How to Pray: Using the Lord’s Prayer as an Example
Staying with the theme of prayer this week, I thought I’d spend some more time on how to pray—specifically using the Lord’s Prayer as a guide. I will also give you an example of how I would personally use the Lord’s Prayer to pray at the start of my day. Jesus gave “The Lord’s Prayer” as an example of how to pray (not necessarily meant to be memorized and quoted). I find it hilarious how Hollywood always portrays Christians praying this prayer. It’s the typical stereotype of Christians–that whenever we pray, this must be what we say every time. Don’t even get me started on the stereotypical, weak, and ignorant ways that Hollywood depicts Christians. That’s another soapbox I can get stuck on for a while!
Anyhow, I don’t believe that Jesus meant for the Lord’s Prayer to be the ONLY way and the only thing that we pray (and especially not word for word). I know this because there are numerous other examples of prayer throughout the Bible, and they are not all identical to this. He also said “pray like this” or “pray in this manner” NOT “pray this”.
So keeping that in mind, let’s take a look at a line-by-line breakdown of the Lord’s Prayer and how we might use it as a guide to pray.
Matthew 6:9 “Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
This is an example or a protocol of sorts of how we should approach God. By calling him “hallowed” we are showing honor and reverence and submitting to his ultimate authority. It’s important to worship God and give Him praise.
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Psalm 100:4 (NIV)
The Bible said we should come to God with praise and thanks. The start of your prayer is the best time to do this (read more in this post on starting with praise). Giving praise, glory, and thanks to God first helps us to prioritize Him. First honor, then ask.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 (ESV)
Matthew Henry said in his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, “We must begin our prayers with praising God, and it is very fit he should be first served, and that we should give glory to God, before we expect to receive mercy and grace from him. Let him have praise of his perfections, and then let us have the benefit of them.”[i]
Praising God can sometimes seem awkward, at least for me it is. It’s often hard to know what to say. I’ve found it helpful to praise Him for His character traits and attributes, especially roles He’s played in my life recently. It’s also helpful to praise Him for who I need Him to be. If I need to be comforted, I praise Him that He is a comforter. If I need healing, I praise Him for being a healer, and so on. At my Moms in Prayer group each week we always start our prayers with praising God for one of His attributes (click here for a list of attributes provided by Moms in Prayer or click here or here for some posts).
Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
This is an example Continue reading