Matthew 6:5-15
5 “Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. I assure you: They’ve got their reward! 6 But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 When you pray, don’t babble like the idolaters, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask Him.
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The Model Prayer
9 “Therefore, you should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.
14 “For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. 15 But if you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing.”
Related Text:
Psalm 5
Mark 11:22-26
Luke 11:1-13
Luke 18:1-14
James 5:13-20
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If you don’t know what to say or how to pray, no sweat! Just start by talking to God like you would talk with a friend or family member, or anyone that you really trust and feel secure around. God hears your prayers. He’s not sitting around grading us on how good or how spiritual we sound in our prayers. (If anything, He’s grading our attitudes and the condition of our hearts, not if we use big words. He judges our motives and if we are praying just so we can impress others who hear us.) We always worry because we don’t sound like our pastor at church, or our Sunday school teacher, or our parents. Don’t worry about that stuff, just begin a conversation with God.
When you pour out your heart and your words to God, He knows exactly what you are saying! No matter how confusing you think you are, He knows what you mean.
Verses 12 and 14 and 15 are pretty huge. If we cannot forgive others who wrong us and sin against us, God will not forgive us. Start there if you can’t come up with anything else to pray about. Start with forgiving people in your life that have done something to you. Whatever it is, however big or little it is, forgive them. This new life Jesus has given us, the sacrifice He made for us, is too important for our excuses! As God has forgiven us of our sins, so we MUST forgive others who have wronged us. No one said it will be easy, but it must be done.
WARNING: The more you pray and spill out your heart to God, the more you will want to pray. Before you know it, you’ll be praying all the time!
