Prayer basics

My son made it down last night for a few days vacation. We are going do a little fishing and hunting. Im sure well stuff on turkey, shrimp salad and such later when the rest of the family arrives to celebrate Christmas together. We have much for which to be thankful and Im in a great mood, ready to celebrate. We had a good year with our business. We had some health scares last year, but these turned out all right. Our familys love for each other has only strengthened. I made good gains on almost every goal last year. God has blessed us enormously. He has protected us from harms way and increased our possessions. All in all, life is good!



I was praying this morning and thanking God for what all He has done for me and my family. I was thinking about the Lords Prayer during this process. As you will remember this prayer was given by Jesus Himself when instructing followers how to pray. The Lords Prayer starts out by praising Gods hallowed name and then asking that His kingdom come soon and that Gods will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It goes from there into asking Him to give us food, forgive our sins, and dont let us yield to temptation. He closes again by praising the Father. I wondered about the structure and order in which Jesus gave us this prayer. Nothing is insignificant in the Bible, so I assume the prayer is put in this order for a purpose. I also think it would be important to include everything Jesus thinks is important in my prayers, remembering that the Bible also instructs that our prayers are to be from the heart, not to be recited mindlessly in vain repetitions, or chanted and that we should pray without ceasing.



It is important to me to note that Jesus begins His prayer with praise for the Father. How often do we just jump in to the heart of the matter and ask God for His help in whatever is vexing us without telling Him how much we appreciate Him and what he has done? Then note that Jesus tells us to ask that Gods will be done, not ours. There used to be a television show called, Father Knows Best. This describes this notion. Gods will for our lives is the best thing for us, albeit it, it is difficult or often impossible to understand some things such as tragic events. We should acknowledge this in our prayers. We may then ask for the things we need including forgiveness and help resisting the wiles of satan, etc. We should close our prayers with tremendous praise for our awesome God.





As we claw our way through life, let us praise Gods name and thank Him for what He has done and continues to do. Sure we can ask Him for things and help, but we should remember our manners and who exactly it is we are talking to. God loves us more than anyone including our closest family member and/or friend, but He is also a heavenly King and creator of the entire universe and should be treated with respect. Children should respect their father even though love abounds from both sides. We are not the focus, although sometimes it is hard not to focus on ourselves. God is the focus. Everything was created for Him including you and me. We should keep that in mind this Christmas as we celebrate the birth of His Son, His short life and the tremendous price that He paid for us on Calvary.



Matt.6:9

In this manner, therefore

pray:

Our Father 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 debts,

As we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into

temptation,

But deliver us from the evil

one.

For Yours is the kingdom and

the power and the glory

forever. Amen.

How well do you know the Bible?

When Jesus gave the Lords prayer, He also stated something about where we should pray. Where?

Matt. 6:6





———————————-