7/1/25 Daily Devotion: Pray Like Jesus

Matthew 6:9-15 - “9 Pray then like this: “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 also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer so that we would know HOW to pray.

How NOT to Pray:

As a PERFORMANCE

• Do not ever pray “so that you may be seen by others” … this is difficult sometimes in church settings!

• We should not be concerned with other people’s assessment of our prayers!

As a RECITAL

• Jesus says “do not heap up empty phrases” … yet how often do we treat the very example of Prayer that He then gives us in this very way!

• Do we really think Jesus warns us about empty phrase prayers and then wants us to robotically recite His Prayer example over and over in unison?

• Don’t let it be EMPTY! If you are going to pray the words, consider the words, believe the words, LIVE the words!

How to PRAY:

In proper RELATIONSHIP

• We approach God as our Father!

• He is not a far off deity, He is not a condemning dictator, He is not an everything-goes hippie, He is not a subservient genie … HE IS OUR LOVING FATHER.

• We are to approach Him in RELATIONSHIP with Him!

With appropriate REVERENCE

• He Loves us AND He is THE Holy God.

• He is WORTHY of Worship, deserving of GLORY, unmatched, unequaled, unfathomable … HOLY.

• We are to approach Him as our Father without losing the HALLOWED REVERENCE of Who He is.

With aligned REQUESTS

• It is HIS Kingdom and HIS Will that we are to be requesting in our prayers with Him!

• To be clear, Jesus models for us to make our own requests to God … we are to bring Him our own wishes, desires & thoughts … AND we are to bathe those personal requests in an ultimate desire for HIS WILL to be done over our own!

In complete RELIANCE

• We pray to God in COMPLETE RELIANCE on Him, through Him & from Him for EVERYTHING that we need.

• Jesus models a prayer to God requesting all that we NEED to live out His Will … we love praying for all that we WANT to live out our own will!

• Are we truly relying on God to provide what we need for each day? … or do we prefer to lean on our own understanding for our daily provision of needs & go to God to request our big wants?

With humble REPENTANCE

• A proper understanding of Holy God will produce a humble recognition of our own flawed nature … not for condemnation but for FORGIVENESS!

For a VICTORIOUS result

• God - forgive me when I fail and give me your STRENGTH, your COURAGE and your POWER to follow you into your VICTORY today!

May we all follow Jesus’ example and have a PRAYERFUL HEART like this today!