When it comes to prayer, probably the most commonly asked question I get as a pastor is, “How does one pray?” Jesus’ own disciples asked Him this very question. And fortunately, He gave us a model on how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13. 

Let’s look at each of His statements individually.

Our Father in heaven

Jesus begins by telling us to address God as our Father in heaven. In Jesus’ day, this would have been a profound statement, as no Jew would have thought of God in those terms. But as Christians, we’re told that we have “received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’” (Romans 8:15). God is now Daddy. He is no austere king sitting far from us upon a throne, but He is our loving Father, stretching out His arms and engulfing us in His everlasting love. All of this is because of the work of the Son. For the Father “predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (Ephesians 1:5). It is Christ Himself who has made this our spiritual reality. 

And so, the first thing we ought to do as we begin to pray is to remember the unique identity we now enjoy as God’s children because of Christ Jesus. 

Your name be honored as holy

Second, Jesus teaches us that we should reflect on the holiness of God. Although the King now sits on the throne with outstretched arms, nonetheless, He still sits on the throne. We should never become so comfortable with the Lord as Father to forget Him as King. As we approach the throne of grace, we must still remember that He is holy, completely separate from us. We are creation; He is Creator. He alone is worthy of all worship. 

As we pray, we must recognize His holiness and give Him the reverence that He deserves. 

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

Let’s be honest. Most of the time, we think the world revolves around us. And so, a lot of our time in prayer is spent petitioning the Lord about our desires and wants. But Jesus tells us our first concern is to be about the Lord’s will. As I have often said before, prayer is the process by which our hearts become more like His. As we spend more and more time with the Lord, He slowly changes our hearts to mirror His.

As we pray, we should be quick to listen and slower to speak because, as we spend time in His presence simply listening, we will come to know His heart and pray more for His will to be done, not ours.

Give us our day our daily bread

This speaks to our daily needs, not our wants. The Lord is faithful. He will provide. He has provided for our every need. Time and time again, the Lord has proven His faithfulness to us and has come through for us. We can trust Him to continue to take care of us as His beloved children. 

As we pray, we should make our requests known to him (Philippians 4:6) and trust that, as we pray for His coming kingdom (see above), “all of these things will be provided” for us (Matthew 6:28). 

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

Our debt has definitely been cancelled by the blood of Christ, who has made us alive and forgiven us from all our trespasses (Colossians 2:13-14). But until we get to heaven, we’re still going to continue to sin here on earth, which means we’re still going to need to confess that sin on a daily basis (1 John 1:9). The discipline of confession and repentance is an ongoing part of the Christian life we cannot neglect. When we do, it not only effects our relationship with the Lord but with our neighbors as well. That’s because our inability to extend mercy to others is directly related to our inability to fully understand the depths of His mercy for ourselves (Matthew 18:21-35). 

As we pray, we must continue to confess the sin the Holy Spirit brings to our attention. And we must repent if we have somehow refused to extend the Lord’s grace to others who desperately need it as well. 

And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one

Whereas, the previous exhortation was to pray for forgiveness from particular sins, here the emphasis is on praying for God’s help in keeping us from future sin. With a world so full of sin, an evil one so bent on our destruction, and our own hearts that are still so “prone to wander,” we must daily ask for the Lord’s continued grace to guide and protect us from evil. 

As we pray, we would do well to remember John Bradford’s famous words, “There go I but for the grace of God,” and seek the Lord’s kindness in delivering us from all forms of evil. 

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Jesus’ teaching on prayer is not meant to be a prayer we recite daily (although one could). Instead, it’s a model of how we should pray. It speaks to the main things a prayer should cover. Often, I know in my own prayer life, I tend to focus on just one of these areas—my needs, requests, and petitions. But our prayers should be much broader than that, much richer than that. Because as we pray more broadly, we see Him more broadly. Instead of just focusing on ourselves, we see Him—as Loving Father, Holy God, Sovereign King, Merciful Savior, and Mighty Deliverer.

For His Glory and Our Joy,

Scott Gourley