How to Pray

Day 16

How To Pray

‘This, then, is how you should pray:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
 on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,
 as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,
 but deliver us from the evil one.”

(for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever. Amen.)

Matthew 6:9-13

 

This prayer nestles right in the heart of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount- because it is the heart pumping life to everything else. Connection with our Heavenly Father through authentic prayer is the pulsing life-giving source of our capacity to live our lives walking-out Jesus’ mountainside words.

Jesus knows this. So when He teaches His followers to pray He goes straight to the heart of the matter: God on the throne of the Human heart.

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.”

Matthew 6:9-10

This prayer Jesus teaches us has ten lines, the first five of which are this declaration addressing God and the second five are petitions about us and our human needs.

Jesus begins with Our Father (once again repeating this message of God’s fathership in case we missed it the first eight times in the Sermon on the mount!). We are not orphans, but children of God.

Jesus teaches us to pray by first focusing our gaze right there on our Father God’s face, His eyes, His holiness, and the life of His Kingdom coming through the outworking of His perfect will. And when we speak these words out loud we declare to this broken world and our own broken hearts who is Lord. Not us. Not them. God alone.

This is the most important place to begin… looking into God’s gaze, seeing His face, sensing His loving presence with us, declaring His lordship over our lives and over this earth.

And this is were we ego-centric human beings so often go wrong (myself very much included!). Our gaze is usually in a thousand other places, ten thousand other directions, replaying difficult interactions, re-living painful moments, churning over stressful situations. When Peter’s gaze was on God incarnate, He could walk on water. When his gaze was on his challenging situation (the wind and waves) he sank (Matthew 14:22-46).

Our human identity draws itself with magnetic force to things that worry us, concern us or pressure us. Our minds, rather than being at peace are so often full of our scrambling efforts to forge our own paths and find our own answers. And this can lead us to make our relationship with God and others all about us. All about God meeting our needs, fulfilling our desires or alleviating our worries.

That’s why this prayer begins and ends with God. It draws our gaze away from ourselves and reminds us who He is. And calls us first to let go of everything else and just look into His face to be reminded Who is Lord. Not us. But our loving heavenly Father. We don’t have to hustle, scramble or figure everything out. God is on His throne. And He’s listening.

We begin connecting with God authentically in prayer by declaring His holiness and His lordship over all the earth, including the earth underneath our own two feet!

And then it is from this perspective and from this place that we then bring all areas of our lives to God: Our physical needs, our emotional needs, our personal wrestles, our relational struggles and our spiritual battles. He wants to hear about it all!

“Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”

Matthew 6:11-13

Jesus’ simple five line prayer of petition is very comprehensive covering all areas of human life… because all areas of our lives matter to Him.

He teaches us to pray for our physical needs- ‘Give us today our daily bread’

He teaches us to pray in repentance for our personal mistakes and struggles-‘And forgive us our debts’

He teaches us to pray about facing our challenging relationships with forgiveness– ‘as we also have forgiven our debtors’

He teaches us to pray for our spiritual weaknesses- ‘And lead us not into temptation,’

And He teaches us to pray for our spiritual battles- ‘but deliver us from the evil one.”

This last line particularly recognises the importance of praying for God’s deliverance from the evil one who would very happily use all of the other areas of our life to drag our gaze away from God’s face.

Some later manuscripts complete the Lords prayer with a beautiful declaration repeating the themes of the opening lines of this prayer, a declaration which sounds more like a rising shout of victory or a song of exuberant joy…

‘for yours is the kingdom and the power

and the glory for ever.’

Amen.

Our deep connection with our Heavenly Father in authentic prayer is the pulsing life-giving source enabling us to live our lives walking out Jesus’ mountainside words.

Jesus gave us this prayer at the heart of our faith, pumping the life blood of our connection with God into all corners of our lives.

Lets stop everything else in this moment and look into His face and let ourselves be reminded Who is Lord. Not us. But our loving heavenly Father. We don’t have to hustle, scramble or figure everything out.

God is on His throne. 

Our Heavenly Father is listening.

 

‘Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.’

Isaiah 65:24

 

 

Explore Further

 

Journaling the Journey

If you are able, take time to re-write your own paraphrase of ‘The Lords Prayer’. You may wish to use multiple translations as you do so to get as ‘full’ a perspective on this as possible.

Which lines in ‘The Lords Prayer’ do you resonate most with?

Which do you find most challenging?

Which do you find most difficult to pray whole heartedly?

Today’s Hillside picture is taken on Sugar Loaf Mountain, Wales, UK