Pray Submissively Series

HoHum:

Do we know someone who flips out if we sit on their perfectly made bed? Do we know someone who loses it because one of his pens is missing from the pen jar on his desk? Do we know someone who is so organized she would heckle Martha Stewart for being sloppy? Do we know someone who knows exactly how everything should be done and has no problem telling us? What is the problem with these people?- control freaks.

I want to be lead by God and not by unrealistic demands of others. Need God’s help to order my steps, some of the song lyrics are here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO741IQbPPk): Humbly, I ask Thee to teach me Your will; While You are working, help me be still; Though satan is busy, God is real; Order my steps in Your word; Bridle my tongue, let my words edify; Let the words of my mouth be acceptable in Thy sight; Take charge of my thoughts both day and night; Please, order my steps in Your word

I want to walk worthy, My calling to fulfill; Please order my steps Lord; And I'll do Your blessed will; The world is ever changing But You are still the same; If You order my steps. I’ll praise Your name. Psalm 119:133: “Direct my footsteps (Order my steps) according to your word;, let no sin rule over me.

WBTU:

Recite the Model Prayer together

Jesus starts with a 3 part petition that aligns us with God’s reputation, kingdom and will. “Hallowed be they name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

Next, He teaches us to turn our thoughts and prayers toward ourselves and our needs in what can be understood as another 3 part petition: “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

We can see the brilliance in Jesus’ progression of thought in this prayer. He seems to understand that most of us like to control things. We are usually reluctant to surrender control and seek God’s leadership in our lives. Therefore, Jesus does not being this prayer with an act of surrender but an acknowledgement of our relationship with God (love people and lead them to a relationship with Jesus Christ) “Our Father which art in heaven.” Then he teaches us to align ourselves with God’s reputation, kingdom, and will in prayer, because prayer is not about getting things from God but partnering with God. And then, once we do that, He tells us to present our most basic needs to God- to be fed and to be both forgiven and forgiving. Only after all of this does Jesus teach us to ask to be led. “And lead us not into temptation.” When we pray this is might be good to pause after the words “and lead us.” This can be a prayer of submission (PRAY- Praise, repent, ask and yield).

Thesis: Focusing on the phrase, “Lead us not into temptation”

For instances:

A. Pray to be led (and pray for grace to follow)

Give, forgive, and now lead. 3 simple requests but each has profound effects. Each may have been rich with allusion in the mind of Jesus and in the minds of His earliest students in prayer. When Jesus said, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He and His listeners probably couldn’t have helped but remember the experience of the Jews in the wilderness, when they complained of hunger and God answered with manna, saying, “In the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 16:12). When Jesus told them next to pray, “Forgive us,” those words may have brought back to their memory of Israel’s impatience and complaining- still, after having been provided manna day by day- that prompted a scourge of “fiery serpents” in the camp that brought grief, sorrow, repentance, and prayers for forgiveness and healing, which were answered when Moses lifted up in their midst a “bronze serpent” on a pole (Numbers 21:4-9). Similarly, when Jesus said to pray, “And lead us,” He and his hearers might have recalled the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night- the GPS system by which God led his people out of Egypt and through the wilderness, step by step, turn by turn, until they crossed the Jordan and entered the Promised Land.

Need to pray to be lead like this, and pray also for the grace, wisdom and courage to follow. Pray, “Lead me in the way everlasting” Psalm 139:24. Pray, “Lead me in your righteousness” Psalm 5:8. Pray, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I” Psalm 61:2. Pray, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground” (Psalm 143:10).