I started this Bible study, got busy with school, and am gonna try to get back in it. The study is over prayer and it doesn't have any sort of explanations with it, just verses, so I'm going through it verse by verse in my journal. This is from the first day. Not sure how insightful any of this will be, especially since it was written how I write notes for myself, but I hope it can help you like it helped me.


Matthew 6:5: There shouldn't be any show in prayer. Trying to sound all eloquent is not going to help you, and it isn't what God wants. He wants to hear your honest words, and He's never going to judge you based on how literate you are.

Matthew 6:6: "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." I've always loved these verses. God wants our full, undivided attention. Alone, we are unable to cling to the coattails of anyone else's prayer and it's just us and Him. I like how He is just referred to as Father. He cares for us like a father, so it's like He wants to talk intimately with us as fathers do with their children. In our rooms, when the door is shut, we can fall to our knees in prayer and we can let our walls down before God in this makeshift sanctuary and let our hearts spill forth, the joy and the tears and the pain. We can let Him see us in our most vulnerable state here, with all of our good and bad laid out for Him to see. Vulnerability and complete openness with God means we are exposed as we pour ourselves out, but we are also opening ourselves up to be filled. This is the time when God seeks to fill us. Taking time out for prayer and interaction with God means taking time out to maintain the most important relationship we will ever have and to get filled.

Matthew 6:7: Same as verse 5.

Matthew 6:8: "Your Father knows what you need of him before you ask him." So why do we ask? Well, what if we didn't? We wouldn't be in a very good relationship with Him. It wouldn't exist. The longer we put off prayer and go without, the farther from God we feel and the farther we actually become. Just like with people, who are modeled after God, He needs to know us to have a relationship with us. Obviously he knows us inside and out, but really we're the ones who need to talk to Him through prayer to know Him better. Above all else, He wants us to know Him, and that's what makes up a real relationship.

Matthew 6:9: Our Father, who is in heaven, you are holy.

Matthew 6:10: "on earth as it is in heaven." We can't sit around rotting away and waiting for something magical to happen and fix everything. We have to bring as much of the Kingdom to earth as possible, and we have to pray to know how to do it.

Matthew 6:11: God provides daily. Don't worry about having enough to eat. Have faith and know He will provide. We must also ask for forgiveness. It's true, we don't have to ask, but we are humbled and it pleases God every time we do. Also, we must forgive others.

Matthew 6:12: Forgive others/ask for forgiveness before you ask anything else of God.

Matthew 6:13: God will try to protect us as best He can, but we are our own worst enemies and will probably not try very hard to protect ourselves. We have to protect ourselves. Otherwise, we create a gap between us and God that just gets wider and wider.


Summary: Get alone with God. Be prepared to be completely open and just be honest because, really, what's the point in lying to God? Be still and know that He is there and that He will listen and provide.