THE WORDS OF JESUS

Creative, Causative, Prophetic, Instructional – Part 20

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your 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 lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

The Words of Jesus, Matthew 6:10-14

Herein, Jesus is handing you the Golden Spiritual Key to righteous, effective prayer that always earns God’s Reward. But you must have eyes to see and ears to hear.

There has been so much written about this model prayer that there is little I can or should add. I will say, however, this is the perfect prayer. Notice that, by repeating or using this as your model, you will make a bold and grand remark that you identify yourself as a son or daughter of God, The Father Who resides in heaven, and by this you lay claim to heaven as your home.

Meditate on these next words, ”hallowed be your name”. ‘Hallowed’ is to regard as special (sacred), i.e. holy, “set apart”, sanctified. (hagiázō, “to make holy, consecrate, sanctify; to dedicate, separate”. There is none other like Him. This is your confession. Selah.

“Your kingdom come, Your Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”, is the grandest of confessions made. It is in the Greek Aorist tense, meaning that ‘Your Kingdom has come, it is now coming, and it shall continue to come’! You are recognizing and affirming that as a child of God you live as a resident and an heir of God’s Kingdom, now and forevermore.

Let’s save time and space here and say what Jesus says, that we ‘shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’.  This is divine provision; all the sustenance God supplies to yielded believers, moment-by-moment, to live in His preferred-will. “Give us this day our daily bread”, indeed!

“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” can also be said with this in mind: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses”.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” is also spoken and written in the Aorist Tense which hold no regard for the past, present or the future, again asking ‘And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, in the past, in this current day nor at any time in the future”.

We are told to make all our requests known to God, but “when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Pray then like this:

“My Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will is being done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give me this day my daily bread,

and forgive me my debts, as I also have forgiven my debtors.

And lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.

(I forgive others their trespasses, and you, my heavenly Father will also forgive me, but if I do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will my Father forgive my trespasses.)

This is the heartfelt and fervent prayer that avails much! (James 5:16)

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

NEXT:  THE WORDS OF JESUS – What Are You To Do With Them? Part 21, “And when you fast…”

PREVIOUS: THE WORDS OF JESUS – What Are You To Do With Them? Part 19, “And when you pray…”

THE WORDS OF JESUS

Creative, Causative, Prophetic, Instructional – Part 19

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:” The Words of Jesus, Matthew 6:7-9

Another way of saying this is, “do not use thoughtless repetitions”.  Prayer is not a magic formula or an incantation. Prayer is not an endless repetition of words that are meant to bring about a desired result.

The Greek words for “do not use thoughtless repetitions” has a force but is feebly rendered in the English. Formed from a word which reproduces the repeated attempts of ‘the stammerer to clothe his thoughts in words’, it might be almost rendered, “Do not stutter out your prayers, do not babble them over.” The devotion of the rosary, in which every bead is connected with a ‘Pater Noster’, (Our Father), or an Ave Maria (Hail Mary), reproduces the eighteen prayers of the Rabbis, which they held it to be an act of religion to repeat. These words describe only too faithfully the act of prayer when it becomes mechanical, and Jesus, Himself, says thoughtless, repetitive phrases disguised as prayers will not produce ‘the reward’ of answered prayer.

There is more here, however. Jesus is warning that we shall not be like the hypocrites (an actor, a pretender, a fraud), or like the Gentiles (Heathens; usually referring to non-Israelites; a pagan, a “non-covenant person,” standing outside God’s covenant of salvation).

One of the greatest dangers that has always faced the church is Syncretism, the attempted union of principles or practices which are irreconcilably at variance with each other, the merging of two opposing religious belief systems.

We are not to think like the Gentiles (Pagans) and hypocrites, in any fashion.

Do not dress like them, do not act like them or eat like them, drink like them, talk like them and in particular, do not practice your righteousness like them, and never approach God and never pray like them. Its end is vanity and loss.

Jesus gives us a model for prayer when He says,

“Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,

“Your kingdom come, Your 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Of course there is nothing wrong with repeating this prayer, but if it is done mechanically, as becomes the tendency, it can become a meaningless repetition and will lose its effect. Instead,

Acknowledge, greet and call God by name and relationship:  Father.

Remember, confess and admit His sovereignty and presence.

Ask for your daily sustenance from God, alone.

Confess your sins before God, and

Pray for His deliverance, daily

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

NEXT:  THE WORDS OF JESUS – What Are You To Do With Them? Part 20, “Thy Kingdom Come”.

PREVIOUS:  THE WORDS OF JESUS – What Are You To Do With Them? Part 18, “And when you pray…”

THE WORDS OF JESUS

Creative, Causative, Prophetic, Instructional – Part 18

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father, who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” –

The Words of Jesus, Matthew 6:5-6

PRACTICAL, POSITIONAL, TRANSCENDING?

We have been trying to answer the question, “what if we have been reading and misunderstanding the entirety of what Jesus meant by, and the intentions of, His Words? What if we have, even slightly, been misapplying what He taught? If so, could this be one of the main reasons our faith has grown weak and our works have faded?”

Many times, a simple face-value reading of Jesus’ Words and a careful study of the results of His spoken Word, will either

Completely confound you,

Thoroughly convince you that ‘He meant what He said and said exactly what he meant’ , or

Will cause you to search the depth and breadth of His Words on your natural world.

When it comes to prayer, Jesus used the word ‘pray’ or referred to ‘prayer’, just twenty-one times (in the book of Matthew, English Standard version).

Since the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, men and women have written uncounted hundreds-of-thousands, if not millions, of books and articles about prayer and about ‘how-to-pray’. But Jesus taught on it in detail, only once.

Perhaps prayer was so widely understood and practiced in Jewish life, that Jesus did not see a necessity to teach on prayer in detail beyond the one time found in Matthew 6:5-14. This, of course, would be an incorrect assumption since Jesus’ life was a constant demonstration of active prayer – and one would know that if one correctly understood the idea and meaning of prayer.

Here is exactly what Jesus taught and practiced about prayer:

“And when you pray”, Matthew 6:5, as defined in Strong’s Bible concordance, #4336: proseúxomai, comes from two root words,

#4314 /pros), which means, “towards, exchange” and

#2172, euxomai, which means, “to wish, pray”,

Which more properly means to ‘exchange wishes (or ideas)’;

Pray – literally means, to interact with the Lord by switching human wishes (ideas) for His wishes (ideas) as He imparts faith (“divine persuasion“).

Accordingly, praying (#4336, proseuxomai), is closely interconnected with 4102 /pístis (“faith”).

Let’s recap. Jesus is saying, “And when you pray it shall be an expression of your wishes, ideas, desires or thoughts, directed toward God in order to

(1), interact with Him,

(2), in order to switch or exchange your human ideas or wishes for His supreme ideas and wishes

(3) which will result in an importation of God’s divine persuasion through faith, from God to you.

Confusing? Let’s try to simplify.

Jesus is saying, “When you pray…”, come face-to-face with God directly. Do not be anxious about anything. Ask anything by way of prayer and petition, but do it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God, then, having expressed your ‘wishes and ideas’, eagerly and willfully exchanged your ‘wishes and ideas’  for His wishes and ideas. Do not seek to find compromise. Do not add anything of your own out of doubt or impatience. Discard your own ideas and replace them with His. Then, wait expectantly.

If you approach God in prayer with any motives other than finding and receiving His wishes and ideas, you will in no way receive your reward.

Once you have heard God, believe in faith, and He will reward you openly.  This is the only way to receive your ‘reward’ of answered prayer from God.

This is both amazingly simple and enormously difficult, and to help us further, Jesus gives us a model for this kind of prayer when He says, “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven…”

Your Brother and Friend,

Mike Young

NEXT: THE WORDS OF JESUS – What Are You To Do With Them? Part 19, “Do not use vain repetitions when praying.”

PREVIOUS: THE WORDS OF JESUS – What Are You To Do With Them? Part 17 – Practicing your righteousness.