THE WAY TO PRAY

So, you don't how to pray or what to say! Jesus understood our timidity! We do not inherently know how to pray to praise God, so He gave us an example of what God wants to hear. Jesus gave a way to pray that pleases Him as He is God Himself.

“Hail Mary’s” are not the way to pray and neither is a public display of wordy prayers. Praying should be simple and to the point. Jesus gave an example about how we are to pray: 

⁹ After this manner therefore pray you: “Our Father which is in heaven, Hallowed be your Name. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come, Your will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven. ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. ¹³ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” (Mat 6:9-13) 

Christians are not to pray that exact prayer, but in the same manner, and each prayer should be different: “When you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (verse 7).

Praying in that manner should be praying in that fashion, not in those exact words. The order of the prayer should be in this manner: 

·         Address the prayer to the “Father” — The benevolent Creator God and Savior. Designate which “Father” by the One God that is in Heaven. (There are many more who claim Godhead, so direct your prayer to the real God. We are to pray to nobody else nor any other God in accordance with the First Commandment (Exod 20:3). Anybody includes Mary, the supposed “mother of God” who is just a human image, not God, nor even His mother!

·         It is to the “Father,” not Mother Mary. That is specific for even Jesus denied that Mary was His mother (Mat 12:48).

·         With that said, saying “Hail Mary’s” while fiddling with a rosary to count the repetitions is disrespectful to Father God even if it venerates Mary. “Veneration” is respecting Mary. Mary is a “likeness” of God — made in His Image: “You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God…” (Exod 20:5). Venerating Mary makes God jealous for she is not God.

·         Hallowed be His Name: Venerate God not Mary! “Hallowed” means to venerate, albeit veneration seems benign, if done to another being or even an idol, but it is blasphemy to God.

·         What is the Name of God? The “Father” is without a Name; He just is the Name. He called Himself, “Jesus” to specify which God. The Name, “Jesus” alone is to be venerated because Jesus is the only Way to Heaven; be it body, soul, or communication: Jesus Himself said, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). That includes going to Heaven or praying to the Father, “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). Mary nor any other person can mediate on your behalf, not even the preacher. Prayer is between you and God. The preacher may lead in prayer, but you must pray yourself; not just listen-in on his prayer but to communicate with God yourself. No longer is a priest or bishop necessary… “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him” (1 Pet 2:9). Prayer is praise of God, to wit: “Hallowed be Your Name!” You can say that without a mediator if you pray to the Divine Mediator, Jesus. Having a preacher or priest pray for you does not substitute for you praying yourself; it only supports your own prayer.

·         You are to pray, “Your Kingdom come.” It is not to pray that this kingdom on Earth remain but that you look forward to being with Him in person to see His Divine face yourself. It is hanging onto the promise of Paradise, not hanging onto the temporal things of the world. It is not wishing to die, but to die to the world. You must die to be “born again” (John 3:7). His Kingdom coming begins in your hearts. You must desire the Kingdom of God not dread it! With that said, you must seek to love the promise of the Kingdom of God more so than the kingdom of mammon: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mat 6;24). Praying “Your Kingdom come” is disowning the things of the world and the master of it — “The Prince of the Power of the Air” — the spirit of Satan (Ephes 2:2). You must not only choose the Kingdom of God but live it as if already in His Kingdom. (Mammon are the pleasantries of the world.)

·         Asking that God’s Kingdom come is His “Estate” of Paradise in Heaven. You are to pray, “Your will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven.” The entire Bible is more than history or even theology; it is the “Last Will and Testament of God” and the New Testament a codicil — a supplement —to the original Will, revealing the probation of God’s Will upon His death. How are things to be done in Heaven? Much differently than here. We are to endeavor to do things on Earth as in Heaven. In Heaven, it is God on the throne; nobody else; neither Mary nor us, and certainly not Lucifer. The economy on Earth is Luciferin whereas the economy in Heaven is godly and righteous. Iniquity is the economy of the Earth, and you are born iniquitous (Psalm 51:5). In Heaven, that iniquity, the desire to sin, will be eliminated. We are to ask that God remove the desire to sin from us now so that you do now what you will do in Heaven. To get the inheritance of the Father, you must do the will of the Father while you are still able.

·         Next you are to ask for supplication: “Give us this day our daily bread.” That asks that God provide nourishment to further our existence while on Earth. It also means much more than that: “Jesus said unto them, “I AM the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). Going to Jesus gets you no real bread but more Jesus. With Jesus, all things are possible because Jesus is God revealed to mankind (Mat 19:26). Seek Jesus and all your needs shall be met. Note that the “bread of life” is not pleasurable things but sustenance. We may go hungry but if in Christ, Christ will sustain us. In a sense, the prayer is not asking for “bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). The “bread” that we are to pray for is not leavened bread, nor even unleavened, but the very Word that Jesus said to mankind. We are to hunger for His Word, not victuals that He knows that we require.

·         “Forgive us our debts.” The translators in The Book of Mark used “trespasses” rather than “debts.” Of course, we all owe God even for our existence, but trespasses means that we entered the Estate of God unworthily. Of course we cannot pay God to go to Heaven, nor even work to get in because the charge is free. Trespassing is entering the Estate of God without being of the family of God, or even going to a forbidden place on God’s Estate. The original sin was mankind of both genders going where they were not to go. The woman failed by entering forbidden territory without questioning the ”Serpent,” Lucifer, if he was really the Authority. The woman failed because she knew that the Serpent was not the Proprietor and entered the forbidden place regardless. Adam knew the Law but had failed to reveal the Law to the woman. The sin of the woman was by omission and the sin of the male by commission. Therefore, even trespassing without knowing it is trespassing is forbidden, and we are to seek the knowledge of the Kingdom of God to avoid trespassing against Him. (The worst sin ever was a sin of omission, Jesus understood why He was crucified, “They know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). They should have understood scripture that revealed what they would do!

·         Next consider the injunction, “as we forgive our debtors.” Again, consider debtors as trespassers. Even those who owe money trespass against your property. A benevolent person forgives those who owe them if they have no ability to pay. Likewise, those who infringe upon your person can never “un-infringe;” that is irrational. Ideally speaking, your debtors are those who owe you an account for your discomfort. If you never forgive others for your stress, then do not expect them to relieve the stress they have for you. Holding animosity against those who trespass your person, don’t be shocked when they trespass your space with impunity.

·         Next, consider, “lead us not into temptation.” God does not tempt. Neither is it His pathway to sin. In other words, we ask God to block the path to sin and He will. Temptation is the trespass where we are not to go. If we don’t go onto the property of Satan, Satan cannot tempt us. He stays on his ground if we stay on ours, so to speak. God only allows Satan to tempt to see if we will fail as with Adam and Job. Adam failed; Job did not, although both had a hedge of safety about them. Adam’s was a literal hedge and Job’s invisible, albeit Satan could plainly see it (Job 1:10). Leading us not into temptation is never skirting the hedge of safety about us. If we, as Christians, could not go where we should not go, why would we pray to God to keep us from sin? We are safe unless we follow temptation — the very pathway to sin; “When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death” (Jas 1:15). Lust is the “bait,” or temptation that is the cause, and the effect is sin.

·         Next consider the request to “deliver us from evil.” God does that by blocking the pathway to temptation. It is like this; don’t go there unless you are prepared to die for whatever the pleasantry or fun might be, you will die for it. You need not worry about one sin, but one sin leads to a greater sin until God is as dead to even Christians (Heb 6:6). Sin kills God one increment at a time, and as we kill God, we die inside. We know what the future holds; God does not die, but we may very well die if we go where we should not go. It is not like a person dies for one sin, but thousands of sins does make one depraved being. “Iniquity” is the constant practice of sin that is our “inheritance” from the Wicked One. We do not know how many sins are enough for God to pardon, but God knows. God delivers His children from sin one sin at a time until we have become acclimated to not sin. Thusly, to deliver us from evil is harmonizing with the will of God. It is not that God makes us comply but delivers us from the necessity of complying by desiring to do His will.

·         Why should we care about what to pray? Jesus even provided the reason: “For yours (God’s) is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” God is sovereign and as His subjects, we should want to honor our Lord and King to please Him. It is not because our Sovereign makes us obey, but in a paradisical kingdom, we should want to live in accord with God and others, or it is not paradisical. If discord is what pleases anyone, the place for them is Hell where everyone hates everyone else, their sovereign (Satan) hates them, and they hate their sovereign.

·         “Forever.” Such a simple word but such a long time! It is not that there will be a new regime if we are patient and hold out, but that there are two kingdoms from which to choose. God does not send us to Hell and neither does Satan, to his credit. Everybody chooses their own eternal destiny, and it is as easy as choosing whose side it is to whom you belong — Christ’s or the Antichrist, Satan. The Holy Cross verses the Judas Tree are the only two choices. Do you trust mammon like Judas or Father God like Jesus? Even the priests had no use for Judas, and they were the greatest evil that day. Judas chose eternal death and sentenced himself, knowing full well that you cannot undermine Christ and love Him at the same time. His “wage” for that was much more than thirty pieces of silver, but eternally dying. Those who do not follow Christ, or even turn from him, get the same pay for the same time; they die, die, die to the nth power — forever; they indeed shall “surely die” (Gen 2:7) with death never consummated. It is an eternal process wherein time does not exist, but only forever and ever. Think about the payment that must be made for the fatal error of not trusting Christ for your eternal livelihood! 

I have taught you many implications of that pattern for praying. Words mean things, and prayer is expressing sincerity to God. Too many of us, me included, pray vainly. Jesus provided that example for praying to avoid the vanity of wasting your time in praying just words to hear the sounds of your own voices!

Where and how to pray? 

When thou pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, ‘They have their reward.’ But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. (Mat 6:5-6) 

Standing in Church praying out loud gets you the immediate reward — prestige. From God, it gets you nothing! If you want to pray sincerely, go someplace and pray secretly because the conversation is between you and God with no need for eavesdroppers nor admirers for such very good-sounding prayers.

If the audio is for men, then your audience is them. If your silent prayer is to God, then your audience is God.

So, now pray the way Jesus said that you should pray.

Credit: Christianity.com