Does anyone actually know what Matthew 6:7-10 means?

Question

I mean what it really really actually means????? It's said over and over again as THE prayer to say, but then 7 says don't do this.....And 10 ........kingdom also upon EARTH? what's the will for the earth?

Answer 1

Matthew 6:7-13 is probably one of the most repeated passages in scripture outside of John 3:16 and Psalm 23. The Lord's prayer is memorized, but there are seldom occurrences when people truly stop to look at the memorized words and really think about what they say. Your question is a fantastic one. Matthew 6:7-8 give guidelines of what not to do during a prayer. This is talking about the incorrect practice of prayer. The first verse talks about prayer of many words . The babbling that the verse is talking about is the prayers of a public performance where someone names numerous names of gods to give their prayer more power. Also, it is against the practice that was constant of using these mysterious sounds that were thought to be the language of the gods. We can talk to God in everyday language. We don't need to worry about trying to impress God with big words. We can talk to Him as we talk to anyone else in our lives. Verses 9-10 tell of the proper theological aspects of prayer. It is a guideline or outline to think about when praying.

Look at it phrase by phrase to truly understand what it is saying.

"Our Father in heaven..." God is a parent figure to us. He disciplines us (Hebrews 12:5-13). Also, He is the father of everyone. Notice that it says doesn't say my father or your father. It is our father. We are together in the journey of faith.
"...hallowed be your name..." Hallowed means holy. God is a holy being. Holy simply means set apart. In fact, we are also asked to be holy like God is holy. We are asked to be set apart from the world. We are asked indeed to be different. God is different. He is perfect and loves us with an unconditional love. He will never let us down. He is always there for us. Indeed, he is holy and set apart from the world. This is also simply a way to praise God and how wonderful he is. The first guideline is showing that we should praise God in our prayers. We should be happy and joyful about how wonderful He is.
"...your Kingdom come..." The Kingdom of God is seen as perfect. It is seen as the will of God perfected and everyone following what God commands and desires for us. With the coming of Christ, the kingdom of God was said to be "at home" meaning it was coming. We are to be seeking after the Kingdom of God. We are to be seeking after that perfect will.
"...your will be done..." We should be praying for God's will to be done in all aspects of our lives, with our relationships (marriages and friendships and family), with our country's leaders, with our careers, with every aspect of our life. When we follow what God wants us to be doing, things fall into place so much easier.
"...as earth as it is in heaven..." It is believed that in heaven we are in a perfect union with God at all times. There is no opposition to the will of God. The prayer is the will of God be done on earth with us as it is done perfectly in heaven.
"...Give us this day our daily bread..." We are to depend on God to give us our daily provisions. God is a God that provides us what we need daily. We shouldn't worry about tomorrow. We shouldn't worry about how things we need are going to be provided. Inside, we should be trusting in God's faithfulness to give us what we need in life.
"...And forgive us our debts..." Confession is something that is an important part of any prayer. We should admit to God when we are wrong about something and when we fall short of his will. We should confess and ask Him for forgiveness. That is what this is about.
"...As we also have forgiven our debtors..." We should also understand that we need to forgive people around us that do wrong to US. WE need to focus on forgiving these people. Sometimes we need help getting to that forgiving attitude and God can help us with that.
"...And do not bring us to the time of trial..." This is asking God to help guide our steps so that we do not put ourselves into a place of temptation. We are all tempted to do wrong. But, we ask for God's protection and God's help when we are put in these situations. We pray that we follow Him in all the little things of our lives so that when we come to the big choices, we know what we are supposed to be doing. This is a prayer again to follow God in all our steps.
"...But rescue us from the evil one." We ask for God's protection again the evil one. This one is pretty straight forehead.
I hope this helps you look at what it says a little better. It is an outline of what things we should include in a prayer. We are to praise God (vs. 9), ask for the will of God in our lives and the lives of the people around us (vs. 10), ask us to provide for us our daily needs (vs. 11), confess our sins (vs. 12), ask for help to forgive others that hurt us (vs. 12), ask him to guide our steps (vs. 13), and ask for protection (vs. 13).

I do not think that Christ intended for this to be repeated over and over as it is today, but rather, he intended for us to understand what a prayer should contain. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

This has been called by many as "The Model Prayer". In verse 7 Jesus points out that we should not use vain repetitions. He is meaning that we should not make a big show of our prayers and use meaningless words. Oh prayer should not be a form of entertainment or a way to impress others. To me verse 8 is the most important. Jesus states that we should just be honest and just say what is on our heart and just ask for what we need because God knows this before we even pray. Verses 9-13 are the instructions of how to pray properly. "Our Father which art in Heaven"...means we are praying directly to God the father in Heaven. "Thy Kingdom come and they will be done"...can be summed up as the world recieving Jesus Christ as the one and only ruler of the world. We must pray that the world turn to Jesus Christ for guidance, protection and obedience. God indeed controls the world but sadly much of the world does not obey God as the ruler and controller. This prayer is taught to young kids and I think it is appropriate that they use t his as their model prayer.

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

Matthew, Chapter 6:

7. But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8. Be not therefore like to them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.
9. After this manner therefore pray: Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be your name.
10. Your kingdom come. Your will be done in 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

This section from Matthew speaks to us about how we pray to God. In the first statement he says that we should not be using vain repetitions as our prayer. This is a reference to how Catholics pray the rosary. They say 10 hail marys and then an Our Father and a Glory Be. This is the exact vain repetition we need to avoid. God is listening to our every word. He knows our needs before we make them known aloud. He is simply saying, don't be a fool and keep repeating things over and over again, i heard you the first time.

Following these verses, he proceeds to give us what is known as The Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father. This is a prayer which he gives us when we wantto say a prayer to him. He does not tell us to recite the prayer 20 times in a row, once will do. There is a difference between saying a prayer repetitiously and saying a prayer which he has given us once. I hope this has clarified your confusion. If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

By the way, I used the King James Version.

Answer 4

It is a model prayer like a concept car. It is not one meant for production that the public could buy; but, to give designers a general idea which direction to go.

We get an idea of priorities. Top thing is Jehovah, God's name, to be made known above all. Next, is for His actual government to be established on earth as the only proper solution for our problems. Then for our personal things--family, friends, spiritual brothers & sisters. Ask only for today's needs not wants. Ask forgiveness of our errors we make as we forgive other people. (Ask a cop. No one can go a day without breaking one of man's laws.) Lastly, close the prayer in the name of Jesus, as he told no sinful human can approach his perfect Father except through him.

His will is found in Genesis. For the people of earth to return to perfection, living forever, and expanding that paradise that was the garden of Eden over the entire earth with God as ruler over his creations.

Answer 5

If you check the context of the statement Jesus made you will realize that the heathens would repeat themselves over and over and it would appear as if their God is not hearing. They were also looked upon as the holies of the time because of their long and well articulated prayers. thus Jesus was saying it is not acceptable in the sight of God and in fact God know before you start praying what you are going to pray for. It speaks to his omni-presence (transcending all time and space). In vs. 10 where it speaks of the kingdom come. when Jesus came to earth, he was coming from the throne room of heaven and he came to represent the kingdom of heaven and thus one can refer to it as the kingdom of God has come. Also, The word come in the verse can also mean that the kingdom of God has come metaphorically. Colossians 2:9 tells us that in christ dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily. He was the representative of the Godhead on earth. Thus, the kingdom of God was complete on earth.
The will for the earth is that "I wish that no should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Answer 6

the Lord’s prayer should be understood as an example, a pattern of how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray. It gives us the “ingredients” that should go into prayer

v 9-13 are known as the Lord’s prayer. This is not a prayer we are to memorize and recite to God. It is an example of the things that should go into a prayer – worship, trust in God, requests, confession, protection, etc. Pray for these things, but use your own heartfelt words.

Answer 7

The problem arises because you do not understand God's power. The world WAS flat (with a raised rim round the edges) at the time of the flood, but God formed it into a hollow sphere immediately afterwards so that the water would have somewhere to go. This can be proven true. There are satellite images of His Great Plug Hole in the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately the government have removed all these photographs from the NASA websites (and Google Earth) in order to further their Darwinist agenda. And dinosaurs wore trousers.

Answer 8

When we follow God’s will, our soul becomes a part of His kingdom where He is king. He knows what we need, so we pray Let Your Will be done. Sometimes I simply pray, Your will not my will.

When he talks about babbling on, he’s talking about making a big show of prayer for other people. Prayer is a very intimate exchange between the believer and God.

Answer 9

the gentiles used to pray repetitious words over and over and that was all they prayed. Therefore no feeling or though or heart was put into it. It was only words.

The prayer is a guideline. It says to pray in this way. Not to pray exactly this. In this way means... ever heard that ACTS thing? A-adoration, C-confession, T-thanksgiving, S-supplication and petition? That's what the prayer is if you break it down. The idea when you pray is to Acknowledge God and how awesome He is, Tell Him why you love him and then to confess your sins, get that out of the way so that nothing stands between you and God for the rest of your prayer, then thank Him for all he's done for you, try to be specific so you can really appreciate Him, then supplication, you come last but this is when you tell God what you feel you need or want and you pray for others too. This saying changed my prayer life: When you go to God in prayer, compare it to going to a general in the army, you are a soldier of God, When you go to Him you are reporting for duty, Learn to ask Him what He needs from you today rathern than what you need from Him.
:o) Great Question!
I hope I helped some.

oh yeah, and the last thing you mentioned. We are to pray his will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. In Heave, everything is just as God meant it to be, no hatred, no hurt, no bad, all good... we should pray for earth to be as much like that as possible. And also, we should pray for His return. To let Him know that we want him to come back and take us HOME! I can't wait for that day!!!!!

Answer 10

Consider it as a type, or framework. People have made it some sort of thing it was never meant to be.

Kingdom is where the King reigns. If God reigns in the hearts of His followers, His Kingdom is on earth, as it is in Heaven, right?

Answer 11

What version are you reading? Sometimes KJV old english is hard to read. Basically, what Matt 6:7-10 is saying that there will be people in our times that tell you in detail how to pray to God and God is telling us, forget them, they'll only confuse you, just follow my lead in this simple prayer I've outlined for you.

Try "The Message" version:

"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!


Hope this helps. God Bless you!