This morning in my daily prayer I came to this text in Chapter 11 of Luke’s Gospel: “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 So he said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, may your name be revered as holy. May your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial” Luke 11:1-4.
I have always loved this profound manner in which Jesus taught us to pray, for in this pray I have tried to model my prayer throughout my life. Note that Jesus teaches us to begin our prayer in praise of Almighty God, our Father. What a gift for you to learn to begin all your prayer in praise of God. Resist the temptation to jump into prayer with your laundry list of things you need from God. He already knows what you need, and in fact He has called you — graced you — to come to Him in prayer. So begin, always begin, by praising God, for He deserves and He has earned our praise. This beginning step of prayer places us in the right position before God in prayer. We are coming humbly and gratefully to Him to lift Him up with our praises. Our prayer begins with the proper focus on HIM — not on ourselves! So the first and most important step, or movement in prayer, is towards God, not at all towards ourself.
The second step in prayer is to pray for God’s agenda, not our own. Again notice the focus, notice the thrust of our prayer, notice the direction and placement of our hearts in prayer. It is decidedly on HIM and HIS agenda — and not on our own agendas. Lord, we are taught by Jesus, may YOUR Kingdom come to us, may YOUR established purpose for creating us and the universe be on YOUR perfect and most holy agenda or purpose. May YOUR Kingdom come, and may YOUR will be done. We are to pray for the will of God. Not for our own will and needs and wants to be fulfilled. God’s desires for us all are all that matters. When we pray we are directed by Jesus to ask for what we need the most, the will of God for our lives! The Kingdom of God for our lives and for our world. Our own will and our own kingdom doesn’t matter at all when we come before the Lord, for His ways are not our ways.
And then notice the third and final step in prayer. GRACE! We are to pray for the forgiveness and the leadership — the grace — of God. Jesus teaches us to pray for what we need the most, not for what we deserve the most. We are to pray for His forgiveness — but for His forgiveness in the same measure with which we forgive everybody else in our life. Now is the time to ask God for help. And notice too that the help we seek is help, or assistance, to forgive everybody else, in such a manner so as to set a pattern of God’s forgiveness to us. Forgive us, Lord! Forgive us, Lord! Please forgive us, Lord! And lead us in our lives, not to succumb, not to give into the inevitable and frequent temptations that come our way.
Three movements of prayer, then, Jesus teaches us:
Praise of Him
God’s Agenda
Grace
These are the steps, if you will, of praying. Easy to remember and such a blessing to follow: Praise of God, God’s will and agenda, and His grace to forgive us as we forgive others.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed’” John 17:1-26.
“But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray” Luke 5:16.
“Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last’” Luke 23:46.
“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “\’All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you’” 1 Peter 1:22-25.
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