Much has been written about how to pray including much discussion on what Jesus had in Mind in Matthew 6:9-13. This week, my challenge is to prepare my/our hearts appropriately before approaching God in prayer, no matter what form that prayer may take. The prior verses of Chapter 6 teach us plenty about ourselves.
You see, we either come to prayer time with the Lord for pure reasons or for improper reasons. Motive is the operative word. Some improper motives can be:
1. Pride - Jesus tells us to stay away from the hypocrite prayer life. All show and no heart. Prayer, in its simplest form, should be the humbling of ourselves below the One that we pray to. Coming to Him in any other way is vain and may very well result in a humbling experience!
2. Uncertainty - Don't get me wrong - I am often unsure as to what way to pray. However, I am speaking to our allegiance. When Jesus teaches us to pray for His Kingdom to Come and His Will to be Done we are making a stance of certain and clear allegiance to the One and Eternal King of Glory. If we are not yet ready to commit to His Kingdom and therefore commit to the results of praying for His Will then we must refer to point #1.
3. Ignorance - To ignore a truth and pretend or hope for circumstances that are clearly out of touch with reality and/or the Father's Will is not prayer. God is not a genie in a bottle. To seek God's will is to educate ourselves on what God wants in the World. He has revealed that perfectly in His Word and given us His Spirit so that we interpret it correctly. In 'The Message' Translation - Eugene Peterson says that many people think of themselves as prayer warriors when what they really are is prayer-ignorant.
I hope that we can treat prayer with the proper respect it should have as the means of living out our relationship with God through Jesus Christ!
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