My teaching partner Victoria and I are currently writing/leading a women's Bible study on prayer. For me the concept of my prayer life is intensely precious, and yet it is at the same time a topic that I feel inadequate about. It seems like an activity that is "mysterious", "saintly", and "advanced". Even when I'm doing good with it I feel it should be better. So with the start of this series, I've really been praying to be a better pray-er. I've been making prayer my first and most important task of the day. And as I've been seeking growth, God has supplied new insight and answered some questions I didn't even know I had.
One of the biggest breakthrough moments has been learning this truth: Jesus gave us the key to getting our prayers answered, and, by doing it in a way that pleases God, we can see our anxiety and worry diminish with every whispered longing. Although I knew and practiced the formula ACTS- Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, then supplication...I was mistakenly assuming all supplication was of equal wieght with God.
In Matthew 6 the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. They had obviously encountered Jesus' vast and intimate prayer relationship with the Father. They saw the fruit. And they wanted to try it. Jesus responded not with a "how to" video or list of 1-2-3s. He taught them to pray, by praying. And the Ah-ha momment came for me in this familiar text.
We already know to approach God confidently as beloved children, yet with reverence for His Name. v. 9 But as I've quoted and mentally assented to the phrase, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." v. 10 I had never linked this phrase to the asking for my needs that came next with the "daily bread" request. I asked myself, what if the granting of my basic needs requests is tangled up, through God's sovereignty, with my longing to see the kingdom advance and making it my most fervant desire in prayer?
As I read on and that was confirmed when Jesus reminded them in Matthew 6:33 that they should be seeking the KINGDOM FIRST. Then He wanted them to ask in His Name and trust the needs would be met. Asking for big bold miraculous requests that the kindgom would expand though the gospel's reach and that God would be glorified in His church and that lives would be changed are the key. When we get as excited and passionate to see God's kingdom explode onto the scene of our lives as Jesus was...When we get as jealous for God's glory as Jesus was...When we get as serious about personal holiness as Jesus was, and start making that our greatest longing, our first priority in prayer...then we will see a breakthrough. We start to get involved in fruit-bearing endeavors. We drop all petty concerned and beefs. We find a way to work under authority and in teams. We go big in worship because we've seen evidence of the supernatural become our new normal.
No wonder Jesus ties this kind of kindgom praying to good mental and emotional health. No longer are we narsissistic and self-absorbed when we lay up our treasure in Heaven v. 21. No longer are we eaten up with worry, stress and anxiety v.25. No longer do we see the limits of our bank account and think about our lack. We love God first and see that He has resources that are limitless. v. 24.
With the Kingdom first, the daily needs are asked and answered v.11, the relationships are at peace v.12, and our spiritual warefare is victorious against the world,the flesh, and the devil. v. 13
So I will forevermore be asking for the kingdom...first. In me has been birthed a burning obsession with seeing God's kingdom come on earth just as it is in Heaven. I'm a baby in this new skin. I'm hungry and eager and full of dreams! I pray with all my heart to see the gospel power draw, save and change my city. I beg that the manifest presence of God will descend on my church. I pray that He would be glorified and exalted in our midst. I pray that the needs of the work will supplied. I'm wearing out my Biltmore prayer guide.
I've always prayed these prayers, but by rote and as an add on after I'd made my needs known. But now I see them as a gateway to the Presence as I usher in the reign of His kingdom in my life. And where He reigns, just as in Heaven, troubles vanish, wounds are healed, sickness flees, riches abound, and demons run and souls are saved ...for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory...Forever, Amen. It's the key to unlocking the answers to our prayers, the keys to the kingdom are in our hands.
"I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven; Whatever your bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:19
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