This is the the second part of "What God expects from our prayers?" Based on Jesus Christ teachings through the prayer model known as the "Lord Prayer".
Let us see the last three petitions in the Lord’s Prayer are directed to our personal needs. (Mat. 6:11-13)
1. “Give us our daily bread”- Material blessings are as necessary to our lives as spiritual blessings. Therefore, Jesus says that we should ask the bread of today. Not for tomorrow! Also, note that this request is not an egotist, but altruistic: “Give us this day our daily bread.” -Mat.6:11 (KJV). Nobody can do this prayer while practicing injustice toward others or refusing to help in time of need.
Jesus in John 6:35 declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry.”
Proverbs 30:8 – “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.”
What Jesus teaches us in this request?
a. Our dependence on God - "Give"
b. The modesty to ask for: "Bread" (A Physical and Spiritual need)
c. Faith: "Today" - The brotherhood: we - "Our" (Not “me”)
Matthew 7:7-8 Jesus said –“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
2. “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” Mat. 6:12 (God wants to hear your confessions). In 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Our confession to God. Here we make a confession because we recognize that we have debts (sins, offense). Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
Through the study of this sentence, we have seen that it is assumed that you could not ask for us what we deny to others and to clarify this point, Jesus adds these words, “as we”.
“As we also forgiven our debtors.” (i.e. people who sinned against you, offended you, mistreated you, and made unlawful acts against you). Prior to beg the forgiveness of the Father, we must forgive those who have wronged us. A forgiving heart is required for prayer. God does not grant forgiveness to a soul who cannot forgive.
In Mark 11:25 Jesus said – “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgives him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive your sins."
Key word is "if you hold" anything, even a little tiny thing against anyone. This is another difficult task for us to accept. To admit our faults, sins, and forgive those who have done wrong to us not matter the circumstances.
James 4:8 –“Come near God and He will come near you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double mind.”
James 5:16 – “Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
3. The third personal petition is: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Mat. 6:13)
The temptation that is to say, the test, required for the exercise of Christian freedom, and for the effective realization of the sanctity of individual improvement. Otherwise, even if we beat the evil, without virtue in us, active Holiness won in vigorous fight against evil.
Remember that the Lord Jesus was tempted many times. If not, we would then have a passive innocence in us, if we have the essence of evil, nor indeed hold on to good. We read in James 1:13-14 -“When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone, but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”
Nevertheless, we should add, God as divine educator of free creatures, He permits the temptation with the purpose to exercise our fidelity and to enlarge our capacity of resistance.
For that reason, the Apostle Paul admonishes us in 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 – “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.”
Concluding, let us see the reflections again of the model prayer known as “The Lord Prayer” that Jesus taught his disciples. Notice that Jesus placed;
1. First, the interests of God.
2. Secondly, the spiritual needs of man.
3. In third and finally, the material needs.
Most of us when we pray we reverse the order established by Jesus in this model prayer.
1. First, we ask for material things,
2. Then for spiritual blessings.
3. And finally, for things of God.
After all, prayer is something so simple like a child talking with his father. However, while difficult, the fact that it does not always act spontaneously and with pure motives.
We must therefore ask the Lord as His disciples did; “Teach us how to pray.” So that we do not pray using several repetitions, believing that by our verbiage, we will be heard.
Let us pray with simplicity and sincerity.
Let us talk to the Father in Heaven as a child speaks to his father, is the nature of a prayer that Jesus teaches us in the "Lord’s Prayer".
May God Bless you
Your brother in Christ
Moises Miranda
Christian Blogger
Follow me at http://twitter.com/prayerlighthous
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