Prayer often sounds like a mysterious practice, but it is merely talking to God. It is a wonderful spiritual discipline that God has given us to connect with Him relationally and have intimacy with Him. In the same way, God primarily communicates to us through the Bible; we mainly communicate to Him through prayer. But how do we pray?
Though it seems simple in practice, many questions may still arise, especially if you are a new Christian. When I became a Christian, I had questions like: how should I pray? To whom should I pray? Father, Son, or Spirit? How long should I pray? Should I be formal or informal, kneeling, or sitting?
If you are also unsure about the logistics of prayer, you are not alone!
Even though the disciples had been with Jesus for a while, they didn’t know how to pray and asked Jesus to teach them (Luke 11:1). In response, Jesus taught them what we call today “The Lord’s Prayer.”
Despite the name, the Lord’s Prayer is not a prayer per se. Jesus said, “pray then like this,” He wasn’t giving us a prayer to recite daily, but a model to follow when we pray.
Unfortunately, over the years, people have complicated praying. They have even added to it unbiblical practices such as Lectio Divina, Contemplative Prayer, Listening Prayer, Prophetic Prayer, etc. But if we want to learn how to pray right, it’s best to go back to the Bible and follow the pure teaching of Jesus.
Therefore, using each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, here is a guide to help you structure your prayers to the Lord.
Our Father in Heaven
When you pray, recognize that God is your Father. All who receive Christ and believe in His name have been adopted into God’s family and become His children (John 1:12). Therefore, we can cry out to God as a Father and approach Him with love, intimacy, and without fear (Romans 8:15).
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Galatians 4:6
Also, it’s important to note that our prayers should be addressed to our heavenly Father. I grew up as a Roman Catholic, and I was taught to pray to Mary and the Saints alongside God. But that’s not biblical. Whenever Jesus prayed in the Bible, He always used the word, Father. Except for when He was on the cross and said God instead.
Hallowed be Your name
In biblical times, names were believed to be a manifestation or revelation of a person’s character. Thus, the name of God is inseparable from Himself. And hallowed means holy, greatly revered and honored. Hence our first petition in prayer is that God gets honored and treated as sacred.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Psalm 103:1
When we pray, we should enter His presence with reverence and awe by worshipping and exalting His name. We can do that by praying the names of God, meditating on His attributes like His holiness, goodness, mercy, compassion, etc. You can also read Psalms or listen to hymns that exalt God.
Your kingdom come
Next, we pray for the advancement of God’s kingdom on earth. This is a petition for God’s agenda to pass, which is Jesus reigning now and forever. It has been God’s plan from the beginning of redemptive history, and it’s the final act of His story. As such, it should be a priority in our prayers.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Colossians 3:2
Pray for God’s kingdom to come, and to come now. Pray for the message of the gospel to be preached all over the world, for missionaries, and evangelical outreaches, etc. Also, pray for unbelievers in your life to come to know Christ and for guidance to carry out the great commission and making disciples.
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
When we pray, it is essential, we surrender our will to God’s will and let it reign in our lives. Hence our third petition is for God’s will to be done on earth as perfectly as it is done in heaven. The whole world belongs to the devil and lies in his power (1 John 5:19), and the will of God will only reach its fullness at the return of Christ. However, we pray for it to keep on growing in this world.
I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.
Psalm 40:8
God’s will is revealed in Scriptures, and we should also pray to do it above ours. Jesus always sought to do God’s will and not His (John 4:34; 6:38). Even as He agonized about His impending crucifixion, He still said, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42)
Note that we don’t pray for God’s will in defeat or resentment because we can’t force Him to do what we want anyway. We ask for God’s will to be done over ours because we know Him and trust Him. We may not understand what He is doing, but we know that He is good, and so is His will.
Therefore, we surrender in eagerness, not resignation, in joy, not bitterness, and in faith, not in doubt.
Give us this day our daily bread
God is our provider, and He wants us to come to Him with our basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, etc. When we ask God for provision in prayer, we acknowledge we need Him and that we depend on Him solely. God doesn’t want us to worry about such things because He knows we need it and will provide (Matthew 6:31-32). Also, whenever we come before God with our petitions, we need to thank Him for what He has already done for us.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6
Jesus used the word daily, which suggests we need to depend on God to provide for us day-to-day and learn to be content with our daily provision. A lot of us like to plan and have reserves, which isn’t wrong. But we also need to learn to take one day at a time, not stress about tomorrow and have confidence God will take care of us.
Forgive us our debts
Forgiveness is a spiritual need, and we should pray for it as frequently as we pray for our physical needs. It is essential to ask for forgiveness of our sins and repent because God is holy, and sin breaks our intimacy with Him. The same way the intimacy between a father and his child would be affected when the child is in rebellion; and only restored when the child turns around and apologize.
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Psalm 32:5
When we pray, we need to ask God to search our hearts and convict us of our sins, acknowledge we have done wrong and humbly ask forgiveness. And God is faithful to forgive us when we repent and restore to us the joy of His salvation (Psalm 51:12). However, if you have something against someone, skip this petition and go straight to my next point.
As we also have forgiven our debtors
We also need to forgive people who offended us. Notice Jesus said as we have forgiven our debtors. It means before we can even ask God for the forgiveness of our sins, we must have forgiven others.
Therefore, ask God to help you forgive anyone who may have wronged you, then seek His forgiveness for your sins. If we have something against others, God will not forgive us of our sins.
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Mark 11:25
It doesn’t mean we will lose our salvation; that’s impossible. But as mentioned earlier, it will break our intimacy with God and rob us of His joy. We can’t even worship God in truth with unforgiveness in our hearts (Matthew 5: 23-24). So make sure to forgive because God will deal with us as we deal with others (Luke 6:37-38).
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
The last petition has to do with our battle with evil and sin.
The Greek word for temptation is peirasmos, and it could mean either temptation or testing, depending on the context. For example, James 1:2 and James 1:12 NKJV both use peirasmos, but the meaning is different. In the former, it is translated as testing or trial, while in the latter as temptation in some translations. When Jesus used it, He likely meant both.
Although God never tempts us (James 1:13), He may allow us to get into situations to test us (James 1:2-3). Therefore, we should pray to not fall into trials that may lead us to a temptation that we won’t resist. For example, someone may have wronged you, and God let it happen to test you. But then you get an irresistible opportunity to take revenge on that person.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13
But as God will provide for our other needs, we can be assured that He will protect us from temptation and the evil one (John 17:15). But we still pray to acknowledge that we depend on His strength and power to resist temptation and to remain vigilant and sober-minded (1 Peter 5:8).
For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever
This part does not appear in the oldest and most reliable Greek manuscripts and has been removed from modern translations. Only the KJV and NKJV feature it with footnotes explaining why. However, since the statement is consistent with Scriptures (1 Chronicles 29:11), there’s nothing wrong with including it in your prayers. You can use it as a doxology (an expression of praise to God) to close out your prayer.
That’s all the ingredients you need for prayer: getting intimate with God through reverence and worship, seeking His agenda, His will, His provision, His forgiveness, and His protection. Anything beyond that is unnecessary.
You might have noticed that Jesus didn’t say anything about how long we should pray, our physical posture, when, where, and other details like that. It can only mean these are not essential to prayers, and we have liberties with them.
What matters most is our heart posture and that God is at the center of our prayers.
