Hollow Prayers. Vain repetitions that Jesus said the heathen prayed thinking they'd be heard because they prayed a lot. To pray great volumes of prayers thinking God wants quantity over quality, well, we are told not to do that, to not be as those heathen. The heathen who did not worship the true God, but gods of their own devising.
Our Father in heaven knows what we need before we ask. And Jesus told us to pray after a certain manner, but most certainly not to make that prayer our only prayer. Throughout the New Testament there are numerous disciples talking about praying for this person, that person, even groups of people. Jesus talked about the Apostles who couldn't heal a person and when they asked why, Jesus at first talked about their faith, their belief, but then He added that particular situations will only be helped by prayers and fasting. Think about that one for a moment. It takes time to fast. You can pray instantly for someone, but if you're going to fast for someone's healing that involves a period of time much longer than a few moments. This a situation that may need long praying, a day's worth, two day's worth, three? Or maybe a single missing meal length. Fasting and prayer- the words, the instructions came right from our Savior's lips. Instruction in praying and healing.
Jesus told us what manner we should pray after- the manner of prayer.
Jesus didn't say repeat this single prayer for the rest of your life, make it your only prayer. He gave us the manner to pray after, He revealed the words most God fearing people have learned, or heard at some point in their lives. Some use this manner of prayer reverently with great sincerity and compassion, their hearts yearning after God deeply and that's a wonderful, wonderful thing! Others use this manner of prayer as mere words they've memorized but are without any heart at all. Don't be fooled, a person who prays can be incredibly close to God, but at the same time, not all people who pray are close to God at all. In fact, some who even pray after the manner Jesus taught, use His words and still they are inwardly just as the heathen He mentioned. We need to be careful we are earnestly seeking to pray aright, just as those disciples who asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
Jesus started His teaching by using the words- Our Father. We are to pray this prayer to One we recognize as not only our Father, but as Jesus' Father. They did not use the words, Our Father to begin a prayer prior to Jesus. There was on occasion in the Old Testament instances of God being referenced as Father to Israel, and only Isaiah talks of God as Father a couple of times. We know in Jesus' day when Jesus dared call God, His Father, it was considered blasphemous by the Jewish hierarchy. The word father is indicative of being -- at least to us-- a male having a biologically proven offspring. Or one who is a father to a non-biological offspring nonetheless raised as offspring. In both cases the term father indicates offspring of some sort. My son is not a father at this point in time, he has biologically fathered no offspring and has not found himself in a situation warranting his desiring to raise an offspring that isn't his biologically. So, I would never use that term for my son. My son had two fathers, a biological father and a father that wasn't his biologically yet raised him as his father.
So much father talk, why? Because the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day equated anyone claiming God for their Father as saying they were equal with God because they are indicating they are a child of God, and those leader's offspring as they well knew were equal to them and would go on to produce another generation of men and so on, each equal one to the other as human fathers. A father and a son were equal in substance, though authority came later.
Beyond any doubt whatsoever, when miraculously God took on flesh in the womb of Mary, He left behind attributes that He'd known as God, with God in heaven. He became in that instant of emptying Himself into being made human, the Son of God. Father and Son.
Jesus was there at the beginning, at Creation and nothing was made without Him, He was God with God as the world was spoken into existence. He became the declared Son of God as He took on flesh.
Our Father- Jesus' Father, Our Father too. All that Jesus did and said was given to Him of the Father, He totally depended upon the Father. He told us to start our prayer with, Our Father, and too often those are just words we say without stopping to consider the wonder of the Father.
Our manner of prayer should be begun by recognizing who we are praying to. The same Father that Jesus in the flesh relied wholly upon. Jesus prayed to Him and wanted us to pray to Him too.
Silly to drone on and on about it? Maybe, but remember, Jesus was considered a blasphemer for calling God His Father. This was NO idle thing Jesus was telling His disciples and us to do. It was and is rich in significance beyond mere words.
Jesus was saying, not only does He recognize God as His Father, we too must recognize God as our Father. We must join Him in this supposedly blasphemous pronouncement.
To us today it seems to be no big matter, but just imagine how those hearing the words for the first time felt. None of the disciples of Jesus had ever heard anyone pray by starting out calling God their Father, it was unheard of!
Jesus was teaching us that we need to recognize the relationship, the love that God the Father has towards us. There was no demand to address our prayers to a rigid, uncaring deity that just might choose to listen to us if he was in a particularly good mood that day. This was Our Father who is in heaven, whose name is holy! This was Our Father who has a kingdom! A kingdom! A King with a Kingdom! As any who have read history, or live in a place with monarchies, know, a king has a kingdom and earthly kings have kingdoms that involve land under their rule (real or figurehead ruling over that land).
Our Father in heaven, whose name is holy, His kingdom is something we desire to come to us so that we can be a part of that kingdom in all ways! We want Our Father's will to be done! His will! Did you pray that today, 'Thy will be done'? You are outright saying you want your Father's will to be done and NOT yours or anyone else, but His will. You can't have everyone's will being done at the same time. If my will is being done and others choose to follow my will that is being done, well, that's the way it goes. But if I say, THY WILL BE DONE, I'm giving up MY will in deference to HIS! We not only to pray for His will to be done, we pray for it to be done here and now on earth where we are, just like it is being done in heaven where Our Father is! Whose will is being done in you? You prayed- Thy will be done to Our Father in heaven- IS His will being done?
Oh, we understand the next part easily enough when the manner of prayer has us asking Our Father to give us this day our daily bread. We are ASKING for food. We want to eat, eating is all a part of sustaining our ability to keep living, so yes, we'd love for Our Father to give us the food we need, food we'd love to have to eat every day if possible. Next we want Our Father to forgive us our sins, only Jesus tells us to pray it this way- 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us'. Wait. What? We aren't to simply ask Our Father to forgive us? Nope. Go ahead and ask, but Jesus says we are to ask Our Father to do for us what we are doing to those around us. Do what we are doing. Not, do this without us having any thought about doing it for others. We aren't the Our Father, we can't forgive others…. Wait? What? But we are told to by Jesus! If we want to be forgiven (and boy, do I constantly need forgiveness) then we have to give that same forgiveness to others because you can believe, without a single doubt, that others around you are going to need to be forgiven constantly - for every single slight against us, tiny or huge.
Jesus also told us to pray to Our Father to lead us NOT into temptation, but to DELIVER us from evil. Ah, so, so much to talk about, but I've gone on and on and on already! We want Our Father to do what we are incapable of doing. We've proven that we are all too easily led into temptation which in turn we let conceive sin in us. We need DELIVERANCE from evil! We need HIS power, the Our Father's power to deliver us from evil! His is the KINGDOM, His is the POWER, His is the GLORY…. FOREVER! AMEN! But wait there is more… right after that, Jesus had to bring home once again how important is it for US to FORGIVE OTHERS, telling simply we will NOT be forgiven by the Our Father, if we do not forgive!
This manner of praying holds so much more than mere words memorized and recited. This manner of praying is packed full of instruction for living.
The next time you pray this manner of prayer, stop after each and every phrase and give it a bit of deep contemplation and reflection, get the meaning from it. Ask yourself every single time you pray this prayer…is there someone needing your forgiveness? Has anyone trespassed against you in any way at all whatsoever? Forgive them! What does it mean to forgive them? Ask yourself how you want to be forgiven by God, and you'll know.
We do know we are to forgive, even as God has forgiven us for Christ our Lord and Savior's sake. We are to forgive wholly, as we want to be forgiven wholly.
God help us towards this end and keep this manner of praying alive for us, a living prayer filled with so much meaning, so much more than words memorized yet not given the deep contemplation needed.
Mat 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Mat 6:8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Mat 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.
Mat 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Mat 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Mat 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
Mat 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Our Father in heaven knows what we need before we ask. And Jesus told us to pray after a certain manner, but most certainly not to make that prayer our only prayer. Throughout the New Testament there are numerous disciples talking about praying for this person, that person, even groups of people. Jesus talked about the Apostles who couldn't heal a person and when they asked why, Jesus at first talked about their faith, their belief, but then He added that particular situations will only be helped by prayers and fasting. Think about that one for a moment. It takes time to fast. You can pray instantly for someone, but if you're going to fast for someone's healing that involves a period of time much longer than a few moments. This a situation that may need long praying, a day's worth, two day's worth, three? Or maybe a single missing meal length. Fasting and prayer- the words, the instructions came right from our Savior's lips. Instruction in praying and healing.
Jesus told us what manner we should pray after- the manner of prayer.
Jesus didn't say repeat this single prayer for the rest of your life, make it your only prayer. He gave us the manner to pray after, He revealed the words most God fearing people have learned, or heard at some point in their lives. Some use this manner of prayer reverently with great sincerity and compassion, their hearts yearning after God deeply and that's a wonderful, wonderful thing! Others use this manner of prayer as mere words they've memorized but are without any heart at all. Don't be fooled, a person who prays can be incredibly close to God, but at the same time, not all people who pray are close to God at all. In fact, some who even pray after the manner Jesus taught, use His words and still they are inwardly just as the heathen He mentioned. We need to be careful we are earnestly seeking to pray aright, just as those disciples who asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
Jesus started His teaching by using the words- Our Father. We are to pray this prayer to One we recognize as not only our Father, but as Jesus' Father. They did not use the words, Our Father to begin a prayer prior to Jesus. There was on occasion in the Old Testament instances of God being referenced as Father to Israel, and only Isaiah talks of God as Father a couple of times. We know in Jesus' day when Jesus dared call God, His Father, it was considered blasphemous by the Jewish hierarchy. The word father is indicative of being -- at least to us-- a male having a biologically proven offspring. Or one who is a father to a non-biological offspring nonetheless raised as offspring. In both cases the term father indicates offspring of some sort. My son is not a father at this point in time, he has biologically fathered no offspring and has not found himself in a situation warranting his desiring to raise an offspring that isn't his biologically. So, I would never use that term for my son. My son had two fathers, a biological father and a father that wasn't his biologically yet raised him as his father.
So much father talk, why? Because the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day equated anyone claiming God for their Father as saying they were equal with God because they are indicating they are a child of God, and those leader's offspring as they well knew were equal to them and would go on to produce another generation of men and so on, each equal one to the other as human fathers. A father and a son were equal in substance, though authority came later.
Beyond any doubt whatsoever, when miraculously God took on flesh in the womb of Mary, He left behind attributes that He'd known as God, with God in heaven. He became in that instant of emptying Himself into being made human, the Son of God. Father and Son.
Jesus was there at the beginning, at Creation and nothing was made without Him, He was God with God as the world was spoken into existence. He became the declared Son of God as He took on flesh.
Our Father- Jesus' Father, Our Father too. All that Jesus did and said was given to Him of the Father, He totally depended upon the Father. He told us to start our prayer with, Our Father, and too often those are just words we say without stopping to consider the wonder of the Father.
Our manner of prayer should be begun by recognizing who we are praying to. The same Father that Jesus in the flesh relied wholly upon. Jesus prayed to Him and wanted us to pray to Him too.
Silly to drone on and on about it? Maybe, but remember, Jesus was considered a blasphemer for calling God His Father. This was NO idle thing Jesus was telling His disciples and us to do. It was and is rich in significance beyond mere words.
Jesus was saying, not only does He recognize God as His Father, we too must recognize God as our Father. We must join Him in this supposedly blasphemous pronouncement.
To us today it seems to be no big matter, but just imagine how those hearing the words for the first time felt. None of the disciples of Jesus had ever heard anyone pray by starting out calling God their Father, it was unheard of!
Jesus was teaching us that we need to recognize the relationship, the love that God the Father has towards us. There was no demand to address our prayers to a rigid, uncaring deity that just might choose to listen to us if he was in a particularly good mood that day. This was Our Father who is in heaven, whose name is holy! This was Our Father who has a kingdom! A kingdom! A King with a Kingdom! As any who have read history, or live in a place with monarchies, know, a king has a kingdom and earthly kings have kingdoms that involve land under their rule (real or figurehead ruling over that land).
Our Father in heaven, whose name is holy, His kingdom is something we desire to come to us so that we can be a part of that kingdom in all ways! We want Our Father's will to be done! His will! Did you pray that today, 'Thy will be done'? You are outright saying you want your Father's will to be done and NOT yours or anyone else, but His will. You can't have everyone's will being done at the same time. If my will is being done and others choose to follow my will that is being done, well, that's the way it goes. But if I say, THY WILL BE DONE, I'm giving up MY will in deference to HIS! We not only to pray for His will to be done, we pray for it to be done here and now on earth where we are, just like it is being done in heaven where Our Father is! Whose will is being done in you? You prayed- Thy will be done to Our Father in heaven- IS His will being done?
Oh, we understand the next part easily enough when the manner of prayer has us asking Our Father to give us this day our daily bread. We are ASKING for food. We want to eat, eating is all a part of sustaining our ability to keep living, so yes, we'd love for Our Father to give us the food we need, food we'd love to have to eat every day if possible. Next we want Our Father to forgive us our sins, only Jesus tells us to pray it this way- 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us'. Wait. What? We aren't to simply ask Our Father to forgive us? Nope. Go ahead and ask, but Jesus says we are to ask Our Father to do for us what we are doing to those around us. Do what we are doing. Not, do this without us having any thought about doing it for others. We aren't the Our Father, we can't forgive others…. Wait? What? But we are told to by Jesus! If we want to be forgiven (and boy, do I constantly need forgiveness) then we have to give that same forgiveness to others because you can believe, without a single doubt, that others around you are going to need to be forgiven constantly - for every single slight against us, tiny or huge.
Jesus also told us to pray to Our Father to lead us NOT into temptation, but to DELIVER us from evil. Ah, so, so much to talk about, but I've gone on and on and on already! We want Our Father to do what we are incapable of doing. We've proven that we are all too easily led into temptation which in turn we let conceive sin in us. We need DELIVERANCE from evil! We need HIS power, the Our Father's power to deliver us from evil! His is the KINGDOM, His is the POWER, His is the GLORY…. FOREVER! AMEN! But wait there is more… right after that, Jesus had to bring home once again how important is it for US to FORGIVE OTHERS, telling simply we will NOT be forgiven by the Our Father, if we do not forgive!
This manner of praying holds so much more than mere words memorized and recited. This manner of praying is packed full of instruction for living.
The next time you pray this manner of prayer, stop after each and every phrase and give it a bit of deep contemplation and reflection, get the meaning from it. Ask yourself every single time you pray this prayer…is there someone needing your forgiveness? Has anyone trespassed against you in any way at all whatsoever? Forgive them! What does it mean to forgive them? Ask yourself how you want to be forgiven by God, and you'll know.
We do know we are to forgive, even as God has forgiven us for Christ our Lord and Savior's sake. We are to forgive wholly, as we want to be forgiven wholly.
God help us towards this end and keep this manner of praying alive for us, a living prayer filled with so much meaning, so much more than words memorized yet not given the deep contemplation needed.
Mat 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Mat 6:8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Mat 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Mat 6:11 Give us this day our daily bread.
Mat 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
Mat 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Mat 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
Mat 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.