Day 8

WEEK 2:  A PATTERN FOR PRAYER

Day 8:  THE MODEL PRAYER

 

SCRIPTURE

Matthew 6:9-13
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.’

 

OBSERVATION AND UNDERSTANDING

This prayer is a pattern for prayer: it tells us what to pray.  It can be used as an outline for prayer.  Just remember it can easily become meaningless repetition if we are not careful.

Prayer begins with worship

: "our Father".  Then it focuses on God's concerns.

Notice that the first three requests all have to do with God: "

your name, your kingdom, your will

."

Prayer isn't primarily placing orders at the heavenly catalog counter; it is getting marching orders from our king.

It isn't primarily telling God what we want, but finding out what He wants.  It is God first, not me first.  This kind of prayer seeks what God wants before we present what we want.

After we worship and put God first, then the next three requests have to do with

our needs:
physical (give us our daily bread),
spiritual (forgive our sins),

and 
moral (lead us not into temptation).

All of life, all of our needs are represented in these requests, and teach us that all of life can be brought to God and laid before Him for His help.  There is nothing too small for His love or too large for His power.

LIFE APPLICATION

 

Try praying this prayer one phrase at a time.

Take each phrase, think about it, write down how it applies to your life, and pray it to the Lord.  It will be one of the best prayer times you'll ever have!