Matthew 6: Why Not?
Remember in Chapter 5 last week, I mentioned about the Law
(the Old Covenant) and the New Covenant?
It is important to remember that one of the Bible’s most popular
prayers, “The Lord's Prayer” is not a New Covenant prayer.
It is a prayer given to Jesus’ disciples to pray at the
time, a time when Christ was fulfilling prophecy and preparing to die on the
Cross as He paid the price for our sins with His own blood through His death,
burial, and resurrection.
We can learn several principles of prayer from The Lord’s
Prayer, but remember, it is an Old Covenant prayer. One difference we see between the Old
Covenant prayer and our New Covenant prayers today is “praying in the name of
Jesus” (John 16:23) Notice in this verse in John, it says, “In that day”,
meaning the New Covenant. In The Lord’s
Prayer the disciples prayed to the Father, “Our Father in Heaven” (Matthew 6:9) They did not have the Holy Spirit living on
the inside of them as we, believers, do today.
Isn’t it wonderful that once Jesus died, and rose again the
Kingdom came (Luke 17:21). We no longer
have to pray for God’s Kingdom to come, it is within our hearts, that is, once
a person has received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (born again).
Refer now to verse 13 of The Lord’s Prayer. This is my personal favorite part of the
prayer. It says, “….But deliver us from
the evil one.” I am thankful every day,
because we are delivered from the evil one, and redeemed from the curse of the
law. This was accomplished in the death,
burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We do
not need to ask for it, He has already finished it (John 19:30). The devil is under our feet.
Then, why do so many still pray “deliver us from the evil
one”, and succumbed to a lifestyle non-reflective of their deliverance in
Christ? As believers, we cannot believe
in that which we do not know or understand.
I have read countless stories of people who lived a poor life on the
streets or in shacks, but upon their death it was discovered they actually had money
and a lot of it. As we read His Word in
the Bible and grow spiritually in Christ we learn and gain knowledge of what is
rightfully ours as a born again member of the church in Christ.
If I have a bank account someone gave me full of money, but
I do not know it exists, the money does me no good. If I do not know how to access the finances
in it, the money does me no good. If I
do not feel that I deserve it, I might refuse to use it (pride and guilt). Again, then the money does me no good.
The same is true with the benefits of being a child of
God. If I do not know that there are
benefits that I have in which I have access, then I cannot walk in them in
Christ. If I do not know what to do to
access these benefits, then I cannot walk in them in Christ. If I feel I am not worthy or deserving of
these benefits, then I choose not to walk in them in Christ.
It is up to me, to open the bible and read what being a Christian
(who I am) is, to learn about and access the benefits I have in Him.
We will revisit prayer again in John 16, and learn how we
are to pray today.
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