REVIEW
So, we began a new series on the subject of prayer a few weeks back which I have entitled— “The Power and Protocol of Prayer.” And the reason I titled this series this is because while there is indeed power in prayer, the power that is contained in it is found in God’s protocol for prayer. In other words, it is not just any, old kind of prayer that gets results; it’s the kind of prayer that God lays out to us in His Word that holds great power. So, this prayer protocol is a big part of what we are going to learn in this series. We are going to learn how prayer works and how to see the answers we desire when we pray. Now we began in part one this series by asking the question—What is prayer? And I made the point that prayer is not a position or posture. It is not us getting on our knees, folding our hands, bowing our heads, and closing our eyes. Nor is it rehearsed or memorized statements that can be said with the person praying’s heart and mind being completely detached. We defined prayer from the New Testament and found that it is “intimately approaching God (coming face to face with Him) for the purpose of communicating with Him.” In short, we could define prayer as our communion with God. This means that prayer is a part of the relationship that we have with God. And, of course, a big part of this relationship is that verbal communication that we have with each other. Then, last time, we learned a lot of things that prayer is not. In short, we looked at things we need to be aware of “when we pray.” We went over to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and looked at a section of Scriptures where, as Jesus was teaching on the motives of the heart and us not just outwardly observing religious deeds, He begins teaching on our prayer lives. And I made the point that we need to know why we are praying too, looking at our motives behind the things we are doing in prayer so that there is no room for hypocrisy in our prayer lives. So, we looked at both the things Jesus told us to avoid and the things He told us to embrace from Matthew 6:5-8: The first thing we took note of is that Jesus said three times in these verses “when you pray.” This shows us that Jesus assumes that a believer has a prayer life. No, it is not a matter of if we pray; it is when we pray. But there were some warnings Jesus gives us when we pray: He said don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, but rather go to your “room” when you pray. We saw that this, of course, does not mean that we are never to pray while standing on our feet, in a public place, with other people around. It was just simply a warning to not let our heart’s motivation be to be seen of men. No, our prayer closet is wherever we take it. It is that personal place of privacy and intimacy where it is just us and the Father. But we learned that it is also that place where we shut the door to outside distractions. The next thing we saw was how the Lord then told us not to use vain repetitions when we pray. We saw that these are those meaningless and mechanically repeated phrases that we tend to use when we pray. And why? Because, as Jesus goes on to say, our Father knows what we have need of before we ask Him. You see, it is easy to pray just a little longer and say more things because we believe if we word it just right or fill up more time, that God will answer our prayers. We can’t work our way to get God’s blessing. We just need to keep our prayers short and sweet and not believe we will be heard because we say more. So, this is in essence what we learned last week:
These are just a few of the things we need to know “when we pray.” So, what I want us to move into this week is what Jesus went on to say next in Matthew chapter 6. It is the answer to that very common question concerning prayer—How do you pray? Now again, I want to remind you that it is not about the tempo of our prayers or the words we say as much as it is the heart behind our communication with the Lord. However, there is something to be said for how we organize and compartmentalize the things we say to God. And that’s what we will delve into this week … OUR MODEL FOR PRAYER In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus began to teach His disciples how to do just this in their prayer lives. And if you look at Luke’s account of this (Luke 11:1-4), you can see that His disciples asked Him this very same question which prompted His response. They said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). Now no doubt, Jesus led by example. I am sure His disciples watched Him separate Himself from them for hours at a time to spend time with His Heavenly Father. I am sure there were times that they would wake up early in the morning and not find their Rabbi with them because He arose early in the morning to petition His Father. We know from the Scriptures that He would go up on a mountain and would spend the whole night in prayer. Jesus was a praying machine! And so, from His example, I’m sure His disciples implored Him to teach them how to pray. So, He did … In Matthew’s account, Jesus began by saying, “In this manner, therefore pray,” Notice that Jesus said, “In this manner, therefore pray” and did not say “pray this prayer.” You see, this prayer is what is commonly known as “the Lord’s Prayer” and so many groups of Christians have done with this prayer exactly what Jesus admonished us not to do in the verses right before, which is use vain repetitions (vs. 7). They have turned this prayer into a “vain repetition” by reciting it as a religious ritual, but that is the exact opposite of what Jesus was intending to accomplish by giving it to us. When He said, “In this manner, therefore pray” He was giving us a pattern for prayer so that we can avoid using vain repetitions and get right to the point with God. So, in other words, what Jesus was really saying when He said “in this manner, therefore pray” was “pray according to this pattern,” or you could say that Jesus was giving His disciples the proper protocol for prayer. THE FATHER SIDE OF GOD Then Jesus begins to give us this pattern for prayer, and the first thing He does is address God as— “Our Father in heaven.” You know, this seems on the surface as a relatively insignificant portion of this model prayer, but the exact opposite is true. What Jesus was saying was profound—especially to the Jewish people of His day! Jesus totally revolutionized the way they viewed “Yahweh” by constantly referring to Him as “My Father.” But this was not only an important revelation for them; it is to us as well. You see, by seeing Him as “our Father” and not just as “our God” we will approach Him in a different manner. We will go beyond just seeing Him as “Able” and begin to see Him as “Willing.” We will go beyond just seeing Him as “Almighty” and begin to see Him as “All-Loving.” Yes, having a revelation that God Almighty is our Father will produce more confidence and boldness in our prayer lives. This reminds me of the story I heard one time about a president’s daughter. As the president was sitting in the oval office conducting national business, his daughter ran through all the yellow tape that was put up to keep people from approaching Him and jumped right in his lap. The reason she did this was because she knew he was her daddy and, therefore, she could relate to Him different than any else. Likewise, when we see The Almighty God as our loving Father, then we will be more confident to approach Him even when we feel unworthy and unqualified. So what is implied by Jesus in these two simple words “Our Father” is “Father—the One who loves me unconditionally, the One who I know will provide my every need, the One who hears me when I call, etc. etc. etc.” Jesus knew that the boldness and confidence this would produce and that it is the foundation of knowing how to pray effectively. There is, however, a flip side to this: While we do want to get the revelation that God is our Father, we do not need to forget that He is still our God too. It seems like the enemy has been somewhat successful at getting much of the church in one of these two ditches … Most see Him as their God and fail to see Him as their Father while others have gotten the revelation that He is their Father and become less revering of Him in the process. We need to see Him as He is in truth—Our Father God! Perhaps this is why Jesus added the two words “in heaven” to “our Father”—teaching us that while He is our Father, He is still in the highest most influential place as our God. HALLOWING HIS NAME Then Jesus continues by saying, “hallowed be Your name.” This phrase shows us that our pattern for effective prayer starts off with thanksgiving, praise, and worship. Not only is it just the appropriate protocol to approach our God with worship and reverence, but it is also does us good as well. Let me explain … The word “hallowed” comes from the Greek word hagaidzo and means “to set apart, dedicate, consecrate, or to make holy.” So, what does it mean to “set apart, consecrate, and make holy” His name? Well, the key to finding out the answer to this question is to, first of all, find out what the “name” of someone describes. The “name” of someone describes all that that person is: It describes their character and nature. It describes their authority and power. It also describes their reputation. So, when we “hallow His name” what we are doing is we are setting apart in our hearts all that He has a reputation for being and doing. And when we do this, those characteristics begin to become magnified in our own eyes because we are intentionally focusing on who He is. But do you what most people do when they approach Father God in prayer? They hallow their own name. No, they don’t do this intentionally, rather, many Christians enter into their prayer times saying things like— “Oh God, I know I have not talked to you all day or that I missed it in this area and in that area and that I am an unworthy little worm, but…” This is praying in our own name, which is the wrong way to enter into God’s presence! Instead of us approaching Him talking about all that we are, why not approach Him declaring all that He is!?! You see, we need to enter into His presence through “hallowing His name”, not “hallowing our name.” And we do this through giving Him thanks, praise, and worship! Yes, even if we feel like we are “good for nothing” then we should praise Him that He loves us despite our inadequacies. The bottom line is we need to stop magnifying our weaknesses and start magnifying His goodness! That is why Psalm 100:4 tells us to enter into His gates with thanksgiving because we magnify Him with thanksgiving (Psalm 69:30). And the result of us magnifying Him is our faith will soar! SEEKING FIRST HIS KINGDOM Then Jesus moves on to some specific requests that I believe continue to show us the correct protocol for our prayer lives: He says, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Notice that the first request Jesus mentions for us to make is for the kingdom of God. This goes right in line with what Jesus went on to say in verse 33 of this same chapter— “Seek first the kingdom of God…” (Matthew 6:33). What I believe Jesus was making a point of is that we must make sure our prayers are begun with the correct priorities, namely the kingdom of God. You see, as we’ve seen, God already knows what we have need of before we ask Him, so it is really a waste of our breath to spend our whole time of prayer talking about our needs as if God is not aware of them. If we get our priorities right and put His kingdom business first then we will see our needs met faster and more abundantly because, as He went on to say in Matthew 6:33— “… and all these things shall be added to you.” This is a spiritual law that is repeated time and time again in God’s Word— If we seek His kingdom first then He’ll take care of our kingdom. Do you remember the story of King Solomon (Second Chronicles 1:7-12)? God appeared to Him in the night and said to him— “Ask! What shall I give to you?” Of course, we know that Solomon’s sole request was for the wisdom and knowledge to rule over God’s people. Now I want you to see this: Solomon could have had anything he wanted, but what did he ask for? Yes, he asked for wisdom, but I want you to see why he asked for it. He asked for wisdom because it would benefit God’s kingdom—which at that time was the nation of Israel. So, in essence, he was fulfilling Matthew 6:33 by “Seeking first the Kingdom of God.” This was a type and shadow of this eternal principle that God wants us to follow as well—putting His Kingdom first! And look at what the result of Solomon’s decision was: God responded, “since you did not ask for riches, wealth, honor, or the life of your enemies, I will give you wisdom and knowledge plus wealth like you never imagined.” (vs. 11) You see, when Solomon put God’s kingdom first all those other natural things were added unto him as well! Interestingly enough, when studying the New Testament prayers, you find that the emphasis is almost exclusively on His kingdom being accomplished in individuals and the church collectively. Like Solomon, it generally was for things like wisdom, revelation and understanding rather than prosperity, healing, and living a good life now in this life. Now the Lord definitely wants us to have a healthy & wealthy life, but what He wants more than that is for our souls to prosper. Yes, He desires us to be fruitful so that His kingdom is coming in our own lives and in the lives that we encounter. This is God’s best. NEVERTHELESS, NOT MY WILL You know, sometimes our prayers are completely laced with our will—what we want and desire for ourselves. But according to Jesus, that is not the best way to pray. This is why Jesus went on to say, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Church, we should always strive to pray according to God’s will above all else. This is one of the main ways that we seek first God’s kingdom because a kingdom is a place where the will of a king is done. I am reminded now of what Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane (See Luke 22:42): Jesus was just hours away from the most horrible situation He would ever face and everything in Jesus’ flesh did not want to go through with it. So, He prayed vehemently for hours that, if there was any other way, God would take this cup away from Him. But the key was that He always ended these requests with “Nevertheless, not My will but Your will be done.” Now, in essence, what Jesus was saying was— “Father, I really do not want to go through with this, but I am willing to do it your way above what I want.” You see, our prayers should be no different. We should be seeking God’s will above our own will in our prayer lives as well! What makes this so difficult to do is that it requires faith: We have to believe that God’s plan—which usually does not appeal to our flesh—is the best thing for us. We have to trust that God’s way is going to ultimately benefit us more than our way would have. I had a situation happen to me when we moved to Macon where I had the opportunity to put this principle into practice: When I went job hunting out here in Macon I had one interview with a bank that seemed like the right fit. It was the only interview I had and I was feeling the pressure of getting some income coming in to support my family. Everything in my flesh cried out to God— “I really want this job, Lord! Please give me this job!” But, thank God, I had enough sense to pray— “But not my will but your will be done.” Oh, I am so glad that I prayed that because I truly believe that if I would have asked Him for that other job He would have given it to me, and the job that He gave me instead is the perfect fit for me. You see, I could not see His plan, but He had one. It did not make sense to me, but it did to Him. I just had to trust Him and submit to His plan, and as is the case every time, His will was the best thing for me. GOD’S WILL REVEALED Now there absolutely are certain times that we know what God’s will is and we need to pray specifically for those things to come to come to pass. So how do we know what His will is? Well, number one, God’s will is found in His Word, but Jesus went on to tell us to pray that God’s kingdom would come and His will would be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” Wow! This one statement gives us tremendous insight into what is God’s will and what is not God’s will! It shows us that God’s will is exactly the way things are in heaven! So, what are some of the realities of heaven that we should pray for? Number one, there is a constant awareness and knowledge of Him. There are not people in heaven who vacillate between whether God exists or not. No, I can assure you that they fully know that God is almighty and totally glorious. I can assure you that they know His nature and are fully persuaded of His character. And this is why praying the Pauline prayers is so powerful. It is because in all of his prayers, he mainly prayed for the church to be filled with the knowledge of His will. He prayed for them to possess a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. It was for understanding, wisdom, knowledge, etc. That’s evidently what the apostle Paul thought was important to pray for others. So, likewise, when we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we need to pray for people to know God more fully and intimately. We should pray for their hearts to be more persuaded of His nature and ability. We should pray for our brothers and sisters—just as Jesus did for Peter—that their faith would not fail in the times of adversity. This is God’s will being done on earth as things are in heaven right now. In like manner, there is continual praise and worship of God going on in heaven. Therefore, we need to pray that the high praises of God would resound here on the earth just as they do in heaven. Another characteristic of heaven is that those there operate in love, holiness, servanthood, and all the evidences of true spirituality. So, we should pray for people’s spiritual lives as well. We should pray for people to abound in the fruit of the Spirit. We should pray for people to learn to live separate from this carnal, natural world. We should pray for people to learn to serve one another and not be so self-centered. These are just some of the things that are God’s will for the human race. Last, but not least, there is no lack of any kind in heaven either. There is no sickness, disease, or poverty there. There is nothing missing, and nothing broken. Therefore, we should pray against any of these curses when they rear their ugly head. As Jesus said— “God’s will on earth is the way it is in heaven!” Then after we have first prayed for the kingdom of God and for God’s will to be done, Jesus said that we lift up our petitions to Him. Again, this is a very important part of prayer’s protocol because we are approaching the God of the universe and His things need to be put first. You see, He already understands what our needs are, and He has promised to take care of what concerns us as we put His things first. OUR DAILY MANNA Now let’s take a look at what Jesus told us to specifically ask for in this protocol of prayer—this day’s daily bread: Jesus said that the manner in which we pray is with this request--“Give us this day our daily bread.” First of all, one point that needs to be made from this is that when Jesus uses the phrase “this day” and refers to our “daily” bread, that this implies that we are praying every day. Amen? I mean, unless we are fasting prayer on a particular day, we will be praying daily. This is an obvious reference to the manna that God gave to the children of Israel in the wilderness. The reason I firmly believe this is because of the wording Jesus used— “Give us this day our daily bread.” You see, God commanded Israel to only collect the portion that they needed for each day. He was adamant about it. And the reason He specifically told them this was to test them to see if they would be obedient and trust Him. So I believe it is very significant that Jesus implied the same thing as God commanded the children of Israel with the manna—for His people to only focus on their daily need and not try and horde up some for the future. Of course, Jesus was not referring to us praying for the literal manna that they had. So, what is He referring to? I believe it has a two-fold application: On the surface, this appears to be a request for physical bread, but I believe Jesus had more in mind here rather than just natural food. I believe that He was also referring to our spiritual bread as well. You see, the “manna” given by God under the Old Testament was a type and shadow of Jesus (See John 6:35), which would also make it a reference to the Word of God (Compare Matthew 4:4). So, when Jesus told us to pray— “Give us this day our daily bread”—what He was alluding to was “Pray for God to give you the spiritual nourishment from Me and from His Word daily.” You see, every day we need to partake of Christ and experience the strengthening and empowerment that comes through abiding in Him. Every day we need to be nourished with the life-giving Word of God, hearing what the Spirit would say to us daily. Every day we need to fill our tanks up through His manifest presence and His revealed Word. This is not just something that we need on Sundays. We need our spiritual nourishment everyday just as we need our physical nourishment every day. Now this can also be a reference to natural provision such as food, finances, etc., but the bottom line is that it is an obvious reference to our present daily need. Why was this obviously so important to Jesus? It is because God wants us to daily depend on Him, just as he wanted the Israelites to daily depend on Him with the manna. He doesn’t want us to worry about tomorrow or get fretful about a month down the road. He wants us to trust Him daily for our needs to be met—both spiritual and natural. In Philippians 4:19, there is something that is often overlooked in this verse. Paul says, “And my God shall supply all your need …” Notice he did not say “needs.” He said “need” (singular). I believe the significance of this is that God will provide every need that will ever arise in our lives— individually and daily. PRAYING IN LOVE Then notice what Jesus mentions next— “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). If you look back a chapter in Matthew 5:44, the first thing Jesus ever taught us concerning prayer was that we are to pray in love. He taught us in this verse to “pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” You see, when we are walking with the Lord then people will come out of the woodwork to hate us, curse us, persecute us, and spitefully use us. So, when this happens, we must have this foundational aspect of prayer at work in our lives. We must love our enemies by giving to them when they try and hurt us. We must speak good things about those who speak negatively of us. We must do good things for those who hate us. And, last but not least, we must pray for those who mistreat us! By operating in these spiritual principles, we unlock the grace that it takes to love and forgive! This is extremely important to fulfilling this command to forgive when we stand praying. Here is, in my estimation, one of the greatest prayers we can pray—"Lord, help me to see both myself and others through Your eyes.” You see, if we can see other people the way the Lord sees them, there is a good chance we might have a totally different perspective of those we see as our “debtors.” Especially when we see ourselves through God’s eyes first. Then we might realize— “Hey, I’ve done the same thing to the Lord that they are doing to me. Thank you for forgiving me, Lord. Now I forgive them as your have forgiven me.” I have had the Lord do this with me on a number of occassions: When someone I knew came across as proud, haughty, and arrogant, the Lord showed me that they were really just insecure and used those other things to cover up the fact that they did not have any self-confidence. In this case, if we have someone who is being mean, hateful and hurtful towards us, the Lord might show us that they are simply acting out of their ignorance. The ultimate example of this was when Jesus hung on the Cross and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Did you that was the truth? Jesus was not trying to be spiritual, but knew that the only reason they were having Him crucified was because they were ignorant. As the apostle Paul said, if they had known what they were doing, they would not have crucified the Lord of the glory. You see, I have come to discover that the primary reason that people do hateful things is because they hate themselves. The reason they hurt others is because they are hurting themselves. The reason they try and take things away from others is because they are empty themselves. The list can go on and on. But the bottom line is, if everyone walked in their created value, there would not be much room for becoming one of these hurtful people. So, it’s not just the prayers that say, “they need to change God,” that we ought to be praying. Maybe we are the ones who need to change the way we are seeing them. Let’s get the plank out of our own eye instead of always trying to clean the specks out of others. Amen? BEING SPIRIT-LED Then Jesus moved on to say, “And do not lead us into temptation,” (Matthew 6:13a) … This statement used to trouble me because on the surface it seemed as if Jesus was telling us to pray that God would not lead us into the temptation that He was planning to lead us into. Of course, that would not make any sense. To think that God will lead us into temptation violates other Scriptures that say that God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He Himself tempt anyone (See James 1:13). So what does this statement mean? Jesus was giving us the pattern of praying for God’s direction and leading so that we do not even enter temptation. You see, Jesus did not teach us to pray that God would help us to overcome temptation. He taught us to pray for God’s leading so that we would not even enter into temptation. There is a big difference. In Matthew 26:41 Jesus said, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation…” Again, He told us what we need to do so that we would not even enter into temptation, much less overcome it! And did you know that our prayer lives can keep us out of a lot of unnecessary temptations? That’s what Jesus was teaching His disciples in the Garden. I believe that simply having this kind of prayer life and requesting the leading of the Holy Spirit, we can receive supernatural guidance from Him and greatly lessen the difficulties we seem to stumble into regularly. You see, I believe there are many circumstances and situations that we find ourselves in that were never God’s will for us to go through. The reason we enter into many of them is because we never sought God for direction. We just blared through that “check” of the Holy Spirit and never inquired of the Lord to whether or not we should go that direction or make that decision. This is why it is so important to pray that God would lead us out of tempting circumstances and situations that would hinder His perfect will for our lives. This is what is available to us under our new and better covenant—the ability to be led by God’s Spirit! We don’t have to have those rare, spectacular visitations to give us direction. We have God’s Spirit on the inside of us leading us and guiding us into all truth and into God’s perfect plan for our lives. The key is learning to recognize that still small voice and recognizing that inward witness that He gives us. And a way that Jesus told us to do this is to pray that we would be led (by God’s Spirit) out of all temptation. OUR REFUGE Then Jesus, staying along the same lines, said, “but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13b). In this one statement Jesus was showing us how important it is for us to look to God for protection and deliverance from the enemy. How many of you know that He wouldn’t tell you and I to pray this way if He didn’t want to deliver us? But this is why Jesus told us to incorporate this in our prayer life. It’s because we need to invite Him to do it. Sure, the Lord wants to give you and I the kingdom of God. Jesus told us that it was the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom (Luke 12:32), yet Jesus told us to pray that His kingdom would come. Of course, we know that the Lord desires to give us our daily bread, but we told us to request that He give it to us. Likewise, God’s desire is for us to escape the temptations of the devil and be delivered from the evil one, but again, we are told to pray for these things. This is all because the Lord needs us to invite His will in our lives. Then it can be performed. Amen. You see, we live in a fallen world where our enemy exercises his authority. We are not of this world, but since we live in this world we are constantly on his hit-list. It is for this reason that we need to constantly pray for God’s deliverance and protection from the enemy, not only for ourselves and our loved ones, but for those on the front lines. You see, we need to focus on praying this for other people too. This is what Jesus did for Simon Peter in Luke 22:31-32. He perceived that Satan desired to sift Peter like wheat, but He prayed for him that his faith would not fail. You see, we all need to pray for each other because Satan is constantly trying to sift us as wheat. Our prayers are what give us the strength to withstand the devices of the devil. None of us stand a chance against His wiles in ourselves. He is much too smart, but when we pray for God’s help Satan doesn’t stand a chance! THE SANDWICH TECHNIQUE I do, however, want to comment on one more part of this prayer that I feel is tremendously important to understand. And it is the statement Jesus concluded His model prayer with-- “for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:14). Jesus culminates this pattern of prayer with this resounding statement and I believe this is good habit for us to have in our prayer lives as well. You see, just as Jesus taught us to begin our prayers with thanksgiving, praise, and worship with the phrase— “Hallowed be your name”, He finishes up by teaching us the same. This is what many people would call “the sandwich technique.” Let me give you an example: Paul gave us an example of this “sandwich technique” in Philippians 4:6 when he said, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Notice that he was saying that when we feel ourselves starting to worry about something that we need to start out with “prayer,” then present our “supplication,” and end with “thanksgiving.” As we’ve seen already, the word “prayer” does not describe our requests because why would there be an obvious distinction between “prayer” and “supplications” (which literally means “requests”)? So, if you look at this “sandwich technique” given to us by the Apostle Paul you will see him telling us to start off with our communion with God—just telling Him we love Him and acknowledging who He is while also listening to Him. Then we go into the request for the situation that we are feeling some anxiety about. And then after that, we throw the other piece of bread on there, which is thanking Him for providing the answer and for all that He is. You see, the point both Paul and Jesus were making was that we are to begin and end our prayers focusing on Him! Now we are not talking about some way of manipulating God through flattery because He sees right through that. What we are saying is to give Him the proper recognition that He is due. And as we have already made the point of, not only is it the proper protocol. but it also gets our eyes on the solution instead of the problem. So, this prayer model Jesus gave us in Matthew chapter 6 shows us the will of God for our prayer lives. And if we would follow this pattern of prayer, I guarantee you that we will find less needs present in our lives and can then focus all the more on His kingdom coming and His will being done in others lives. Church, this is the protocol of prayer. It is the way of approaching the Father and the way of sealing the deal. In short, it is the way to pray. Amen.
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