Matthew 6:13 NKJV
[13] For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
I believe that we often have the wrong idea about prayer. That we have somehow forgotten what it is.
Prayer is not a meditation exercise.
Neither is it an opportunity to present God with a ‘shopping list’ of things that you want Him to do for you.
Prayer is not a place where we wrestle, battle or prevail. That is theologically incorrect, unBiblical nonsense.
Who are we supposed to prevail against? God?
Are you serious?
Those who believe such things have forgotten what prayer is. The verb ‘to pray’ comes from the Latin verb ‘precari’, which means ‘to entreat’.
Or, to put it in a way easier to understand, it’s when we would go to someone more powerful than ourselves, such as a Lord, a judge, a governor or a King, to ask for his help in a matter that exceeds our ability or capability.
What I am saying is that some of the modern models of prayer have less to do with what prayer actually is than the appearance of two prostitutes before King Solomon to ask him to intervene in their situation (1 Kings 3:16-28). Or to Queen Esther, when she approached King Artaxerxes to appeal for her people (Esther 5:1-8).
These approaches to a more powerful person generally had a structure, which we can see clearly if we look at Paul’s respectful appeal to King Agrippa (Acts 26). There is firstly some form of praise for the person hearing the appeal, during which the appellant mentions why they brought the appeal to this particular person (Acts 26:2-3). There is the substance of the appeal, which contains its justification (Acts 26:4-23), and then the conclusion of the appeal, where the appellant states precisely what they are looking for (Acts 26:25-29).
Now look at the Lord’s Prayer.
The structure is precisely the same.
So what you are seeing here is prayer as an appeal to a higher power – the Higher Power.
Now, if you ask a more powerful person to intervene on your behalf, you don’t then take matters into your own hands, do you? You stand back and let them handle it.
That’s exactly what we should do in prayer. We take our situation to God. We ask Him to intervene. We entrust ourselves to His love and His justice and His mercy.
But we leave the problem with Him.
We don’t feel anxious about it. We don’t stress about it. We don’t fret about it.
That is what makes our burden lighter.
That is what prayer is.
It is not about us. It is never about us.
It is always, always about God.
Everything about it is God.
That leads us to the final verse of this prayer. Not all manuscripts have it, but I believe it is a very fitting end to this prayer and to our in-depth study.
This verse teaches why we come to God in prayer, and why we can have confidence in Him that He will hear and answer our prayer.
Why?
Because it says that three things belong to God.
The first of these is The Kingdom.
In other words, that God is in charge.
At the start of this prayer, we prayed that His Kingdom would come. We looked at this verse in particular:
Matthew 6:33 NIV
[33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
In other words, we should seek to be ruled over by God, we should seek to obey Him, and this should be visible in the way that we live.
It also means that we allow God to take control and rule over how we use our gifts and resources (Luke 19:11-27).
As I write these words, the younger of my sisters is celebrating becoming a US citizen. Around eighteen years ago, my wife became a UK citizen. When someone becomes a citizen of another country, they agree to abide by the laws of their new country. Because, you see, citizenship can be revoked.
If we pray this prayer, and we invoke this clause, we become citizens of Heaven and live by its laws.
That is what it takes to be part of the Kingdom of God.
It is not at all a passive thing.
Apart from the Kingdom, we see that God as The Power.
And this important. There are those who hold grand titles, but actually have next to no power. For example, all across Africa there are many, many tribal kings, but they have a mostly ceremonial role with little or no executive power.
It’s even the same in the former colonial power, the United Kingdom. King Charles has ceremonial power. He has some influence. But executive power belongs to the Houses of Parliament, not to him.
God is not like that. He has the Kingdom, but He also has the power. He has position, the strength and the influence to get things done.
Psalms 68:34 NIV
[34] Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the heavens.
Psalms 77:13-14 NIV
[13] Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God? [14] You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.
But this power does not express itself in domination and terrorisation. No, it expresses itself in the wonder of meekness and gentleness:
John 13:3-5 NIV
[3] Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; [4] so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. [5] After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
It also expresses itself in conquering the one enemy that we fear the most: death itself.
Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV
[14] Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— [15] and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
So when we take our prayers to God, we do not take them to some middle-management flunkey whose hands are tied and whose computer can only say ‘No’.
Not at all. We take our prayers to Almighty God.
And He will answer them.
In His time.
Because He is able.
We see here that His is the Kingdom and the power, but also the Glory.
Now, this is quite an interesting one.
Let’s say that you are driving on the highway and your car breaks down. You try to fix it yourself. You can’t. The repair is too complex.
So you call roadside assistance. The despatcher takes your call and despatches a skilled mechanic, who fixes your car in no time and gets you going once more.
Who gets the glory?
Is it you, who called roadside assistance?
Is it the despatcher, who called the mechanic?
Or is the mechanic, who fixed your car?
All had their part to play, of course, but the mechanic was actually the person who fixed the problem.
Prayer is a little like this.
Those who make a huge show of calling on God to intervene in situations, and whose private spirituality does not match up to their public display, are trying to steal the glory from God. They want a share of it. They want the honour of God answering their prayers.
Those who write all those books on prayer and on how, if you follow their teaching, you will bend God’s will to your own, are like a despatcher trying to take the credit for the mechanic fixing your car. They want the glory – and, more importantly, the money.
So when you see those books published or adverts for the TV shows or the ultra-expensive conferences, bear this in mind:
It’s all a scam and a sham. All of it. They have no better access to God than you do. In fact, yours is better, because you are not guilty of misusing the Name of the Lord for selfish financial gain.
In fact, these shysters do not even worship God. They worship money. Or themselves.
The glory belongs to God and God alone. He alone silences all of heaven to hear our prayers and answers them in power.
And let this be a warning to the scoundrels who want to share His glory:
Isaiah 42:8 NIV
[8] “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.
Galatians 6:7 NIV
[7] Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
Let me tell you something that perhaps has never crossed your mind:
Moses lost his place in the Promised Land because he tried to share God’s glory. Look at these verses:
Numbers 20:7-12 NIV
[7] The Lord said to Moses, [8] “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” [9] So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. [10] He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” [11] Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. [12] But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
Deuteronomy 32:48-52 NIV
[48] On that same day the Lord told Moses, [49] “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. [50] There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. [51] This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. [52] Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”
Moses might have blamed the Israelites for the intensity of their complaining (Deuteronomy 3:23-28), but the real root cause was Moses setting aside the holiness and the glory of God.
We must take this as a warning.
Ask yourself these searching questions: ‘When I pray, whose glory am I seeking? When God answers, who gets the glory?’
Let me tell you, there is no better way to examine who it really is you are praying for and to.
In 1972, the American singer Carly Simon released a song that went on to become a huge hit. It was called ‘You’re So Vain’. It was a song aimed at one of her ex-lovers. It featured the rather brilliant line, ‘You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you.’
For more than fifty years, the press has constantly speculated on who this song could have been written about. Carly, to her credit, has said nothing. So whoever this vain ex-lover is, he still won’t know if the song is about him or not.
Although he might think that it is.
Are we so vain that we think prayer is about us?
Does our vanity stretch to use ‘performance prayers’ as a perverse form of spiritual entertainment to get people to think better of us?
Does it stretch to believing that God owes us favours and should give is exactly what we want, when we want and how we want?
Does it stretch to using prayer as a good luck charm and becoming badly disappointed when things don’t work out?
Does it stretch to us using the means of strengthening our relationship with God as nothing more than a stress or relaxation aid?
Just how vain are we?
Because prayer is not about us.
It is about God.
If it becomes about us, then we are setting ourselves up as our own idol and that is wrong.
Look at this prayer. Look at it closely.
Even the three things we think are about us – provision, absolution and temptation – are really about God and His glory being expressed through us. They express our utter incapability to do these things on our own and our total dependence on Him.
This prayer is ultimately about entering the courts of Heaven and handing our situation over to God.
That doesn’t mean we do nothing. Far from it. It means that whatever we do, we seek His glory and His guidance.
That is what makes the difference.
We live in times where every aspect of spirituality is being questioned. This has resulted in an explosion of severe mental health issues as people feel the chill of having to face life on their own.
But maybe our modern times have caused you to ask ‘What is prayer for?’
Jesus didn’t ask that question. He didn’t need to. That’s why He said to His disciples ‘When you pray...’
Prayer is when we take our situation and we hand it over to God, recognising who He is, what He can do and seeking for Him to get the glory.
That is why we pray.
That is why we should pray continually.
That is why we should never stop praying.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank You so much for teaching Your disciples – and also me – about what prayer really is. Help me to do more of it, and to take all of my life to You in prayer. Amen.
Questions
1. Why should we pray? What are the benefits of praying?
2. Who is prayer really about? What is its purpose?
3. How has this study affected the way that you pray?
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