SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2020 9:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “God’s Purpose for Prayer”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
6:9-15
Message of the verses: “9 "Pray,
then, in this way: ’Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 10 ’Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 ’Give us this
day our daily bread. 12 ’And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors. 13 ’And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For
Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.’ 14 “For
if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. 15 “But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not
forgive your transgressions.”
I
think that perhaps I will put all of these verses on each SD until we are done
studying this prayer because I don’t think that we will really be looking at it
a verse at a time, but we will see.
If
I would ask the question “what is the Lord’s purpose for prayer?” The answer has to be the same thing that is
in the first section of Westminster shorter Catechism which is to glorify God
in all we do, and so in prayer we are to glorify God. This document was written in 1643 in England
and the shorter version was written a few years later.
MacArthur
adds “Although nothing benefits a believer more than prayer, the purpose in
praying must first of all be for the sake of God, not self. Prayer is, above all, an opportunity for God
to manifest His goodness and glory. An
old saint said, ‘True prayer brings the mind to the immediate contemplation of
God’s character and holds it there until the believer’s soul is properly
impressed.’ Jesus affirmed the purpose
of prayer when He said, ‘And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that
the Father may be glorified’ (John 14:13).”
So we come back to John 14:13 again as we begin our study of “The
Disciples’ Prayer.”
It
is probably true that in our evangelical churches today that we do not desire
to bring glory to God when we pray, but we seek man’s needs. Some in what could be called the Charismatic
movement and others as well say that we can demand things from God and He is
obligated to answer those demands. This
is a false hope at best, and perhaps even blasphemy at worst. God is not here for us, but we are here to
bring glory to God, and as we do this in prayer we will certainly desire to
have our wills lined up with God’s will.
In Daniel’s prayer from chapter nine Daniel was praying for something
found in Jeremiah 25:11 where the Lord promised Israel that they would be in
captivity for 70 years, and the 70 years were almost up and so Daniel prayed
that the Lord would fulfill that promise that He gave through Jeremiah, thus
bring glory to the Lord.
MacArthur
writes “Because prayer is so absolutely important and because we often do not
have the wisdom to pray as we ought or for what we ought, God has commissioned
His own Holy Spirit to help us. ‘We do
not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us
with groanings too deep for words’ (Rom. 8:26).
That is surely what Paul means when he urges believers to ‘pray at all
times in the Spirit’ (Eph. 6:18).
“In
the few words of Matthew 6:9-15 our Lord gives a succinct but marvelously
comprehensive outline of what true prayer should be. As we will discuss later, the second part of
verse 13, a doxology, was possibly not a part of the original text. The prayer proper has two sections; the first
section deals with God’s glory (9-10) and the second with man’s need (vv.
11-13a). Each section is composed of
three petitions. The first three are
petitions in behalf of God’s name, His kingdom, and His will. The second three are petitions for daily
bread, forgiveness, and protection from temptation.”
So
now we have a brief outline of the brief prayer that is so filled with truth that
I suppose that perhaps hundreds if not thousands of books have been written on
it.
10/31/2020 9:35 AM
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