Needs and Prayers

I was listening to the interview of a pastor on YouTube recently. He is a man known for his great faith. His messages usually have a motivating tone.

In the middle of the interview, he said, "When I understood the meaning of prayer, I stopped asking God for my needs." That was a very strong statement. It took me a while to understand the meaning of it. But, after finishing the interview, I said to God, "God, you told me you are my dad. When my earthly dad was alive, I asked him for anything I needed. Now you are my dad, so no matter what prayer means, I am asking you for this and that." And to my surprise, God answered everything to encourage my little faith.

It reminds me of Matthew 7:11, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him." But then God also revealed the meaning of prayer through the Lord's Prayer. In prayer, Jesus taught us to call God "Our Father," which means we are within the Son, going to the Father with the help of the Holy Spirit, and calling Him our Father.

The prayer continues with God wanting us to think about His Kingdom, His work, and His mighty name before we present our list of needs to Him. This can be seen in the next verses: "Hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." After that, Jesus teaches us to pray not only for our own needs for food, but for everyone who calls Him Father to receive their food. This is evident in "Give us this day our daily bread."

Again, we ask for forgiveness, which includes everyone who is His child, not just our favorite brother or sister. God's forgiveness is for all who trust in His name, as seen in the verse: "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Finally, we ask for protection, and once more, we are reminded that His Kingdom is not far from us—we are part of it every day, whether we feel it or not. We are asked to end the prayer by glorifying His name.

This gave me the revelation that prayers are meant for the whole community, not just for ourselves. God expects us to put others in need before Him in prayer, before presenting our own requests. After I understood that, during my prayer time, I began writing down all the prayer requests from friends and family before bringing my own. May we all understand and pray prayers that are a pleasing aroma in His presence.

Dear God, thank you for your love for us. Help us to pray the prayers as you have taught us. Open our eyes to the wonders in the Lord's Prayer. Integrate the sense of the Lord's Prayer into our regular prayers. May you transform the way we pray, and may our prayers be a pleasing aroma to you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

(To have deep understanding of the above blog listen to the message of Dr. K.Muralidhar which he delivered in the All night prayer dated September 6@NLAG)