III The Sermon on the Mount
How to Pray, and to Look Up
Our Blessed Lord had many things to teach those who listened to Him so eagerly.
You will find numbers of beautiful and suggestive lessons in the fifth to the seventh chapters of Matthew.
But I have not space to tell you a quarter of them; yet one thing seems to stand out before me as so wonderful, and so important, that I must on no account leave it out.
It is called:
The Lord’s Prayer.
Our Lord Jesus explains to us that it is “after this manner” that we should pray; and I have known people who have found great blessing and great help in using this beautiful prayer, slowly and thoughtfully, each morning.
It is of no use just to say the words quickly, and think nothing about them! That is what our Lord calls “using vain repetitions, as the heathen do.”
But to pray each separate petition slowly and reverently will surely bring you great blessing.
“Our Father, which art in Heaven.” Pause to think of His love and His majesty.
“Hallowed be Thy Name.” Ask to be enabled to honour Him all the day.
“Thy Kingdom come.” Ask to be helped to press forward that Kingdom, and to be ready for the Lord Jesus to come back.
“Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.” Ask that we may do that Will with all our hearts!
“Give us this day our daily bread.” Ask Him to send us our food, and to feed us also with heavenly Food: His love, His help, His grace.
“And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.” Ask for pardon for ourselves, and a loving forgiving spirit towards other people.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Ask that Jesus may be close to us in every trial, and conquer Satan for us, when he tries to make us fall.
“For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, for ever. Amen.” God is our King, we are His subjects; He has all power, so that we can rely on His help; He has all glory, and will share it with us by and by, if we will yield ourselves to Him and obey Him. And this will be for ever and ever!
When the Lord Jesus had finished telling the disciples about praying, He went on to explain to them some of the beautiful things which they would find around them which would help them to trust in the Heavenly Father’s love.
He said to them in words like these:
“Do not be anxious about what you will have to eat another day—look at the birds which fly round you! Are they anxious? They do not sow any seed; they do not reap the fields, and gather the grain into storehouses—yet your Father feeds them. Are not you of more value than they are?
“Do you make yourself grow? Can you make yourself taller? Is it not God Who does that for you?
“Think of—consider—the lilies of the field,” He says, “how they grow! They do not work, they do not spin, and yet King Solomon, in all his glory, was not dressed like one of these lilies. So, if God clothes them like that, how much more will He give you clothes to wear!”
That is how the Lord spoke to those men and women and children who listened to Him on the mountain.
I was given a bunch of flowers the other day. I sat down at the table, and just thought of all this.
Could I make one of those? Think of the root, and the earth to grow it in! Think of the stalk, with its tiny little pipes and channels! Think of leaves all alike, and all on that plant getting nourished from the root. Consider the flowers—so white, so exquisitely made; each little flower a perfect bell. And then the scent—consider the scent of those lilies, which was exactly the same scent fifty years ago, and no other flower has exactly the same smell.
I “considered” it all, as our Lord had said, and I bowed my head and worshipped Him, Who liveth for ever and ever!
So if at any time a doubt or a faithless fear should enter your heart, just get a daisy, or a buttercup, or a blade of grass, and sit down and think Who made it; and trust Him better.
David says, in the eighth Psalm, “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?”
Then our Lord goes on to say, in words like these: “Do not be anxious about what you will have to eat or drink, or what you are going to wear, for your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.”
I have seen so many instances of God’s love and care, both in my own life, and in that of other people!
There was a bed-ridden woman who was very poor. The district nurse said to her one morning, “My dear, we want a new bed-jacket, I think.”
And the dear old invalid looked up brightly in answer: “My Heavenly Father will send me one, just when He thinks it is the right time,” she said confidently.
And He did send her, two days after, a beautiful warm jacket!
She had sought the Kingdom of God first, and He had added to her “all her need.”