Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
A reverent and effective prayer begins with acknowledgement of God. Prayer, the line of open communication connects to our Holy Father. We can think, think, think an abundance of thoughts and worries towards Him but He deserves to be acknowledged first. His presence and His holiness. Having the faith to put God first gives our prayer direction and our soul remembrance of reception.
Psalm 56:8 and Revelation 5:8 tell us that God collects our prayers and tears. He keeps a record of the things that happen to us, the things that we talk to Him about. Opening prayer with acknowledgement of God on the receiving end converts our thoughts to prayers. It also soothes our soul. It is a reminder of His presence. It is a reminder that our God is hallowed, holy. There is no safer place for the words and feelings we are about to express. By God they are compassionately collected, comprehensively understood, and objectively analyzed.
When God is specifically designated as the receiving end of our thoughts, we are on the receiving end of God's grace and mercy. His love. His guidance and instruction. His peace. Mere thoughts and internal worries are converted to prayers to our caring Father who will actually do something about them. For without Him, we know from experience and Matthew 5:25-27, nothing changes.
Faith in God's Sovereignty + Plan
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
It benefits every prayer to be full of faith in God's plan and obedience to His will. Trusting God's will and plan to supercede our own helps us to reconcile the differences between what we want and what we have. It helps us to accept that our current situation may not look the way we wanted it to but is looked on by God nevertheless.
After all, it is His will and plan that we do want. Romans 8:26 explains that God intercedes in our prayers because we do not even know what to pray for. It benefits us to acknowledge this within our prayer. Whether we open a prayer to tell God something joyful or sorrowful, we want to put it in His hands to manage. If it is something good, we pray for it to be fostered by His will and plan. If it is something bad, we pray for it to be managed by His will and plan. We do not need to tell God how to fix something. He knows better than we do.
By this portion of Jesus' prayer, we are also reminded that there is an overarching plan. God is attuned to the minor details of each of His children's life but also He has a plan for the whole of heaven and humanity. The universe. All of it is under His subjection, has been planned for and is headed in the direction He chose. Sometimes it helps to feel small. Very important to God but also small. He has so much planned. He can handle our big things because they are simple for Him who has designs for all of creation.
Reliance on God as Steadfast Provider
Give us this day our daily bread,
We require many provisions but we can rely on God for them all. In John 6:35 Jesus states: "I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall not thirst." And Matthew 4:4 explains: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." So in prayer, when we ask for our daily bread, we are asking also for spiritual provision. The bread that truly sustains us in whatever the situation.
It is that that our soul cannot lack. Blessedly, it does not need to. In our prayers, we can steadfastly request and receive it from God. He is quite aware of our weak frame. Our need to be continuously sustained. Psalm 103:14, God remembers that we are "dust" and compensates for it with His abundant compassion and provision.
Adding this request for spiritual sustenance (and general provision) truly combats our lack right out of the gate. John 4:14, God provides a spring that wells up to eternal life. God will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing to those who fully produce for His kingdom (Malachi 3:10).
Know that God has the resources and the willingness to bless, ask for those blessings in prayer. Let this knowledge remind us of our participating in the kingdom. Our tithes to the Lord. What resources or gifts we received from God, pour back into His eternal purpose. He has enough to continue pouring it back into us and our lives.
Accountability and Repentance
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Romans 3:23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Asking for forgiveness is imperative. The gift of forgiveness from God should not be overlooked or underused. We don't dredge up our mistakes to be shamed for them, we bring them to God to have a conversation that will heal and grow and instruct us through them.
Matthew 6:14-15 reminds us to forgive others so that we will be forgiven. The measure you use will be measured to you, Matthew 7. If God can forgive your repentant heart, endeavor to forgive the repentant hearts that come to you. Reconcile differences with your brothers before approaching the altar of God, Matthew 5:23-24. If possible, live peaceably with all, Romans 12:18.
God does not want us to open prayer as a hypocrite, Matthew 5:6. Lack self awareness, accountability, and self discipline, by nature blocks any instruction or guidance we could receive from God. We will not always open prayer as innocents but we can close it as innocents. And that is a gift and an opportunity no prayer should neglect.
Plea for Protection and Leadership
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
We come to God with thoughts and feelings and ideas and so much more. As we journey through life, as our souls sojourn here, we need God to lead us through it all. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, Psalm 37:23. There is truly no need to take a single step that has not been directed by God. And why would we want to? Our prayer should include a request for His leadership.
By nature, we bumble around. Without God, we are like a bull in a china shop. Even when we make a point to act or speak with good intentions, we sometimes make a mess of things. We endeavor to be like Jesus, to be mature and excel in emulation of Him but we make mistakes. He is omniscient, He will always see and catch things that will miss. Therefore we need to walk by faith, not by sight, 2 Corinthians 5:7. To do that, we need to pray to God to indeed order our steps. We need to steadfastly endeavor to be the good man whose steps are ordered by the Lord. We pray for God to lead us away from our own internal weaknesses that lead to evil. We pray for God to lead us away from others' actions that could land us in evil.
If, in prayer, we can remember to tack these main principles to the corkboard of everything else we have to say to God, we will see how powerful prayer truly is. Prayer at work within us, the Lord a surgeon complete will all necessary tools and dexterity to fulfill the John 10:10 promise of Jesus: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.