“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to ESCAPE all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Lk. 21:36). You can watch through: 1) Diligent study of God’s Word, and 2) Prayer. When you are prayerful, you will be watchful.
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.” Before Jesus requested for anything from the Father, He first of all established a relationship with Him.
Jesus called God “Father.” Prayer is not about manipulation. It is about communion. Prayer is not a performance. It is participation in the divine relationship.
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 His unequalled goodness. 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.”
Ephesians 3:14-19 says, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
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.
Jehoshaphat started with God as Father when he prayed. “Father, are You not God seated in Heaven…”
Even Jesus started with the Father when He prayed. And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26:39).
2. Hallow His Name. This is adoration! In this kind of prayer, you are not asking God for anything. You are just adoring Him, honouring His name.
Before you talk about your needs to God in prayer, 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. So, the right approach to God is to come to Him because He is your Father.
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).
True prayer is born when truth and spirit meet, when your heart aligns with His holiness (will). Psalms 22:3 reminds us that God inhabits the praises of His people.
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.
"Hallowed" means holy. As we pray like this we are reminding ourselves that God is separate from us, completely pure and faultless. Here we become aware of our own frailty as we adore and worship the living God.
Acts 4:23-24 says, “And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. 24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made Heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is…”
Psalms 100:2, 4, 5 says, “…come before His presence with singing…4 Enter into His GATES with thanksgiving, and into His COURTS with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His Name. 5 For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.”
To be continued!!
Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!
Your friend, I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor). 09.11.2025, @ HQs
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