Monday 21 January 2013

Daily Bible Verses, 1 ~ Jesus Teaches His Disciples How to Pray

Matthew 6:8-13

8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen."

(Jesus Christ, KJV)


Here we see Jesus, as so often times in the Bible, teaching his disciples not to be like "them"– the religious hypocrites, but to humbly come before the Father in spirit and truth – trusting that He knows our every need before we ask & believing the will of God to be sovereign above all things - things which are in heaven and on earth.
Jesus starts his prayer “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” This would suggest that as Christians, we believe and come to a God who rules and reigns over both heaven and earth, and we can converse and come before him in prayer addressing him as a “Father”. However, we are never to forget that this Father is Hallowed (Holy) like no other. There is no one besides him, there is no other like him and he has no running partner or equal to himself.