The twelve hand-picked disciples must have learned a lot walking all
over Judea with Jesus. One of the things that they learned was that
Jesus prayed.
Not that He prayed stuffy, boring prayers –not
that He prayed out of a sense of duty or obligation. They'd seen plenty
of pharisees and religious people standing on the street corners and in
prominent, noticeable places praying those kind of prayers.
But Jesus prayed differently. They noticed that Jesus had an intimacy with
God that they had never observed before. And they noticed that
whenever Jesus prayed, things happened –God responded. They noticed
these things, and they wondered if they might have the same relationship
with God that Jesus had –after all, Jesus was their teacher. They
wondered if maybe Jesus could teach them to pray like He prayed.
In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus gave them this prayer as a model:
‘Our Father in heaven:
May Your holy name be honored;
may Your Kingdom come;
may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us the wrongs we have done,
as we forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.
Do not bring us to hard testing,
but keep us safe from the Evil One.
For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.'
These are things that we also should pray for and about if we, like the disciples, want to learn to pray like Jesus.
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