9.30-
When I was between 20 and 30 years old found a deep need to understand God’s word. My life had problems that I could not imagine being solved in any way except crying out to God in prayer. I was in some kind of crisis of transition. I was struggling with a relatively new marriage, new fatherhood and vocational lostness.
I wanted to get to know God better to know how to live and how to pray.
I read what Jesus taught:
Do not pray with any thought of being seen by others.
Speak with God and to God with only God as your focus.
Make the prayer short and to the point.
Remember God knows what you need, but you need to discover and remember what you need.
What we should seek is that there is an increasing number of people who have God as their ultimate Leader.
As followers of Jesus we want heavenly joy, peace and order to flow out into our world.
What do we want God to give us? What do we want and need? Name it.
We need forgiveness. In deep crisis we need to feel that there is nothing negative between us and our God.
We need to forgive anyone of anything they have done to us or those we love. I have found that people in the deepest pain want forgiveness and closeness to God.
We need to be led away from temptation.
We need to be delivered from the evil one.
He prowls around our lives seeking to destroy us and our relationship with God and others.
Matthew 6
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
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