| WHAT GOD WANTS WHEN WE PRAY
Matthew 6:9-13 What does God really want when we pray? Have you ever thought about that? When we look at some of the great Christians in history we discover that many of them got up at four or four-thirty in the morning so they could pray for two or three or four hours every day. Is that what God wants from us when we pray? Others speak of times when they pray all night. Is that what God expects from us when we pray? David Brainard was a missionary to Native Americans in the 1600’s. In his journal he tells of how he would fall on his knees in the snow, pray for hours and then rise to his feet dripping wet. But it wasn’t melting snow that made him wet, it was the sweat that poured from his body as he fervently wrestled in prayer. Is that what God wants from us when we pray? I am certain that working hard at prayer and rising early for prayer would both benefit us and please God greatly. Obviously, without time and effort prayer doesn’t happen. But time and effort alone isn’t what God wants when we pray. That’s why it’s important for us to hear what Jesus teaches us about prayer. That’s why it’s important for us to study the model prayer Jesus offers us in Matthew 6:9-13. Turn with me this morning to Matthew 6:9-13. Having learned the “do nots” of prayer last week, let’s hear the words of Jesus concerning the things we ought to be doing when we pray to God. In Matthew 6, beginning with verse 9, Jesus says, This, then, is how you should 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 today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. When Jesus teaches us about prayer, He doesn’t just tell us how to pray, He shows us. And the first thing we can’t help but notice about Jesus’ model prayer is how direct and simple it is. No formulas. No fancy sentences. Just plain words that get straight to the point. But exactly what is the point of Jesus’ prayer? What is His focus? What is the essence of the plain words Jesus uses? If we can answer that question we will know exactly what God wants from us when we pray. So, exactly what does God want from us when we pray? Let’s hear again what Jesus prays in verse 9. This then is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name…” In these words we clearly understand that what God wants from us when we pray is for us to remember who He is. When we as believers go to God in prayer we must first remember that God is our Father. “Our Father in heaven…” Because Jesus Christ paid the penalty for all our sin, the moment we put our trust in Him as Lord and Savior we become God’s child and God becomes our Father in a very personal and intimate way. And it is only because of that relationship we can pray to God and know that He will hear us every time. I wonder, how much do you and I really value the privilege God gives us when He permits us to call Him Father. More than that, how much joy do we take in the fact that He really is our Father. Do we fully appreciate the greatness of the gift God gives us when He gives us Himself? A couple of years ago, Q-Lube had a contest. Do you remember what the prize was? The prize was a fishing trip to Alaska with Karl Malone. I remember filling out my entry form and dropping it in the box while my oil was being changed. Now I obviously didn’t win my fishing trip with Karl Malone. But you know what, if I had you’d still be hearing about it. I’d probably never stop talking about what a good time me and my “bud” Karl had together. It would be the same for some of us if we got to take one of those cruises with Chuck Swindoll or go to Israel on a trip led by James Dobson. There are just certain people in this world we would love to be in with. So do we really appreciate the “in” we have with God? Are we as excited about being God’s child as we might be if we became intimate friends with Bill Gates or Michael Jordan or the president of the United States? Do we rejoice in the chance to call the Creator of the universe Father? When we pray we must know who God is. And if you know Christ, God is Father. The One who knows every star by name knows your name too. He is intimately involved in your life. He loves us more than we can know. He always waits for us with open arms. So, if God is our Father, does that mean we can be flippant with Him? Should we refer to God as “our best bud”? Should we expect God to wink at our sin because we have this special relationship with Him? Look again at verse 9 in this model prayer Jesus prays for us. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name… “Hallowed be your name.” What’s that mean? The word “hallow” means to treat something as sacred and holy. So when Jesus prays, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,” He is teaching us that God is holy and He must be treated as holy. But in order to do that we have to remember what the word “holy” means. The basic idea behind the word “holy” is the idea of separation or being set apart. When we speak of God being holy we are saying the He is set apart from His creation. God is different from us. We are creatures. God is Creator. We are finite. God is infinite. We are sinful. God is perfect and righteous and just. God’s ways are not our ways. God is over us. He is above us. He is holy and so His name must be hallowed and treated as holy. Yes, God is our Father, but He’s not “pa”, or “pops”, or “the man up stairs” or any other flippant title we might choose to give Him. Sometimes there can be a fine line between intimacy with God and flippancy towards Him. Jesus reminds us that we must be careful not to cross that line. When you pray come freely because God is your Father. And, when you pray, come reverently because He is holy and His name ought to be hallowed in our lives and in our words. What does God want from us when we pray? God wants us to know who He is. But in teaching us how to pray, Jesus doesn’t stop there. In this model prayer He makes it clear that not only must we know who God is, we must know what prayer is. In verses 9-10 Jesus prays, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What do we learn about the nature prayer when Jesus tells us to pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done…”? According to Jesus’ model, what’s prayer all about? Is prayer about informing God of what we need? Verse 8 gives a clear “no” to that question. Well then, is prayer about me trying to get God to give me what I want? Is prayer about getting God to take away all my hurts, all my pain, all my suffering? Is prayer about me getting more money, more comfort, and more pleasure out of this life? Is prayer about me and my wants? Here in verse 10 Jesus clearly says that’s not what it’s supposed to be. The purpose of prayer is not to make God do our will. The purpose of prayer is enable us to do His will. In prayer we meet God and come to know Him better. In prayer the things that are important to God become important to us. In prayer God speaks to us. In prayer God changes us. In prayer we begin to see the world like God sees it--we begin want what He wants. Do you know what that means? It means that when God invites us to pray He’s inviting us to become participants and partners in the working out of His will in the world. When we pray with a heart that says, “Thy Kingdom come…” lives change. When we pray with the attitude, “Thy will be done…” we become broken and useful to God. Oh, there’s one other thing. We really can’t pray “Thy Kingdom come…” if God’s Kingdom hasn’t first come into our hearts. And we really can’t pray, “Thy will be done”, if we ourselves will not submit to Him by obeying His Word. Getting out of bed at 4:00 every morning. Is that what God wants when we pray? Spending two hours every day on our knees. Is that what God wants when we pray? In the model prayer Jesus prays for us we discover that what God wants is more basic than even time and effort. When we pray God wants us to know who He is. When we pray God wants us to know what prayer is. But there’s still more. In verses 11-13 we discover that, when we pray, God wants us to know what we really need to pray for. Now I just said that prayer isn’t about what we want. Even so, Jesus does show us that prayer is about what we need. Listen again to how Jesus prays in verses 11-13. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. With these words, Jesus makes it clear that it’s not wrong to ask God to meet your needs. In fact, it’s wrong not to. When we pray for God to meet our needs we are expressing an attitude of dependence on Him. That attitude of dependence honors God. It glorifies Him. In fact, the moment we stop depending on God is the moment we start rebelling against Him. Don’t ever apologize for asking God to meet your needs. But what exactly are the needs Jesus tells us we have? We find our first area of need in verse 11, “Give us today our daily bread.” Jesus says we must depend on God for our physical needs. If the truth be told there are few of us here today who really depend on God to meet our need for food and clothing and shelter. We don’t have to depend on Him. Or at least it’s easy for us to think we don’t need to. In America we have such an abundance I doubt any of us seriously worry about what we’re going eat this afternoon or tomorrow. Somewhere we need to get back to the understanding that everything we have really does come from God. But there’s something else we need to learn from the way Jesus tells us to make our request. With all that we have materially in America, have you ever noticed how we usually want more? Jesus shows us that that’s not the attitude we ought to have when we pray and ask God to meet our needs. Jesus says we should pray, Give us today our daily bread. Do you see the heart attitude there? “Father, if you’ll just give me enough food for today I’m satisfied. If you’ll just give me the water and the shelter I need today I won’t ask for anything more. There’s no coveting in that prayer. There’s no seeking satisfaction in things instead of in God. There’s only simple trust. I seems to me that Jesus is telling us that when we pray we ought to be able to come to God and say, “Father, since I’ve got Jesus, if you’ll just give me the food I need today, I don’t need anything else.” Could you honestly pray that prayer today? I’m not sure I could. There are just too many other things I want. Too many other things that clutter my relationship with God. There are too many times I think I need things I really only want. But Jesus shows us that not only should we ask God to meet our physical needs, we must rely on Him to meet our spiritual needs as well. In fact, in this prayer Jesus makes it clear that our spiritual needs should be of greater concern to us than our physical needs. Jesus uses only one short sentence to teach us how to pray for our physical needs. He literally devotes half the prayer to showing us how to pray for our spiritual needs. And the most important spiritual need we have is the need for forgiveness. In verse 12 Jesus prays, Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Every one of us here today are sinners. Our sin separates us from God. Without forgiveness our sin condemns us to hell. That’s why our only hope for a relationship with God is to plead for His mercy. That’s why our only hope is to pray with all our heart, “Forgive us our debts…” Now here’s the good news. That’s one prayer God’s already answered for us. Two thousand years ago God became a man in Jesus Christ. He lived the perfect life none of us can live. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. On the third day He rose from the grave and He lives today offering you forgiveness and new life if you will repent and put your trust in Him. The answer to God’s prayer “Forgive us our debts,” is found in Christ. Will you trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross? Will you yield your life to Him and let Him change you from the inside out? But understand that coming to Christ means more than receiving forgiveness. It also means offering forgiveness to those who have hurt you. When God forgives us in Christ, He calls us to forgive others and then He helps us to do it. But forgiveness isn’t our only spiritual need. God’s desires to do more for us than simply forgive our sin. God wants to empower us to overcome our sin. That’s what Jesus shows us in verse 13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. We cannot be naďve as Christians. We have enemies that are constantly working to enslave us to sin and destroy our life with God. The first enemy we face is ourselves—that is our old selves. Even though we are in Christ we have a sin nature. And by that sin nature and through that sin nature we are tempted over and over again. We are tempted to live for the moment. We are tempted to deny God. We are tempted to disobey the clear commands of His Word. And that is why Jesus says we must pray, “…lead us not into temptation.” But there’s more. We have a second enemy. He is real. He is powerful. And, if you love Christ, He hates you with everything he is. He is Satan. He is the devil. And because he seeks to destroy you Jesus says we must pray not only, “…lead us not into temptation…” but also “deliver us from the evil one. If you don’t pray that prayer as a Christian you’re either uninformed or crazy or you are sinfully over-confident in your personal struggle against sin. What does God want from you in prayer? What does He want from me? Does He want the first hours of your morning? Does He want callused knees? Give Him those things and you’ll be blessed. But the first thing God wants from us in prayer is much more basic. When we pray God wants us to know who He is. He is our father. And He is holy. God wants us to know what prayer is. Prayer is His invitation for us to join with Him in seeing His will done on earth as it is in heaven. And, finally, God wants us to remember what we really need in this life. And then He wants us to pray accordingly. Go To Main Page |