The One Where Jesus Shows us How to Pray

Do you ever struggle with prayer - how to pray - or what to say? Does it intimidate you and even prevent you from praying sometimes - especially in front of others? Some people find it easy to tell God what's on their hearts, in their souls, or on their minds. They make it look so easy. Others - not so much, especially when praying in front of other people or in a group setting. That awkward "oh no" feeling sets in and you are immediately speechless. I can't be the only one, can I? While pondering on this very thing, God led me to The Lord's Prayer in Matthew where Jesus laid out a pretty solid example of how to pray.

I'm pretty confident everyone knows or at least has heard of The Lord's Prayer. It gets repeated so often throughout life. Have you ever stopped to dissect the words rather than just repeat them? Lately I've been meditating on the words and their significance. Jesus always did and said everything with intention so it's been stirring in my heart to take a closer look at this Scripture and specifically how He said we should pray.

In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus said, "Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one: For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." (NLT)

Right out of the gate, Jesus talks about His Father. God - the Father of Jesus. He starts with the Lord of the entire universe and the importance of keeping His name holy - sacred. The Hebrew word for holy is Kadosh and it means sacred - set apart - awe-inspiring. When we pray to God, it's really important to stop and reflect on who exactly you're talking to. God. When I stop and think about God and who He is, I can't help but feel wonder, amazement, astonishment, admiration, reverence, respect and yes, fear - a whole lot of good ole' healthy fear. The thought of disobeying God terrifies me. I just want to worship Him and all He is. I am still shocked every day that God wants to have a daily, hourly, and even minute-by-minute relationship with little ole' me - and yes, you - you as well. God desires a relationship with us and created us for that very reason. You are God's child, and because of the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross, we get the privilege of having a close knit relationship with Him. Everything real happens through Jesus and in the name of Jesus. When we lay out our hearts before God, keep in mind how incredibly huge and powerful God is. I don't know about you, but my daily struggles seem less overwhelming if I meditate on just exactly who God is and how huge and powerful He is. I find it so incredibly amazing that He wants me to talk with Him about all my daily life joys and struggles. He invites me in to His presence no matter how broken I may be. Thank you so much God for all you are and for all you do every day. Just - thank you.....

"Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but He died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but He was raised to life in the Spirit." (1 Peter 3:18)

The very next section of the example of prayer Jesus gave us talks about Heaven. Heaven is our eternal home and is where our spirits belong and where we really desire to be. Earth is full of sin and evil and is not where we will spend eternity. This passage does; however, say that as believers, we can bring God's will to Earth just as it is in Heaven. God's Kingdom is wherever God is and if God is the ruler of my life as He should be, I am tasked with bringing others into God's Kingdom too. By sharing the Word of God with others, we are spreading God's Kingdom to others while we are hanging out here on Earth. We are doing God's will on Earth to help bring others to Heaven with us for all eternity. God should be first in every single thing we do. The bullseye. The center. The core and heart of everything we do here on Earth. If we keep God in the center of absolutely everything in our lives, everything that vibrates out from that center will reflect God and His will. Even when we are on this crazy place called Earth.

Until Jesus returns or we reach Heaven - whichever comes first, we are commissioned to love God and love people which essentially means disciple each other and share the love of Jesus to those around us - unconditionally. Keep God in the bullseye of every aspect of our lives.

Then comes our daily physical needs. God knows our needs. The essentials required for survival while here on Earth are important to God too. It's okay to talk to God about our "breads" in life. Some people think it's materialistic or silly to talk to God about our daily needs. God cares about EVERY DETAIL of our lives and wants that detailed kind of relationship with us. Jesus prays to God and says "give us today the food we need" in the example He laid out for us. It's what we are supposed to do. God knows our hearts and wants to talk with us daily about our concerns and about the things we need in every one of our life moments.

Forgiveness. Of course Jesus has to bring that up...sigh. The thing is, it's vital. People are broken. People hurt people when they hurt and often don't even realize it. People sometimes realize it and do it intentionally. People are human, imperfect, born into sin, and can be big jerks. I am the first to admit I can be a big huge jerk. I don't want to be a jerk. I try really hard to be a nice human to everyone around me because I really don't want to be a jerk, but I know I fail. It's much easier if Jesus is my bullseye and I keep God right in the center of everything. I still make mistakes, but I'm a much better human with God sitting in the center of my very core. I need forgiveness just as much as I need to forgive those around me. I literally wake up every morning thanking God for everything under the sun and asking Him to send forgiveness ahead of me into my day. It helps. It helps sooo much.

Then we get to the temptations of the evil one - which typically comes when we dwell on not so great thoughts. You know - all those negative thoughts that get thrown into our heads and whirl around up there. Thoughts of doing not so great things enter our minds and then thinking so much about them we end up doing them when we really didn't want to or mean to. A suggestion is given or introduced into your brain, either by the world around you or by our own negative thought patterns. We dwell on the thought and it begins to encompass our brain. When we dwell on and act on those negative thoughts rather than take them captive, we end up yielding to the very temptation we are trying to avoid. Some of these kinds of thoughts are even up there tearing ourselves down internally. Jesus says we are supposed to pray that God helps us to not give in to these temptations or negative thoughts. We are supposed to ask Him to rescue us from the evil all around us in the world, including all those negative thoughts and evil desires we may struggle with daily. We should also pray that Jesus protects us - and our brains - from the evil in the world around us. Rescue us, protect us and save us. We need to put a prayer bubble around us every day creating a barrier against all the evil in the world. This is a spiritual war we are fighting. We need to be preparing for daily battles.

"We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5)

Think about what you are thinking about - protecting our thoughts and retraining our thought patterns to center around Jesus will change your life. Give God a chance. It will change your outlook on life by giving you an eternal mindset. It is so worth it and makes life so much better. Every. Single. Day.