More on prayer

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

I have been at the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV) annual meeting in Richmond which is why I have not blogged in a while. The SBCV is our Baptist state convention comprised of 564 churches from all over the state of Virginia. Some of you recall that approximately 40 of our people went to the "Families on Mission" mission trip in Big Stone Gap Virginia? That mission trip was sponsored by the SBCV. The SBCV annual meeting was a glorious time of worship, preaching, testimonies of what God is doing all across the state, and a little bit of business thrown in. I am in awe of what God has done in so many of the churches of our state convention, and I wish that every one of you could have been there to hear the many inspiring testimonies of what the Lord is doing through Southern Baptists all over Virginia.

Last week I was writing about prayer and will continue. In verse 10 we see Jesus acknowledge the sovereignty of the Father. That is what He is doing when He says, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." We ought to always pray reminded that the Kingdom of God is coming. One day Jesus is coming again! So no matter how bad it gets down here....no matter how hard serving the Lord becomes.....we need to remember that it is only temporary and that the Lord Jesus is coming again. Remembering that Jesus is coming again will affect the way we pray.

We also need to remember that God is in charge, He is in control. Nothing happens that God does not allow. So when we pray, we need to be mindful that we are praying to the one that has the whole world in His hands.

In Jesus' prayer, we can observe 4 steps in verses 9 & 10 so far:
1) He teaches us to acknowledge the authority of the Father
2) He teaches us to praise the Father
3) He teaches us to look forward to God's coming Kingdom
4) He teaches us to recognize that the Father is sovereign

Jesus does all that in His prayer before asking anything from God. I challenge you when you pray, to spend time in your prayer life in these 4 areas above. Linger in His presence as you do and you will experience intimacy with God on a new level.