Tag Archives: prayer

4 Things that the Lord’s Prayer Address, Our Father in Heaven, Tells Us about Prayer

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Stephen Nielsen's avatarPrayer A to Z

An excerpt from my book Purpose of Prayer.

The proper way to start any prayer is with an address.  I suppose there are several ways to address God when we pray, but the address in the Lord’s Prayer is the best way—since Jesus gives it to us.  Here are…

Four Things that the Lord’s Prayer Address, Our Father in Heaven, Tells Us about Prayer — Matthew 6:9-13

 

1.  That prayer is only for Christians.  The words “Our Father” indicate that this prayer and all true prayer is only for those who can truly call God Father. In a general or physical sense, all people can call Him father, because all people were created by Him (Mal. 2:10).  But here, “Father” is used in a spiritual sense (Gal. 4:5-6).  Hence, Jesus teaches us here that only Christians, those adopted into the spiritual family of God, can truly communicate with God…

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4 Things the Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us About Prayer

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What the Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us About Prayer — Matthew 6:9-13

1.  It brings to us the way we ought to regard God when we pray.  Hence, when we pray “Our Father” we understand that we ought to regard Him as our father.  Likewise, when we pray “Hallowed be Thy name” we see Him as holy.  When we pray “Your kingdom come” we see Him as a king, our king.  When we pray “Thy will be done” we see Him as our master and teacher.  Then as we pray for daily bread we see Him as our provider.  When we pray for forgiveness we see Him as our savior.  And when we pray for leading and guidance we see Him as our shepherd and protector, the one who goes before us.

2.  It shows us the spirit of true prayer.  At each junction in the prayer Jesus conveys to…

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The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13): Two Sources

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Someone once said to me, “None of us really has any original thoughts.  Whatever we think and say and write, we have heard from someone else, or have read it somewhere.”  If we look at Jesus in His humanity, that is also true of Him and of this prayer He has composed.  He got it from other sources, basically from two sources: from Jewish prayers, and from the Old Testament Scriptures.

But we could also look at Jesus from the perspective of His divinity.  That is, since He is really God, He inspired all of the Old Testament writings; and since He created all people, including the Jews, He gave them the words of their prayers.  Hence, all things are really from Him, including this prayer.

It would be good for us to keep this in mind.  However, I would like to look at the prayer from the perspective…

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8 Teachings of Jesus on Prayer — Teaching #8

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Jesus taught that prayer must be with forgiveness (Matthew 5:23, 24; 6:14-15; Mark 11:25-26) 

In these passages Jesus seems to be teaching us that if we have not forgiven someone we may as well not pray at all.  Mark 11:26 says, “If you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

Jesus is not saying here that if you don’t forgive others you have lost your salvation; but He is saying that in your unwillingness to forgive someone you have cut off your fellowship with God.  Why?  Because in your sin against others (in not forgiving them) you sin against God too.  Sin always separates us from God, and so this is why when we sin He will not regard our prayers (Ps. 66:18, Jn. 9:31).

Now we know that there are many different kinds of sin, and all of them, if unconfessed will separate us…

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8 Teachings of Jesus on Prayer — Teaching #6

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 Jesus taught that prayer should be in unity with others (Matthew 18:19-20) 

Sometimes when we pray we are not in unity and in agreement with others.  But we should always strive for unity—that is, unity in the body of Christ.  We can never have unity and agreement with those outside of the body of Christ, but we should always strive for unity within the body.  For the body of Christ is one, of which we are all part.  Therefore, since each of us (in the Christian church) is a part for the body of Christ it is natural that our prayers should be united and flow together in agreement by the power of the Holy Spirit.

At first it was hard for me to find in the gospels where Jesus taught this idea of unity in prayer (other then in Matthew 18:19-20); but then, as I studied it, it…

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8 Teachings of Jesus on Prayer — Teaching #5

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Jesus taught that prayer must be in His name (John 14:12-14; 15:7, 16; 16:23, 24). 

In these verses Jesus teaches clearly that if we expect to receive what we ask for we must ask for those things in His name.  What does that mean?  Well, in the first passage (Jn. 14:10-14), Jesus shows us that praying in His name is praying in oneness or in unity with Him—that just as Jesus is one with the Father, we demonstrate that we are one with Jesus (and the Father) when we pray in His name.  For when Jesus ascended to the Father, the Holy Spirit came to us and united us with the Father and Son.  And so when we pray in His name we demonstrate our oneness with Him, because we pray in unity with the Son who is one with the Father.  And we do it by the Spirit.  Then…

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8 Teachings of Jesus on Prayer — Teaching #4

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Jesus taught that prayer should sometimes be with fasting (Mark 9:29).

On one occasion, when Jesus cast out a demon from a boy, and His disciples earlier were not able to cast out the demon, they came to Him privately and said, “Why could we not cast him out?” Jesus response was: “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.”

So here Jesus was teaching that the most difficult things (in this case, casting out a demon) require both prayer and fasting. Why? Because when we fast we depend more on God, and so our prayers become stronger. I suppose you could say that when we fast we receive an extra portion of the Holy Spirit, or perhaps we receive extra strength from the Holy Spirit. However you want to put it, you will find that fasting will strengthen prayer.

Now we know that we should always…

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8 Teachings of Jesus on Prayer — Teaching #3

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Jesus taught that prayer must be with expectation—expecting the best from God (from Matthew 7:7-11; Luke 11:8-13; Luke 18:6-8). 

When you read these passages you will see that the emphasis of Jesus’ teaching on prayer is not entirely on the persistence of prayer, but I think it is more on the sure answers that God will give when we are persistent in prayer.  Hence, when we pray, God does not want us to be so focused on our own persistence in prayer, but rather on how loving He is and how He wants to answer our prayers quickly.  In both the Matthew passage and the Luke passage the emphasis is not so much on the asking but on the receiving, not on the seeking but on the finding; again, it is not on the knocking but on the door being opened.

The teaching Jesus uses in these three passages to…

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8 Teachings of Jesus on Prayer – Teaching #2

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  Jesus taught that prayer must be with persistence—not losing heart (from Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 11:5-10, and Luke 18:1-8)

 

Jesus taught this lesson of persistence in prayer from two different stories, on two different occasions.  One of His stories, recorded in Luke 11:5-10, is about a man who needed bread and who goes to his friend at midnight and begs for it until his friend gives him the bread.  The other story, in Luke 18:1-18, similarly, is about a widow who goes before an unjust judge and pleads for justice from her adversary; and she continues to come to him, begging for justice, until he finally gives it to her.   

We will not go into all the details of the stories (you can read the stories yourself).  However, I want to emphasize the central teaching: that when we pray we must pray with persistence and not lose heart

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8 Teachings of Jesus on Prayer – Teaching # 1

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 In this post and in the following eight posts our discussion will be drawn strictly from what Jesus taught us about prayer in the gospels. 

In my study, I found fourteen different passages in the gospels where Jesus taught on prayer.  I have organized them into eight different categories.  This is an excerpt from my book Principles of Prayer.

  

#1.  Jesus taught that prayer is not to be directed to others or self but to God alone; therefore, it must not in any way be a show or an effort of good works, but rather to be as a humble cry to God for help (from Matthew 6:5-8 and Luke 18:9-14).

 

 We will outline this section in three parts.  First, from Mathew 6:5…

 1. Prayer must not be a show of good works.  Jesus said, “And when you pray, you shall not be like the…

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