For “Scriprure Sunday”: Late again!
Avoiding Vain Repetitions in Prayer
Many people memorize and routinely recite what is commonly called the Lord’s Prayer. Is this what Jesus Christ wanted His disciples, and us, to do?
Matthew 6:7
“And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
God does not give us prayers to memorize and repeat mindlessly as a ritual. He is not interested in babble and hearing certain syllables intoned repetitiously, as it seems the pagans believed their “gods” did. He wants His followers to “avoid meaningless, repetitive prayers offered under the misconception that mere length will make prayers efficacious” (Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary on Matthew 6:7-8).
God is interested in us having an actual conversation with Him, listening to what He says in the Bible and sharing our thoughts, requests, cares and praise with Him in a focused and meaningful way. Repeating someone else’s words over and over again can’t help but become rote and ritual rather than building the relationship God desires.
See more about the communication God desires in our article “How to Pray.” From: http://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/avoiding-vain-repetitions-in-prayer/
The Lord’s Model Prayer
Matthew 6:9-13
“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
This passage is often called the “Lord’s Prayer,” but it really isn’t a prayer, but an outline of the kinds of things to pray about. Christ prayed many prayers, and if you had to pick one to call the Lord’s Prayer, the one recorded in John 17 might be the most likely candidate.
There is a lot packed into this outline about our approach to God; about our need to focus on the good news of His promised Kingdom; about praying for the needs of others and ourselves; and about overcoming Satan, temptation and sin through seeking God’s help and forgiveness.
From: http://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/the-lords-model-prayer/ More details on this passage, please see “The Lord’s Prayer.”
More on this subject: http://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/prayer-fasting-and-meditation/how-to-pray/the-lords-prayer/
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Private Prayers
Matthew 6:5-6
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ laid out the foundations of Christianity; and in this section He addresses the wrong and right ways to pray. Prayer is not for show or to impress other people. It is designed to help us build a personal relationship with our Creator. The core of our prayer life is one-on-one, alone with God. When we pray in private, we can express our deepest emotions and be open with God in a way we could not be in public.
The example of the New Testament Church shows that this does not mean that there is no place for public prayer, as there are many examples of the Church of God praying together (Acts 1:14; 4:24-31; etc.). But we must always be on guard against the attitude of hypocrisy that Jesus warned about.
For more about what the Bible teaches about prayer, see our article “How to Talk to God.” From: http://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/private-prayers/
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Update:
Been very busy. The mower broke down, it just quit in the middle of a row. So it was taken to a lawnmower repair shop in New Waverly, the next city north of here. It had been patched up by the local guy in the subdivision, but it was time for the professionals. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy a new mower? Well, not really, as I don’t like having one with a discharge shute. Neighbor’s dog lost her eye that way, it was terrible, but it would be awful if that happened to a people, as they really need two eyes to read. This is a mulching mower, so all the clippings are ground up and redeposited on the grass, so it just has a rubber apron on the back, and no other discharge place. Mulching is supposed to be better for the grass.
The guest house’s new plumbing is started, the drains have been planned out. Already Roy and I have made several trips to Conroe, south of here. One trip to Home Depot, one trip to Lowes and a couple more to the local hardware store, and we don’t have everything yet. That’s the way it goes with new plumbing!
A friend of Roy’s dug a trough from the sewer line in the carport, but Roy had to dig it out more to make sure that the pipe would be covered. We have tied into the main sewer with a Saddle Tee which was bought from a plumbing store. The sewer pipe with a cleanout, under the pathway in the carport has been filled in and covered so we can walk there again. The sewer pipe is now under the house and waiting to be run to the old laundry room, new kitchen and new bathroom.
We have taken up one 4x8’ sheet of the floor’s plywood to have easy access to install the drains and vents. The floor won’t be permanently screwed down until we get this done and then it will have insulation installed under the floor. Also Roy has been taping and floating the patches in the wall where outlets were removed in the bathroom, so now we can seal the existing sheetrock before repainting. One wall had to be sheetrocked where we had divided the old bedroom into a kitchen and bathroom, too. The old walk-in closet doorway from the old bedroom is filled in as there is now a new closet doorway from the new bedroom. This floorplan will seem more spacious even though the square footage has not changed.
Yes, I did go to church the last couple of weeks, but my notes are not around, and they were great, but very hot days.
