The Lord's Prayer - Part 2

The Lord's Prayer is a roadmap for us to use when we pray.  We are first reminded that we need to acknowledge and give praise to God:

"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name."

We are then told to pray over our priorities and bring them into line with God's:

"Thy kingdom come.  They will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

We are then instructed to worship God, the God who is in control of our life, is the same God who wants to provide for our daily needs.  So we pray:

"Give us this day our daily bread."

We then read about personal relationships.  The people we know come flooding into our minds, so we take inventory of how our relationships are going with them.  If any of them need repair, we stop to get it done.

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."

Next we are reminded that the God who provides is also the God who protects, so we pray to God for His protection and deliverance.

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

We are finally told of God's promise.  To know that the God to whom we pray is an everlasting King with the power to do whatever pleases Him and a glory that outshines a million suns in a billion trillion galaxies!  It ought to take away our breath to realize that this is the God who invites us to bring our worship and our requests to Him.

"For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen."

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father who are tin heaven

Hallowed be Thy name.

They kingdom come.

They 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 do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen (Matthew 6:9-13)

Notice the emphasis on God in the first three petitions:
1)  Thy name
2)  Thy kingdom
3)  Thy will

Notice the second part of the prayer and its emphasis on the poverty of man:
1)  Give us
2)  Forgive us
3)  Deliver us

Then see how the prayer comes full circle by ending with a tight focus on God once more:
1)  Thy kingdom
2)  Thy power
3)  They glory

God has all the glory and all the power and all the majesty, and you and I have all the needs and all the wants and all the poverty.

It's wonderful to come with empty hands to the One who is able to give us everything we need.

Prayer the Great Adventure by David Jeremiah

Lord Teach Us To Pray!

"Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples" (Luke 11:1).

Oh, what precious words those are to me, for they show me that prayer is a skill that can be learned. If prayer is a skill, then it is something I can develop with time and practice.

I think we often become absolutely overwhelmed when we hear of the faith and prayer life of others. We think, "I could never attain that." So we become defeated before we ever start. Or we compare ourselves with others. We read of saints who spent hours, days, nights in prayer, and we cannot even pray for ten, twenty, or thirty minutes. How then could we ever pray for hours each day, let alone whole days or nights? We feel we will never make it, so we give up before we ever begin.

But you can attain! Just know that it will only come little by little with knowledge, with application, with time, with experience. The disciples knew this, and so they began where we each must begin if we are ever to learn-- with a hunger to be taught. They had seen Jesus praying (Luke 11:1), and they knew He understood how to pray. They had a hunger to know how to pray, so they went to the Expert.

Lord Teach Me to Pray in 28 Days by Kay Arthur

"Shut Up and Pray"

There is a time for everything, it says in the Bible. And it is never more true than in a marriage, especially when it comes to the words we say. There is a time to speak and a time not to speak, and happy is the man whose wife can discern between the two. Anyone who has been married for any lenght of time realizes that there are things that are better left unsaid. A wife has the ability to hurt her husband more deeply than anyone else can, and he can do the same to her. No matter how much apology, the words can not be erased. They can only be forgiven and that is not always easy. Sometimes anything we say will only hinder the flow of what God wants to do, so its best to well, shut up and pray.

The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian

I Am Not In Control

"I have learned that just because someone makes a bad decision, they are not a bad person -- and they need grace and mercy, rather than condemnation and judgment. Most of all I have learned that, despite what I sometimes think, I am not in control of my children's journey toward God -- but God is."

Praying for our children.

If you know anything about Israel's history, you know that the Philistines were a constant source of trouble. The Israelites had been battling them on and off for years before Samuel came on the scene, and then for years afterward -- they are the guys who produced Goliath, the defiant giant whose death catapulted David into the national spotlight. When Samuel set up his Ebenezer stone, he certainly had no illusions that the Philistines had been banished forever.

But did that stop him from thanking God, or from giving him public glory? Not at all! Samuel set up the stone as a marker -- a sign of remembrance -- so that in the years and generations to come, all of Israel would be able to look at it and say, "Thus far has the Lord helped us."

As praying parents, this is the attitude that we need to take. Rather than cowering in worry or fear over the Philistines that lurk around our next corner, we need to stop and thank God for what he has already done in our teenagers' lives. When God works in answer to our prayers, we need to raise our own Ebenezers, giving him credit and honor for what he has done "thus far" --and knowing that he will be there for us in the future.

Praying the Scriptures for your Teenagers by Jodie Berndt

The Word of God and Prayer

When the apostles of the early church suddenly found themselves embroiled in a controversy that consumed both their time and energy, they had enough spiritual presence of mind to know that something had to be done. they were in danger of missing the priority of their calling --the Word of God and prayer! Thus they summoned "the congregation of the disciples and said, 'It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word'" (Acts 6:2-4). This is where each child of God should be the strongest: in the word of God and in prayer. Why the Word of God? Because according to Jesus, man lives by every word which comes out fo the mouth of God, and that's what the Word of God is (Matthew 4:4). It is God-breathed. The word inspiration in 2 Timothy 3:16 comes from the Greek word theopneustos which means "God-breathed." We exist in order to establish God's people in His Word as that which produces a life lived in reverence toward God. Lord Teach Me To Pray by Kay Arthur