Final thoughts on the model prayer

Matthew 6:13 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.'

Jesus asks for the Father's help to avoid temptation. It reveals a deep desire Jesus had to be pleasing to the Father. There was a thirst after righteousness. There was a longing for holiness. For a lot of Christians, there is no such longing. They want to see how close to the pig pen they get without falling in. Jesus wanted to be as far away from the pig pen as He could get and He prayed to the Father to order His steps away from filth. We would do well to pray along these lines daily. Praying this way will create in us a longing to live holy lives.

As the prayer begins to close, once again Jesus mentions the Kingdom. This time He says, "Yours is the Kingdom." Jesus begins by referencing the authority of the Father, and He ends the prayer by once again acknowledging the authority of the Father. The Kingdom is the Father's and we ought to make mention of it in our prayer lives. It is a reminder of who is in charge. Nobody walks into the King and demands anything. Even Queen Esther was apprehensive about approaching the King on behalf of her people the Jews. When you approach a King, you approach humbly.  Jesus teaches us to pray humbly. Beware of approaching God with a sense of entitlement as if the Lord owes you something. For the record, He does not.

Jesus finishes off the prayer with more praise, mentioning the power of the father, and the glory of the Father. I am struck by how much of the prayer is devoted to recognition of the attributes of God and how little is devoted to asking things from God. I am not saying that we ought not to ask anything from God. Nothing could be further from biblical teaching on prayer. We are told in the scripture Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." So we ought to ask for whatever we want. The point I am simply trying to make is that we do not spend enough time in prayer praising God and just worshiping Him. Jesus teaches us in the model prayer to spend a larger proportion of our prayer life praising the Lord. I challenge you to spend more time in prayer praising God. I bet it will make your prayer life deeper and richer.