Perfect Prayer (Part 2)

Influence: King's Cross by Timothy Keller and the book of Acts, not to mention Matthew 6:5-15

Praying is desiring God and His will for your life. That is evident when Jesus tells us one of the secrets to a disciple's prayer life is to be alone in your heart, soul, and mind. Always pray with an audience of one, God the father.
After Jesus tells us to cherish the "secret" place of prayer with the Father He gives us a model for how to pray which is called the "Lord's Prayer." Basically, Jesus tells us, "Pray to the Father using my example of prayer." It is kind of a skeleton prayer that all of our prayers should wrap around.
Here's what we see in the Lord's Prayer:
- God's glory, authority, and will
- Subsistence living - (during Jesus' day you lived day to day for work, food, clothing, etc)
- Statement of trusting God that He will provide and meet our needs
- Forgiveness and assistance in forgiving others

There should be a special note that nothing in the Lord's Prayer mentions 'our wants.' This may trouble some, but you see, the point of prayer is about desiring what God desires. Our conversation in prayer does not revolve around us, it revolves around Him. It's why even before Jesus asks that God would provide for the day He asks that God's will would be done. I think Jesus understood that God's will came well before our wants and desires. So I ask you this question: If your desires were a desperate hunger and thirst for God, what would you ask for? (Meditate on this question in your quiet time with God today.)

So here are three things Jesus' disciples must be devoted to when they pray:
1. Desire what God desires (not the other way around) -
       -Rely on the Holy Spirit to teach you what God desires
2. Trust that God's provision is enough
      -We don't need to live on excess
3. We must extend to others what God has already extended to us - "Practice what you pray"

Perfect prayer has little to do with the right words in the right spot. It has everything to do with a human heart surrendering like Jesus Christ to God our Father.
So pray perfectly. Desire God.