How should we pray?
Matthew 6:9–15
It’s amazing how many books are out there on the subject of prayer. When that’s the case, it means people have a lot of questions and are looking for more clarity.
It makes sense. Prayer is a deep subject and profoundly complex.
But even though there are so many books out there, I wonder if we could simplify things a bit. I mean — Jesus’ teachings were often indirect and in parables, which can leave them slightly open to interpretation.
But prayer is one thing he came out very directly and said, “This is how you should do it.”
This is called the Lord’s Prayer — which has been prayed likely more times than any prayer ever. It’s memorized by almost everyone.
But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus wasn’t giving a prayer to be memorized, but describing what prayer should look like.
It’s a conversation with God and has six requests.
- Hallowed be thy Name
Above everything else we should be praying for God’s name to be great in the world. This is what we should literally want, and is also a good first step in our prayer as we place God in his rightful place over all creation and as our Father
2. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
The second request we should have in our prayer is for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
This is such a comforting thing to pray. Rather than always feeling like we have to fix things or wonder whether or not our lives are making a difference, we should pray for the kingdom to come on earth.
I want to pray this every day and then in my actions check myself and look through the lens of the kingdom coming to earth and God’s will being done.
3. Give us this day our daily bread
We should pray for ourselves and ask God for things. Jesus says we should pray that we have enough food for the day.
This is profound in simplicity. We don’t need to pray for material possessions or long-term security. Just pray for today — that we would have enough. Then when God provides for today, we can be grateful.
And then tomorrow, we’ll pray the same prayer again.
4. Forgive us our debts — as we also have forgiven our debtors
Jesus says in our prayer we should be asking God for forgiveness. Our sin and selfishness puts us in debt to him. He provides us with daily bread, yet we turn our back on him.
Jesus says in our prayers we need to regularly come to God for forgiveness. And when we do that, we’ll acknowledge those who have wronged us and hopefully respond with the same grace God provides to us.
5. Lead us not into temptation
While we know we make mistakes, Jesus says we should pray that God keeps us away from temptation and the situations that cause us to fall.
6. But deliver us from evil
Ultimately, as this prayer wraps up we acknowledge the evil that surrounds us in this earthly life.
This is most definitely something to pray about and ask God to deliver us from the evil.
The darkness surrounds us, but when we pray we are reminded of the confidence we can have in Jesus and that we will be rescued from the evil in the world.
