Teach Me How to Pray // Unlocking the Power of Prayer, Part 2

Christianityworks Official Podcast

When we go to God to pray, all too often we head in with a shopping list don’t we? “I need this … I need that … oh God please help me with this … oh God please end my pain and suffering … oh God” … but what if I told you that by and large, at least according to Jesus, prayer isn’t all about me. It’s not all about … you.

IT’S NOT ABOUT ME

This week on the programme we are continuing in our series: “The Power of Prayer”. I don’t think we can really talk about prayer without looking at how Jesus taught His disciples to pray. And of course, that teaching in the Lord’s Prayer has been recorded for us down through the centuries and it’s still available to us, here and now.

Now there’s no record of Jesus teaching them how to preach. You’d think, if He was getting all these disciples together and He wanted them to go out and form the church after He was crucified and rose again and ascended into heaven, we’d have some record of Jesus teaching them to preach. But no. The record that we have is of Jesus teaching them to pray.

And that makes sense. I mean it was pretty clear that Jesus had the most amazing relationship with His Dad in heaven. Of course, we believe in the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – three persons. One God for all eternity. But the incarnation was something special.

When Jesus became a man, He laid His glory aside. He became one of us. He had to establish a relationship with His Dad in heaven in just the same way as we do. And time and time again, you see Jesus stealing away on His own, to pray. When the crowds were after Him. When the disciples wanted Him. So often, He’d gone off quietly on His own to pray.

And obviously He had a really special relationship. In the Lord’s Prayer, He actually teaches us how to pray. Now we are going to look at that in a bit of detail today, so if you’ve got a Bible, grab it. Open it up at Matthew chapter 6. It blows me away – it’s such an awesome place. Jesus teaching on how to pray.

There’s got to be some power in that and there is. There’s power in prayer and there are some amazing gems in there that I think if we want a powerful prayer life, we need to unpack the Lord’s Prayer just a little bit. And that’s what we are going to do today.

Most people kind of know the words that we call the Lord’s Prayer. You know:

Our Father, who art 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. Forgive us our sin as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Those words were actually spoken by Jesus and they are very well known. But what we sometimes miss are the words that He spoke just before that. The teaching that He gave to His disciples that sets the context of prayer. Have a listen to what Jesus actually said – you’ll pick it up in Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 5. This is what He said:

And when you pray don’t be like the hypocrites – those people love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners and to be seen by everyone. I tell you the truth; they’ve received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Dad who is unseen, because then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, don’t keep on babbling like the pagans. They think they’ll be heard because of their many words. No, don’t be like them because your Father knows what you need even before you ask Him.

There are two parts to that – let’s take a look at them. Let’s see exactly what Jesus said and He seems to be talking about, “don’t think about impressing other people; don’t be like the hypocrites – those people love to stand up in the synagogues and on the street corners and to be seen by everyone.”

You know something; prayer is not about impressing other people. And it’s not about impressing God. Look, “Don’t keep babbling like the pagans because they think they will be heard because of their many words. Don’t be like them.”

I have listened to people pray, particularly when I’d just become a Christian and I’d listen to them and go, “wow! You know, those people can pray like I could never pray. I’m sure God’s going to listen to them; He’s not going to listen to me because I don’t have those sorts of words.”

And Jesus is saying, no, that’s not what it’s about. It’s not about ‘me’. I’m not at the centre of prayer – it’s not about me impressing anyone; it’s not about me impressing God.

And you know what I think we sometimes do? We start off in prayer with this underlying thing, it’s about me. Yet the first thing that Jesus taught people about prayer is that it’s not about us – it’s not about you or me, we are not in the centre of the universe. And how does He teach us that? You don’t have to begin by impressing anyone. In fact, prayer is not about impressing anybody.

What a blessed release! I don’t have to learn a formula; I don’t have to look good, or sound good or anything else. The starting point for prayer is not about me, it’s not about you. You know where the power is in all of this? The very teaching of Jesus about prayer is to get the ’me’ out of the way – my ego, my self, what other people think of me, what God thinks of me. Jesus is saying, “Wake up. No”.

Can I tell you? I think that this is one of the most important lessons to learn about praying. There’s power in laying the ‘me’ down. There’s power in laying our ego aside – when we do that we usher something new and something fresh and something powerful and something exciting in.

When you pray don’t be like the hypocrites who love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners and to be seen by everyone. I tell you the truth; they have already received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what you are doing in secret will reward you. And secondly, when you pray, don’t keep babbling – don’t think it’s about lots of words. The pagans think that they will be heard because of their words. Don’t be like them because your Father already knows what you need before you ask Him. Don’t try and impress anybody, just come and pray.

Well, if the ‘me’ is no longer at the centre of this prayer thing, who or what is?

HALLOWED BY THY NAME

Well, let’s have a look at how Jesus taught His disciples to pray – to pray with power. The first thing Jesus teaches us, as we have just looked at, is firstly, do it in secret. Prayer is a personal, private, intimate thing – it’s not for show; it’s not to impress other people. You think about husband and wife communication – the deep things, the important things. How do they talk about those? In private!

The second thing is it’s not about a lot of words. We talked just before the break about the fact it’s not some formula – we don’t have to impress God somehow; it’s exactly the opposite. We just get to sit down with Him, and tell Him in our own words, the way we see it.

Now let’s look at how Jesus teaches us to pray. He begins:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

There are two words in the New Testament for ‘Father’ – “Abba” – Dad – which is a kind of a close, familiar, tender expression. But that’s not the one that’s used here.

The one that’s used here is “Pater” – from which we get ‘patriarch’ or ‘paternal’ – it’s the more formal approach. “My Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name” – what does it mean to ‘hallow’ – it means to make holy; to venerate; to honour; to bow down. So the beginning of prayer for Jesus is to worship God.

See, we said just before, “it’s not about me!” Well this is the very thing that Jesus is saying. “It’s about God first. It’s about worshiping Him.” It’s an amazing thing, when we worship God, when we reach into our heart and soul and spirit and gaze upon Him – our Father in heaven – and we honour Him and revere Him and worship Him.

I have to tell you, just that one thing in my prayer life, has transformed me from the tough, hardnosed businessman, with an ego the size of a small planet – always trying to feed that; always trying to impress people; constantly peddling harder and faster to be the ‘me’ I think other people want me to be.

In worship I loose sight of that. In worship I forget myself. I don’t have to do that anymore. I get the ‘me’ out of the road and just worship God and that’s an awesome thing. There’s a peace and a joy and a security and a sweet delight in that – don’t have to impress anyone anymore.

Worshipping God is the most selfless thing we can do. And when we can get the ’me’ out of the road – “Yipee!” – I have peace. I lay the ‘me’ down. I die to the ‘me’ and become alive to God, to the Father, with a joy unspeakable. I don’t know, I just can’t put it into words any more than that.

Prayer isn‘t first and foremost about me, it’s about You, Father. The needs, the shopping list – there’s a place for them. We’ll come to those later. But first God wants us to behold Him. to experience Him. And the way that we do that is by worshipping Him.

I used to start off with my shopping list but now I start off by focusing on Him. You know what happens? His power takes a hold of me and changes me and cleans away the rubbish and sets my heart at peace. Why did it take me so long to figure this out, I wonder?

And the very next thing that Jesus says when He’s teaching us how to pray – it’s kind of like … it’s like a physical outworking of that worship. Have a listen:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now that I’ve lost myself in You, Lord, come and reign in my heart; be my King. That is what ‘Your Kingdom come’ means – the reign; the rule; the Kingship of God in our hearts.

“God, I don’t just want to worship You now, I want to live out that worship. I want Your Kingdom to come. I want You to be my Lord. I want Your Kingdom to come, in me, in those around me, in every situation and circumstance and trial and temptation.

Every time I want to act up and criticise, and malign and argue or be dishonest. No, Lord, no, I want to hallow Your name. I want Your Kingdom to come. In fact, I want Your will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Not my will, not me, no – Your will – You.’”

So often we can skim over these words – ‘Your Kingdom come’ – because we know the Lord’s Prayer so well. And we think, “well, I hope the God’s Kingdom comes in that person’s life, because, I tell you, they need it. And that one over there. That one too for that matter. In fact, if God’s Kingdom comes in all their lives, my life would be so much better.” See what happens?

We put the ‘me’ at the centre of the universe again and the power of prayer that Jesus teaches is laying the ‘me’ down. In fact if God’s Kingdom comes in all those people’s lives, is my life going to be any better? No!

God’s Kingdom coming is seeing His will done in my life – it includes me. It includes when it’s not convenient. When it hurts. When I’d rather have my life on a padded sofa than on a hard cross. The power of the prayer that Jesus is teaching us here is it’s not about me – it’s about Him.

Can I tell you something? God’s Kingdom coming in my life and in your life is painful sometimes. It’s downright inconvenient. It involves me dying to myself and you dying to yourself and putting Him first. And if we want power in our prayer, that is where it comes from. Worshipping God and inviting His Kingship, His Lordship, His reign to be in our hearts, in our spirits and in our lives.

I NEED SOME BREAD

We are looking today on the programme at the “Power of Prayer” and all the stuff we’ve been looking at to this point is about putting God first. If we get that bit wrong – if we get it the wrong way round – we end up missing the whole point of prayer. Now that we have it the right way up, Jesus goes on to teach us that it’s ok to ask for our needs.

“Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”

I love this bit too! “Give us this day our daily bread”, says it’s ok to ask Him for the things we need. For strength, for wisdom, for home, for safety, for family, for work. “Lord, I really just want a special touch from You today”. He already knows our needs and we don’t have to heap up a whole bunch of words and impress Him.

Look how simple this is – “Lord give us this day our daily bread. Don’t be like the pagans – your Father knows what you need even before you ask Him.” It’s ok to ask God for all sorts of things but with Him first – His will, His Kingdom, His reign, His praise and His honour and His glory first, that’s where the power is.

It always sticks with me how Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before He was betrayed and crucified. He said, “Father, if this cup of suffering could pass from Me, then take it away, but not My will, let Your will be done.” And then He went on to allow Himself to be crucified.

The single most powerful act in all history, happened when Jesus laid His life down for you and me – when He put the will of His Father before His own will.

I’ve often wondered about this ‘give us today our daily bread’. I’ve wondered how that prayer feels to someone – one of the billions – who is starving on this planet? Just to be able to go to God simply and say, “Lord, give us today our daily bread” – to be able to make that request and at the same time to lay our lives down for God. There’s such power in sacrifice.

When we get the ‘me’ out of the equation, and put God there instead, in our hearts, then there’s power in that. That’s the place when we come and put our needs before Him. We have the power to ask for the things we need – the power to ask for help or guidance or just a special touch from Him today because that’s what we need.

“Lord, I honour You and I praise You and I want to be in the centre of Your will, no matter what the cost. And Lord, I need Your help putting food on the table for my family tonight. I need Your help paying the rent. I need Your help to do a miracle in my marriage. I need Your help at work, Lord. I’m struggling with this – I’m struggling with this temptation.”

That’s powerful prayer.

“And Lord, no matter what comes I’m going to honour You and put You first.”

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’, and in that context, we can come to Him and say,

“Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.”

Forgiveness – to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us – a shear acknowledgement that we do make mistakes.

My pride says I don’t need forgiveness, but humility recognises I do. And notice something – the high premium that God puts on forgiveness. It’s a big deal, that’s why Jesus went to the cross and He wants to set us free not only from our sin, by being able to go to Him and ask Him for forgiveness but look at the second part of this. ‘Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors’ – in other words He wants to set us free from the sins of others against us.

If I’m carrying anger and retribution around in my heart toward those people, I may go to God for forgiveness but God’s saying, “I’m not going to forgive you because first you’ve got to forgive them. Get free from your un-forgiveness and then come to Me and ask for forgiveness.”

And finally, He says, “Lead us not into temptation.”

“Lord, I want to live my life for You. I want You to protect me from falling over all the time and I’m not going to do this in my strength because I can’t.”

The devil has been around the block just a few times more than you and I have. He knows all the tricks and techniques. He knows how to push our buttons. He knows how to drag us away from God.

And here is this humble prayer, saying:

“Lord, I can’t do it on my own. I need Your help. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but Lord, deliver us from the evil one.”

When we unpack how Jesus taught us to pray, it’s exciting; it’s dynamic; it’s powerful. In every verse we see how He calls us to lay the ‘me’ down and to call Him Lord. You know, even when we go to Him and ask Him for our daily bread, ‘Give us today our daily bread’, is an acknowledgement that our daily bread comes from Him.

‘Forgive us our debts’ is an acknowledgement that we need forgiveness. ‘Lead us not into temptation’, is an acknowledgement that I need His help to live my life for Him – that I can’t do it in my own self.

Every verse of the Lord’s Prayer puts God first. That is powerful. The Kingship and the Lordship and the praise and the glory of God are where the power is in prayer. And God changes us through that.

When you and I, with all our heart, invite Him to let His Kingdom come, to let His will be done – when you and I with all our heart, lift our hands and say, “Lord, I praise You, hallowed be Your name”, the Spirit of God does something in us that you can’t put into words. The Spirit of God does something in us that nobody else can do.

The skilful Surgeon’s hand comes and takes the sin away. The Healer’s hand heals our lives. The Lord’s Prayer is not something for us to just rattle off because we have memorised the words. The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus teaching us how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus saying to you and me, “There’s power in putting God first.”

Jesus said this – you can read it in John chapter 15, verse 7:

“If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be given to you.”

You see, if we do it Jesus’ way – if we hang close to Him; if we honour Him; if we put God first, then we can ask for whatever we wish because He’s had the chance to change our hearts. And He says,

“This is to My Father’s glory that you bear much fruit and show yourselves to be My disciples.”

The Lord’s Prayer is about putting first things first. The Father’s glory and in that context we get to ask for whatever we wish. We will look at that more in next weeks programme. There is power in praying the way Jesus taught us to pray. There is power in laying down the ‘me’ and putting God first. There is power in calling Jesus ‘Lord’.