Luke 11:1-4
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
"Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation."
I have often heard people say, "I don't know how to pray."
Well, knowing how vitally important prayer is to our Christian lives, the Father has provided an example of how to pray in the 11th chapter of the Gospel of Luke.
Now, this is not a prayer we need to recite word for word, necessarily, although there is nothing wrong with that. It is that, as well as a guideline on how to form our prayers.
Verse 2: "Father hallowed by your name, your kingdom come."
This places God the Father where he belongs. We acknowledge his holiness and we ask for His kingdom to come down to earth. We are asking for God to reign, not only on earth, but in our hearts.
Verse 3: "Give us each day our daily bread."
This can be looked at in two ways. One, the obvious, we are asking for our great Father in heaven to meet our physical needs. Bread was an important part of daily life in that time. It helped sustain people. Remember when the Father gave the Israelites manna. It was a substance they ground into flour and made cakes or bread out of. Another way to look at this is to ask who is the Bread of Life? Jesus, of course. So, we are asking for Jesus to be in us and guide us each and every day. It's the only way that we can live in a manner that glorifies God.
Verse 4: "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation."
In Luke 6:37 Jesus says, "Forgive and you will be forgiven."
We need to have forgiveness in our hearts or our prayers will be hindered. And finally, ask that you not be led into trials. We are asking God not to be the one to carry into a trial. NOTE: Some manuscripts also include, "and deliver us from the evil one." asking God's protection on us.
These are guidelines. You can take each verse and apply to your situation. I am a big believer of writing things down so I remember. That comes with being almost 56 years old. But, it helps. Write down your thoughts or bullet points to guide you in your prayer. After all, prayer isn't this trance-like state, it's simply a conversation with God, so referring to something to guide you is perfectly fine.
You will see as you progress in time, your prayer may change. It probably will. And that is OK because our needs and situations change. Again, these are guidelines, not some sort of formula to make prayer "work".
The important thing you should take from this is it's important to pray. Take the time each day to pray. Talk to God. He wants to hear from you. He wants to answer your prayers to prove to you who He is and how much He loves you. The answers may not be what you are looking for or come in the time frame you think they should, but be certain of this, the answer will be exactly the right thing at exactly the right time for you.
God bless you and Pray! Pray! Pray!
