There is nothing that the Lord has given us that has no purpose. Everything that He has created has a purpose, or otherwise He would not have created or given it to us, including the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13. "Pray then like this: '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 also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, The power, and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen.’”
We asked Jesus to teach us to pray. And Jesus said, this is how you should pray - Matthew 6:9-13. He could have given us a different set of prayer to recite, but He did not! He gave us a powerful prayer.
But what did we do with it? We ignore His prayer. We make our own prayer. We say a different prayer than what He had taught us to say in Matthew 6:9-13 - and say it all in 15 seconds or less! Why then do we wonder why God hasn't answered our prayers? Doesn’t He already know our hearts? I believe that one of the reason why He has not answered our prayers is because we do not really believe in the power of His prayer - the Lord’s Prayer. Or, we don't mean what we say in our prayers! It could also be because we do not practice what we say in our prayers.
Some of us might wonder and ask what is the purpose of teaching us how to pray? What is so difficult about praying, some ask? I believe the main reason why Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer is to teach us the basics or essentials of what we should or must include in our prayers; and not pray like the Pharisees. When we pray to Jesus we hope that He will hear and respond to our prayer. However, the Bible says that God will not accept our prayer and offering unless it has met certain conditions (Matthew 5:23-24) - "be reconciled to our bother" or whomever we have offended and ask for forgiveness, as we also have forgiven those who offended us. More importantly, we should not only forgive those who offended us, but we must also FORGET! Forgive and forget. When we forgive and forget, that is evidence of God’s LOVE in us. But when we forgive but don’t forget, that is evidence of the lack of God's love in us. That is evidence that God is NOT in us. TRUE FORGIVENESS IS TO FORGIVE AND TO FORGET!
"For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." Jeremiah 31:34. "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48) How could we be perfect? COPY HIM! That's all, just COPY Him!
And there are also other reasons why God would not hear our prayers, such as when we ask for things that He would not approve. And not only that, and this is important, that we must pray according to His direction. When He says pray like "this," we must pray like "this," and not pray like "that," or pray like the Pharisees, however way they want to say or pray. When we pray we must mean what we say, and we must be earnest. We must be mindful when we pray and follow His direction, or His will - “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. Why is this so important? In Luke 22:42, when Jesus was faced with death He said, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Here we see that even Jesus subjected His will to the will of the Father - “Your will be done.” We do not always get right away what we ask from God in our prayer. Or we may get the answer in a different form. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of God, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.’” In other words, His will comes first; our will comes second.
Many Christians, however, rarely say “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” when I hear them pray. They just say whatever their mouth wants to say, and expect that God will hear them; when in reality God may not hear what they are say, or even care what they want. You know why? Because they don't do the will of the Father. They just do their will. Don't forget, and this is very important! Do not expect that God will hear our prayer if we are disobedient to Him or refuse to do His will. God will not allow us to fool him!
People ignore or abandon God’s will - The 10 Commandments. They replace His commandments with their own invention. And then they claim that the 10 Commandments are dead after Jesus died on the cross. Have they never heard or read Matthew 5:17 where Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." So, who changed His laws if Jesus did not authorize the change? I suspect that the idea of changing God’s laws came from foolish Biblical scholars (Bible hackers) who think that they know the mind of God. They think that they can read and know God’s thinking. Who are they? They are Biblical scholars from Christian denomination. They are Bible hackers from all over the world. These Jesus salesmen have to come up with something new and something different daily to convert people to their religion.
“Jesus died for our sin” is getting too old for soul winning. If you say Jesus died for our sin to Muslims, they would care less. And so, Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear." Have you ever wondered why Paul would give us such a warning? The Catholics may have started and changed the Sabbath worship to Sunday worship, but the Martin Luther believers did the remaining rubbish. I believe that there is no end to what the Protestant Biblical Scholars will do to change God’s words. We know that the Catholics are well established financially. They are solid financially throughout the world. They do not need to change God’s words for their survival. The Catholics rarely add new doctrines to their religion. But the Protestants, compared to the Catholics, are a group of poor people. They are very dependent on the Biblical scholars for new ideas to attract new converts. They do not care whether what they teach is Biblical or not, whether they are true or not as long as they can tickle our ears and generate wealth. That is their strong selling point - tickle our ears! Look at their new doctrines that say that once we are saved, we are saved forever; and we cannot sin because Jesus has died for our sin. They know that Jesus did not die to redeem our sins. How do we know for sure that we are saved?
Only God knows whether we are saved, or not, right? Jesus said only those who stayed faithful until the end will be saved! How then can preachers assure their members that they are saved? Those are all nonsense and garbage!
There is more about salvation that we don’t know. We may think that we know the Bible. We may think that we are saved. We may think that we are smarter than God. But unless we do the will of the Father, what we think doesn’t matter. It means nothing to God! What matters is WHAT THE FATHER THINKS ABOUT US! Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Are the Protestant reformists not happy with what they have already inherited from their mother church? Do they still want to add some more nonsense and garbage?
Finally, I want to say a little bit more about “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'', the latter part of the Lord’s Prayer. I often ask myself this question for a long time, does Jesus lead us into temptations? And my answers is no.
After some earnest prayer, this is what I believe what that verse says. We often find ourselves in situations, because of our stupidity, where we put ourselves in the path of temptations where we have to lie, cheat, and so on. That’s what stupid people do. But we also know that liars and cheaters will not inherit the kingdom of God. So what do we do? I ask the Lord every night when I pray to Him to help me avoid situations where I might fall into temptation or commit sin. I asked God
to help me every day so I don’t put myself in the path of temptations.
When I was young, I liked to dive into a pool of sin and temptations each day. I was stupid then - very stupid! But ever since I followed His direction and said “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'' when I pray, I see miracles in my life. Jesus helped me to avoid falling into traps or temptations every day. Praise Jesus! Praise the Father! He answered my prayer!! It works! If you like to lie and say, “Once saved, forever saved,” or “Because Jesus had died for our sin we can no longer sin,” I strongly suggest that you repeat the latter part of the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," and patiently wait! It works! It works! Thanks to God! Finally, do you want to know why Jesus taught us to say, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”? I believe here is the reason why. And I suggest that you carefully study, understand and remember, and don’t ever forget!
He wants us to understand and remember that His will reigns supreme! HIS WILL REIGNS SUPREME, not Paul's will, or John's will, your will, or my will! Only by doing His will can we avoid from falling into the devil's traps.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’” (Matthew 7:21.) Faith in Jesus is not adequate for our salvation. Faith in Maria does not assure us of our salvation. But do the will of the Father who is in heaven will guarantee our salvation!
The Lord's Prayer is a powerful tool that Jesus gave us to fight the devil! Recite it with confidence and sincerity, and we sill see miracles; and you will see miracles in your life too!
I have seen people cast out demons by simply reciting the Lord's prayer. God bless!
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