Our Daily Prayer
A Call to Prayer
Recently our church was called to prayer and we gathered for a special prayer-filled worship service. The service was structured around the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:9-13. That structure looked like this:
Adoration & Praise
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Formation & Mission
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Provision & Thanksgiving
Give us this day our daily bread,
Confession & Assurance
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Protection & Guidance
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Adopting the Lord’s prayer
It was a wonderful, powerful evening but I want to help you use that structure in your own personal prayer life as well.
When Jesus said “pray like this.” I think he meant it. We ought to pray like this. It even seems like this prayer was intended by Jesus to be said daily (“give us this day our daily bread”)
One of the most helpful things to improve my prayers was learning how to paraphrase and pray the Lord’s Prayer differently each day. We can easily do this once we recognize the broader categories of each verse in the Lords prayer and what they are communicating/asking. I often just say the prayer as Jesus taught it too; but with a deep understanding of the prayer, it won’t just be reciting someone else words, it actually becomes my own prayer.
Our Father in Heaven
How Jesus taught us to address God has important insights for us. He is not just a heavenly God, he is a heavenly Father who cares for us. But he is a Father in heaven, he is holy and powerful. We should also recognize that he is not just my Father, he is our Father. We are connected to one another as his children and our prayers should not just be individualistic, but should include our fellow believers.
Adoration & Praise
As we follow the prayer Jesus gave us, we start where he did; with the request that God make his name holy. That is what he means when he says “Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name.” It’s not just a statement, He’s asking God “Make your name holy” But of course his name is already holy; So what we are asking is that his holiness will be recognized and revered. That he would be in the highest place of our hearts. We ask that he would be adored and praised by more and more people and by our own hearts and souls more and more. It is therefore natural to fill this time with adoration and praise of his mighty deeds and excellent greatness (psalm 150). I also often as that my own praise would be used by God as the catalyst for others to praise him (psalm 40:3).
Formation & Mission
Many of our prayers are simply reactive, which is great, but Jesus also taught us proactive prayers of seeking God’s kingdom and will. And when we pray this we should ask not just in a general sense that his will would be done, but that he would form us into the kind of people who do his will and participate in his coming kingdom. We should also see that the great commission is a part of his plan for bringing his kingdom and pray in specific ways about the mission he has given us. Praying for neighbors and missionaries and people groups and our local church.
Provision & Thanksgiving
We are wholly dependent upon God who is the giver of all good gifts (James 1:17). It is important to recognize our dependance upon him in our prayers and not live as though we could do without him for our daily necessities. He loves to give us things and he loves for us to ask him for them; it is part of what it means that he is our Father. And thanksgiving is an important and powerful part of following Jesus (Eph. 5:3-4). This is a very important part of the prayer for us to remember the corporate/communal element. We are not just praying that my needs are met, but our needs. Most of us have some connection to people who need us to pray this prayer for them.
Confession & Assurance
The implication of asking God for forgiveness is that we need it. We sin, and we are called to confess those sins to God, asking for his forgiveness, which is faithful and just to give through Jesus Christ (John 1:9). It is also important to note that Jesus draws a connection between receiving God’s forgiveness and our forgiving other people. It is hard to harbor bitterness and hold grudges when we are genuinely praying this prayer. We are humbled by this prayer but also encouraged by the assurance that God offers forgiveness. We don’t have to hide or run, Jesus made a way for us.
Protection & Guidance
Jesus tells to ask for God to “lead us” in a way that is away from temptation; and to “deliver us” or protect us, from evil (or the evil one). We are prone to wander and fall into temptation. We also are weak and easily overcome by evil. We need to continually seek God’s strength and power to keep us on the right track and pursuing him. This is a prayer of ongoing and future grace. God’s grace is what keeps us and allows us to persevere in faith and righteousness. If it comes from God, we should ask him for it! It takes humility to recognize that at any moment we could fall into the snare of the devil and give into temptation; but it is the truth of our fallen hearts. We must daily ask God for his protection and guidance.
Go and pray
Internalize these categories and concepts. Think about the Lord’s prayer, meditate on it, and contemplate how you might rephrase or paraphrase or expand it to fit your life and circumstances. Or simply reflect on it and pray the very words our Lord gave us; but pray them from the heart. Our Father in heaven is listening.