Talking With God

When I thought of writing about prayer, I pondered where to begin. God’s Word teaches us a lot about prayer and there is so much to know and understand. God reminded me to approach everything with simplicity in mind. The simplest way to start is with the words that Jesus gave us when He taught us to pray. We know it as “The Lord’s Prayer.”

This prayer is covered in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Luke contains a shorter version and Matthew contains a longer version which is what I will share here. In Matthew 6:5-8 Jesus gives us instructions for prayer. He explains that we should not pray to be seen by others and that we should go into our room, close the door, and pray privately. He also tells us not to keep on babbling, thinking that because we use a lot of words our prayers will be heard.

Verses 9 through 13 from the King James Version gives us the words we should say.

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 
Give us this day our daily bread. 
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 
And lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil: 
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” 

This prayer covers everything. When we begin by saying “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,” we are acknowledging God as our Father and showing respect for Him.

When we say, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,” we ask God to do what He created the earth for; to bring His Kingdom to the earth, and for us to live in it according to His good and perfect will. We are asking God for things on earth to be as beautiful and amazing as they are in heaven.

We ask Him to give us what we need for today when we say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:25-34 reminds us that birds do not store up for the future. It explains that God meets their needs each day, and we are much more valuable than birds. We do not need to worry about whether He will take care of us. There is no need to worry about what we will eat or drink. As we seek first His kingdom and righteousness, all these things will be given to us. On a personal note, I put this one to the test regularly because I rarely stock up on groceries…but I digress.

Matthew 6:14-15 makes sure that when we say, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,” we fully understand that we first must forgive anyone who has sinned against us if we are asking God to forgive our sins. It is very clear about the fact that if we are not willing to forgive, then we will not be forgiven.

The next part “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” can be a bit confusing. James 1:13-15 makes it clear that God does not tempt us. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. When we are tempted, God will also provide a way out so that we can endure it. The devil will tempt us, and God may allow the temptation for His purposes as he did with Job. When we say this part of the prayer, we are asking God to order our steps away from the tricks and traps of the enemy.

In the same manner that we started first by acknowledging God as our Father and showing respect for Him, we end the prayer on the same note. “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

There is so much more to be said about prayer, and I’ll address prayers of petition, the most common type of prayer in a separate post. For now, if you are wondering where to begin, you absolutely cannot go wrong with “The Lord’s Prayer.” When I am praying and feel overwhelmed or unclear about exactly what I want to say, I just start speaking this prayer. God already knows what we need before we ask. When I ask for His will to be done, that really does cover everything I want, because it is the only thing that I want.

When you wake up in the morning, try starting your day with this prayer before you even get out of bed, and before you reach for your phone. You do not need to be in a certain posture to talk to God. The bottom line is that He really just wants to hear from you. I hope that this has helped to make things simple and that it will be a blessing to you on your journey.

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