HOW DO WE PRAY?

Mathew 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

The Lord's prayer was given on two separate occasions and settings in the Bible, but both times the Lord was giving instruction to us on how to pray. (While I usually use the NIV in this blog, I chose to use the King James because that is the way I learned it and I like the harmonious flow of it.)
As we see the Lord instructs us first to address the Father. This tells us that this prayer is for the believer (the Christian). God becomes our Father when we become adopted through faith in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son. Therefore, we are approaching God in a whole new light than someone else (who could also pray to God but is not in a personal relationship with Him).
After addressing Him, we then proceed to praise His name. The word hollowed as described in the dictionary is: holy or sacred. The importance of praise is emphasized throughout the entire Bible, but to me the significance here is that it is to be first, above any other communication we have with Him. If we can't praise Him than we don't truly honor who He is.
Thy kingdom come. This is a stand alone sentence. It ends with a period and is a statement of the desire for God's kingdom, and what we have to look forward to. Our hope for our future with Him. As His children we should always want His will and as His children we know that our lives are chaos in any will other than His.
Now we ask simply for our daily provision. Bread is representative in the Bible in two ways. One way is as physical food and the other way is spiritual food. Both are important ingredients to the health of a Christian, but spiritual food (the Word) is what actually will sustain us through eternity. (Something to consider as you move on to the next verse.)
Forgive us our debts (the version of the prayer in Luke says sins), don't sins make us indebted to God. Isn't that what Christ did for us on the cross, forgave our sins. The next part is the one that makes many stumble though. Christ knew that and went on after the prayer to further elaborate on our forgiveness of others being a criteria for our own forgiveness.
Asking to be kept from temptation and being delivered from evil or the evil one is in itself a testimony of what we face on a daily basis, but with the Lord's guidance, we can overcome all temptation as it comes our way.
For thine is the ........does not appear in the oldest manuscripts and in Luke's version is left off all together, however, once again it is acknowledgment of who God the Father is and a fitting praise of His Holiness. As Christians after Christ's sacrifice to make it even possible to address God as Father, we then end the prayer in Jesus Name.
I find it interesting that the people of the time as well as ourselves need to be taught to pray. Obviously, we do or Christ would not have told us how to do so on two occasions. I encourage you to study this prayer for yourself and evaluate your own prayers as you move forward in your walk with the Lord.
Have a blessed day and don't forget to PRAY.

Until He Comes or until I go,
Nikki

DON'T GO OUT WITHOUT IT!

Ephesians 6:18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

As I promised I have included this verse with those describing the armor of God, BECAUSE IT IS INCLUDED in the Bible with the armor. Note the word AND at the first of the sentence. It doesn't say to put all of the pieces on and then just rush out into the world; it says to put all of the pieces on and then in the Spirit pray. We are to pray on all occasions. We are to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ (all the saints).
When we praise God, we are acknowledging who He is in all of His majesty as creator of everything and Lord. Jesus Himself prayed continuously. He gave us an example of how to pray (see Matthew 6:9-13).
Note as well, that it says prayers and requests. I bring this up because I wanted you to note the separation of prayers and requests (see also, I Timothy 2:1). In too many "christian" churches today, there are a plethora of requests and very little praise, and sometimes the other way around, not praying for each other at all. Prayer meetings have become about man and not about God. The Lord has been laying this on my heart lately because of my own prayer life. Our family has been through many hard things lately and when things are happening all around us, we (all people) have a tendency to become self centered instead of God centered.
So before you go out that door with your armor in tact, on ALL occasions pray. Prayer is praise of and communication(the imparting or exchanging information or news) with God!
I hope you have enjoyed this series on the armor of God. The next series will be on the Lord's prayer. I look forward to your comments and questions.

Until He Comes or until I go,
Nikki

HELMET AND SWORD

^{Ephesians 6:17}Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

We might ask ourselves why salvation is portrayed here as a helmet. When God calls us to Jesus as Lord and Savior of our lives, He no longer sees us but instead sees the blood of Jesus that covers us. There are many times in the Bible where the word covering, covered or cover is used but two of the interesting ones are where Noah was told to put the cover on the ark (which we know the ark represented salvation) and in 1Corinthians the 11th chapter where it is talking about a woman covering her head and a man not, but then goes on to say that in Christ there is no separation (we are all the bride of Christ). I challenge all to do a study on the cover words and see some of the interesting things you start to perceive. Do not, however read only the verse but the chapter in context with the writing. You will, I guarantee, find some interesting things out!
Notice that the helmet does not stand alone in the sentence. The sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. As a Christian we know that the Word is God breathed, that Jesus became that Word in the flesh, and that the Holy Spirit comes to seal us and convict us of our sins by revealing Jesus through the Word of His gospel to us.
We have now gotten all of the pieces of the armor on during the last few writings, but we are not done getting ready for our day. Join me on Sunday, February 14 and find out how to finish up getting ready before you leave out for your day.

EXTINGUISHING FLAMING ARROWS

Ephesians 6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

The shield of faith is a gift of God, as we see in Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
If we know this to be true in our own lives , we can face anything that we are called to face. The flaming arrows are the things the world throws at us; things the forces of the devil either want you to believe, do, or receive from others. By faith we walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil(part of 23rd psalm.
Pray for God to increase your faith and see what happens!

SHOES OF PEACE

Ephesians 6:15 (NIV) and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

In Sunday school as a child you heard this piece of armor referred to as the shoes of peace, and while we all want world peace, that is not the peace that this speaks of. Peace can only come to our hearts through the hearing of the gospel, repentance and submission. When we become a part of God's family through the Lord Jesus Christ, he sends the Holy Spirit to abide in us that imparts to us the peace of God; it imparts a peace that is beyond understanding to the world. (See John 14:23-31)
We could not and cannot create this peace in ourselves because we were separated from God and within ourselves we warred with Him, but Jesus made peace with God for us when He bled and died for our sins of His own accord. (See Col. 1:20)
Note that the verse says 'fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel (good news) of peace'. We were told by Jesus to go into all of the world to preach and teach the good news. (See Matthew 28:18-20) Unless we get ready, how can we go? Unless we are willing to take the first step, how will we do what is asked of us?
Examine yourself, do you have a peace that others in the world outside the body of believers just can't perceive of. If not, re-evaluate your repentance and submission. Maybe you are trying to do it on your own and are still warring within yourself. You can't put on the shoes if they aren't yours to wear.

WITH THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Ephesians 6:14 (NIV) Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
WITH is a very key word here. In the previous blog we talked about the belt of truth. Anyone can know about the truth of Jesus, but unless that truth is accompanied by His righteousness, it is simply fruitless knowledge. If it were even possible for a sinful man to be righteous outside of Jesus Christ, the commandments would have been the saving factor. No man on earth except Jesus Christ has ever been without sin since the fall from grace of the first man Adam. When we recognize the truth of the gospel and repent from (turn away from) our sin, replacing it with submission to God's will, He then sends the Holy Spirit to abide with us as our council, THEN are we covered not with our righteousness, but with the righteousness of Jesus Christ (See Romans 3:21-27).
There were those in the Bible that recognized the truth and even taught it but were not among those saved by the righteousness of the lamb. See Philippians 1:15-18, Acts 19:13-16. There are those that preach a version of the truth today that are in the same boat with those described, not covered with the righteousness of Christ.
So we see that, unless we have both the word of the gospel of Jesus which is the truth and have that WITH the righteousness of Jesus Christ (or the breastplate of righteousness), we have attained NOTHING.

PUTTING ON THE BELT OF TRUTH

Ephesians 6:14 (NIV) Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, (the King James says 'having your loins girt about with truth)
The concept of the belt of truth as listed in Ephesians is a subject much deeper than one might conceive of at first. If you ask a child who just learned the verse in Sunday School or even a new Christian, what it means to put on the belt of truth, they will come back with the answer, "Well, God wants us to always tell the truth." While it is true that God wants us to always tell the truth, that is not what this scripture is all about.
Let's look at John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And in John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. We know that the word is God's truth and here we find that it became flesh in Jesus Christ.
You see the truth that we are to put on with the belt of truth is the truth of the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ! He is our truth as Christians.
In the early years of our marriage my husband would ask me what the truth, the real truth about the meaning of things was, and I would say the truth is Jesus. He would look at me with an expression of doubt and go about his business. Sometime later he got baptized, but the question would still come up from time to time and I would answer the same answer and he would respond as he had before. Then on Nov. 17, 2004, Tom received Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Suddenly, like the blind man he could see the truth of the gospel. The Bible was like a brand new book even though he had been reading it all of his life.
My point is this. People have to come to Jesus before they can truly put on the belt that this scripture speaks of because the truth in it is in itself Jesus Christ.