The Best Prayer for Us
How do you pray, and by that question, what I'm asking is really: "How are you praying on a regular basis?"
Jesus gave us five things that we should pray on a regular basis. He lists these in Luke 11:2-4 in what we call the Lord's Prayer:
- Father, let Your Name be kept holy.
- Let Your kingdom come.
- Give us our bread day by day.
- Forgive us as we forgive everyone else.
- Don't allow us to be tempted.
ONE
What does it mean to keep the Name of God the Father holy? It means we set it apart from all other names. It's in a class of it's own, and by our lives we should be glorifying it as the Name above all other Names. We honor the Father, when we praise the Son, glorifying Jesus' Name, which in Hebrew means: "Yahweh Saves!" And yet when we pray that God's Name be kept holy, we are praying for the culture around us to keep His Name holy, set apart.
TWO
We pray for His Kingdom to come, a prayer for Jesus' triumphant return but also for the reign of His Kingdom in the here and now. When God rules in our lives, we change the world around us, influencing it in a supernatural way that brings it into alignment with God's good and perfect will for each of us and for those we encounter.
THREE
We pray for His provision in our lives, both physically and spiritually. Jesus is the Bread of Life and the Fountain of Living Waters, We are eternally His with one taste, but like the air we breathe and the water we drink, we are dependent upon His continued presence in our lives. Our need for continued nourishment is a divine analogy to our need for a daily prayer time with Him. And yes, it literally means that He wants us to pray for our physical needs on a daily basis for continued dependency upon Him. (See Proverbs 30:7-9)
FOUR
I was so convicted of this as a child when I first realized that my forgiveness was somehow linked to my ability to forgive others, but as I grew in understanding, I came to realize that the ability to forgive others gives us confidence in God's forgiveness. I also came to understand that the only one I was truly hurting with unforgiveness was myself; the person who wronged me had moved on while I was stuck in the bitterness that held me back from experiencing God's love.
FIVE
None of us are free from temptation and no sin is too great that any of us can't be tempted to take the plunge. Jesus understood this and gave us this reminder to pray for freedom from temptation.
I believe that temptation comes from inside each of us as a desire for something, but I also believe that we have an enemy who wants us to desire that which is not good for us. The Church fathers did as well, and so the Lord's Prayer often ends with "deliver us from evil". So I pray on a regular basis that God frees His people from all oppression: the oppression of the evil one and the oppression of man.
And I also pray regularly for my family, friends, all believers, and countrymen that God close our ears to the words of the Enemy and restore us with His truth and love. The Enemy wants us to believe lies and half-truths that separate us from God and His perfect will for us. He wants us to forget all about God's love for us or to believe that God doesn't think about us. So I pray:
Jesus, close our ears to the words of the Enemy. Cleanse our minds, our hearts and our souls from the echoes of the Enemy, and fill us with Your truth and love. Remove the clouds that keep us from seeing Your face, knowing that You see us, love us, and that You are working all things together for good.
Are you praying on a regular basis? If not, consider some of the things I've written above and ask God to lead you into a new and enriched prayer life, a time to spend with Him and getting to know Him better.
"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." - 2 Chronicles 7:14
