The Lord’s Prayer, Learning How To Pray.

The lord’s prayer is written at the beginning of Luke Chapter 11. It’s a simple prayer that Jesus tells his disciples when he’s teaching them to pray.

I love the lord’s prayer because it’s literally God teaching us how to talk with him, and that’s something I always need help with.

For the last few months, I’ve been stuck Reading Luke Chapter 11. No matter how many times I try to move on, I always get yanked back. I’ve been especially focused on the lord’s prayer. And that’s what this post is going to be focused on.

The Lord’s Prayer

Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

So He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

Jesus; Luke 11:1-4

A Breakdown Of The Lord’s Prayer

In Luke 11:1-13 we get a glimpse of the disciples trying to emulate Jesus. They come to him asking, “Lord, teach us to pray.” This didn’t mean they hadn’t prayed before, but they must’ve thought Jesus had some extra supernatural way of doing it. Instead, Jesus taught them the Lord’s prayer.

I honestly wonder what went through Jesus’ head here. Maybe he was excited they were taking initiative or annoyed that they didn’t understand yet. Either way, he loved them and he was willing to teach them what they were lacking.

Instead of giving a formula like stomping on 1 foot and spinning around. Jesus gives them a simple prayer which is extremely powerful. I could give you a breakdown line by line and go into the old testament basics of it all, but that would be boring. So here are my thoughts on the lord’s prayer.

This prayer always reminds me of those boring church services I sat in as a kid. Weird English was spoken, and I remember it being humid. Don’t be fooled by your past experiences, this prayer can be powerful. Let God into your heart, and allow him to teach you to pray.

Why The Lord’s Prayer Is Important

When you’re in a desperate place and looking towards God, he can’t help but look at you. That’s the exact position the women with an issue of blood had in the Bible. She knew in her heart if she touched his robe that she’d be healed. Sure enough, it happened.

I believe she’d been praying for years to be healed, and because of her prayers, she recognized Jesus for who he is. Once she had all that together, all she needed was to reach out and touch him.

The Lord’s Prayer in Practice

Whether you’re reading the Lord’s Prayer, you can choose from the Gospel of Matthew or Luke (it’s in both books). The verb-age is similar, but I don’t feel that matters as much.

Keep in mind, that the Lord’s Prayer isn’t a spell or a few sentences of words that we need to repeat. That’s not how things work. I honestly believe Jesus gave us a template to follow, not random words to repeat. At the beginning of Luke Chapter 6, Jesus actually refers to word repetition as empty phrases. So I assume the later.

In other words, be sincere whenever you’re praying to God. When I’m praying sometimes notice my mind wander but my mouth is still speaking. Sometimes that’s fine as I’m in the spirit, but other times I’m just repeating the same word over and over. This doesn’t make sense and it’s exactly what Jesus warned us about.

Whenever I find myself doing this. I stop for a second or two and ask myself a couple of questions.

Simple Questions:

• What are you trying to get out of saying the lord’s prayer?
• What do you want God to do in your life?
• Are you being persistent in your requests?

In Luke after Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray, there’s a good amount of verses where he speaks and it contains a message many people forget. He spends a good amount of time focusing on persistence and continuously asking. He then goes into the character of God being loving towards his children.

“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 11:11-13 Bible

We fight impatience a lot in our culture. It’s a by-product of a society that can get anything delivered instantly. Even amazon is offering same-day delivery now. A few years ago this was unheard of, but yet it’s exploding now.

By being persistent, and praying to God. You are essentially stretching those muscles of patience, and getting stronger. Your answer to prayer is out there, I believe it, but you have to choose to fight, and not give up.

Be Persistent When You Pray

This can be summed up in two words, “BE PERSISTENT.” I wonder how many people have issues that come up, and they do the right thing by going to pray. However, they don’t have the patience to wait on God, and they give up quickly.

What if God was calling you to pray for years for an answer to a problem? What if you knew the answer would come, but you didn’t know when? You don’t know God’s timetable, all you know is he will give a good thing to his children if they ask.

Focus on God, pray continuously, and listen to him. Remember, your prayer’s answer might be something different than what you expect. Be open to what God gives you.

The lord’s prayer is an excellent way to start talking to God, but never let your focus on the words stop you from connecting with him. Some of my favorite prayer times come from me having a normal conversation with him.

What Are The Parts Of The Lord’s Prayer?

A lot of people have attempted to do this, but I think The Lord’s Prayer gives us a decent and orderly way to organize our prayers.

Praising God:

“Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.“

By starting out in any prayer you’ll want to begin by acknowledging how great God is. The Lord inhabits the praises of his people, and by starting out the lord’s prayer with praise, you’re telling him he’s welcome to show up.

Personally, I always want him to show up, he makes everything better.

Acknowledging His Will

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth, as it is in heaven.

The second step to any prayer is asking that his will be done, and his kingdom to come. By praying this you’re submitting yourself to God and his plans for you. This is a form of realigning yourself with his presence so you can do whatever he needs.

Asking For Help With Your Daily Needs

Give us day by day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

This part of the prayer has 3 parts to it. The first line is making a request for your daily needs. This includes food, money to pay bills, etc. As Christians today we forget that God gives us everything.

Many people think God didn’t do anything in their lives and they’ve done it all, but who gave you breath and life to accomplish those things? I’m sure you didn’t.

The second part is asking for spiritual needs. Forgiveness is an epic spiritual need, and asking for it is something we should do daily.

I think the 2nd and 3rd parts are tied together, if we don’t forgive others, Jesus will NOT forgive us. That’s biblical, and we should take heed of that warning.

Prayer For Direction

And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

This is a prayer asking God to lead us this day and to keep us away from the devil and his minions. It’s important to ask God for guidance daily as we don’t know what will happen. God does and that is why we should have faith in him. He’s God and he knows us better than we do.

The Lord’s Prayer Recap:

• Using the lord’s prayer when you pray is an epic way to get started.
• If you find yourself repeating words and not thinking, take a step back.
• Persistence is key when praying.
• God’s answer might be different than your answer. Stay close to him and you’ll see it coming.

Remember the women with the blood issue I referred to earlier? She prayed for years that she’d be healed. During this time do you think she got to know the voice of God? I think she did, how else could anybody pray that long?

When you’re praying for a need, God will meet you. Even if the answer isn’t evident, he will come and sit with you. Waiting for it.

Hey Thank you so much for reading my latest post on the Lord’s Prayer, I appreciate it, and hope you were blessed by it. Don’t forget to leave a comment below. With thoughts and feelings for the upcoming year.