Today we are going to look at “THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PRAYER” as taught by the Lord Himself. And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased (stopped), one of His disciples said unto Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Lk. 11:1).
And Jesus said unto them, “WHEN ye pray…” (Lk. 11:2). He said to His disciples, “When” and not “if” you pray, because every believer has been called to pray (Lk. 18:1; 1 Thess. 5:17).
In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus taught His disciples saying, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread.12 And forgive us our debts (trespasses), as we forgive our debtors (those that offended us). 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
For your prayers to be effective, you should:
1. Approach the God of Heaven as your Father – Daddy. Jesus prayed saying, “Our Father, who art in Heaven.”
Look at what the Bible says about you if you are Born Again: Romans 8:15 declares, “You have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father.”
When you understand that you have been adopted into the family of God, you’ll stop praying like a beggar.
You have to be grateful to God for all He has been doing for you because gratitude is the language of belonging.
Psalms 100:4 says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.”
You must start with God as your Father. When you start with our Father, you are reminding heaven and hell whom you belong to. Let me ask you: Do you have a relationship with the Father in the first place?
Certainly, if you are not Born Again, you don’t have the Spirit of God, and you don’t belong to God.
So, the right approach to God is to come to Him because He is your Father.
2. Hallow His Name. This is adoration! Secondly, you should come to Him with praise and worship. Here the relationship changes from intimacy to reverence. Sonship does not erase respect.
Psalm 34:1-3 says, “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
To magnify means to make bigger, not because God changes in size, but because your perspective does. When you hallow His name, your problems shrink in the presence of His power (Jn. 4:24).
In this kind of prayer, you are not asking God for anything. You are just adoring Him, honouring His name.
Before you talk to God about your needs, you must first of all magnify His name in worship. Worship is not an introduction to prayer. It is the atmosphere in which prayer lives. Worship Him by expressing how much you love Him. When you praise God, you are praising His acts. But when you worship God, you are appreciating Him for who He is – His Person.
When you worship, heaven takes residence in your space. Isaiah saw this when he cried “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa. 6:3).
When you hallow His name, you are not informing God of His holiness, you are reminding your soul that He is worthy. You are lifting your eyes from earth’s problems to heaven’s throne. You are shifting your focus from anxiety to adoration, from panic to peace.
When worship becomes your language, worry loses its power. You cannot complain and commune with God at the same time. The moment you say, “Hallowed be thy Name,” you are reminding darkness that your trust is not in circumstances but in the unchanging character of God.
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
Your friend, I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor).
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