to pray for our nation. We are to pray for prophetic completion for Christ's soon return for His Bride, and should ask for God's moral standards to be upheld in all levels of the government until Christ's soon return. The furtherance of God's Kingdom prior to the years of perdition is largely our responsibility, to be accomplished through our perseverance and prayer. It is our duty to further His Kingdom now, and it will be ours to enjoy during Christ's millennial reign and throughout eternity.

This encompasses our inconceivable right as God's children to bring our petitions to the very throne of God. What an awesome privilege! Other Scriptural references help us to see the manner in which this is to be accomplished. Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God (or in essence, the furtherance of His will rather than an (insistence upon our own). James 4:3 tells us to ask for the right reasons (which, by the way, rules out greed, lust, selfishness, etc.). After we have examined the true reasons for our requests, we are bring them before His throne. No request is too small, and there will be times when immediate urgency may prevent our prayers from being thought through. We should never, however, take our requests to God lightly, and we should always pray for His will to be accomplished above our own, and in His timing. (We often think we know what is best for us, and when it is best for us, but He can see what we cannot, and may know otherwise. He may also allow a circumstance to continue for our growth or for His glory. We must trust in His sovereignty, and praise Him for His faithfulness even when we don't understand His answer or His timing.) We are promised that He will provide for our needs (as He determines them), and told that it pleasures Him to provide even the desires of our hearts. (He most likely gives us certain desires of the heart just so He can fulfill them!) Accordingly, we are to critically evaluate our needs and desires, and bring them in obedience before His throne.

We should address our spiritual needs requesting conviction and growth, discernment, wisdom, knowledge, and internal peace; our physical needs expressing our internal and external health concerns, and requesting His healing touch as He sees fit to allow; our mental/emotional needs requesting comfort in sorrow, good judgment, sound mind, and compassion. (In all areas, it helps to be specific in our requests; to analyze our problems and our needs as we pray. Through, these thought processes God often reveals the approach He wants us to use in seeking our solutions.) In the same manner in which He wants us to bring OUR needs and desires before Him, He wants us to intercede on behalf of others, as their needs and desires have been made known to us. We are asked also to intercede in prayer for the saints. (Saints here are not super-heroes, but are simply those who have received Yeshua into their hearts, allowing Him to transform their lives.) Even though we cannot be specific with regard to those saints we don't yet know, and may never know, as we pray for them in obedience to God's Word, He will honor our prayers. We should not fail to ask Him to produce in us a character which will bear pure and wholesome spiritual fruit; to continue to sanctify, consecrate, and dedicate us to His use, His service, and His glory. Our most urgent desire should be to grow in Him, and to have a beneficial influence upon others at all times, being an exemplary Christian witness in every area of life.

This encompasses the realization that "order to BE FORGIVEN, we must BE WILLING TO FORGIVE! Those of us who have not yet received eternal life through Yeshua, will find that we cannot as long as we harbor unforgiveness. We must be willing to turn over any unresolved unforgiveness to the Lord, giving up all grudges, trusting in Yeshua as Savior, and allowing Him to renew our minds and rule in our hearts and lives as Lord; forsaking all rights to self, and asking Him to work through us as He chooses. When we do this in all sincerity, we inherit our eternal life as children of the Living Lord, and we know with the certainty of an abundance of Bible references, that we can never be taken from Him, or in any way lose our eternal life with Him! True to His Word, Yeshua then comes to live within us in the form of the Holy Spirit, transforming our lives, enabling us to overcome our sinful natures in ways that we could never do on our own, and we find that we have indeed been born again in Him! The instant we receive Yeshua in this manner, we likewise receive the forgiveness He has provided for us through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. There is provision here for the forgiveness for ALL of our sins. Our sins of the past are immediately forgiven, and our future sins are forgiven as we confess them (I John 1:9). We need to note that sins we confess after we receive Yeshua will stand between us and our fellowship with God until we agree with God about them and allow Him to help us turn away from them. Psalm 66:18 even tells us that if we regard iniquity in our heart, the Lord will not hear us! If we want Him to hear our prayers, we MUST be willing to forgive others! Being unwilling to forgive, just as any other intentional choice contrary to God's teaching, would cause us to be in direct disobedience with God's Word. This could open the door for chastisement and/or spiritual warfare! We must turn over to Him any unforgiveness in our hearts in order to restore or maintain the fellowship with God that is so crucial to our well-being.

Our reluctance to forgive, as well as our other sins, should be confessed and resolved with God on a daily basis. Sin covers a LOT of ground. It is sometimes described as "falling short of the mark" (the mark being perfection in God's eyes). We can fall short through omission not doing, saying, thinking, etc. the things we felt we should have, as well as through commission doing, saying thinking, etc. the things we felt we should not have. Our thoughts, words, deeds, attitudes, mind-sets, body language, and overall conduct can all be sinful, and should all be considered as we come before the Lord in confession. We must acknowledge that there has been even accidental sin that we were not aware of, and ask Him to reveal to us anything that we specifically need to recall and confess, and to help us resolve any problems that were caused by our sins, accidental or intentional. We should also ask Him (as much as it is possible to do so within His will) to heal the scars left upon our bodies, souls, and spirits through our sins and the sins of others thus allowing us to serve Him to our best ability. (Please understand, however, that some traces of our past sin and rebellion may never be taken from us to serve as a constant reminder of the depravity we once embraced. Some scars from the sins of others may even be left in order to convict our hearts of the moral decay that consumes mankind apart from the grace of God. The apostle Paul three times requested deliverance from an unknown affliction, but was denied this deliverance in order that the strength God gave him to deal with it could be evident to others, and bring glory to God. If God chooses to leave an affliction with us, it is for a purpose, and it is an opportunity, even our duty to use it for His ultimate glory.)

We should ask Him for the strength of mind to keep our past failures in the past where they belong  so we can get on with serving God as the new person He makes us each day through the cleansing we seek in our prayers. We should then ask Him to keep us pure in heart as we proceed to serve Him, helping us to filter everything we see, hear, think, participate in, partake of, etc., according to His precepts; giving us the discretion and strength to reject any thoughts, activities, entertainment, etc. that would grieve the Holy Spirit, and to perceive all things through the mind of Christ, conforming our own minds to His.

This encompasses the incredible element of protection that we can derive through our prayers to God. We should ask for protection in all areas of our lives including the spiritual, physical, and mental/emotional. We need to ask first for ourselves and our immediate families that God would bless and purify all that we consume or in any way take into our bodies, and to encompass us and hedge us about, securing us with the armor referred to in Ephesians 6:10-18. (We must bear in mind, however, that being secured by the armor in Ephesians is essentially our responsibility via active participation on our part.) We should also remember to ask for protection for our friends, relatives, loved ones, spiritual leaders, and all of God's saints. It is wise also to ask for protection over the things God has so graciously given to us to call our own in the time frame which He allows our property, homes, vehicles, belongings in general, etc. (While we're at it, we might ask Him to help us to use these things in such a way that we would never cause Him to be grieved particularly our TV's stereos, etc.)

The Lord's prayer ends almost as it begins, by stressing the sovereignty of God. It indicates that we should bow before His power, thanking Him for the control He so faithfully maintains over every facet and every instant of our lives. We should thank Him for His abiding faithfulness and presence. (Even when we, through disobedience cannot sense it, He is there, loving us as always.) We need to thank Him for our trials (even in the midst of them) for they are for His glory and for our good. We must not forget to commit all of our achievements to His glory as well, retaining none for self. He in His power and sovereignty has allowed them for our growth and pleasure, but the glory is His and His alone. As His children, we must acknowledge that the Earth and all that is within it is HIS Kingdom, remembering to keep our eyes on Him, and to see everything from His perspective.

(A point of reference needs to be made here. We should end all of our prayers in the most precious and holy name of Yeshua. He obviously didn't need to do this in His model prayer to us, because it was He who was praying. However, when we pray to the Father, it is Yeshua who intercedes to the throne of the Father for us. It is NOT a priest, or a saint, etc. It is Yeshua, and Yeshua alone! It was expressly stated in I Timothy 2:5 that there is ONE mediator, that being Yeshua in order that everyone would know and understand that prayer was to be offered under NO OTHER NAME and THROUGH NO ONE ELSE WHATSOEVER! In like manner, prayer should never be addressed "to ANYONE OTHER THAN GOD! Praying to a saint, to Mary, etc. would be to put them on a level equal to God, and would be unadulterated idolatry! The author has no intent to be harsh in nature here, but must be Scripturally firm, and fully intends to prompt immediate concern where needed! God is very clear about this in His Word, and intends for us to read and understand it for ourselves as the Holy Spirit directs. PLEASE seek His Word if you have doubt, and never allow the word of ANY man, priest or otherwise, to supersede or replace GOD'S once and for all time inspired Word, the Holy Bible!) Amen (which means "so be it") is the tentative end to our prayer tentative in that I Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. We should maintain this attitude of prayer and commune with God throughout the day! We can keep prayer alive in our hearts all day be recalling the acronym of ACTS: adoration, confession, thanks, supplication; and by recalling the 7 P's: God's presence, power, pardon, patience, protection, provision, and peace. When we acknowledge these things regarding  His relationship to us, how can we help but maintain a grateful heart? We'd be sure to exhibit our love for Him in the way we live, and keep His warmth aglow in our hearts throughout the day.

Maybe it's time to take another look at the introductory questions, and seek some resolutions to the problems that come to light. After all, God is the architect of the universe, yet He gives us His full attention at ALL times! Surely we can find a time to devote just to Him in Bible study and prayer a time when we can REALLY relate to Him REALLY commune with Him, without cutting Him short or praying superficially. Isn't He worth it? God bless you as you personally evaluate your private time with Him.