How should we pray?

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you… Do not be like them (the pagans), for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him”. Matthew 6:6,8

What is He saying? He tells us not to come before Him with requests because He already knows our needs. Instead, say this :

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”

Hallowed means made holy, consecrated.

How should our prayer imitate this? By praying “Sanctified be your name in us, sanctified be your name in my heart, in my house, in my family, sanctified be your name wherever I go, whomever I speak to, in this land, in this nation, etc. Sanctified be your name!”

When His Name is sanctified in us, we are sanctified too.

“your kingdom come”

Where? In me, in my home, on earth, around me, etc. When we pray this, His government and jurisdiction it’s called upon. He comes to legally establish His Kingdom where I call Him. He rules wherever His kingdom is established.  This means that it’s not me who “rules” but He is. Now He becomes the ruling authority. Once His kingdom is called upon, He is officially declared Lord and Governor upon that place. The Kingdom established is about jurisdiction and legal authority. Now His Kingdom can legally issue decrees and laws upon a place. There is no longer the kingdom of darkness ruling.

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Once authority is established there, the will and laws of the One who governs is established, enforced and executed.

The laws of the kingdom established (voted if you will) can legally be enforced and executed.

If another kingdom tries to trespass, the kingdom established can apply its laws and arrest or execute judgment upon the intruder.

“Repent for the kingdom of God is near!” Said John the Baptist . The kingdom of God is in your heart first. Then the same law that governs in heaven will govern on earth where it is called.

“Give us our daily bread”

“I am the bread of life.” John 6:48.

“I am the bread that comes down from heaven which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down  from heaven , whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh.”

Our daily bread is Jesus, He is the word! Eat the Word! “Give us” says the prayer. Give us the revelation of your word for today! He gives the revelation of his word! This is not about food!

Romans 14:17 says “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” He talks about His Word!

“And forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

First action observed here is “as we also have forgiven “. First, we forgive our debtors, then we come before the Father to ask for forgiveness. Our forgiveness has a condition: that we first have forgiven others that wronged us.

We must realize the order of things. We can’t forgive others without “eating the bread” first. Only after we read the Word, we get to meet Jesus. Then we receive the power to forgive. We realize that under the rulership of His kingdom, everyone forgives as He has forgiven us. If we don’t forgive our debtors, our debts will stand too.

Matthew 18:32-35 – The parable of the unmerciful servant

“You wicked servant, he said, I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me too. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”

This is how our heavenly father will treat each of us unless we forgive those that wronged us from our heart. Who are the jailers that torture here? The devil. Unforgiven sins give him a right to keep people in prison because there is a sin that still stands and it wasn’t dealt with.

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14, 15

This last verse is very serious. You may believe in Jesus, you may say He forgive your sins at the cross, you may say you prayed the prayer of salvation, etc. but this is only one part of it. Do not be deceived! The verse is very clear, if you do not forgive, your Father will not forgive you either.

Only after this point in our prayer, we can make our request, one that is most prayed by us.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.“

If we pay attention, this request is way at the bottom of the list. This means we cannot be delivered from our enemy and we cannot overcome temptation if we skip all the previous steps in our prayer and in our Christian life approach.

Let’s review quickly the steps in the prayer :

1. We must sanctify Him and His name.
2. We must establish His government and jurisdiction.
3. We must enforce and obey His will, law, word, teachings.
4. We must ask for the Bread (Word).
5. We must forgive.

Then we have arrived to step 6: we will overcome temptations and be delivered from the enemy. Too many times we skip all the previous steps and ask for deliverance from the start. But there are some conditions to that. According to the Lord’s prayer, there is progress to go through to get here.

This is one of the rewords mentioned by Jesus in the beginning of the text that come from prayer. “Then Your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

Once we remove sin from our life and others, the jailer is removed too. The torture of our sins stops and we are delivered. Forgiveness is a coin with two faces. One is God’s and the other is ours.

Then we will hear:

“Come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world.” Matthew 25:34

The Word makes it simple and clear, salvation is free, deliverance and victories require work on our part. There are conditions that come with blessings, victory and life abundant.

Let’s turn this prayer that the Lord gave us into a habit! Let’s meditate on it to understand what it means. This prayer is not meant to be repeated mechanically or we are just like the pagans He mentioned to us in the beginning. We are supposed to meditate on this model of prayer and let it penetrate our heart and transform our spirit.

Amin!