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March 2 - August 14, 2017
The real evil of these hypocritical worshippers, however, was not the location of their prayers but their desire to display themselves “so that they may be seen by men.”
The most important secret He sees is not the words we say in the privacy of our rooms, but the thoughts we have in the privacy of our hearts.
The practice of using meaningless repetition in prayer was common in many pagan religions in Jesus’ day, as it is in many religions today.
Prayer that is thoughtless and detached is offensive to God and should be offensive to us.
God’s purpose in prayer is not for us to inform or persuade Him to respond to our needs but to open sincere and continual lines of communication with Him. Prayer, more than anything else, is sharing the needs, burdens, and hungers of our hearts with a God who cares.
you need to pray with a devout heart—with a pure motive seeking only the glory of God.
pray with a humble heart, seeking only the attention of God, not men.
pray with a confident heart, knowing full well that God already ...
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“Prayer honors God; it dishonors self.”1
Prayer begins and ends not with the needs of man but with the glory of God (John 14:13). It should be concerned primarily with who God is, what He wants, and how He can be glorified.
When Jonah seemingly had good cause to demand God to get him out of the fish, he simply extolled the character of God.
In his concern over Judah’s captivity, he prayed, “Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned” (Dan. 9:4–5). He began his prayer by affirming the nature and character of God.
While he could have easily despaired over his ministry, he never became preoccupied with his own painful circumstances. Instead he would pray and extol the glory, name, and works of God (e.g., Jer. 32:17–23).
The prayer is mainly a model we can use to give direction to our own praise, adoration, and petitions. It is not a substitute for our own prayers but a guide for them. The initial
Every phrase and petition focuses on God—on His person, His attributes, and His works. You prevent your prayers from being hypocritical or mechanical when you focus on God, not on yourself.
True prayer comes from humble people who express absolute dependence on God. That’s what our Lord wants in our prayers. The more we think true thoughts about God, the more we will seek to glorify Him in our prayers.
He taught them that the Father takes care of the needs of His children: Ask, and
Jesus reaffirmed to them what their Scripture taught and what faithful, godly Jews had always believed: God is the Father in heaven to those who trust in Him. In all His
The invented false gods of false religions are typically characterized as vengeful and jealous, and their worshippers must take desperate measures to appease them. But knowing that the true God is our Father dispels all such fear.
If an earthly father will spare no effort to help and protect his children, how much more will our Heavenly Father love, protect, and help us (Matt. 7:11)? It Removes
God loves and cares for His children even when they are disobedient.
While we may cringe and actually voice displeasure when we hear someone taking God’s name in vain, we would do well to examine our own heart attitude. Indifference and lack of respect due His name from those who love Him may be just as heinous a sin.
When believers have a low view of God, everything focuses on meeting felt needs within the body of Christ.
When you know and glorify God, the needs of your life will be met:
Christians actually need to be confronted by their real need—an understanding of God’s holiness and their own sinfulness—so they can be usable to Him for His glory.
When we have a right relationship to God, every aspect of our lives will settle into its divinely ordained place.
does not mean we are to ignore people’s problems—we are to be just as concerned about them as God is. But there must be a balance, a...
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God is to have priority in every aspect of our lives, and certainly in our times of deepest communion with Him.
Prayer is not to be a casual routine that gives passing homage to God; it is to be a profound experience that should open up great dimensions of reverence, awe, appreciation, honor, and adoration.
Even though He is our loving Father, who desires to meet our needs through His heavenly resources, our first petition is not to be for our benefit, but His.
Because they considered God’s name sacred, the Jews would not actually pronounce Yahweh.
In Scripture, a person’s name represented his character.
Upon seeing the magnitude of God’s holiness, Job repented and retracted all that he had foolishly said (Job 42:5–6). • Standing in the presence of God’s holiness, Isaiah pronounced a curse on himself, “Woe is me, for I am ruined!” (Isa. 6:5). • Habakkuk trembled at the voice of holy God (Hab. 3:16).
Although they were afraid of the storm, they feared greatly (literally “feared a great fear”) when Jesus calmed the storm (Mark 4:41). They became much more fearful of the presence and power of God than they were of the deadly storm.
it is especially missing in our prayers. To revive it, we must pursue holiness in the fear of God.
When that attitude merges with the perspective that Christians ought to impact the culture by legislating morality, the church is severely diverted from its main purpose. Although changing our society by calling it back to a safer morality is a noble goal, this has never been Christ’s goal for His church.
Sinful man cannot be a part of the divine reign. That’s why we can never advance God’s kingdom by trying to improve the morals of our society.
Our greatest desire as believers should be to see the Lord reigning as King in His kingdom, having the honor and authority that have always been His but that He has not yet come to claim.
A true child of God won’t be preoccupied with his own plans and desires but with the determinate program of God, revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
In spite of our desire to be preoccupied with God’s kingdom, our prayers are usually self-centered. We focus on our needs, our plans, and our aspirations.
It is our responsibility to pray for our families, pastors, missionaries, national and other leaders, and many other people and things. But in every case, our prayers should be for God to accomplish His will in and through those people—that
examine two aspects of the kingdom: It is both universal and earthly.
“Let Your kingdom come now.” What features lead to the consummation of His rule on earth? The Conversion of Unbelievers
Praying for the kingdom to come, in this sense, is praying for the salvation of souls. The
The desire of those already converted should be to allow the Lord to rule in their lives now, just as He rules in heaven.
They pray for His will to be done only because He has commanded them to do so. But that’s certainly not a prayer of faith; it’s more like a prayer of capitulation.
Too many believers have weak prayer lives because they don’t believe their prayers accomplish anything.
They petition the Lord for something and then forget about it, acting as if they knew in advance that God wouldn’t be at all compelled
They apparently had been praying for what they did not really believe would happen.
Prayer is not a vain duty to be performed for the sake of obedience only. That may seem like a good motive, but its effect is no different from the hypocritical Pharisees
