We’re given the Lord’s Prayer as our example of how to pray, and that’s good. Otherwise, how would we understand the best formula for speaking to God?
The thing is that it’s just a formula. If we recite the Lord’s Prayer, and that’s all we do, we’ve lost out on something vital.
Jesus gave us the words in his prayer as something for us to emulate, to model our prayers on, not to blithely mouth the words without giving them a deeper connection to what’s going on in our lives.
What then are the qualities of a good prayer? Once we’ve covered our thanks to God, our acceptance of his superiority, and our relationships with those around us, what else should we pray?
2 Thessalonians 1:11 gives us the 3 Qualities of a Good Prayer that will take us to the next level in our prayer life.
“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.”
Quality #1: Our good prayer must be frequent.
Our verse says, “We always pray for you.” That means continually. This morning, and again in the afternoon, and before we go to bed. Then tomorrow we do it over again.
Quality #2: Our good prayer must be for your spiritual well-being.
Our verse says, “That God may make you worthy of his calling.” What does it mean to be worthy of Christ’s calling? To change our desires and actions to become more like him.
Quality #3: Our good prayer furthers the calling and kingdom of Jesus.
Our verse says, “Fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith.” Resolve and faith are the key words here. Our prayer is not for what God hasn’t done, but what we believe and have committed ourselves to.
Let’s use the Lord’s Prayer. Model our prayers after it. But don’t stop there. God can take us deeper, and we can develop a richer prayer life when we take our prayers to the next level.
When our prayers are for others, we’ve broken through to a Christ-like posture before God.
Copyright © 2019 MyChurchNotes.net
Code: FGO.F.05.19.vp.esv