What To Pray For And Against (December 19, 2004)

Pray against sin.

I'm aware that people need help in knowing how to pray and what to pray for. Just a couple weeks ago a neighbor asked me for some written prayers that he could say with his son. He knew he was supposed to pray with him, but he didn’t know how. I bought him a couple books (you can get them at any Christian bookstore) filled with modern, simple prayers to be read aloud. I was happy to see him trying to find an answer to the question, "How should I pray?"

When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he gave them a prayer that was almost entirely spiritual in nature. There is only one physical request in the whole prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread." As for the rest:

"Hallowed be thy name." Hallowed is a verb form of the adjective "holy" expressed as a wish. We are not exactly saying "You are holy" or "I wish you were holy" but "I wish you to be regarded as holy." We are praying that sinners (including ourselves) would recognize the true nature of God.

"Thy kingdom come." The devil reigns now. See 2 Corinthians 4:4 where he is "the god of this age," and 1 John 5:19, which says that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” But we want God to reign. Ultimately of course, God reigns already, but so many people live their lives in defiance of his rule that it is clear that the devil still has too much power. Holiness defeats him and welcomes the reign of God. See 2 Peter 3:11-12: "You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming."

"Thy will be done." Though we rightly pray this prayer when submitting to God's sovereign will in areas that are painful to us (as Jesus did before he was crucified), it should be mentioned that the following words "on earth as it is in heaven" give this request a different flavor. The idea is that God's will (in the sense of his commandments) is perfectly obeyed in heaven by saints and angels - but here on earth he is disobeyed and his will is held in contempt. We must pray for ourselves and others to do his will - that is, to obey his commands.

"Lead us not into temptation." God's Spirit led Jesus into temptation (Matthew 4:1), but he was stronger than we and could not fail. We admit that we are failure-prone, and must pray as Jesus instructed his disciples: "Pray that you will not fall into temptation" (Luke 22:40).

"Deliver us from (the) evil (one)." God keep the devil away from all of us.

As you read through the New Testament, notice how nearly all the prayers and prayer requests are spiritual in nature. Paul, for example, prays that people's love would deepen (Philippians 1:9), and asks for prayer that he would not be a coward (Ephesians 6:19-20). I suppose he also prayed about things like Timothy's bad stomach, but when he brings up that matter he chooses to talk about medicine rather than prayer (1 Timothy 5:23).

So pray against sin, and pray for holiness. I'm sorry to say that you will never lack material for these prayers. Your newspaper will furnish you with endless accounts of crime and evil and depravity. The selfish, worldly behavior of your coworkers and relatives alone can probably keep you busy praying quite a while. But most of all, unless sin has so blinded you as to make self-perception impossible, you will find that your own heart manages to keep refilling its store of wickedness that, like the stubborn demon in Mark 9:29, can only come out by prayer. When you pray against sin, pray most fervently against your own.