Series 07 English pages Chapter14

This page in HTML4 - Print - Bottom

Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 2 (Gospel) -- Chapter: 14 (Worship 3) -- Text
Previous Chapter -- Next Chapter

The Sharia of Christ in the GOSPEL
F - Commandments of Christ related to our Duties towards God (WORSHIP)

3. PRAYER

Summary

Matthew 6:5-13 -- 5 "And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.

Matthew 7:7-11 -- 7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Matthew 14:23 -- And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.

Matthew 18:18-20 -- 18 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

Matthew 21:12-14 -- 12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' " 14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

Matthew 21:21-22 -- 21 So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done. 22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

Matthew 26:40-41 -- 40 Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Matthew 19:14-15 -- 14 But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 15 And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.

Matthew 11:25-26 -- 25 At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.

John 11:41-44 -- 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me." 43 Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."

John 17:1-26 -- 1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said:

"Father,
the hour has come. Glorify Your Son,
that Your Son also may glorify You,
2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh,
that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
3 And this is eternal life,
that they may know You, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
4 I have glorified You on the earth.
I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.
5 And now,
O Father,
glorify Me together with Yourself,
with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
6 I have manifested Your name
to the men whom You have given Me out of the world.
They were Yours, You gave them to Me,
and they have kept Your word.
7 Now they have known
that all things which You have given Me are from You.
8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me;
and they have received them,
and have known surely that I came forth from You;
and they have believed that You sent Me.
9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the world
but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine,
and I am glorified in them.
11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world,
and I come to You.
Holy Father,
keep through Your name those whom You have given Me,
that they may be one as We are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name.
Those whom You gave Me I have kept;
and none of them is lost except the son of perdition,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world,
that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them Your word;
and the world has hated them because they are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world.
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world,
but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
18 As You sent Me into the world,
I also have sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself,
that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
20 I do not pray for these alone,
but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You;
that they also may be one in Us,
that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them,
that they may be one just as We are one:
23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one,
and that the world may know that You have sent Me,
and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24 Father,
I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me;
for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
25 O righteous Father!
The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.
26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it,
that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them."

Summary

In Islam, prayer is enjoined as a duty on all Muslims. A Muslim must keep the five prayers according to their times, and to repeat the words written according to the ritual. He stands up and kneels down in harmony with the spoken words during the prayer. And during his five prayers, he prays 17 rak’aat (prayer cycles) and bows down to the ground kneeling before God 34 times daily.

However, in Christianity, prayer is not a religious duty, but a privilege. We are entitled to come to God our Father, in prayer, at all times, as his children, and tell him all our things and our needs. Christian prayer usually consists of petitions, supplications, thanks, praise, confession, and manifestation of the secrets of the heart to the loving God.

Jesus declared to us the Lord’s Prayer as an example of a suitable prayer that we might not let ourselves go centering around our relatives and ourselves. He commanded us to adapt our prayers and petitions according to his. Therefore, we find that the petitions concerning heavenly things come first with the worship to God and the plea for the coming of his kingdom, and fulfillment of his will. Then comes the request for our daily bread, not only for ourselves alone, but also for our hungry brothers. This collective sense also shapes our confession of our sins, and our preparedness to forgive those who do wrong to us. Thereafter come the requests for keeping us from the error of our ways and from the deception of the devil that we may seek protection in Christ our refuge. The final glorification, and the word “Amen”, the closing of the Lord’s Prayer, leads us once again from egoism to the heavenly matters that we may not care about ourselves more than we need to, but rest assured that our heavenly Father hears and answers us.

Prayer is likened to the sigh of the soul. Without prayer, man appears spiritually weak, or dead in sins. Do you really pray? Or does the spirit of the Lord pray in you? Where the Holy Spirit dwells in man, he encourages him to speak to God the Father, and helps him to pronounce the accepted words with love and reverence. The Spirit cries out in us: "Abba, Father." (Romans 8:15)

Jesus commanded us to keep his Lord’s Prayer, to repeat it, to think of what we speak, and to believe in what we ask. He made clear to us that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. “Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." (Matthew 9:37-38)

The prayer of those who are sanctified moves the arm of the Lord. Jesus wants us to present our prayers with petitions and thanksgiving, knowing that thanksgiving is more important than petitions. In praying, we live in connection with Jesus, and through him with his Father. Our Savior promised us more than twelve times to answer our prayers if we uttered them according to his Spirit and his will (Matthew 6:8, 7:7-11, 9:38, 18:19, 21:22, Mark 11:24, Luke 10:2, 11:9-12, John 14:13-14, 15:7.16, 16:24.26-27; etc.)

In certain cases, we find that the heavenly Father does not answer our prayers. Some of these cases are hatred, and unpreparedness for reconciliation, when we do not completely forgive our enemies, or when we do not confess our sins publicly to God and ask his forgiveness; also when we remain proud, thinking we are right and all the others are wrong. When envy, stinginess, lying, injustice, unbelief, and doubt grow, we are not to be surprised if our prayers are not answered. The Spirit of the Lord wants to uncover all that is contrary to God, to his holiness, and his love. Every prayer finds its merit only in the blood of Christ, as the prayer of the saints in heaven and on earth is purified on the altar of incense by heavenly fire that it may be accepted and answered by God (Revelation 8:3).

Top

This page in HTML4 - Print - Top