How to Pray: Lessons from the Lord's Prayer

Note: Please read the earlier posts on the Lord's Prayer if this is your first visit.

Phrase by phrase, we have reviewed the Lord's Prayer this summer. What are some general guidelines about effective prayer we have learned so far?

1. Effective prayer is short and to the point. The prayer Jesus taught is clear, to the point, and doesn't contain long phrases or complex words many people don't use or understand.

2. Effective prayer is God-focused. The emphasis of the prayer is God's will and holiness. After these are stated and affirmed, then requests and needs are expressed.

3. Effective prayer acknowledges the hard parts of human reality: needs, hurt, injury, evil, and temptation.

4. Effective prayer respects and acknowledges God as our father. Our inheritance is love, support, and whatever resources we may need. Our identity and character reflect the holiness, power, joy, and purposes of our father.

The prayer teaches us how to understand and relate to God. The prayer is a pathway to understanding ourselves and the world. The prayer gives guidance on how to live.

Here's the summary:

Our Father: Knowing and affirming God as the originator and source and keeper of everything takes away our fear that other people or circumstances can harm us beyond repair or remove our gifts and abilities.

Who is in heaven: God is not only with us, but is also for us with power that is beyond us.

Hallowed be your name:  God is wholly good (holy) and always has a single minded will for our well-being and long term happiness.

Your kingdom come: What we now see in the world doesn't completely or fully display God's total will for creation.

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven: At a time of God's choosing, God will restore the original and perfect expression of all creation and all creatures.

Give us today our daily bread: We trust God to enable and execute what we need for every element of well-being -- physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual.

Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors: We ask God to heal our minds, bodies, and spirits through the releasing/freeing/restoring cycle of forgiveness. Negative energies and experiences don't live within us. We dont want them. We release them.

Lead us not into temptation: Freedom comes when we turn our wills over to God. We do not constantly struggle against situations, people, and experiences that aren't good for us because we are no longer attracted to them.

Deliver us from the evil one: There are realities we cannot touch or see or measure or understand. We trust God to protect, love, and care for us in all spaces of our lives. That protection covers spaces and entities visible and invisible.

Has this study helped your prayer experience? How will your prayers change?