THE TEMPLATE OF A KINGDOM MINDED PRAYER:
In the Gospel of Luke 11:1-4, Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer to his disciples when one of them asks, "Lord, teach us to pray." Almost all Christians have come to know and even memorise this prayer.
The Lord's Prayer in the Bible is found in both Gospels of: Matthew and Luke
In Matthew, Jesus is preaching his Sermon on the Mount, explaining that there is a righteousness from God that exceeds that of the Pharisees and scribes. He warns his followers against practicing hypocritical behaviour merely to be seen by others.
In Luke, Jesus teaches the Lord's prayer during his journey to Jerusalem. As their teacher, the disciples saw Jesus as an example of a man of prayer. One of his followers asked him for instruction in prayer, and Jesus gave them a model in the Lord's Prayer.
The full version of The Lord's Prayer is recorded in Matthew 6:9-15:
We can use this prayer to inform us, teaching us how to approach God in prayer.
Here is a simplified explanation of each section to help you develop a better understanding of the Lord's Prayer:
Our Father who art in Heaven
“Abba” is the Hebrew word for Father. God is our ever loving Abba, Father.
We pray to God our Father who is in heaven. He is our Father, and we are his humble children. We must acknowledge who we are speaking to when we pray. . As a heavenly, perfect Father, we can trust that he loves us and will listen to our prayers. Meditate on these verses below to renew your mind and believe in this TRUTH.
2 Corinthians 6:18 “And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (NLT)
Romans 8:15 “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, Abba, Father.” (NLT)
Psalm 89:26 “He shall cry to Me, ‘You are my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.” (NKJV)
God’s Fatherly Love:
1 John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” (ESV)
Hallowed Be Your Name
Hallowed means "to make holy." We recognise our Father's holiness when we pray. There is an essential need for reverence when we approach him.. He is close and caring, but he's not our friend, or our equal. He is God Almighty. We don't approach him with a sense of panic and anxiety, but with reverence for his holiness, acknowledging his righteousness and perfection. We are amazed that even in his holiness, we belong to him. We must thank and praise him for he is righteous, good and merciful. When you further study the life of Jesus you begin to see that he always began prayer to our Father with thanksgiving e.g. multiplying the 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread or calling Lazarus back to life from the dead. Similarly, we must praise and thank God always at all times.
Meditate on these verses below to renew your mind and believe in this TRUTH.
1 Samuel 2:2 - “There is none holy like the Lord; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
Isaiah 57:15 - For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Revelation 4:8 - And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
Isaiah 6:3 - And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Psalm 99:9 - Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy!
Micah 7:18-19 Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done, on Earth As It Is in Heaven
We pray for God’s Sovereign Rule in our lives and on this earth. He is our King. We recognise that he is in full control, and we submit to his authority. Going a step further, we desire God’s kingdom and rule to be extended to the world at large. We pray for the salvation of souls because we know that God wants all men to be saved.
Jesus came for the lost those who are away from God.
The Greek word is “appollum” (to destroy fully, to perish). We see the same word used in John 3:16 (“should not perish”) and in Luke 15:24 (“this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”)
Everyone on earth is either lost or found. Jesus did not come to condemn. He came to save.
In everything He did (healing the sick, preaching, teaching, instructing His disciples, contending with the religious leaders, feeding the multitudes, or having lunch with a tax collector), He never lost sight of His true purpose—to seek and save the lost. He gave Himself for that cause, ultimately dying on the cross for our sins.
When we pray we accept to continue the finished works of Jesus Christ our Lord, We are ambassadors of Christ to fulfil His mission. Before He left the earth, He passed on His mission to us. Nothing has changed. We still are charged to seek and save the lost. In this time of prayer we intercede for our family, friends, ministry, colleagues, community and generation at large asking God to use to reflect his love and truth that they may see Jesus in us. We ask our Father to transform us into the image of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 - But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Luke 19:10 - For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Matthew 6:32 - 33 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Give Us Today Our Daily Bread
When we pray, we trust God to meet our needs. He will take care of us. At the same time, we're not worried about the future. We depend on God our Father to provide what we need for today. Tomorrow we will renew our dependence by coming to him in prayer once again.
Matthew 6:25-34New International Version
Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Forgive Us Our debts, As We Also Forgive Our Debtors
We ask God to forgive our sins when we pray. We search our hearts, recognise that we need his forgiveness, and confess our sins. Just as our Father graciously forgives us, we must forgive one another's shortcomings. If we desire to be forgiven, we must grant that same forgiveness to others.
Lead Us Not Into Temptation, But Deliver Us From the Evil One
We need strength from God to resist temptation We must stay in tune with the Holy Spirit to avoid anything that will tempt us to sin. We pray daily for God to deliver us from Satan’s traps and schemes so that we will know when to run away.