Lenten Lessons--Day 7

Today's Scriptures: Isaiah 55:10-11; Matthew 6:7-15

The Lord's Prayer (found in our Matthew passage)is not a long and wordy prayer. It is short, simple, and to the point. It is a great example for us to follow in our own prayer lives. You see, it isn't the quantity of our prayers that matter, but the quality. Also, it is important to understand that God doesn't need our prayers to realize our needs.

As we look at the Lord's Prayer, we first see that we need to pray about God's holiness, about the kingdom he has promised us, and about the fulfillment of God's will. You see, prayer isn't about us, it is about God. However, even though our primary focus is on God that doesn't mean we don't pray about ourselves. We need to pray about our dependence on God, for forgiveness, and for the perseverance to keep doing what is good and right in God's eyes. The key idea here is that EVERYTHING that really matters in our lives comes from God.

From Isaiah we learn that no divine word is without its loving effect. That means that if we pray according to the pattern that Jesus gave us, our prayer will never be without results because we are praying in the way God has instructed us to pray. If we do that, our prayer life will come alive and so will we!