WHEN YOU PRAY, To Whom Are You Praying?
WHEN YOU PRAY,
To Whom Are You Praying?
How Are You Praying?
INTRODUCTION – JESUS TEACHES US “HOW TO
PRAY”
In the Book of Matthew, Chapter 6, verses 5
to 16, Jesus provides us with His instructions on prayer.
In
those verses, Jesus says 3 times, “When you pray”.
Thus, prayer is not an option. It
is a requirement, a commandment.
Jesus also tells us what to do
and what not to do when we pray. He
starts and ends with what we are not to do, and between those don'ts, He tell us
what to do. And after that, He tells us that
our Father knows what we need.
· First, Jesus tells us NOT TO be
like hypocrites doing what they do. They
love to be seen by others.
And Jesus says that’s all they will get, being seen by others on earth.
· Second, Jesus tells us TO GO into a
private place and pray to our Father. Though Our Father
is unseen, He will see you. Note the parallel to being seen by people and
being seen by the unseen Father.
· Third, Jesus tells us NOT TO be
like pagans babbling like pagans do. Pagans
think they are being heard but they are not.
· Fourth, Jesus tells us that our Father knows
what we need before we ask Him. That
is not to say we do not need to pray. It
does say, the Father will answer our prayers according to His will. We may sometimes pray our wants rather than our
needs.
After we are given the Do’s and Don'ts, Jesus
tells “the manner”, “the how to”
of prayer. When looking
at its content in detail, it has an interesting flow which can be said as follows
(caps, bold, and underlines for emphasis):
Then, this is HOW you
should PRAY:
‘Our Father in Heaven,
Your Name be hallowed,
Your Kingdom come,
Your Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us our daily bread today.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but
Deliver us from the evil one.’
Jesus closes
that instruction with a reinforcement on forgiveness:
If you forgive other people when they sin against you,
Then your heavenly Father will also forgive
you.
JESUS TAUGHT US HOW TO PRAY. With that as a backdrop, I want to share some
things I learned throughout my life on how to pray, some incorrect teaching, some correct teaching.
HOW I WAS TAUGHT
TO PRAY
AS A CHILD, I was taught to pray in several ways.
· One
Way - Repetitive Prayers. I was told by a nun
in the Catholic school I went to that if I wanted something special, I could pray
a certain prayer she gave me 100 times each night, then God would give me that special
thing. I had a special thing I wanted, so
I set out, every night, praying that prayer 100 times. How long would it take to pray that prayer 100
times? A long time, so I did it speedily.
· A Second
Way - Prayer To Mary. I was taught to pray
to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer,
as taught then, goes like this:
Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women, and
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
That prayer, The Hail Mary, is a Catholic prayer and is said many times while using the
Rosary, the bulk of which is 5 sets of 1 Our Father and 10 Hail Marys. There are some other prayers in the beginning
and end of the Rosary also.
The one prayer on the Rosary I could not memorize correctly or understand
was “Hail, Holy Queen”. When doing
the Rosary in a church setting with others, it was said rather fluently and I was
just lost to what it said. Thus, I did not
say it with the others, because I did not know it.
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and
our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished
children of Eve: to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and
weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then,
most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, O merciful, O loving, O sweet
Virgin Mary! Amen.
· A Third
Way - Pray To "Saints". I was taught to pray
to “saints”, such as St. Joseph, St. Jude, and St. Francis. There are many specific examples that can be found
on the internet.
· A Fourth
Way - The Lord's Prayer. A best and right way, is “The Lord’s Prayer”.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil. Amen
Back then, Catholics were not allowed to say the Protestant ending
to the prayer which was
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.
I vividly remember that in public school when the entire class said
The Lord’s Prayer, as our homeroom class did in 1961/62 at Edison Junior High School
in Harrisburg, PA, I stopped before the Protestant ending, and the others finished
their prayer. It was always a little embarrassing.
Incidentally, calling it The Lord's Prayer can be said to be a misnomer, because Jesus did not say "Pray this", but He said "Pray like this". He gave us a sample outline of how to pray. Thus, we need not limit our words in praying to Our Father, but pray in such a way that Jesus and others in the Bible did. We should read the many prayers of Jesus and others in the Bible.
Incidentally, calling it The Lord's Prayer can be said to be a misnomer, because Jesus did not say "Pray this", but He said "Pray like this". He gave us a sample outline of how to pray. Thus, we need not limit our words in praying to Our Father, but pray in such a way that Jesus and others in the Bible did. We should read the many prayers of Jesus and others in the Bible.
I LEARNED HOW TO
PRAY
AS AN ADULT, I learned some things about prayer that I
was not taught as a child, and I have since studied them and prayed accordingly.
A most important thing I learned was what
Jesus said about prayer when He walked with His disciples.
His words are in the Book of Matthew, Chapter
6, verses 5 to 15:
· And
when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
· But
you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut
your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret
place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
· And
when you pray, do not use vain repetitions
as the heathen do. For they think that
they will be heard for their many words.
Therefore do not be like them. For
your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
· In
this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and
the glory forever. Amen.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will
also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.
There are many other things stated about prayer
in the Bible, and there are many examples throughout the Bible of God’s people praying. I won’t go into those at this time, other than
to say, search them out and see if they fit into the principles I tell you here
which are according to what Jesus said.
WHEN YOU PRAY AND THE MANNER
YOU PRAY
In the verses shown above which are in the
Book of Matthew, Jesus says 3 times to us “when you pray”. Then He gives us Dos and Don’ts of when we pray. They are these:
DO NOT .. be like the hypocrites,
standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they
may be seen by men
DO NOT .. use vain repetitions as
the heathen do.
DO ........... go into your room.
DO ........... shut your door.
DO ........... pray to your
Father who is in the secret place.
After Jesus gives us the Dos and Don’ts of
when we pray, He then gives us “the manner”, “the how to”, of prayer. He starts off with, “OUR FATHER
in Heaven”. He prays to
His Father in Heaven, but not just His Father, but OUR Father. Then He lists requests which I can tell about
another time. Right now, I want to get to
the point of this teaching.
I’ve told you what I learned
as a child and what I learned as an
adult about prayer. Was I taught truth in all the ways cited as a
child and an adult? No, and I want to tell
you why.
Jesus told us to pray to the Father, Our Father, and that’s what He did when He
prayed on numerous occasions stated in the Bible. He
prayed to the Father, and to Our Father. Did He
seek out anyone else? No. He sought His Father who is our Father. He spoke to Our Father. He listened to Our Father.
Did Jesus repeat the same prayer over and over
and over as a requirement
to get what He wanted? No, but Jesus did pray 3 times in the Garden the
night before His crucifixion. His repetition
was not like praying the same words 100 times, and believing that Our Father would
give Him what He prayed. No. He sweat blood in those 3 prayers, far from vain
and memorized, repetitive prayers.
Did Jesus seek out His mother in His prayer
requests? No. Because she was the mother of Jesus in the flesh,
not the mother of God. God is the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit and they have no mother. Jesus was born
into the earth through His mother who birthed His flesh. She did not birth Him as being part of the triune
God.
Here’s an interesting point about “The Hail Mary”. The first part of the Hail Mary is similar to when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, went
to visit Elizabeth, pregnant with John The Baptist. Elizabeth greeted Mary as stated in Luke 1:39-45
Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste,
to a city of Judah, and entered
the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard
the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her
womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed
is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the
mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting
sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be
a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
Elizabeth GREETED Mary with words of blessing. The Catholic Church has taken those words of greeting and used them
in a prayer to Mary. Is there anywhere in
the Bible where there is a godly
prayer to anyone other than God? No, there is not.
Other very important points about the prayer
to Mary concerns the
second part of the prayer: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Holy Mary? What is the meaning of Holy as it is used in
the prayer? Is it above and beyond other
Christians? In Peter’s letter to scattered
believers, he refers to an Old Testament verse saying, "Be holy, because I am holy." (1 Peter 1:16) All Christians are
called to be holy as God is holy, thus are capable of being holy. That’s a concept we must explore on how that is
done.
Leviticus 11:44 'For I am the LORD your God.
Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.
Mother of God? Mary was the mother of Jesus in the flesh, not
the mother of God. God is Father, Son, and
Spirit. God has no mother. Jesus is God who
walked in flesh on the earth, but He walked as a man. Jesus was born into the earth through His earthly mother
who birthed His flesh, not Him as being part of the triune God.
Pray for us sinners? According to the Bible, our
intercessor in Heaven is Jesus, no one else. There is no mention of Mary or anyone else besides
Jesus praying for us in Heaven. All the focus
of scripture is on Jesus.
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.
WHEN YOU PRAY, PRAY ACCORDING TO TRUTH
Often times, church leaders and teachers, regardless of denomination,
can take what God has spoken, add to it, and turn it into something that God did
not say or intend. There are no principles
established by man that can take precedence over the Word of God. But, it has happened through the ages and continues
to happen. That’s why every Christian
must diligently seek God through His Word
in the Bible.
Every
Christian must know the truth taught in scripture so that when a man speaks forth
a claimed truth (which may
not be truth, but may be a false teaching), the Christian needs to be led by the
Holy Spirit to determine if what is spoken is truth or untruth. If the Christian is presented with a new concept
that he is unfamiliar with, that Christian must go to the Word of God to determine
whether the concept is truth or untruth.
It is very dangerous not to check out what others are telling you, whether
they are “ordained” or not. No one in infallible. No man should add to God’s Word, but it is done
all the time and the sheep are following the wrongs shepherd to their destruction.
John 8:31-32: Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed
on him, If you continue in My Word,
then are you my disciples indeed; and you
shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free.
Note well that this is conditional. Jesus
said, “IF you continue in My Word”. If we do, then certain things are set in motion. If we don’t, then what happens? Well, that cannot be good. We can be led astray because we would not know
what His Word says about specific topics that are presented to us. That’s how untruth gets into the person who is
listening to one who teaches wrongly, falsely, incorrectly. We must know the truth. Continue in His Word means to live based on His Word, to abide in His
Word, to do what His Word says to do.
2 Timothy 2:15: Study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
Acts 17:11: Now these Jews were more noble than those
in Thessalonica; they received the word with
all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily
to see if these things were so.
CONCLUSION - PRAYERS TO GOD, OUR FATHER, ARE ANSWERED
DO WE WANT OUR PRAYERS
TO BE HEARD BY GOD AND ANSWERED BY GOD? Yes, of course we do. Then we must pray to Our Father
who is in Heaven. And we must know that Jesus intercedes for us. And we must know that the Holy Spirit is our advocate
before the Father.
PRAY TO NO ONE BUT
THE FATHER. We
must pray to the Father knowing that Jesus
paid the price to give us free access to the Father,
His Father, Our Father. We must find out for ourselves what is said in
His Word about prayer. We must not allow
some misguided church leader to lead us astray because we do not know what the Bible
says about a topic.
Please consider carefully what has been said
here. Our condition in eternity depends on
our relationship to Jesus, our relationship to Truth. Heaven is forever. Hell is forever. Let’s seek Him and be with Him, forever and ever,
in eternity.
Jesus said, “In this manner, therefore, pray . . . ”. So,
here is a prayer that is said “in the manner” that Jesus gave us and with the instructions
that Jesus gave us.
Our Father,
You are in Heaven on Your throne.
Your name is holy.
We want Your Kingdom to prosper on this Earth, even as it is in Heaven.
We want Your Will to be done on this this Earth, even as it is in Heaven.
We commit to pray to You only.
We commit to stop trying to send prayers to anyone but You.
We commit to study Your Word so that we will not be deceived.
We commit to pray as Jesus taught His disciples, and now teaches us.
Father,
When we pray to You, we will not be like hypocrites,
standing in the public places to be seen.
When we pray to You, we will not use vain repetitions
with many words.
When we pray to You, we will go into our private
place and will be unseen by others,
Father,
We ask You to provide our needs for today.
We ask You to keep the devil and his schemes from us.
We ask Your forgiveness for the sins we have committed.
We forgive those who have committed sins against us.
Father,
We thank You that You sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins so we
can gain direct access to You.
We thank You that Jesus intercedes for us before You.
We thank You that the Holy Spirit is our advocate before You.
We send this prayer to You because we know that
Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
OUR PRAYERS to Our Father
are not limited to
specific words and outlines.
OUR PRAYERS from our hearts
can reach Our Father
as we pray In The Name of Jesus.
Amen.
Written by: James Eugene Barbush
2021 Blue Mountain Parkway
Harrisburg, PA 17112
Cell: 717-514-5549
Email: JamesEBarbush@GMail.com
Websites:
The Shepherd’s Voice
The Shepherd’s Voice
Seek First The Kingdom Of God
The Prayer Room
Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 5 to 16
(Outline form with headings added)
1. WHEN YOU PRAY . . . . . . . . . . . VERSES
5 TO 8
And WHEN you PRAY,
Do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing
In the synagogues
and
On the street
corners
To be seen
by others.
Truly I tell you,
they have received their reward in full.
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.
And WHEN you PRAY,
Do not be like pagans,
Do not keep on babbling like pagans,
For pagans think
they will be heard because of their many words.
For your
Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
2. HOW YOU PRAY
(The Lord’s Prayer) . . . . . . . . VERSES 9 TO 15
Then, this is HOW you should PRAY:
‘Our
Father in heaven,
Your Name be hallowed,
Your Kingdom come,
Your Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us our daily bread today.
Forgive us our debts, as we
also have forgiven our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but
Deliver us from the evil one.’
If you forgive other people when they sin against you,
Then
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
If you
do not forgive others their sins,
Then
your Father will not forgive your sins
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