Prayer (Part 2): Prayer According to God's Will (Mt 6:5-13; 1Jn 5:14-15)
Jesus not only lived a life of prayer, He also taught His disciples how to pray. While many people know - and perhaps weekly repeat - the Lord's Prayer, we shall take a closer look that the preceding words of Jesus, for they give us the basis for the prayer.
The first thing Jesus establishes when it comes to prayer is that our attitude must be totally devoid of hypocrisy and our motive must be pure. We should not make a show, bragging about in our prayer, nor shall we pray in order to impress others (see Mt 6:5). Rather, we shall pray alone before God (v 6). God always sees the secrets of our hearts, so He knows our motives. Praying in secret is praying for God alone. We can't make a big show if we're all alone, unless we seek to fool ourselves in making a big show for ourselves in prayer! It is a relationship of intimate communion and something very personal. Jesus does, of course, not speak against public prayer, only against public prayer with hypocritical motives, that is, such as seeking to impress others rather than having intimacy with God.
The next issue is that prayer is not a matter of babbling many words, or have some kind of magic formula which guarantees answers (see v 7). Rather, and these words are the very basis of all prayer, 'your Father [i.e., God] knows what you need before you ask Him' (v 8). These words immediately precede the 'Lord's Prayer' and form the very foundation for it - God knows what we need, hence, we don't need to approach Him as if He didn't know or didn't care. So, whenever we come before God, we approach Him on this basis: He knows what we need before we pray! There is such relief in knowing that God knows and that God cares. No need to worry then, He's in control of our lives and circumstances!
The words that follow are some of the most well-known words from the Bible, but let's look at them again (we shall never presume that we know all things about a biblical texts just because we know its words!):
V 9: 'Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your Name'
Many Hebrew prayers open with these words; synagogue prayers read, 'Magnified and sanctified be his great name throughout the world...' (David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1992, pg 32). Hence, we see the Jewishness of Jesus' model prayer. The first priority is God as Father and that His name be exalted, glorified, and magnified. While many church prayers only centre around selfish desires and our needs, Jesus teaches us to prayer with God as our centre of prayer. In a society where the word 'father' means little to many abandoned kids, or, even worse, recalls a negative image, it is often hard for people to correctly grasp the right pricture Jesus is communicating. In His understanding, God is a loving, caring Father who is there for His children (unlike many fathers today). hence, the Father-image is often the exact opposite of what children experience a father to be. If you had a bad dad, think of God as exactly the opposite!
V 10: 'Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven'
These words reinforce the above statement: it is not primarily about us, but about God. For the true disciple God's kingdom and will come first, knowing that as we seek first God's kingdom, all things we need will be provided for by God (Mt 6:33); hence, nothing to worry when our priorities are right! Whenever God's will is done, His Kingdom (His rule as King) comes upon us. In heaven, God rules sovereignly, yet on earth human free will often causes havoc and misery. God, on the other hand, seeks to bless us, care for us, and help us make right decisions, that is, decisions according to His will. As Creator he knows what is best for us, just as the maker of a car or tool knows best how we are to use it. If we use some item in a wrong way, it will be damaged (e.g., if you want to crush stones in a kitchen mixer... you can imagine the result, right?) God is full of love and compassion, as well as powerful to provide good things for us. He is a perfect and as a gentle Father He seeks to instruct us in our daily lives in order for us to have a good life, a life of meaning, purpose, and fulfilment!
V 11: 'Give us this day our daily bread'
God cares for us on a daily basis. In our Western society such a prayer line seems superfluous, yet in many parts of the world, this is ever so relevant. With the present credit cruntch, many low-income families feel the effects strongly, yet this prayer line will assure us that God will take care of us no matter what the financial markets say.
V 12: 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors'
This is a very powerful statement, one which many seek to twist and avoid. As all previous lines, we must take these words literal, too. God forgives us our sins, but we must forgive others in the same way. Modern research could establish that unforgivenss is often a cause for cancer or other sicknesses. Forgivess releases not only our debtor, but also our own soul from any feeling of resentment or bitterness. We just forgive and forget, and with it let any injustice go - this will be of tremendous blessing for ourselves, for bitterness and even hatred against others will be avoided. It is cometimes very tough, for something inside of us wants justice! Well, so does God, but He wants us to trust Him, for He is not primarily into judging and punishing people, but rather to bless them and change them. Martin Luther King is a prime example that this kind of approach works in real life and that it has tremendous effect on others. If people realise what they are forgiven of, it usually has a good effect on them. Some will, of course, use your goodness, yet this is not our concern - we need to forgive and make sure we're right with God. He will take care of the situation. If you doubt this, try it first and see for yourself!
V 13: 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us rom the evil one'
We shall pray that God will keep us from temptation. james instructs us that it is our selfish and fleshly desires that lead us into temptation, never God (Jms 1:13-16). God is for us and seeks to prevent damage that we inflict on ourselves through chosing to sin. Sin always has negative and destructive consequences, and it is thus thatr God seeks to protect us from its destructive forces and terrible consequences.
Hence, we have seen what prayer is according to Jesus, that is, prayer according to God's will. Jesus' closest disciple, John, has very plain and clear words when it comes to prayer according to God's will. Let's take a look at them:
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. nd if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him (1Jn 5:14-15)These words are plain and simple to understand: prayer must be according to God's will, and if they are, God will hear and answer. Simple! Jesus, in John's Gospel (note the source of the above words), made it clear that if (condition) His words abide in us, our prayer will be effective, since it will be according to His will, as His words reveal God's will. The 'binding and loosing' and the prayer of agreement Jesus spoke about in Matthew 18:18-19, is really about people making decisions based on God's word. In the synangogue practice of the time, the leaders sought God's will in His Word in order to make a decision on a certain matter the Bible didn't directly state (a modern example would be smoking: the Bible doesn't forbid smoking, yet, of course, smoking was invented much later; we know from other passages of Scripture that we should not allow ourselves to be addicted to anything, hence smoking isn't right, let alone bad for our health!) So, if people on earth, find agreement according to God's will and pray accordingly, the answer is certain!
May God helps us to understand His will in His word, and may we learn more and more to pray according to His will - and if we do so, He will hear us and answer our prayer positively!
Shalom,
Gordon
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