When You Pray, Say ...

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them,

When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

Luke 11:1-4 -  1

Jesus teaches us to focus our hearts on the real issues in prayer: relationship with God, reverence for God, Kingdom concerns, practical needs, personal purity, and victory over sin.

“Our Father,” He allowed us to say with confidence and love. It accentuates our intimate and loving relationship with God. He rejoices to receive us into His presence and hear our prayers.

“Hallowed be Thy Name.”  No matter how intimate we are with God, He is God and we are not. He deserves our reverence and worship. We are not only His children, but His subjects.

His kingdom and will are our deep concerns in prayer. Kingdom motivation is the heart of praying in Jesus’ Name. We seek and request His will as we submit ourselves to His Lordship. This sort of praying pleases the heart of God.

We pray for daily bread because God wants to provide for our needs. He also wants us to ask. We bring our practical needs to God knowing that He is more concerned about our needs than we are

When we seek and offer forgiveness, we place ourselves on the altar of personal purity. We are asking God to remove any hindrance to what He desires to do in our lives, be that our own sin or our bitterness toward those who have sinned against us.

Finally, in Luke’s account, Jesus reminds us to keep our eyes on the prize and pray for victory over evil and temptation. The fact that we are authorized to pray this way gives us more than a clue that it is God’s intention to give us the victory.

So, our Master taught us to pray and so we ought to pray. In these few sentences all the prayers we will ever need to pray are included.