Getting Real Through Prayer the Lord’s Way… (Mt.6:5-15)

[HKHaugan]

Getting Real Through Prayer the Lord's Way

Prayer starts with us, who we are as images and children of God.  Prayer is basic and it takes place where we are and what is going on right in the present moment.  Three things to know about prayer: first it’s spiritual, second, it’s personal and third it’s relational.  All three are what happen in our minds and hearts and how we present it in our spirit.  When Jesus was asked by His disciples, “Teach us to pray…(Lk.11:1)” He gave them a very specific method that answered those three areas.  For most people it is used as a liturgical prayer which is fine, but it is really a basic teaching on how and what to pray for given to answer His disciples’ request.

Look at it basically. Look at the themes it presents.  Everything we think and do needs to go to our spiritual Dad (Abba, Father-Rom.8:15).  Sure, we can’t see Him.  But let’s just go to Him and start talking.  We don’t need to go to a building or recite some memorized prose.  Just stop and go in our inner mind and heart with what is going on in there.  They are our room, our closet that no one else can enter anyway.  And know this, we are not alone in that room because the Holy Spirit is there carrying what we talk about to the Father, to Dad (Rom.8:27). 

 Read Jesus’ instruction in verses before, vs.5-8.  Go in the room, get rid of the distractions, the rules, whether or not we are doing it right and all that stuff.  We’re thinking DAD and He hears us because the Spirit is there giving ‘Dad’ what’s really taking place; the good, the bad, the ugly, the hurts, the pains and all the rest.  He knows us inside out.  We get off the religious wagon and go to Dad personally knowing the Holy Spirit is instantly carrying our words and emotions to the Father, ‘our Father.’  It’s simply getting real with God. 

 Jesus really got down to it when He prayed in the Garden before He was arrested (John  17).  His prayer to His Dad was so personally deep it made Him cry in tears of blood (Lk.22:44).  His outward tears were not only for Himself but for our inner fears, hopes and burning yearning as well.  He wept for us while His disciples slept.  He’s not asking us to sweat blood.  Only He could do that.  John mentions it because we need to know what Jesus has done for each of us personally.  Some of us just don’t get it.  All He is asking us to do is to lift up to Him everything in our lives while we are on the way.  He’s got our backs. 

Look at His teaching now.  Get His spiritual message which is personal and relational as well, “Our Father.”  He’s including each of us, our personal relationship with Him, on His journey into the Father’s presence. 

 “Hallowed be your name.”  This needs special attention before we get into the rest of the teaching.  “Hallow’ (Gk.hagiastheto---consider Holy), means to literally ‘make holy.’  It can be read with the word ‘hollow’ as in ‘hollow out.’  In mind, heart and spirit, hollow out a place with Jesus being the gate to where Abba, Dad, reigns.  So ‘hollow out’ a special place in the mind, in the heart and in the spirit, a holy place where He alone can dwell, where He “can rest His head.”  When Jesus said that in this world the Son of Man has no place to lay His head (Lk. 9:59), He desired to lay His head in us, our mind, heart and spirit.  This leads us to the first and great commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (Lk.10:27)…”  Herein lies the beginning of true prayer, going into the ‘hollowed out‘ places in our mind, heart and spirit. 

 The gate you walk through is Jesus Himself.  Only He knows who the real Holy Father is and how to access Him.  Like it or not we are not Holy like God.  The holiness we’re presenting is simply our willingness to be a part of His family as spiritual children maturing in and for His service.  It’s called belief, trust, faith in His Son to bring us to Him.  Let Him into the inner sanctum of our being.  Then He walks with us into His pasture feeding us with His Word so that we can walk into the world with Him at our side.

 “Your kingdom come, your will be done” means as His children we have an immediate and a long-term task when we pray.  It’s to let Him do what He knows best for His Kingdom to be presented through us where we are as it has already been done in Heaven.  Heaven is where He has already prepared a place for us. That’s when we will shift from our ‘prayer room’ to our ‘Heavenly room (John 14:2).”  But now we have our room to carry around in this world and each moment is a moment to take what we are given, talk about it to Him and let His will operate in it.

 Then we are to pray for the specifics of what we are going to going through (the daily bread, His Word to nourish our spirits with His Spirit.)  That’s personal for each of us.  Of course, we know the need for repentance and forgiveness which is an ongoing process and, by the way, a holy process to clear the deck for every next moment.  While we are at it, watch out for the tempter who is always presenting us with an easy way out when the unanswerable and the uncontrollable takes place.  The great temptation the devil puts in our way is to act out of fear and frustration.  Be aware that the devil is stalking us in the inner weaknesses we have and things like the temptation to compromise our new man with the old man (2Cor.5:17).  They’re always there in the spiritual atmosphere (atmosfear) around us.

 Let prayer, talking to ‘Dad,’ be an ongoing process while we are on the way each day.  That’s why we repeat “For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  That keeps us honest.  It’s all about God’s Kingdom, His power and His glory. 

 So, Jesus has given us a simple set of instructions in the way we can talk to “Our Dad” spiritually, personally and relationally.  It’s not the normal recitation that counts.  It’s the ongoing relational process Jesus gives us as we spiritually encounter every next moment.  We do it with our Father, our Dad, the way Jesus did it.  Again, Jesus is the example not only in John 17 but in the many times the Word mentions Him moving into times of prayer.  With Jesus prayer was a process, a lifestyle, a heart style and a spirit style, not a recitation to cover a momentary need. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil for Thou art with me… (Ps.23:4).”  His life is His gift of grace for each of us beckoning us to follow His lead while we are on the way through the valley of days given us on this planet.  What a ride!