Pray to Win

Messages – Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church

Message by Pastor Brian Lee

Text: Matthew 6:5-8

A lot of times when we get into the issue of praying, you can’t help it but ask what’s the best way of praying or even does the perfect prayer exist, is there the most efficient for the least amount of time you can pray the most effectively, are there certain words that you can say and it would be a better prayer, or you can pray for certain things and you always have to end with in Jesus name we pray Amen and that would be a good prayer, or even to the point where you look at how people pray and that would be a good prayer. But a little disclaimer, structured prayer isn’t bad in essence, but it shouldn’t be the only way either. It shouldn’t be the way that guides you or structures how you pray. When you look into the Bible especially the passage we will be looking at today in Matthew 6, you’ll realize that Jesus actually talks a lot about prayer, and the need to pray and have a relationship with God. And so when you look at this section of the Gospel known as the Sermon on the Mount, you’ll realize that Jesus gave a lot of instructions along with stories and analogies as to how we are to live out this life now that we are part of the Kingdom of God. Now that we are part of the Kingdom of God, what are things that we need to change from the old ways, what are things we need to change our attitudes about. And so when you look at Matthew 6, it highlights three different parts, especially about things people are already doing that He tries to put us into the right mindset. These three things he talked about are giving, praying and fasting.