Prayer Begins With Adoration

Prayer Begins With Adoration

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father, who is heaven, Hallowed be Your name.’”  Matthew 6:9

            Many people today ask the question: “How do I pray?”  There are also people that pray, but they pray in the wrong way.  Some even view prayer as a selfish way to get what they want.  They view prayer as though God is some cosmic Santa Clause and He will give them everything they want.  When people view God as someone who gives only what we want, they often walk away from God when they don’t get what they want.  The person who doesn’t pray because they don’t know how to pray, so they don’t, miss out on all that God has for them (John 16:24).  These next few blogs I want to spend some time talking about prayer, so that you can be confident in your prayer life and will revolutionize your walk with the Lord.

            When Jesus was on the earth He set an awesome example of prayer.  He would pray often and at times all night long (Lk.6:12).  Jesus also taught how to pray.  The Sermon on the Mount was one of the most important teachings of Christ on prayer (Mat. 6:5-15).  The Bible is full of prayers, but Jesus spent some time teaching us how to pray and so it’s important to pay attention to what he tells us about prayer and how to do it.  When you see this model, you can see it play out in effective prayer throughout scripture.  What is called the Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer, it is not necessarily a prayer we need to pray, but it is an example we need to follow when we pray.

            Jesus starts this example of prayer by acknowledging who you are talking to.  We must call on the name of the Lord.  Address the Lord and address Him with praise.  The name of the Lord is holy.  God is Holy, and His name is to be held in the highest regard.  Sometimes I think we overdo the word holy and so it loses some of its meaning.  How do we hold the Name of the Lord?  In the Ten Commandments we are told not to take the Lord’s name in vain (Ex.20:7).  We are told that we are to keep the name of the Lord sacred and hold it in highest esteem, yet when I walk around I hear it used all the time.  When we say things like “Oh my god” are we not taking down the name of God.  If we say “Good God” when we are not talking about something good that God has done, are we not losing the meaning of God?

            If you read your Bible much you have heard about scribes.  Scribes were the people who copied the scriptures by hand so that we would have them today.  They worked so carefully that we find no real error in their works.  They took the most holy name for God very seriously.  We see it in our Bibles in all caps as “LORD”.  They held the name in such high honor that they would do things like wash their hands before writing it.  They would write it and break the pencil so that it could not be used again.  To make sure their thoughts were pure they would write it without the vowels to help ensure they didn’t take the name in vain.  Yet today Lord and God are used as though they are nothing and meaningless.

            Proverbs tells us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Pr.1:7).  This fear is more than just an awe fear, but also the fear that the LORD could do great and powerful judgements to me and others.  Take time and look at the Old Testament and even at the transfiguration of Christ and see how people reacted in the presence of the LORD.  When we add this all together with what the Lord Jesus taught when He said pray, “Our Father who are in heaven, Hollowed be YOUR NAME” it will change everything we know about prayer.  It puts the focus on the Lord and not on us. 

            This week take time to think about the LORD and who He is and value His name when you pray.  Maybe take time to pray a prayer that asks for nothing.  Just take time to acknowledge the LORD and who he is.  I have done this, and it is powerfully humbling to see who God is and who we are in comparison.  Prayer starts with the Name of the LORD and is about Him!

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All scripture is from The New American Standard Bible, copyright 1995 by the Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 

Photo by Thomas G Carter