During Christ’s earthly ministries, He did so many marvelous things. It’s stated by (John 21:25) that no book could have been big enough to contain all the signs, wonders, and miraculous operations, which were performed by Him. He preached to large number of individuals and was the most eloquent, the best, the most dynamic, and the greatest preacher that ever lived. Most importantly, He was the incarnate Word of God (John 1:1; Revelation 19:13).
One thing that was quite noticeable during His ministries was His strong consistent commitment to prayer. Many times in the gospel books, it’s recorded that Jesus had to seclude Himself completely from the vast crowds in order for Him to go to a private place to pray to God for long extended period of time. So He was truly a mighty man of prayer.
Was it an obligation for Jesus to have always prayed to God the Father while being God Himself in every way? Well, the answer to that question is a big NO, but as the Son of God and being fully human had to rely on God the Father for both guidance and sustenance just as children need to rely on their earthly father.
What about us? His constant prayer life clearly shows how much more we need to seek God’s face ourselves through persistent prayer. If Jesus Himself needed it by investing countless amount of time in it; therefore, we surely need it ourselves to sustain our daily walk with God.
Have you ever thought about the fact that prayer is the fuel that propels your relationship with God? The reason is that communication is one of the main pillars of having a healthy relationship with someone. So it’s where you get into real intimacy with your heavenly Father by humbly pouring out your heart to Him.
Prayer isn’t all about just asking God for material things that we want on a constant basis. It’s a time in which we revere Him because of who He is. Prayer is about us submitting and humbling ourselves before God in order for Him to have His way in us for His own glory. Prayer is predicated entirely on God’s willingness to unleash in our lives the very things found within His sovereign will for us.
So it’s a time where we acknowledge Him by putting Him and His perfect will first. Most importantly, prayer empowers us to do the will of God on this earth. In short, prayer is based on us allowing God to be whom He wants to be in our lives. Lastly, it’s also a great time of cleansing and purging from sin (1 John 1:9).
What The Lord’s Prayer Is All About?
The Lord’s prayer model is the most famous prayer model found in the Word of God. It was given by Christ while teaching concerning various subjects about the glorious kingdom of God on the mount. It’s the most widely used prayer model found in Scripture. So let’s read and dissect what it actually means.
Our Father who is 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 do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen (Matthew 6:9-13).
Upon closer analysis of that prayer, we find 7 key components in it that can drastically help us to strengthen our prayer life, which will be covered individually in this publication.
1) Acknowledgement Of His Dwelling Place
God is known as our heavenly Father. Although, His presence is everywhere, but His dwelling place is in heaven. He is seated on His holy throne better known as the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). His throne is the center of all authority, power, dominion, and blessings. That’s where He rules the entire universe.
Beloved, it’s such a magnificent privilege that we have as humans to be able to address the infinite and Almighty God in a father and son type of relationship. And when we go to God with our needs and reverently ask Him to answer them, He delights in hearing us as His children whom He loves so much.
2) Reverence To His Holy Name
Within this prayer model, we express our deepest and sincerest respect for the name of God by revering His name as holy. There’s truly something of great significance about His name (Ezekiel 20:9; Isaiah 48:9–11). And it’s a sin to use His name in vain (Exodus 20:7). So we must be very careful concerning that issue.
Besides, nobody would ever be pleased if someone else was using their name in an improper and disrespectful manner so is a holy and righteous God.
3) May His Kingdom Come And Will Be Done
The next thing we do is to acknowledge His kingdom and His absolute sovereignty over everything. His kingdom is the very embodiment of His rulership on the whole universe. So this compels us to think about the idea that prayer isn’t only about the things that we want to receive from God or what we want but what He wants us to have according to His perfect will and timing.
It’s not an easy task to accept the will of God when struggling with a particular unpleasant issue while all we want is to get out as soon as possible. But the question we can sincerely ask ourselves is that do we truly have our best interests at heart more than God Himself who has not only made us in His own image but who has perfect knowledge concerning everything about us and our needs?
The kingdom that Christ was referring to in His teaching had already been into existence even before His ministry started, but it was revealed to mankind during His earthly ministry (Mark 1:15). That kingdom has two major aspects: a spiritual and a physical aspect.
We as the church are the very embodiment of that kingdom in the physical realm. So the key principles found in the Word of God that we must follow as citizens of God’s kingdom originated from that kingdom. Doing the will of God starts first with us as His children by doing the things He wants us to do for His glory through obedience. It also means that when we’re doing the will of God here on earth, that’s a pure reflection of what His kingdom is all about.
Doing the will of God is tantamount to inviting the kingdom of God to repel the kingdom of darkness in our lives and the lives of others. Most importantly, it’s the kingdom that we must seek above all else according to (Matthew 6:33).
Nevertheless, we also need to realize that there’s another kingdom known as the kingdom of darkness governed by Satan along with his fallen angels and demons (Colossians 1:13; Matthew 12:26). The great news is that the glorious kingdom of God will come and overcome the kingdom of darkness that we’re fighting against (Revelation 20:2-3; Revelation 20:10; Hebrews 10:13; Romans 16:20). So the kingdom of God will one day eradicate the kingdom of darkness once for all. That’s what Christ is actually asking us to pray about in this prayer model.
4) Acknowledging God As The Source Of Our Needs
Another important thing that we should do is to recognize God as the source of all our needs. Meaning that we’re to rely on Him in the sense that He’ll meet all our needs in accordance with His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19). Giving us our daily bread is not only about feeding us physically but spiritually as well. So His rich and sufficient provisions take care of both major aspects of our being, which are the physical and the spiritual aspect.
5) Seeking God’s forgiveness as we Are Forgiving Others
We’re to seek His forgiveness for our sins as we’re forgiving those who’ve sinned against us. The lesson through that passage is quite clear. We cannot sow unforgiveness to others and reap forgiveness from God. We cannot keep on holding grudges against those who’ve sinned against us constantly while asking God to forgive us of our sins (Matthew 6:15).
So it should start from us by letting go of anything that we may have held against others in our hearts. Bear in mind, unforgiveness is a very dangerous thing to hold onto since it has the potential to poison our relationship with God and those around us, along with our prayer life.
6) Preserving us From Temptation
We are to pray to God in order for Him to preserve us from temptation which is the starting point of every sin. Temptation is not a sin by itself but yielding to it is what gives birth to sin. Temptation is commonplace; in other words, it’s out there for everyone.
However, God has promised us in (1 Corinthians 10:13) that He’ll never allow us to be tempted in such a way that surpasses our ability to cope with it. And when we find ourselves going through temptation, He’ll empower us to endure it until we make it out safely. It’s a very important verse that we have to grab a hold of as people who’re dealing with temptation on a regular basis.
There is immense power in prayer. The enemy knows that fairly well. Prayer renews, empowers, and reanimates the soul by the infinite power of God. This then enables us to subdue the desires of the flesh through which Satan and his demons thrive in people’s lives.
We cannot afford to underestimate the power of prayer by taking it as just a routine or by being lazy, ignorant, or negligent to the extent that it loses its real purpose in our lives.
7) Attributing The Very Things Due To Only Him
Lastly, we end that prayer by acknowledging His kingdom, absolute dominion and power, and glory due to only Him forever. So we begin this prayer model with worshiping His holy name and end it by attributing to Him the key features that make Him whom He is. Things like dominion, power, and glory are the very divine attributes that make God weighty.
It’s a prayer model centered on Him in the context of whom He is, how He operates, how He sees us as His children, and what He wants us to do in order to conform us to His ways by empowering us to walk in total victory on our enemy as we’re getting to know Him better.
Conclusion
This prayer model is given not to be used exactly as it is on every occasion, nor is it something that we have to memorize in order to recite it back to God, but to show us the kind of things that we need to pray about. So we’re free to shape it and customize it however we like to make it applicable to our daily situation as long it’s done in a God-honoring fashion.