How to Pray (Part 1)

Luke 11:1 – Just watching Jesus pray prompted his disciples to ask for all his knowledge of prayer.

Jesus,
I crave and wish and plead to have seen You pray to your Dad;
I know you cried,
You groaned,
You yelled and stayed quiet.
(I bet it looked more like an intimate dance).
Yet I have no desire,
Just my “ought to” and “should” ‘s.
I would give everything to see you pray –
The beauty and poetry of the scene.
You even left those dying of needs
Just to pray.
When I come to the throne of grace, though,
It’s rarely a privilege,
More like – God help me! – a chore.
Jesus,
You know the secrets of the world
(You created the world),
And You’ve said You will keep some mysteries hidden from men;
But please,
PLEASE
Tell me what you knew about prayer –
Why yours were like intense songs, and
Why mine are so precious to You.
Teach me,
Teach us,
How to pray!

Matt. 6:9-13 (see also Luke 11:2-4) shows that Jesus taught on prayer.  If Jesus taught how to pray, and we neglect to hear his teachings on prayer and put them into practice, our prayer life will suffer.

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matt. 7:25)

The Lord’s Prayer:

Matt. 6:9 – 13: “In this manner, therefore, pray: OUR Father…Give US…OUR daily bread…forgive US OUR debts,/ As WE forgive OUR debtors…do not lead US into temptation…deliver US… ”  

  • Jesus begins the model prayer with the word “Our”, in fact, we see “our” 4 times in this prayer, “us” 4 times, and 1 “we”.  This becomes all the more interesting when we realize that Jesus taught and practiced private prayer even more than public prayer.  In fact, He had just mentioned praying secretly and privately (Matt. 6:6).  We know Jesus esteemed both private prayers and public prayers as essential, but it is significant that his teaching on prayer is filled with “Our’s”, and not “My’s”.  Praying for yourself is a start (even a scriptural start many times), but if we only pray: “My Father…give me…forgive me…”, and it never becomes: “Our Father…give us…forgive us”, our praying remains selfish, and of little use to the Body and the Kingdom.  
  • Habakkuk’s first prayer was for himself (Hab. 1:2-3), but it was not long before he prayed on behalf of others (Hab. 1:12-14).  
  • Jesus’ prayer in John 17 also reveals this pattern: John 17:1, 4-6 reveals Jesus praying for Himself (not selfishly, but rather, because He knew His actions were directly related to God’s will and glory, along with the Body’s future glory), but then the rest of John 17 is prayer almost exclusively for other believers.  It is not sin to pray for God’s dealing with yourself – it is even advocated in Scriptures – but it becomes sin if your prayer stops after praying for yourself.  It is also interesting that this famous prayer of Jesus concerns the unity of the body, seeing the body ONE.  It is clear that Jesus practiced what He preached when He taught: “Our Father…give us…”.
  • Also Daniel was said to be a righteous man (Dan. 6:4, among other passages).  Yet, he did not only pray “God help me” or “God forgive me”, but also: “we have sinned…we have done wickedly and rebelled…” (Dan. 9:5).  He did not see a difference between himself and all of the Israelites: “we have sinned”.  Daniel confessed his own sins, and also the sins of his people, even though he was praying alone (Daniel 9:20), and his prayers were blessed (when was the last time there was an angelic visitation during your prayer time?).  Surely, even in our private prayers, Jesus is expecting us to pray “OUR Father…Give US…forgive US…”, etc.  Remember: “There is one body” (Eph. 4:4).

Matthew 6:9: “Our Father in heaven,”

  • Why are we to say “Father in heaven”?  Doesn’t God know who He is and where He dwells?  Yet, at the beginning of the prayer, before any requests are asked of God, we are instructed to tell God ‘about Himself’, so to speak.  This is a point that cannot be missed.  All throughout scriptures, in the prayers of His saints, there is an abundant amount of time spent on just telling God who He is.  In fact, it would seem as if roughly half of each prayer recorded in the Bible is spent in simply telling God about Himself.  
  • David prays: “Therefore You are great, O Lord God.  For there is none like you, nor is there any God besides You,” (2 Sam. 7:22) 

Solomon prays: “Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You,” (1 Kings 8:22-23)

Daniel prays: “great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him” (Daniel 9:4)

Jesus prays: “O righteous Father!” (John 17:25)

Early believers pray: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them,” (Acts 4:24)

Angels and heavenly beings cry: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord” (Isaiah 6:3, among other places)

And the list goes on, and on, and on.

In fact, I would challenge the reader to find one prayer in the Bible that does not have some mention of who God is.

  • Let’s look at Habakkuk’s third prayer.  As we’ve already seen, his first prayer was taken up with God’s dealings in his life, and his second prayer progressed to God’s dealings with the people around him.  But his third prayer is taken up almost exclusively with telling God who He is.  Read Hab. 3:3-6, 9-15, 19…this prayer is almost wholly taken up with telling God about Himself.
  • No one is foolish enough to think that God doesn’t already know these things.  We are created to worship God, and we must literally speak our praises to God.  What I am struck by most is the lack of time spent in our prayers – public and private – just telling God about Himself.  Is it our pressing schedule?  (God created time).  Is it the weight of things that we need to ask prayer for?  (Daniel was praying to end slavery among the Jews.  Jesus was praying for all believers everywhere to be in complete unity.)  These are weak excuses.  I don’t care what excuse you have for not taking the time to tell God about Himself, you need to repent if this is not a primary part of your prayers (I know I do)!

Matthew 6:9: “Hallowed be Your name [or Make Your name hallowed]”

  • The prayer is still centering around God’s glory and God’s name.  “Hallowed be Your name” is the theme of all prayers, in fact, it is the theme of the entire Bible!  If we were soberly honest with ourselves, I think we could all admit that many of our prayer “lists” and “requests” do not center around God’s name being hallowed/esteemed.  Yet we wonder why our prayers never produce the results seen in the Bible.
  • Look at Moses’ prayer to God when God told him He was going to kill off all the Israelites except for Moses (because of their great wickedness): [Moses prays] “Now if you kill these people as one man, then the nations which have heard of Your fame will speak, saying, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring this people to the land which He swore to give them, therefore He killed them in the wilderness.’  And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great…” (Numbers 14:15-17).  Moses never prays, “save them because they are my friends and I love them,” or, “please save them for me because I have been faithful to you”, or any other prayers that many of us would have prayed (even though the prayers may be true and honest and sincere).  Instead, He appeals to the Lord’s Glory, and His great Name.  And what was God’s answer: “I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord…” (Numbers 14:20-21).  An entire nation of people were spared because one man prayed for the Lord’s name to be hallowed, and appealed to the fact that God’s name would not be hallowed if Israel is destroyed.  In fact, the reason Israel was so close to being destroyed was because they never focused on the Lord getting the glory, but wanted to give it to idols or themselves!  What a lesson for us.
  • Centuries later, God refused to spare Israel, sending them to be slaves to the Babylonians.  During this time, only a few Israelites still bowed to God.  One of these faithful believers was Daniel, whom God considered “greatly loved” because of his prayers on behalf of the Israelites (Dan. 9:23).  Yet, studying Daniel’s prayers for Israel’s freedom, we are struck at the similarity with Moses’ successful prayers nearly a thousand years earlier.  Daniel prays: “O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies.  O Lord, hear!  O Lord, forgive!  O Lord, listen and act!  Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” (Dan. 9:18-19).  What reason does Daniel give for God to rescue the Jews: “Your city and Your people are called by Your name.”  He prayed as Jesus teaches us to pray: “Hallowed be Your name.”  In the stories of both Moses and Daniel, one man’s prayers saved an entire nation of people…All because they prayed for God’s glory and not their own selfish gains.

“True prayer begins at the heart of God, is made known to the hearts of men, is prayed back to God again, and God answers.”

Matthew 6:10: “Your kingdom come.”

  • We must pray for God’s kingdom to come.  If we don’t pray, it will never happen, otherwise we wouldn’t be given this command.  All of God’s kingdom work is always done in response to His people’s cry. “The Lord’s prayer is not just a model prayer for me; it is a revelation of God’s heart.  ‘True prayer begins at the heart of God, is made known to the hearts of men, is prayed back to God again, and God answers.’” (Nee).  This is the principle of God’s working in the entire universe.
  • Matthew 11:12: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”  Jesus shows we must be on the offensive when it concerns his kingdom.  To pray, “Thy kingdom come,” is not a passive statement, it is a statement behind which God desires forceful people to pray it forcefully into happening.  

Matthew 6:10: “Your will be done/ On earth as it is in heaven.”

*  Notice: we pray “Your will be done”, not “according to your will be done”.  When we pray “according to God’s will”, what we are really praying is for our own desires to happen (hoping these desires accord to God’s will).  Instead, we must pray “Your will be done”.  God has a will (as seen in Scriptures), we are to pray it.  The only reason we should need for praying it is because God wills it to happen.

  • We are to pray for God’s will to be done on earth, for this is the only place where today God’s will is not done.  How can we bring God’s Kingdom down here?  PRAYER.
    • “Prayer is always three-sided.  It involves someone prayed to, someone prayed for, and someone prayed against.” (Nee).  On earth, Satan has a rebellious will that holds back God’s will – in fact, D.A. Carson notes that all of Paul’s epistles, with the possible exception of Philemon, speak on Satan (and his rebellious will).  God awaits our prayers to conquer Satan’s rebellious will; He will not act alone.  That’s why we are to pray: “Your will be done.”
  • God subjects Himself to limitations (willingly).

Mark 1:45: “Jesus could no longer openly enter the city”

Luke 9:52-53, 56: “they entered a village of the Samaritans…but they did not receive Him…And they went to another village.”

Mark 6:5: “Now He [Jesus] could do no mighty work there”

Matthew 23:37: “I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”

John 5:40: “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

“The same thing continues on into the later New Testament history, as well as being found, of course, everywhere in the Old.” (Nee). 

It is not that God is unable or powerless to act on earth (for He is El Shaddai, “God Almighty”), but rather He chooses to limit Himself.  He commands us to pray “Your will be done”, instead of “thank you that you are doing your will without our petitions”.  It is true that in heaven God’s will is done completely, but that is why we are to pray that it happens “on earth, as it is [already] in heaven”.

  • 2 Kings 3:16-18; 2 Kings 4:6 give us a metaphor for the working of praying God’s will.  God has infinite resources (like the rain or oil), but the only way we can accumulate it is by providing an outlet (like the ditches and cups)…this outlet must be prayer.
  • Isaiah 59:1 – it is not God’s lack of power or resources, but our lack of prayer that holds back His will from happening (against the rebellious will of the Devil)  
  • “The will of God is the starting-point; we voice it; God does it.  And if we do not voice it, it will not be done.  Our prayers thus lay the track down which God’s power can come.  Like some mighty locomotive, His power is irresistible; but it cannot reach us without rails.  When men cease to pray, God ceases to work, for without their prayer He will do nothing.” (Nee).
  • Matthew 18:18-20 – think of this principle in our praying.  On earth, God’s power is as great as the church’s prayers; no greater.  It’s not that the church can increase God’s power, but she can limit it – by not praying.  Heaven is accumulating many things because we are not praying on earth for them (God has no outlet).  There is always more power in heaven than the measure of our asking.
    • To pray “Thy will be done in me” is a good beginning, but we must go on to “Thy will be done on earth”.  God’s children pray for far too small of things, in light of heaven’s abundant resources.
    • “This ministry of being God’s outlet is our greatest possible work.  God shows what He wants, we stand and ask, and God acts from heaven: this is true prayer” (Nee).  
    • Matt. 7:21 – with the Kingdom in view, all of our being must be set for the will of God.  

*  “God must have a few throughout the nations who hold on in prayer, and who, by driving a wedge into the power of the enemy, bring in the next age.” (Nee)