How To Pray (2): Approaching God
How To Pray
Part Two: Approaching God
This is part two of my brief series on How To Pray (For Beginners Only), a look at Jesus’ teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount. Read part one here.
Last week I talked about how prayer doesn’t have to be long to be meaningful. Today I want to look at what Jesus said about how to approach God in prayer. Before you ask God for anything it’s important to view God in the right light.
How to View God in Prayer
The first two sentences of Jesus’ model prayer (often referred to as The Lord’s Prayer) gives us a good idea of how to view God. Jesus mentions three things to keep in mind.
1. Prayer Sees God As Father
Jesus tells us to start our prayers by addressing God as “Father.” Don’t take this for granted. The word “father” implies intimacy and a personal relationship. You don’t have to go cowering into the presence of a loving father. Neither do you have to cower before God. Like a loved child, you can run into his presence to tell him whatever is on your mind.
2. Prayer Sees God As Holy
The second thing Jesus tells us is to acknowledge that God is from heaven and he’s holy.
“Our Father, who is in heaven, holy is your name.” Matthew 6:9
Notice how he puts “father” and “holy” in the same sentence. In other words, we need to balance the intimacy of God with his transcendence. Just because he’s your father doesn’t mean that you can approach him with familiarity. It’s a delicate balance.
God’s holiness means he’s set apart from everything and everyone on earth, meaning he’s different…unlike anyone you can comprehend or imagine. He’s not like you and me…at all. As Dylan once sang, He’s not just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desire. (When You Gonna Wake Up?)
Telling God that he’s holy sets the tone of your prayer. It's a way of humbling yourself and acknowledging that you haven’t come to tell God your agenda but rather, you want to know God’s agenda for your life.
3. Prayer Invites God’s Kingdom
After you establish that God is your Father and holy Jesus gave us the heartbeat for your prayer. You should pray,
“May Your Kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10
Praying for God’s kingdom to come isn’t about asking Jesus to return. It’s about asking God to bring his kingdom through you and his church.
What does it mean to have God’s kingdom come on earth through you?
The context of Jesus’ teaching on prayer was what we call his Sermon on the Mount (See Matthew, chapters 5-7). In that sermon Jesus got very specific about what his kingdom looks like.
We bring his kingdom in a variety of ways. For example, His kingdom comes when we walk in humility or offer mercy and show justice to the oppressed.
The kingdom comes when we don’t stir up division but rather seek to make peace in our relationships. God's kingdom comes when we bear up under persecution and love our enemies rather than retaliate. God’s kingdom comes when we choose sexual purity over impurity and unity over divorce.
Put simply...God's kingdom comes when we live out a life that reflects the character and generosity of God.
It’s important to note that God’s kingdom doesn’t come politically. It's not something that can be imposed on the world. That’s a common misconception in our world today.
Too many people think they can vote God’s kingdom into existence. They believe that if we just pass the right laws and elect the right representatives then God’s kingdom will come. But that’s missing the point.
God’s kingdom comes when you and I live out the teachings of Jesus among our friends and family, in our workplace, on our sports teams and in school. God’s kingdom comes when we choose to model the character of God in everything we do.
So when you pray, offer yourself as a vessel for God to bring his kingdom into your world.
Prayer is About Aligning With God
These three ideas should frame all your prayers to ensure that you are on the same wavelength with God.
Prayer is about alignment. If you approach God willing to submit to God’s will you’ll find your prayers to be answered more often than not.
In my next post, I’ll cover the three things that Jesus said we can pray for with confidence knowing that God will answer. Subscribe here to make sure you get the next post.
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