Communicating with God

The apostle Paul exhorts us, “Never stop praying” (1 Thess. 5:17). Elsewhere, he writes, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand” (Php. 4:6–7a). Prayer reorients our perspective and invites God into our life circumstances.

Prayer was an important part of Jesus’ ministry, although we are given only a few details (Luke 5:16). Nevertheless, we can surmise the nature of His prayers by the way He taught His disciples to pray (Matt. 6:9–13). Every point in the Lord’s prayer is designed to draw the supplicant near to God by internalizing the core teachings of Jesus, who spoke only what He received from His Father (John 8:26).

Our Father in heaven – Understand that God’s heart toward us is that of a father. God is not the harsh and disconnected caricature that society has imagined. Instead, He is loving, gracious, merciful, and patient toward us, His children, and He desires only what is absolutely best for us.
May your name be kept holy – As those who are baptized into the name of God and called to serve as His representatives, we sully the name of God when we choose to live in unrepentant sin (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 5:20). How can we boldly approach the throne of a holy God if we are not willing to relent of our sinful behavior (Heb. 4:16)? Because God loves us, He will not ignore unrepentant sin. Instead, as with any loving father, He will discipline us (Heb. 12:5–11).
May your kingdom come soon – There is a clash of kingdoms occurring as heaven invades earth (Luke 11:20–22). Being citizens of heaven, our desire should be to see God’s kingdom expand (Php. 3:20). We cannot permit our hearts to reassimilate into the kingdom of darkness from which we have been delivered (Col. 1:13–14; Rev. 18:2–4).
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven – We must be willing to prioritize God’s desires over our own. We are called to represent God’s heart (2 Cor. 5:20). This involves embracing a new way of thinking. As faithful ambassadors, we offer ourselves as living sacrifices, wholly devoted to seeing God’s will fulfilled on earth (Rom. 12:1–2).
Give us today the food we need – Just as God supernaturally provided for the needs of the Israelites in the wilderness, so also, we trust God to provide for our daily needs (Exo. 16:12–18, 35). In doing so, we hold tightly to nothing, recognizing that our belongings are a gift from God (Ecc. 5:19; Acts 4:32–35; 2 Cor. 9:6–10) and that we serve as stewards of God’s blessings (1 Pet. 4:9–10).
Forgive us our sins – We have been washed of our sins by the blood of Jesus and the Word of God (Eph. 5:25–26; 1 John 1:7). Nonetheless, we may still get our spiritual feet dirty (John 13:10). In such moments, we should be quick to seek cleansing (1 John 1:8–9).
As we have forgiven those who sin against us – We pay forward the loving forgiveness of Jesus we have received. Anything less would be a failure to accurately represent the heart of God (Col. 3:12–13). Without limit, we readily relinquish our right to seek recompense or retribution (Matt. 18:21–22).
Don’t let us yield to temptation – In His mercy, God refuses to permit greater temptation than we can bear (1 Cor. 10:13). God provides not only a way of escape but also the aid of His Holy Spirit, who helps us to recall the teachings of Jesus (John 14:26).
Rescue us from the evil one – God has already redeemed us from the curse of the law and delivered us from the kingdom of darkness (Gal. 1:3–4; 3:13; Col. 1:13–14). Now, all we need do is submit ourselves to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from us (James 4:7). God surrounds the godly with protection and with shouts of deliverance (Psa. 32:6–7; Prov. 18:10).

So much truth is packed into such a short and simple prayer! The effectiveness of our prayer life should not be determined by the length of time we spend praying but by the degree to which we align our thinking with the character and will of God (Matt. 6:7). If we continually pray in this way, then we can rejoice in any and every circumstance as we boldly proclaim God’s truth (1 Thess. 5:16–18). Therefore, becoming God’s cultural influencers includes communicating with God in a manner that internalizes God’s truth and effectively reorients our thinking around God’s will for our lives and nation.

This article comes from Heart of a Forerunner: How to Be a Relevant and Influential Voice in a Wayward Nation