Saturday, October 31, 2020

God's Purpose for Prayer (Matt. 6:9-15)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2020 9:06 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-1 “God’s Purpose for Prayer”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 6:9-15

 

            Message of the verses:  9 "Pray, then, in this way: ’Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 ’Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 ’Give us this day our daily bread. 12 ’And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ’And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.’ 14 “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 “But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”

 

            I think that perhaps I will put all of these verses on each SD until we are done studying this prayer because I don’t think that we will really be looking at it a verse at a time, but we will see.

 

            If I would ask the question “what is the Lord’s purpose for prayer?”  The answer has to be the same thing that is in the first section of Westminster shorter Catechism which is to glorify God in all we do, and so in prayer we are to glorify God.  This document was written in 1643 in England and the shorter version was written a few years later.

 

            MacArthur add “Although nothing benefits a believer more than prayer, the purpose in praying must first of all be for the sake of God, not self.  Prayer is, above al, an opportunity for God to manifest His goodness and glory.  An old saint said, ‘True prayer brings the mind to the immediate contemplation of God’s character and holds it there until the believer’s soul is properly impressed.’  Jesus affirmed the purpose of prayer when He said, ‘And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified’ (John 14:13).”  So we come back to John 14:13 again as we begin our study of “The Disciples’ Prayer.”

 

            It is probably true that in our evangelical church today that we do not desire to bring glory to God when we pray, but we seek man’s needs.  Some in what could be called the Charismatic movement and others as well say that we can demand things from God and He is obligated to answer those demands.  This is a false hope at best, and perhaps even blasphemy at worst.  God is not here for us, but we are here to bring glory to God, and as we do this in prayer we will certainly desire to have our wills lined up with God’s will.  In Daniel’s prayer from chapter nine Daniel was praying for something found in Jeremiah 25:11 where the Lord promised Israel that they would be in captivity for 70 years, and the 70 years were almost up and so Daniel prayed that the Lord would fulfill that promise that He gave through Jeremiah, thus bring glory to the Lord.

 

            MacArthur writes “Because prayer is so absolutely important and because we often do not have the wisdom to pray as we ought or for what we ought, God has commissioned His own Holy Spirit to help us.  ‘We do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words’ (Rom. 8:26).  That is surely what Paul means when he urges believers to ‘pray at all times in the Spirit’ (Eph. 6:18).

 

            “In the few words of Matthew 6:9-15 our Lord gives a succinct but marvelously comprehensive outline of what true prayer should be.  As we will discuss later, the second part of verse 13, a doxology, was possibly not a part of the original text.  The prayer proper has two sections; the first section deals with God’s glory (9-10) and the second with man’s need (vv. 11-13a).  Each section is composed of three petitions.  The first three are petitions in behalf of God’s name, His kingdom, and His will.  The second three are petitions for daily bread, forgiveness, and protection from temptation.”

 

            So now we have a brief outline of the brief prayer that is so filled with truth that I suppose that perhaps 100’s if not 1,000’s of books have been written on it.

 

10/31/2020 9:35 AM  

 

 

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