SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/30/2020 11:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to “The Disciples’ Prayer—PT- 1”
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.”
As
I was looking at the Scripture that is in MacArthur’s commentary I found that
he has a book dedicated to what is in what is called “The Lord’s Prayer” and
the book is entitled “Jesus’ Pattern of Prayer” and so I ordered a used copy of
this book and I hope to use it in this very, very important study that we are
about to begin.
As
we look at the life of Jesus Christ while on earth we see that He probably
began His ministry when He was 30 years of age.
One of the things that we see is that His life was a great pattern of
prayer as He fulfilled what Paul wrote “Pray without Ceasing.” We don’t know much about His early years
other than His birth and also a little story from Luke’s gospel when He was 12
years old. He was in the Temple actually
teaching those scribes who were there at that time. Eighteen years later He began His ministry
and it could be said that His ministry was a ministry of prayer.
John
MacArthur writes “Someone has said that many Christians offer their prayers
like sailors use their pumps—only when the ship leaks. But to be obedient disciples of Christ, to
experience the fullness of communion with God, and to open the floodgates of
heaven’s blessings, believers must pray as Jesus prayed. In addition to that, we must know how to
pray. If we do not know how to pray and
what to pray for, it does little good to go through the motions. But if we know how to pray, and then pray
that way, every other part of our lives will be strengthened and put in proper
perspective. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones has
beautifully expressed it Studies in the
Sermon on the Mount, ‘Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his
knees he comes face to face to God.’”
We
know that the Bible teaches much about prayer, and the importance of prayer,
and the power of prayer as prayer is effective; it makes a difference. James writes in James 5:16b “The effective
prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
An example of this comes from when the servant of Abraham prayed and
then Rebekah appeared. Jacob wrestled
and prayed, and Esau’s mind was turned from twenty years of revenge. Another example is that when Moses prayed
that Amalek was struck. One that I just
read about this morning was that Hannah prayed, and Samuel was born. Isaiah and Hezekiah prayed and the next
morning 187,000 Assyrians were found slain.
When Elijah prayed there were three and a half years of drought, and
then when he prayed again God sent the rain.
These are only a small portion of things related to prayer found in the
Word of God. Now the Jews to whom Jesus
was preaching too should have had unlimited confidence in the power of
prayer. The question is “Did they?”
John
MacArthur concludes this introduction with the following paragraph: “Prayer is vital to every other aspect of
kingdom living. We cannot, for example,
give (see Matt. 6:2-4) or fast (see 6:16-18) properly unless we are in constant
communion with God. The only giving that
God wants is that which is sincere, willing, and done to His glory—giving that
comes from a life of personal communion with Him. Fasting is meaningless apart from prayer,
because apart from prayer it is apart from God.
It will be a meaningless religious ritual. The greatest emphasis in this passage
(6:1-18), therefore is given in prayer.”
Lord
willing in our next SD we will begin to look at “God’s Purpose,” then after
that “God’s Paternity,” God’s Priority,” “God’s Program,” “God’s Plan,” and
then several sub-sections under “God’s Plan.”
So buckle up as this study of what is commonly called “The Lord’s
Prayer” will take us several weeks, if not months to get through, and then my
prayer is that all who follow this, and also myself, will have a greater prayer
life, one that will truly glorify God.
10/30/2020 12:41 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment