Today we will be looking into the intricacies of the manner used by our Lord when He was teaching His disciples, and us by extension, how to pray as seen in Matthew 6:9-13.
I have chosen to use Matthew’s account of the prayer as he was more thorough in this instance when compared to that of Luke 11:2-4.
In my personal experience throughout the years, I have witnessed how the prayer taught to us by Jesus Christ in Matthew 6:9-13 has been memorized by most followers of our Lord. The memorization most often takes place at a young age and is truly a spectacular sight to witness. My concern, however, is that though memorization is very good and biblical, (Memorize Scripture), in the past few decades His church has settled merely for memorization and forgotten all about gaining understanding. Knowledge requires both memorization as well as understanding.
Unfortunately disregarding understanding and settling for memorization did not begin in the last few centuries, but has occurred throughout history. It is particularly evident in the lives of the Pharisees who could recite Scriptures, particularly laws, and yet continuously displayed their ignorance in understanding the Scriptures which was personified through their rejection and crucifixion of the Son of God.
May we not follow in their footsteps but rather let us study to shew ourselves approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth 2 Tim 2:15.
A saying that was all the rage at the turn of the 21st century was “knowledge is power”. When it comes to the knowledge of the Scriptures this is absolutely true as knowledge of the Scriptures teaches us how to be holy, how to strive for sinlessness, and among many other things teaches us what is most important in life which is to “... know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:3.
Through this study of the manner in which to pray, the aim is not merely for memorization but intently to have understanding of Christ’s teaching, i.e. to gain knowledge. So, if you are interested in learning how to truly seek the face of God the Father as taught to us by God the Son then I would like to welcome you to this journey of Prayer in the Manner of the Son of God.
May this journey be richly edifying.
In this first segment I find it fitting that we first address a fundamental question.
What is prayer?
There exists an immense amount of opinions on the subject. Many of these opinions are based on personal experiences and emotions. To avoid this mistake it is only appropriate that we turn to Scripture, particularly to the language of Scripture.
Though I have used the term language of Scripture above it is a matter of fact that there are actually three different languages used throughout the Bible. Though this may be true, there is a singular mindset, or language if you will, used throughout. The Scriptures are recorded in Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic for what is commonly called the Old Testament and Koine Greek for what is commonly called the New Testament. The mindset used throughout is referred to as Hebraic thought and thus my use of “language of Scripture”.
Though the words of Jesus Christ are recorded in Koine Greek He was raised as a Hebrew and mainly spoke to Hebrew people, thus, it is safe to assume that when the accounts of Jesus Christ were put to “paper” they were translated into Koine Greek, with some probable exceptions. This is most probably because of how widely Greek was spoken and understood when compared to Hebrew. In Matthew 6, however, He was speaking to Hebrew people. Thus, when Jesus Christ taught how to pray He didn’t use the Koine Greek word for pray but rather the Biblical Hebrew word “palal (H:6419)” for pray.
In The Living Words Volume One (2007), Jeff. A. Benner calls “prayer”, “holy”, and “worship” religious words (Benner, 2007:129). Religious words are words that are invented with religious connotations but have no connection to the Hebrew language of the Bible (Benner, 2007:129).
Prayer is most often defined as communication between man and God (Benner, 2007:129). However, a more Hebraic definition of prayer is “to fall down to the ground in the presence of one in authority pleading a cause,” “to intercede” (Benner, 2007:129).
Merely saying that prayer is to communicate is to undermine the possession of authority. In communication, authority can be held by either one of the two involved or by only one. Given sinful (carnal) human nature, the definition of communication for prayer easily allows us to view the Father as our prayer granter and us as the ones in authority as long as we have the “right” words or have done the “right” things. Thus if we say, then He must. This is NOT prayer!
Prayer is to fall down to the ground - to be in complete submission, to realise that you are completely powerless, that you intrinsically possess absolutely no authority - in the presence of one in authority - when done before God the Father it is before one in Ultimate authority who is Almighty - pleading a cause.
The authority is solely in Him. Because of misinterpreting prayer as only being communication, a vast amount of false doctrines on prayer exist today.
Jesus Christ did not attempt to give us the “right” words to use when pleading our cause before the Father in order that the Father could grant our every wish, but rather so that we could approach the Father on His terms. Using the correct manner taught to us by Jesus Christ the Son of God in Matthew 6:9-13.
As you think and rethink what prayer is my prayer is that you may grow in understanding and wisdom.
Reference
Benner. Jeff.A. 2007. The Living Words Volume One. Published: Virtualbookworm.com.
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