Title: Prayer and Relations (Matthew 6:9-15)
Content We have received many graces through faith in Jesus Christ. However, each person can give a different answer to the question of what is the greatest grace among them. A person who has been healed of a terrible disease will surely answer that being healed of a disease is the greatest grace, and if the business has been restored from a crisis, he can say that the restoration of the business is the greatest grace. Each of us will say that what we experience in our lives is the greatest grace.
However, although such grace is precious, in some cases, grace is often lost. God has given grace to business, but there are cases where we fail to keep that grace and lose it. Some people are rescued from disease and fall back to disease because of poor health care. Some people fall while using the grace that God has given to them as instruments of the flesh.
Then, what is the greatest grace among the graces we have received by believing in Jesus? The most precious grace we have received by believing in Jesus is that we become children of God. There is no greater grace than that we become children of God. Others are grace that can be obtained from people, but the grace of becoming a child is a grace that only God gives us.
For example, there was a certain parentless orphan. A very kind and loving person lived in the neighborhood of this child. This person sometimes gave money to the child. Thank you very much. You may think that you will pay for this grace later. When this child was sick, he took him to the hospital and healed him. The child may have thought that he would have to repay this favor later. However, someone else may be able to do this for you. In other words, the relationship is still male-female.
But there is no greater grace than this if that person has adopted the child as his child. Because when you have children, your relationship changes. When you have children, there is no boundary between what is yours and what is yours. Becoming a child is a greater grace than all the graces he has ever received combined. It will be a greater love than all the love he has ever received combined.
But what is the difference between children and others? The most precious grace we enjoy when we become children of God is the privilege of praying to God. It means that you can ask for it to God the Father. When you become a child, you can confidently ask your parents what has changed from before. No need to wait to give. It's about getting what you need. That is the difference between a neighbor and a child.
The Lord used the word father a lot in teaching prayer. Prayer is the world of privilege that only the Son has. If you look at the descriptions of God as Father in the New Testament, it is most often related to prayer. Because prayer is the privilege of the Son. Those who pray are living with the heart of a child of God.
We do not become children of God by keeping the commandments. Because we become God's children through faith, prayer is also not asking God for our merits as a premise. When the Bible says to pray to God in the name of the Lord, it means that in the Lord Jesus, life has the authority of children of God. The authority of a child is to remove the boundaries between what is father's and what is own. That's why he asks his father. Sometimes when you ask your parents for something, they tell you what they have left for you. It can be saved because the children have the belief that the father's things are mine.
When the children bring their friends home, they tell them to come over to our house. This means I want to go to my house. But the house is not yours. Father's house. I never helped build that house. The register of the house is in the father's name, and the father pays the tax of the house. Children ask their fathers because they have the belief that what belongs to them is theirs.
Therefore, those who pray are praying as if they were asking God to give their things. It's like putting money in a bank and praying that you give it out more confidently than getting it back. This is the heart of a child. When you pray, you will have the heart of this child. Do you feel sorry for God when you pray? Do you feel apologetic when your child asks your parents for food? It is praying with an open mind.
If you do not pray deeply, you will find it difficult to ask God. Because of this, when difficulties arise, we become anxious rather than praying, and rather than praying, we live according to the human way. One of Jesus' parables is the parable of the sower. There are four fields. But what is the third field? He said that the word was chocked due to anxiety and the deceitfulness of riches, and they were unfruitful. Why do we not bear fruit because of our worries? It is because we do not pray.
Another privilege of children is that no other conditions are required other than the relationship of children. There is no such thing as how much IQ you have to have or how much face you have to have to be a child. Just because he is a child, he has a special position for his father. Therefore, when praying, believers stand before God as children, so no matter what their appearance, they are not conscious at all.
We are children of God, given to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When the Lord, the Son, came into the world, he gave us the identity of a son, and he himself became a sinner in our identity. This is the core of the Christian gospel. Therefore, when we pray to God, praying in the name of Jesus means praying to God as a son.
If we consider the meaning of the cross, we can see how wonderful prayer is. God had to lay down his son's life in order to save man. The Lord's prayer is different from ours. The Lord was a prayer to forsake Himself. It was a prayer to die. The doctrine of the atonement is the most specific in the Christian gospel. The prophet Isaiah puts it this way:
?쏶urely he has borne our sorrows and borne our sorrows, but we thought that he was chastised, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. With him we have peace, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of our company.??
The greatest happiness of a believer is to live as a child of God. Many people want to live rich. Many people want to live as successful people. Many people want to live with power. However, the true happiness is living as a child of God. To truly become a happy person in this world, a believer must have the heart to live as a child of God.
The most basic way of living as a child of God is the life of the Word and prayer. The Word and prayer are the most important tools that make the relationship between the saints and God a father-son relationship. A child's life is free from worries and worries. Because you can pray. Many people try to justify their worries and resentments. It's not like that. The most proud of the saints is to hold onto their thoughts without praying.