TUESDAY- FIRST WEEK OF LENT- YEAR-B

I Reading: Isaiah 55:10-11: My word shall succeed in what it was sent to do.

Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15: You should pray like this.

The Three Great Rules for Prayers, 6:7-9

Among the religious there is often a tendency toward long prayers, particularly in public. Too often people measure prayer by its fluency and length, thinking that length means devotion. “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth; therefore let thy words be few” (Eccl 5:2). Christ put the matter very simply, yet strongly: “When you pray,” follow three great rules.

1.    Rule 1: do not use empty repetition (v.7)

2.    Rule 2: do not speak much (v.7)

3.    Rule 3: trust God (v.8)

The Model Prayer: The Lord’s Prayer,  6:9-13

What is the Lord’s Prayer? It is a prayer to be recited as it so often is just by memory, or just as a form prayer?

Note the words “This, then, is how you should pray.” According to Luke accounts, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray (Lk 11:1-2). The Lord taught them how to pray, not the words they should pray (Mt 6:5-8).

The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer that is to be prayed through. He was giving words, phrases, thoughts that are to be the points of the believer’s prayer. How much pain the Lord’s heart must bear because of the way person has abused and misused His Prayer! How much of us including the ministers of God need to teach and preach that the Lord’s Prayer is to be prayed though and not just recited.

1.    There is surrender and acknowledgement (v.9)

a.    To our Father in heaven

b.    To God’s holy name

2.    There is a request and plea (v.10-13)

a.    For God’s kingdom

b.    For God’s will

c.     For daily bread

d.    For forgiveness

e.     For deliverance

3.    There is a praise and commitment (v.13)

Thought: God’s kingdom is desperately needed on earth right now. We find so much rebellion, wickedness, evil, enmity, bitterness, hatred, murder, injustice, cheating, deprivation and hunger. God’s rule and reign are needed now. The believers need to see the urgency to pray consistently and to do good works patiently with a great commitment and to live as if God’s kingdom had already come.