Post by Zac Loh on Dec 10, 2008 4:39:02 GMT -5
I was driving one day, when The Lord's Prayer came out of my lips. There was a flow of the Spirit.
It was a surprising occurrence because I did have a negative mental connotation attached to The Lord's Prayer: it was too rigid for me. But I prayed The Lord's Prayer that afternoon.
I felt the Lord was doing something in my life, my devotional life in particular. From that day on, I decided to study The Lord's Prayer and practice it …and practice and study.
The Lord’s Prayer is two-fold. Firstly, God is looking to answer our prayer. Because of that, we have to pray rightly. And secondly, this prayer is also meant to affect us.
The Word of God is powerful when we hunger for it like the time when food is scarce during a catastrophic war, natural disaster or famine. When we practice the Word of God such as our lives are depended on it, we will have spiritual nuclear power. Prayer is the spiritual nuclear plant.
The Lord’s Prayer is the Word of God. The pattern and sequential arrangement in this prayer reveals God’s priority for our lives. By following The Lord’s Prayer, our own priorities will be changed and our core values will be molded – divinely by the Spirit of God. The Lord’s Prayer will affect and shape our character, personality and behavior.
Therefore, we will have to pray sincerely from the innermost part within us.
I thank God for His providence of The Lord's Prayer. I can literally say that it saved my spiritual life …and still saving. And will continue to be a foundation for my life.
Let me encourage you to read this short study until the end. It is not at the center where the climax is, but at the very end!
A section of society today will disapprove prayer supposing that prayer is for the weak and timid. On the contrary, prayer requires courage and faith, to trust God enough to spend time praying!
We are not talking about a few well-known common lines of prayer, here and there, but investing a substantial amount of time in daily prayer. It is about persistently giving-up some pleasure of normal living, some material advancement and some money-making opportunities, to dedicate ourselves fully to prayer on a consistent basis.
Let’s not kid ourselves, living such a life calls for courage and faith!
Does God answer prayer? Of course, He does. Because He loves you, He is waiting for you.
He is waiting for you to take courage, to have the faith to pray sincerely and whole-heartedly.
He is waiting for you to humble yourself in order to learn the right way of praying.
He is waiting for you to realize that He is working in you, to help you get the answers to prayers.
He is waiting for you to trust Him enough, knowing that He loves you absolutely.
He is waiting for you to grow and have the continual-and-unwavering faith.
He is waiting for you to reach the level where you can persist with Him in prayer like Jacob did.
He is waiting for you to reach the level where you can reason-out with Him in prayer like Moses did.
He is waiting for you to reach the level where you can negotiate with Him in prayer like Abraham did.
There are many powerful prayers in the Bible. Each prayer is an entire subject matter all by itself. You will discover that The Lord’s Prayer is the foundation of them all. Our learning is ever-expanding, ever-growing, simply because the truth of The Lord’s Prayer is a living word from The Living Word.
We must learn how to pray. The one who prays, changes the world.
Jesus Himself modeled The Lord’s Prayer for others. Even so, today, there is much to be caught beyond what is taught.
It was a surprising occurrence because I did have a negative mental connotation attached to The Lord's Prayer: it was too rigid for me. But I prayed The Lord's Prayer that afternoon.
I felt the Lord was doing something in my life, my devotional life in particular. From that day on, I decided to study The Lord's Prayer and practice it …and practice and study.
The Lord’s Prayer is two-fold. Firstly, God is looking to answer our prayer. Because of that, we have to pray rightly. And secondly, this prayer is also meant to affect us.
The Word of God is powerful when we hunger for it like the time when food is scarce during a catastrophic war, natural disaster or famine. When we practice the Word of God such as our lives are depended on it, we will have spiritual nuclear power. Prayer is the spiritual nuclear plant.
The Lord’s Prayer is the Word of God. The pattern and sequential arrangement in this prayer reveals God’s priority for our lives. By following The Lord’s Prayer, our own priorities will be changed and our core values will be molded – divinely by the Spirit of God. The Lord’s Prayer will affect and shape our character, personality and behavior.
Therefore, we will have to pray sincerely from the innermost part within us.
I thank God for His providence of The Lord's Prayer. I can literally say that it saved my spiritual life …and still saving. And will continue to be a foundation for my life.
Let me encourage you to read this short study until the end. It is not at the center where the climax is, but at the very end!
A section of society today will disapprove prayer supposing that prayer is for the weak and timid. On the contrary, prayer requires courage and faith, to trust God enough to spend time praying!
We are not talking about a few well-known common lines of prayer, here and there, but investing a substantial amount of time in daily prayer. It is about persistently giving-up some pleasure of normal living, some material advancement and some money-making opportunities, to dedicate ourselves fully to prayer on a consistent basis.
Let’s not kid ourselves, living such a life calls for courage and faith!
Does God answer prayer? Of course, He does. Because He loves you, He is waiting for you.
He is waiting for you to take courage, to have the faith to pray sincerely and whole-heartedly.
He is waiting for you to humble yourself in order to learn the right way of praying.
He is waiting for you to realize that He is working in you, to help you get the answers to prayers.
He is waiting for you to trust Him enough, knowing that He loves you absolutely.
He is waiting for you to grow and have the continual-and-unwavering faith.
He is waiting for you to reach the level where you can persist with Him in prayer like Jacob did.
He is waiting for you to reach the level where you can reason-out with Him in prayer like Moses did.
He is waiting for you to reach the level where you can negotiate with Him in prayer like Abraham did.
There are many powerful prayers in the Bible. Each prayer is an entire subject matter all by itself. You will discover that The Lord’s Prayer is the foundation of them all. Our learning is ever-expanding, ever-growing, simply because the truth of The Lord’s Prayer is a living word from The Living Word.
We must learn how to pray. The one who prays, changes the world.
Jesus Himself modeled The Lord’s Prayer for others. Even so, today, there is much to be caught beyond what is taught.