Jesus calls us to examine our prayer life – how we communicate with God.  Here’s the big picture of what Jesus says:  Pray eternal prayers every day.

 1) Pause before you pray. (vs.9a)  Jesus starts in verse 9, “Pray like this:” This is called the Lord’s Prayer not because He prayed this prayer, but because it was the example of prayer from the Lord.

• “Our Father in heaven.”
  • Those 4 words are designed to cause to stop; to pause; to reflect. We should not be able to utter these words flippantly.  They have so much meaning.
  • We start off our prayers typically with something like “Dear God.” Why?  Jesus is telling us that we have to prepare our hearts for what we are about to say. 
  • Let’s break down those 4 words quickly:
    • Our = Association with other believers. We remember our place; that we, like our brothers and sisters in Christ, are part of God’s kingdom.  We are in this together
    • Father = Access to God through Christ’s sacrifice. Think about this!  We have a direct line of communication to the Creator of the Universe.  We have access to God because of what Jesus did.  Our immediate reaction should be praise and adoration
    • In Heaven = Adoration of God as King. And that’s what those next 2 words are about - It’s a “Holy Cow! I am talking God!”
  • This introductory statement has deepness way beyond its words. The fact that we have the ability to access God in prayer should cause to pause before we pray.  We have access to not only the most powerful being in the universe, but the very One who created the universe!  That should cause us to pause.
  • We pause in prayer so that we may boldly approach God.

2) Pray eternal prayers. (vs.9b-10) If you look at verse 9 and 10, you’ll see that the word “your” is used 3 times.  If you look at verses 11-13, the word “us” is used 5 times.  Jesus is giving two major emphases for our prayer life: the eternal and the everyday.  Jesus wants us to pray for both. 

• “May your name be kept holy.”
  • What does it mean that God’s name be kept or honored as holy? Two reasons:
    • We are to recognize that God is greater than any earthly thing. God is truly set apart from everything in this world and our lives are dedicated to giving God all the glory He’s due.
    • We are calling others to recognize God’s holiness. We want our passion to be in awe of God to be contagious to the world.  This is the mountaintop of the Lord’s Prayer.  We are declaring our love and awe for God.
• It’s from here that everything else flows. If you don’t know who God is then you can’t give Him the glory He’s due.  He’s the reason we pray and the reason we live! So know Him!  Jesus stays focused on the eternal and then prays,

• “Your kingdom come.”
  • We’ve talked a lot about God’s Kingdom. There are three aspects of God’s Kingdom:
    • It has come through Christ.
    • It remains in the hearts of believers.
    • It will be complete when the kingdom of darkness is overcome, and God’s new kingdom will be established on earth.
  • When you pray for God’s Kingdom to come, you are praying that Jesus will come back and complete the establishment of His kingdom. Our hearts should long more and more for Christ to come back.  This place – this world – is not our home.  That one day, Jesus will return and will make everything whole and new again.  Our prayer life should spend a lot of time asking God to come back – to come back soon so that the pain and hurt and sin of this world will be gone for good. 
  • But you may be thinking, “I’m not ready yet. There are people that I want to know Jesus before He comes back.” And that’s why Jesus tells us to pray this third part of eternal prayers.
• “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
  • In heaven, God’s will is being carried out perfectly. This third eternal petition is calling out to God asking Him to cause His will to be accomplished on earth – just as the angels carry it out in heaven.  And that happens through you with the power of the Holy Spirit.  When you pray for God to come back, you are both simultaneously longing for heaven but filled with urgency here on earth to see God’s will be done
  • Now you can take that model and apply it many ways.
    • “Jesus, I am so ready for you to come back. I’m so ready for you to take away the effects of sin – the pain and the heartache. But I will continue to wait patiently. I trust you and I know that you know best. So, until then, I’m ready to do what you need me to do. I’m ready to carry out your will. I know your will is being perfectly carried out in heaven. I want to see that on earth too. Help me to share the hope of Jesus with my neighbor. Help me spend more time with you. Help me lead my family.”

3) Pray everyday prayers. (vs.11-13)  After we honor God, after we seek His will, then we petition God for what we need.  Once we frame our lives in a kingdom perspective, it will change what we petition for.

• “Give us today the food we need.”
  • Why does Jesus tell us to pray every day for what we need? The idea of daily bread is that God will give us what we need in order to carry out His will.  We pray for a lot of “wants” but the emphasis here is on just what we “need” for today. 
  • But why daily bread? Why not weekly bread? Some of you get a monthly paycheck – why not pray monthly? Why doesn’t God just give us all that we need in one lump sum?  Jesus wants you to have a daily relationship with God.  The idea is that we come to God every day.
• “And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”
  • Being forgiven and forgiving others go together – there’s no way around it. Jesus gives us extra commentary on this in verses 14-15.. We don’t receive forgiveness because we forgive others.  We receive forgiveness because of God’s mercy and grace. 
  • What Jesus is telling us is that if we have truly received God’s grace and mercy – we understand the weight of our sin and magnitude of God’s grace – that we can’t help but share that forgiveness with others.
• “And do not let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.”
  • God will allow us to walk ourselves into situations where Satan may tempt us. Those times in life happen because we need much training in preparation for glory.  But we can ask God to keep up us from those situations.
  • Why is this important? Sin is the great relationship disrupter.  We don’t want to break our fellowship with God.  We have to understand the devastation our sin causes on our spiritual life.
  • Our everyday prayers are not about comfort or abundance. Our daily prayers are that God would give us enough physically and spiritually so that we can walk in His will and spend time with Him.  Because we know that what we do daily matters for eternity.

“Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when, upon his knees, he comes face-to-face with God.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Come face-to-face with God this week.  And pray eternal prayers everyday.

Previous Page