The Lord Jesus taught us in Matt. 6 a pattern of prayer – the prayer that expresses God’s will (see Matt. 6:9-15). The principle of prayer set forth by the Lord in this portion includes three basic prayers concerning God, three requests for our needs, and three reverent praises as extolling prayers; all these three allude to the Triune God.
How do we pray? First we need to see that the principle of prayer is to pray in secret – to be seen by our Father who sees in secret; praying in secret is a real denial of the self, who wants to do things in public, for show, for the glory of men (John 5:44; 12:43).
The thing that frustrates us the most from growing in life is the self; our self enjoys doing things in public display for the glory of men. As kingdom people, we need to live by the Father’s hidden life, and we will pray much – but others will not know how much we have prayed (Isa. 45:15).
In Matt. 6:9-13 the Lord’s instruction is that we “pray in this way” to our Father who is in the heavens. This doesn’t mean that we have to repeat this prayer word for word, and this only should be our prayer; it means that the Lord has set forth a pattern of how we should pray, and we should learn to follow this pattern.
The pattern of prayer presented by the Lord in Matt. 6 can be divided into three sections:
1. The three basic prayers concerning God are related to the Divine Trinity: “Your name be sanctified” is related mainly to the Father; “Your kingdom come,” to the Son; and “Your will be done,” to the Spirit (vv. 9b-10a).
This is being fulfilled in this age, and it will be ultimately fulfilled in the kingdom age, when the name of God will be excellent in all the earth, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of Christ, and the will of God will be accomplished (Psa. 8:1; Rev. 11:15).
After Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall, Christ came as the heavenly King to bring in God’s kingdom so that the entire earth would be recovered for God’s interest; we as kingdom people need to pray for this until the earth is fully recovered for God’s will in the coming kingdom age.
2. The three requests concerning our need are protective prayers: “Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (vv. 11-13a).
The kingdom people should ask the Father to forgive their debts, their failures, their trespasses, as they forgive their debtors to maintain peace (by the arbitrating peace of Christ); we have to clear up any separating factors between us and God and between us and others (Matt. 6:14-15; Col. 3:15).
“Our daily bread” indicates that our living is by faith, daily depending on the Father’s supply. Because we are weak, we should also ask the Father not to bring us into temptation but to deliver us from the evil one (the devil) and from the evil that is out from him, by being filled with the Spirit (see John 17:15; Eph. 5:16-18; 6:13).
3. The prayer to the Father concludes with three reverent praises as extolling prayers: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen”; the kingdom is of the Son, which is the realm in which God exercises His power, and the power is of the Spirit, which carries out God’s intention so that the Father may have His corporate expression in glory (Matt. 6:13b).
This prayer begins and ends with the Divine Trinity; it is not merely a prayer for our needs or for God’s glory but it is a prayer in which God is mingled with man, man responds to God and cares for God’s need, and God cares for man’s need and protection.
This prayer begins with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and ends with the Son, the Spirit, and the Father; the Father is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Such a critical prayer surely increases our seeking of the kingdom of the heavens as the Father’s heart’s desire and affords us our need of the divine supply of grace to fulfill all the supreme and strict requirements of the kingdom of the heavens for the Father’s good pleasure. On the one hand, we are seeking for something according to the Father’s heart’s desire. On the other hand, we have the supply to fulfill something for the Father’s good pleasure. (Witness Lee, The God-man Living, p. 100)
We need to pray in this way, as the Lord taught us in Matt. 6, seeking first the kingdom of God, bringing our daily needs before Him and recognizing that only He can supply us, confessing our sins and weaknesses, and giving the Father all the glory, trusting in Him that what He said He will also do.
We need to learn to pray in secret to the Father, spending much secret, hidden, intimate, and personal time with Him to pray one with Him for His kingdom to come, His will be done, our needs would be met, our weaknesses would be covered, and God would get all the glory.
The Lord’s prayer in Matt. 6 is a wonderful picture of our cooperation with God for the fulfillment of His economy so that His will may be done and His kingdom would come.
Our Father who is in the heavens, Your name be sanctified; Your kingdom come; Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James Lee for this week, and portions from The God-man Living, msgs. 10-11 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 7 / msg. 7, Serving God by Prayer according to His Heart and Will.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Father with Thee in secret I would be, / Just to allow Thy Son to pray through me; / Waiting in love to hear Thy blest reply, / Thy heart revealed to me in Christ thereby. (Song on Spending time with God in Secret)
# Holy Father, we adore Thee, / Rev’rent song to Thee we raise; / Thou art holy, Thou art lofty, / ”Holy is Thy Name,” we praise. (Hymns #22)
# Thru Thy Word and by my prayer / In the spirit touching Thee, / Lifted high my spirit is, / Strengthened shall my spirit be. (Hymns #782)
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