Ps. 144 v 15 HCSB
Happy
are the people with such blessings. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.
Psalm 144 is a prayer
for deliverance and blessing. It consists of a song of praise from a king, a
song of praise to the Creator God, a prayer that the LORD will make an
appearance as God, a prayer for deliverance from enemies and blessing on the
home front.
Amen
Hier reeks oordenkings is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar
The 1st Medetation Prayer 01 - Why should a believer
pray?
The Previous Medetation: Prayer 10 - And do not bring us into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one
The last Meditation in this series: Prayer 12 - Our Father
Prayer 11
For Yours is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever - Amen.
Jer. v 8 & 9 HCSB
I will purify them from all the wrongs they have
committed against Me, and I will forgive all the wrongs they have committed
against Me, rebelling against Me. This city will bear on My behalf a name of
joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of
all the good I will do for them. They will tremble with awe because of all the
good and all the peace I will bring about for them.
We conclude our prayer with: "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever - Amen" because our Heavenly Father is so powerful. With that we pay homage to the greatness of his power.
Amen
Hier reeks oordenkings is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar
The 1st Medetation Prayer 01 - Why should a believer
pray?
The Previous Medetation: Prayer 09: And forgive us our debts, as we alsohave forgiven our debtors
The next Meditation: Prayer 10: And do not bring us into temptation,but deliver us from the evil one
Prayer 10
And do not bring us
into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one
1 Pet. 5 v 8
Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is
prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
With our prayer, we prayed to our Heavenly Father in our inner room. We have come to lay our life's need and guilt of sin before his feet, but now we must continue on the dangerous path of life and for that we also pray.
We pray this prayer because we are so weak. The danger of temptation awaits us like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour and in ourselves we are so weak that we cannot remain unconquered for one moment.
That is why we pray to our Father that He will guide us in His wise disposition and strengthen us through the Holy Spirit so that we can miss sin, because we trust in everything in His protection and guidance.
We pray this prayer because our enemies are so dangerous and strong. They are in fact mortal enemies, namely the devil, the world and our own sinful nature.
The devil is a liar and murderer. The Bible describes him in Revelation. 12 v 3 and 20 v 2 as a cunning ancient serpent of seduction and a fiery dragon of destruction.
The world outside denies that God exists and that includes all the sinful practices that are in rebellion against God's authority.
Our own sinful nature is our own enmity against God that stems from the devastating rebellion against God by our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. The characteristics of it that we also find in our own lives are immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, hatred, jealousy, anger, quarrels, division, division, envy, drunkenness, extravagance and all such things.
These mortal enemies team up to work our doom and they do not stop attacking us.
Therefore, pray in faith for the guidance and protection of our Heavenly Father to strengthen you in this battle (since we ourselves are so weak and our enemies so strong) until we finally achieve victory.
Amen
Hier reeks oordenkings is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar
The 1st Medetation Prayer 01 - Why should a believer pray?
The Previous Medetation: Prayer 0
Prayer 09
And forgive us our
debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Luke 15 v 17 & 18
HCSB
When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my
father’s hired hands have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger!
I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven and in your sight.
In the previous prayers we prayed for our physical need and now we pray for our spiritual need. The prodigal son comes home in this prayer to seek forgiveness from his Father.
Here we beg that God will not impute to us our crimes and evil that we are still clinging to. We pray here for the inherited guilt that we still cling to as well as our own guilt that we discover under the proclamation of the Word and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. This is an ongoing process, because out of our own, we only make our debt bigger every day.
We beg here that God not impute our crimes and evil for the sake of the blood of Christ. This is an honest confession where we do not deny our sin and guilt. The only reason we can make this plea is the blood of Jesus Christ.
Amen
Hier reeks oordenkings is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar
The 1st Medetation Prayer 01 - Why should a believer pray?
The Previous Medetation: Prayer 06 -Your kingdom come
The next Meditation: Prayer 08 - Give us each day our daily bread
Prayer 07
Your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven.
Micah 6 v 8 HCSB
Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is
the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk
humbly with your God.
Rom. 8 v 28 HCSB
We know that all things work together for the good of
those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.
The will of God. It
has been a stumbling block from the beginning against which mankind has
rebelled. Putting God's will above your own sinful will is humanly impossible.
This can only happen when we are saved by our faith in the gospel and God leads
us to it through His Spirit. That is what we are praying for in this prayer.
The prayer to obey
God's will involves asking God to lead us through His Spirit to give up our own
sinful will, for our own will is the cause of all our misery. Giving up our own
will is therefore a matter of repentance, because although we ask God to lead
us to it through His Spirit, you are not passive in giving up your own will.
In giving up my own
will, I must surrender myself to God's will. This means that I must accept that
God's will is good and just, because only our Good Father's will is good and
holy.
Even though we may
not always understand God's will, we must accept both his revealed will (as
embodied in his Word) as well as his hidden will, which is expressed in his providence,
as perfect and good so that we can be patient in adversity, thankful in
prosperity, and with a view to the future we can have a firm confidence in our
faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love; for
all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they cannot
so much as move.
Furthermore, it means
that I accept and do not find fault with God's will or try to know better than
God. It also means that I must not try to pervert God's will to suit my own
will.
In this we also pray
that God will guide us through His Spirit to obediently accept the position in
which He places us within His church (office of believer, deacon, elder or
teacher) and that we will perform the duties associated with it so that it will
extend to his glory and the expansion of his Kingdom.
This obedience also
involves that I will see my daily task in whatever form as the place in which
God has placed me and that I will carry it out as if it were for the Lord.
The conclusion ‘as in heaven’ is that we, like the
heavenly beings before his throne, will fulfill God's will with joy and that we
will also pray for the return of Jesus Christ at the consummation when we as
new people will no longer know of a conflict with God's will.
In this third prayer
we therefore pray that God will guide us through his Spirit and give us the
ability to be obedient so that we will give up our own will and carry out his
will as it happens in heaven.
Amen
Hier reeks oordenkings is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar
The 1st Medetation Prayer 01 - Why should a believer pray?
The Previous Medetation: Prayer 07 -Our Father in heaven
Prayer 08
Give us each day our
daily bread.
Phil. 4 v 6 HCSB
Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through
prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
While we are still
living on earth, we need our daily bread, that is, our livelihood. Therefore,
the Lord teaches us to come to Him in prayer with our daily needs and pray for
them. Anyone who believes in the salvation of Jesus Christ can come to our
Father with confidence in his daily needs.
When we pray for our
daily bread, it is a request that includes much more than just bread. We hereby
pray for everything we need for our daily subsistence such as health, clothing,
food, work, compensation for our labor and the proceeds thereof.
This prayer does not
mean that we should just sit back and wait for our daily bread to appear
miraculously. No, we are asking for the possibility of providing for our
livelihood through our work, because even that is only grace.
With this we
acknowledge, our deep dependence on our Father's care because He is the only
Source of all that is good and that His gifts without His blessing will benefit
us nothing.
Furthermore, we also
confess our childlike trust in the care of our Father and that we thereby
deprive our trust of all creatures and place it on Him alone.
In this prayer we also
ask that the Lord will give us what we need without being consumed by worries
or greed for more than we need. But with this prayer we also reach in
expectation beyond the bread need of the time to the abundance of eternity.
Pray and work for
your daily bread, while silently expecting everything from your Father in
faith, until He will make everything new on the new earth where there will be
no more hunger or worry.
Amen
Hier reeks oordenkings is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar
The 1st Medetation Prayer 01 - Why should a believer pray?
The Previous Medetation: Prayer 05 -Our Father in heaven
The next Meditation: Prayer 07 - Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Prayer 06
Your kingdom come.
Mark 1 v 14 & 15
HCSB
After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee,
preaching the good news of God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God
has come near. Repent and believe in the good news!”
1. Submission of ourselves to God's rule
The coming of the
Kingdom begins with ourselves and therefore we must pray that God will rule us
in such a way through His Word and Spirit that we will submit to Him more and more.
2. Preservation and building up of Jesus' bridal church
Remember, every
believer is one of the living building blocks of Jesus' church. In this prayer,
therefore, there is also a sigh, namely: preserve Your church against its
enemies (that is, our own sinful nature, the world and the attacks of satan)
and let it grow through the proclamation of the gospel.
3. Casting down all enemy forces
With this prayer we
therefore also specifically ask that God will destroy the works of the devil
(that is, the great adversary of God who fights against Him and His Church with
deceit and lies) as well as every power that rises up against God.
Furthermore, it also asks that God destroy all malicious plans against His holy Word, for example, its rejection and falsification.
4. The dawn of the state of perfection
It is also our sigh
and longing for the perfect state of glory at the consummation.
The 1st Medetation: Prayer 01 - Why should a believer pray?
The previuos Medetation: Prayer 03 - What should the contents be of a sincere prayer?
The next Medetation: Prayer 05 - Your name be honored as holy
Joh. 1 v 12
Maar
aan almal wat Hom aangeneem het, dié wat in Hom glo, het Hy die reg gegee om
kinders van God te word.
Waarom het Jesus ons beveel om God as ‘ons Vader in die hemel’ aan te spreek,
wanneer ons bid?
Sodat ons heel aan die begin van ons gebed ons kinderlike
vertroue en respek ten opsigte van God sal bevestig. Dit is die vertroue dat
net soos wat 'n vader vir sy kind sorg, ons vertrou dat God as ons Vader in Christus
alles sal voorsien wat ons in die lewe nodig het.
Daarmee nader jy in eenvoud en nederigheid tot God, want
jy het nie nodig om God te probeer imponeer wanneer jy bid nie.
(Mat. 6 v 5 & 6)
“Verder,
as julle bid, moet julle nie soos die skynheiliges wees nie. Hulle hou daarvan
om in die sinagoges en op die straathoeke te staan en bid sodat die mense hulle
kan sien. Dit verseker Ek julle: Hulle het hulle beloning klaar weg.
Nee,
as jy bid, gaan na jou kamer toe, maak die deur toe en bid tot jou Vader wat jy
nie kan sien nie. Jou Vader wat sien wat verborge is, sal jou beloon.”
Wanneer jy in gebed tot God nader praat jy gewoonweg met Hom
net soos wat 'n kind met sy vader praat sonder om disrespekvol te wees. Deur
die Gees wat ons ontvang het, roep ons in kinderlike vertroue: “Abba, Vader!” (Rom.
8 v 15; Gal. 4 v 6 & 7)
En om
ons, wat aan die wet onderworpe was, los te koop sodat ons as kinders van God
aangeneem kon word. En omdat ons sy kinders is, het God die Gees van sy Seun in
ons harte gestuur, en in ons roep Hy uit: “Abba!” Dit beteken: Vader! Jy is dus
nie meer ’n slaaf nie; jy is nou ’n kind van God. En omdat jy sy kind is, het
God jou ook sy erfgenaam gemaak.
Wanneer jy God as jou Vader aanspreek dan bevestig jy
daarmee die grond van jou kinderlike vertroue, naamlik dat God deur Christus
ons Vader geword het en dat Hy veel minder dit wat ons in geloof bid, sal weier
as wat ons aardse vaders ons aardse dinge sal ontsê.
Deur God as jou Vader in die hemel aan te spreek bevestig
jy dat jy nie aards van Hom dink nie en dat jy nie sondige menslike kwaliteite
aan Hom toedig nie. Hiermee bevestig jy ook dat jy nederig bely dat jy van
jouself en die wêreld as bron van hulp afsien en dat jy jou vertroue op God alleen
stel.
Bid tot God as “jou Vader wat in die hemel is” en begin
daarmee jou gesprek met God in nederige ootmoed en vertroue in jou almagtige en
ewige Vader.
Amen
Mat. 6 v 9 – 13 HCSB
“Therefore, you should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today
our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our
debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Jesus gave us the
model prayer so that we can learn from it how to pray. From this example prayer
our Lord teaches that there are three issues we need to consider regarding the
content of our prayers.
1. The huge scope of
the content:
In this prayer, Jesus
teaches us to pray for all our spiritual and physical needs.
2. There is a
specific order:
The Name of the Lord,
His kingdom and the good will of the Father comes first. Only then does the
plea around our daily needs, the forgiveness of sins, and the preservation of
our lives follow. Then the prayer concludes with worship of, and the expression
of trust in Him to Whom the power and glory belong.
3. This prayer is a
clear example:
Jesus gave us this
prayer as an example so that we can learn what to focus on in our prayers.
However, this does
not mean that we should only pray the words as given to us here. However, the
issues raised here are important.
With our next few
daily devotions, we will focus in more detail on the content of this example
prayer.
Amen
Rev 19 v 9 & 10
Then he said to me, “Write: Those invited to the
marriage feast of the Lamb are fortunate!” He also said to me, “These words of
God are true.” Then I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me,
“Don’t do that! I am a fellow slave with you and your brothers who have the
testimony about Jesus. Worship God, because the testimony about Jesus is the
spirit of prophecy.”
We must pray, but
what are the requirements of a sincere prayer?
There are basically
three requirements:
1. Sincerity:
You cannot just
invoke any god in prayer. You must pray to the only true God as He revealed
Himself in His Word in Christ and of whom the Holy Spirit testifies in the
Word. Prayer is only valid if it is addressed to God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit.
You must further pray
in sincerity with an undivided heart to God and ask for everything He has
commanded us in His Word to pray for. If your prayer is for selfish reasons,
then you are praying wrong.
2. Humility:
This means that you
must know your need and misery correctly and thoroughly so that you can humble
yourself before His majesty. Humility means acknowledging that you are doomed
before God because of your sin and that you are dependent on His grace alone.
3. Trust:
You must trust that
God will answer your prayer because of the merits of the atonement of Christ as
He promised us in His Word.
Pray sincerely to the
only true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen
Hier reeks oordenkings is ook in Afrikaans beskikbaar
Ps. 50 v 14 & 15
Sacrifice a thank offering to God, and pay your vows
to the Most High. Call on Me in a day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you
will honor Me.
Prayer is a very
important part of a believer's life of gratitude. A child of God must speak to
his Father. Everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is a child of God as we hear
in John 1 v 12 & 13: “But to all who
did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God, to those who
believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, or of the will of the flesh,
or of the will of man, but of God.”
When you pray, you
become aware anew of God's grace and how the Holy Spirit is part of your life.
In Mat. 7 v 7 & 8 we hear: “Keep
asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep
knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be
opened.”
Prayer is not about
using God to get what we want. Through prayer you come to the realization anew
that you need God in your life.
Do not neglect your
prayer life.
Amen
