Matthew 6:9-13 The Prayer Format
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: February 6, 2019, Matthew 6:9-13
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) We are to acknowledge God first in prayer. Although I do not think it makes a difference whether we address the Father, Jesus, or the Spirit since they are all one and there is no pride or rivalry involved in their love for each other and us, Jesus gave the example of starting prayer with “Our Father.” Thus, we are claiming a relationship to God in our prayer. We are saying that we are God’s children, and He is our Father. We are also acknowledging Him as our Creator. We are His children twice over–first as His creations and secondly, when He redeemed us and adopted us back into the family. In claiming God as our Father, we should have faith that God is listening to us and loving us and wanting to be with us.
Then we praise God. We state our desire that God’s name, His reputation, will be upheld everywhere. If we mean this, then we are also asking that we will represent Him rightly before others. We are saying that we know that God is unique and set apart and not human. He is beyond us in so many ways that it is impossible to count. Thus, in the first sentence, we are acknowledging both our closeness to God and His separateness from us. We are claiming our right to approach Him while accepting that He is not to be manipulated or looked upon as an equal. We are not bringing God down to our level, but instead we are requesting permission (which is always there) to rise to heaven to be with His holy Presence.
(Understanding the Text) We know that we are in a rotten sinful world at war with God. We know that God’s will is not being done here, so we pray that this situation will change. We pray that the ways of the kingdom of heaven will manifest on earth.
We ask for our daily needs. Out of the five sentences of the prayer, only one asks for something material. Even then, it is the material needs of survival-food, etc. God knows our needs, so there is no purpose in asking for lots of material things.
There are three sentences of requests: daily bread, forgiveness, and avoiding temptation. Of these, only forgiveness has a condition. If we refuse to forgive others, we are not forgiven. This goes back to the Beatitudes “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.” This is part of being righteous.
The prayer finishes with deliver us from evil. This is the second part of the prayer that acknowledges that we live in a world full of evil. God knows that life is hard for us. He knows and sympathizes with our pain and suffering. When we ask for deliverance, God wants to answer our prayer. Thus, if He does not deliver us from evil, there must be great need for our situation, either in ourselves or for others. This is where Jesus’ advice about doing good to those who persecute us comes into play. On another note, part of the evil of this world is temptation for us to sin. This is the main point of being delivered from evil here. Paul says that the Father will always answer this prayer when it comes to temptation. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1Co 10:13).
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that I need to have faith that God wants to hear my prayers because He is my Father. I need to always remember not to try to bring God to my level, but to always remember that He is more than I am on every level. I need to trust God to give me the necessities I need daily to survive. I must forgive others and trust that God has forgiven me. Finally, I need to look for the way of escape that God provides and actually USE it instead of ignoring it. Please help me to trust You and come closer to You in prayer. Remind me to pray frequently and teach me how to listen to You when I pray.