“Pray like this” (Matthew 6:9)
Prayer is something we can learn gradually by practicing, but also by listening to Jesus’ example. After all, He has the most intimate relationship with God the Father anyone could ever have, and He is “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
When asked by His disciples how they should pray, Jesus teaches them the prayer known as “the Lord’s Prayer”.
We can recite this prayer literally. Countless Christians from various denominations all over the world have done so regularly for centuries. Besides this, we can also take it as a guideline while using our own words to phrase our personal needs and worship God right from our hearts. We see many examples of this in the Bible.
An important lesson from the Lord’s Prayer is the sequence and the priorities of our prayer points. First of all, we focus on God and His greatness. Secondly, we pray for ourselves, both for our daily lives and for our spiritual needs. So, prayer is the acknowledgment that God is the center of the universe, that we want Him to be the center of our lives as well, and that we need Him in everything we do.
The coming days we’ll take a closer look at the Lord’s Prayer and discover what Jesus wants to teach us.