Silas
Beloved of All
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Prayer starts with worship, with a quiet awareness of who God is, His greatness, His holiness, and His fatherly love shown to us through Jesus Christ. Through His blood, His resurrection and His Spirit poured out, we have been born again not by our own will but by God's will, and we are adopted as children who can truly call Him Father. To hallow His name is to ask that His character and all that He has revealed about Himself would be honored in our thoughts, our words and our lives, and that the world would come to reverence Him.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the first and primary petition for a reason. Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then He will care for the rest. So many today would reverse it and pray my kingdom come, my will be done, but true prayer puts God's kingdom first. When we look at the confusion and moral brokenness around us, we realize God's will is not yet being done on earth as it is in heaven. Men are living in rebellion. The Scriptures show there are two kingdoms, the kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness in rebellion against God. In Christ we have been delivered from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light, and we are called to bring that deliverance to others. When we pray Your kingdom come we are asking for the fruit and power and holiness of that kingdom to be seen in us now, love, joy, peace, patience and the other graces of the Spirit, and we are also looking ahead to the day when Christ will reign fully and His kingdom will cover the earth. That is why the last prayer of the Bible is even so come, Lord Jesus. We pray it now in the already, while we wait for the fullness that is still to come.
Only after we have put God's name, God's kingdom and God's will first do we bring our own needs. Give us this day our daily bread. This covers every need, spiritual, physical, emotional and daily provision. We live not by bread alone but by every word that comes from God, and we trust Him to supply what we need so we can love Him and love our neighbor.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. This is the one petition Jesus paused to underline. If we forgive others, our Father forgives us, but if we refuse to forgive, we close our own hearts to forgiveness. To pray this honestly means naming our own sins before God and receiving His cleansing, and also naming before Him those who have sinned against us, praying for them and releasing them to the One who alone judges and saves.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Temptation always presents a choice to walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit, often with the promise of immediate satisfaction if we step off God's path. We ask God to keep us from the places where we would be drawn into the flesh, to guard us from deception, from evil people and false teaching, and to deliver us from the enemy himself. He does not force our will, but prayer opens the door for Him to do in us what He has long desired to do, to keep and protect us.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. Prayer that begins with God ends with God, with praise and confidence that He has heard and will act. All power in heaven and earth belongs to Him, and His is an everlasting kingdom that will finally be given to His saints forever, when the present rule of darkness is ended.
The wisest prayer we can pray is simply, Lord, have Your perfect way in my life. As you continue to use this pattern, take it slowly, phrase by phrase, make it personal, and let each part become worship, surrender and trust. God will honor a heart that seeks His kingdom first.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the first and primary petition for a reason. Jesus tells us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then He will care for the rest. So many today would reverse it and pray my kingdom come, my will be done, but true prayer puts God's kingdom first. When we look at the confusion and moral brokenness around us, we realize God's will is not yet being done on earth as it is in heaven. Men are living in rebellion. The Scriptures show there are two kingdoms, the kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness in rebellion against God. In Christ we have been delivered from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light, and we are called to bring that deliverance to others. When we pray Your kingdom come we are asking for the fruit and power and holiness of that kingdom to be seen in us now, love, joy, peace, patience and the other graces of the Spirit, and we are also looking ahead to the day when Christ will reign fully and His kingdom will cover the earth. That is why the last prayer of the Bible is even so come, Lord Jesus. We pray it now in the already, while we wait for the fullness that is still to come.
Only after we have put God's name, God's kingdom and God's will first do we bring our own needs. Give us this day our daily bread. This covers every need, spiritual, physical, emotional and daily provision. We live not by bread alone but by every word that comes from God, and we trust Him to supply what we need so we can love Him and love our neighbor.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. This is the one petition Jesus paused to underline. If we forgive others, our Father forgives us, but if we refuse to forgive, we close our own hearts to forgiveness. To pray this honestly means naming our own sins before God and receiving His cleansing, and also naming before Him those who have sinned against us, praying for them and releasing them to the One who alone judges and saves.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. Temptation always presents a choice to walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit, often with the promise of immediate satisfaction if we step off God's path. We ask God to keep us from the places where we would be drawn into the flesh, to guard us from deception, from evil people and false teaching, and to deliver us from the enemy himself. He does not force our will, but prayer opens the door for Him to do in us what He has long desired to do, to keep and protect us.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. Prayer that begins with God ends with God, with praise and confidence that He has heard and will act. All power in heaven and earth belongs to Him, and His is an everlasting kingdom that will finally be given to His saints forever, when the present rule of darkness is ended.
The wisest prayer we can pray is simply, Lord, have Your perfect way in my life. As you continue to use this pattern, take it slowly, phrase by phrase, make it personal, and let each part become worship, surrender and trust. God will honor a heart that seeks His kingdom first.
