February 2024
Dear Alumni
I have been thinking about the importance of prayer and the template Jesus
gave his disciples in Matthew 6:9-13. As we examine our private and corporate
prayers, very often they are for physical things more than for spiritual. We
seldom ask God to help us live holy and blameless lives, lives of integrity that
please our LORD! Often it’s all about – Give us this day our daily bread!?
Yes,we must ask God for the things we need and thank him for his bountiful
provision daily – our daily bread, our daily safety, our daily health, our daily
well-being. But shouldn’t we also ask for our spiritual welfare?
Jesus wants us to pray for our physical needs. But he also wants us to pray for
forgiveness for the sins we commit daily (and yes, we do commit sin daily,
consciously or inadvertently). As much as we need Jesus to forgive us our sins,
we too must reciprocate forgiveness to those who have offended us. If we
want to be forgiven by God, then we must also learn to keep short accounts
with God by forgiving our brother or sister who has offended us in big and
small ways. In doing this, we not only maintain the unity and peace in the Body
of Christ, but also create opportunities to build bridges with non-believers!
Jesus commands his disciples to pray against falling into temptation and for
God to deliver us from all evil. We live in an evil and broken world where Satan
is engaged in all sorts of deception to seduce God’s children and subtly turn
them away from loving God and his people, to loving oneself through indulging
in selfish ambitions and desires. None of us are immune from temptation and
that is why we must pray daily for God’s protection from yielding or
succumbing to temptation – “deliver us from evil, O LORD”!
It will be great to end our prayers with, [For yours is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen,], Footnote in Matthew chapter 6. As we
close our prayers, we acknowledge God’s sovereignty and affirm his glory,
inviting him to do all he chooses to do in and through us, in accordance with
his perfect will for each of us!
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors,
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
[For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen,]
(Matthew 6:9-13 & Footnote 5)
May God our Father, through Christ Jesus his Son, and the empowerment of
the Holy Spirit guide our prayer life so we can confidently come into his
presence daily and pray big and bold prayers as his children.
I want to close with the first and last stanzas of this hymn of submission and
surrender as our prayer:
Take my life, and let it be,
Consecrated Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At your feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.
