THE LORD’S PRAYER

1. Have you ever spent a full hour in prayer? Do you find it hard to concentrate when you are praying?
2. Do you find yourself running out of words to speak to God and pray?
3. Do you some time feel jealous on some people who seem to be prayer warriors and enjoying
The questions above are the very questions most of us always asks.
A few years ago, I made a study on the prayer of our Lord that is found in Matthew 6:9 -15. Although we call this the Lord’s Prayer, it is really Jesus teaching on how we should pray.
And I have found out that if I use Jesus’ lesson on prayer, I would have all the answers to the questions above.
When you look at this portion of scripture you may find out that it is an outline on how we should pray and note the details of our prayer.

1- Worship:- Jesus starts his teaching by showing us that all prayer starts with worship. “Our father in heaven hallowed be your name”, is a statement magnifying the name of the Lord. Our God enjoys our worship when we lift his name. It immediately opens the door of heaven for He dwells in the praises of His people. Psalms 22:3 “But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel” (NKJV)

I therefore suggest that when you go to pray start the 10 minutes by worshiping God, telling Him how great He is. Talk to him using words you would use when you are speaking to a loved one, words lifting Him and words that magnify His Name.

2- God’s will to be done:– In prayer we have things that we want to be in our lives, they are things we feel are best but God’s will is better than our best. So in prayer Jesus told to ask God’s will to be done. I feel that as we pray, it is always important if God’s rule and will be done on earth.

I feel that at this time in your prayer you need to pray for your nation, your church, leaders, the various issues going on around us and the world. This is the unselfish kind of prayer; I suggest that you get a list of things to pray for on a daily basis. Pray specifically for your government; mention your leader by name. This is the time to pray for missions, missionaries, un reached people group in the whole world, the Muslim world and anything you feel we need God’s intervention and expansion of God’s kingdom.
As you can realize by the time you finish this, you have already spent another 10 minutes.

3- Praying for our needs:– In verse 11, Jesus taught us to pray for our daily food. I feel this is the time you can be more selfish and pray for yourself. At this time I suggest you can pray for your family, pray for your parents, pray for your children mention them by name, your spouse by name and mention things you desire God to do in their lives. At this point that is when you can pray for what your heart desires, it’s the time to mention your specific, physical, financial and spiritual needs.

Our God loves us so much that He is interested in our day to day lives. (Psalms 37:4 “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart”. (NIV)
Do not fear to be specific and be as direct as you can.

4- Repentance and Forgiveness:- Verse 12 is a very interesting verse of scripture, here Jesus teaches about the power of forgiveness. We do not have the power to release God’s hand on our lives if we do not forgive others, but also this verse shows that if we have got sin in our lives, we close God’s ear to our needs.
So I always suggest instead of this being the forth item in prayer, it should be the first item in prayer.
Isaiah 59:1 -2 “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”(NIV)
In our daily lives we sin through our actions and through our thoughts, we have sins of commission and sins of omission. When my life is full of sin I have found out that I have no boldness to go to God in prayer and my sin breaks my relationship with God. I therefore suggest that every time you kneel down to pray to God, spend the first few minutes evaluating your life and making your relationship right with God.
In this verse of scripture Jesus encourages us to face our giants and in my life time confronting the broken relationships is a big giant.
I suggest that in your prayer time you spend time reflecting on some of the relationship you need to restore, some people whose forgiveness you need to request and people you need to forgive.

5- Prayer for protection and spiritual warfare:-
At this time of prayer we are encouraged to enter into spiritual warfare, there are strong holds that attack our family, our church and our communities and God has given us weapons to fight them.
In prayer we confront these forces; we speak to them and we command them to go. This is the time where we engage in battle, this is when we go into the enemy territory and release the captives in Jesus name. Such prayer is guided by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 6:10 & 18 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (NIV)
Luke 4: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”(NIV)
Pray for spiritual covering from satanic attacks for your family and church, pray for protection from temptation and pray for victory in your spiritual life and all that goes on around you.
With all that said I believe that we can have a beautiful, fruitful time of prayer daily and have a good relationship with our God.
Remember fellowship with a loving God is conversation with a person who cares so much and He want to get involved in your life.