| CHRISTIAN LIFE AND DOCTRINE | August 2009 |
Our Privilege of Prayer
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“Thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” |
ENTERING INTO PRAYER with our loving Heavenly Father is a great blessing and the vital breath of every faithful consecrated child of God.
The psalmist wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.” (Ps. 111:10) When Jesus died, he made possible a direct access to the Heavenly Father through the merit of his shed blood on behalf of all who believed in him.
THE MODEL PRAYER
Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, and gave them a model that is known as the “Lord’s Prayer.” (Matt. 6:9-13) It contains all of the necessary elements for successful communication with the Heavenly Father and a desire to know and do his will. The wise will heed the Master’s instructions and approach God with a reverent heart with the expression, “Hallowed be thy name.”—vs. 9
Uppermost in the minds of all consecrated Christians should be the establishment of God’s future kingdom for restoring righteousness and peace over all the earth. How truly wonderful it will be when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.—vs. 10
God has promised to supply all of our daily needs, and we should ever be in an attitude of forgiveness toward those who may trespass against us. (vss. 11,12) He will deliver us from evil and the wicked one if we remain faithful to him. The foes of the New Creation are ever well organized under the evil one Satan, and we as followers of Christ need God’s continual help to successfully oppose his many schemes.—vs. 13
Through Jesus’ model prayer we find all of the objectives of honoring and praising God, praying for his kingdom, thanking him for his goodness and mercy, and asking for his forgiveness and assisting grace whenever we need him.
We can communicate with the Heavenly Father at any time and ask for anything in accordance with his will. Let us use this privilege frequently and thus fulfill the admonition, “Pray without ceasing.” (I Thess. 5:17) “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”—I John 5:14,15