Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:2-4 The scriptures in today’s lesson deal with how we should pray. Jesus said more on prayer according to the gospels, but we are only going to look at these few verses today. Starting with the verses in Matthew, Jesus taught that prayer is not for others to see. We are to pray to God the Father in a place where we have privacy. Then God will see what we are doing in secret and reward us. People that only pray for others to see them will only receive a reward from people, God will not reward them. Jesus also taught that we should not babble when talking with God. God knows what we need before we talk to him, so we should talk to him without useless, repetitive words. Jesus taught that there are five things we should do when we pray. 1. Recognize God and his holiness. 2. Make his kingdom and his will a priority in our lives. 3. Recognize we need God to provide for us daily. 4. Ask for forgiveness and forgive others. 5. Recognize we need God to protect us daily. In the verses from Luke, Jesus shared how to pray to his disciples because they wanted him to teach them, like John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray. Prayer is important. It is a daily talk we have with God. For those following Jesus and adopted into his family, it is a talk with our Heavenly Father. All God’s children will be able to handle life better if we make praying to our Heavenly Father a part of our daily life.
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John 17 NIV Prayer is important and for the next few weeks we will look at some scriptures dealing with prayer. In the scripture for this week we read the prayer Jesus had before he was betrayed and arrested. Jesus prayed about his relationship and obedience to his father. Jesus prayed about his disciples. Jesus also prayed about the future believers that would come to believe in him based on the message the disciples preached. We must make time to pray to our Father in heaven. Make time to talk with God about your life and what is going on. How much time do we spend talking with God daily? What do we talk to God about? How often do we listen to God in our prayer time? Over the last few weeks we have looked at some scriptures in the Old Testament that connect to Jesus. We will finish this study today with a familiar psalm written by King David. He acknowledged that the Lord is his shepherd. When we can acknowledge we need the Lord to be our shepherd, we are showing humility. Proverbs chapter three verse thirty-four tells us that the Lord gives grace to the humble. There is nothing wrong with needing Jesus. In fact, there are numerous benefits to living life with Jesus as your shepherd. King David lists several in this psalm, but the most important one is in verse six. He said, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Jesus said two things in John chapter ten, hundreds of years after Psalm 23 was written, that confirm what King David wrote. First, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again.” Second, Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” Some people do not want to hear this truth, but they need Jesus to have goodness and love follow them all the days of their lives and to live in heaven forever. Jesus is the only way. He is the only shepherd that will lead people into heaven to live forever. Who is your shepherd? How well do you know the voice of Jesus? What benefits have you experienced following Jesus? In the scripture for today, God revealed his plan for King David’s legacy to the prophet Nathan and told him to share it with King David. God said this about the future of King David’s kingdom, “your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” God said he would not take the throne away from David’s family and that it would be established forever. When God says forever, he means forever. When you read Matthew chapter one and Luke chapter three, you see that David is an ancestor of Jesus. In fact, the first verse of Matthew chapter one calls Jesus “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” God chose David to be the ancestor of Jesus. Jesus is the king, a descendant of David, who is leading a kingdom that will endure forever. The Apostle Paul told the Colossians that God, “qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” When we repent of our sins, accept Jesus as our King and savior, and receive the Holy Spirit, we join his kingdom. His kingdom is the kingdom of light because Jesus is the light of the world. God also chose you and I to have life today so that we can choose whether to follow Jesus and become part of his kingdom or choose to stay in the dominion of darkness. Our choice is about our eternal destination because only the children of God will inherit the kingdom of light that endures forever. What choices have you made that impact your eternal destination? What choices have you made in your relationship with Jesus? What inheritance will you receive once your life on this earth is done? |
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May 2024
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