Gracious Jesus 4 – Kingdom Lifestyle Part 2 Sample

Successful Prayers

We pray to seek the help of God, our Creator and the highest intelligence in the universe to achieve our goals and relieve us from troubles. Most importantly, we pray to get cleansing from our sins and set our relationship right with God. We pray expecting to receive what we have asked for. Jesus helps us to understand how to effectively position our prayers to release God’s hand to act on our best interests, not necessarily on our wishes.

Prerequisites of Prayer

In Matthew 6:5-14 Jesus explains that individual prayer represents:

· Private communion is not for public consumption

· Meaningful relationship, not meaningless repetition

· Talking to a God who already knows

· Listening to Him – Prayer should have silent periods of reflecting on God’s Word and allowing the Spirit to speak to us.

Pre-eminence of God

At the outset, we set our perspective right with our Great Heavenly Father with respect to:

· Fatherhood - “Our Father in Heaven”: we approach a Father on a higher plane; who has paid for us a high price; who knows more than we do and loves us more than we ever know.

· Honor – “Hallowed by Thy Name”: prayers should honour His Holy Name and reflect His character.

· Kingdom - “Your kingdom come”: we invoke His kingdom on earth and yield to His control.

· God’s Will - “Your will be done”: we submit, surrender and trust His Will over ours.

Petitions to God

As we acknowledge God’s supremacy, Jesus tells us to cover these petitions:

· Daily bread – Just our needs for the day and those God lays upon us to pray. Not our extravagant desires, nor too long in the future. We go one day at a time.

· Forgiveness of sins - “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. This releases us from all known and unknown sins in our life and hindrances to relationships with others. We forgive to the extent God has forgiven – completely and not partially.

· Prevention of temptation – God does not tempt but Satan can only touch God’s children with God’s permission. We ask that God guide us away from Satan’s traps and God’s trials wherever possible.

· Deliverance from evil – We have no clue of the dark forces standing against us. Only God can protect and cover us.

Praise to God

We finally praise God for His:

· Kingdom - “Yours is the kingdom” FOREVER

· Power - “Yours is the power” FOREVER

· Glory – “Yours is the glory” FOREVER

Where do our prayers stand with respect to Christ’s model?