"Here's how to pray," Jesus

 One of the highlights in Jesus’ ministry to his disciples is what we call The Lord’s prayer. It has served in countless situations where public prayer is appropriate as well as in personal and private settings. But since many are not familiar with its setting as recorded in the gospels, let’s start there.
        While Matthew (the teaching gospel)  places the prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, Luke provides the actual setting (Luke 11:2-4) One day a disciple of Jesus sees the Lord in prayer and when he finishes, goes to him and asks if he will teach them how to pray. Had Jesus not been praying would we have a Lord’s Prayer today? Good question, but let’s join the disciples and see what he has for us.
        Matthew prefaces the prayer itself with a warning against “babbling on and on.” That’s what the uninformed do because they think that God will be impressed with all the words they use. That is unnecessary because God already knows what we need before we ask (Matt. 6:7-8). So the sample prayer given by Jesus is short, only 57 words in the Greek text  (even shorter in Luke’s account, 38 words). What does that say? Probably that we don’t have to impress God with our vocabulary in order to get him to answer. Prayer is for the needy and in crucial settings the problem can be stated in very few words.
        The prayer consists of two parts: first, we are to honor the One to whom we are praying, and second, we are to ask for the basic things we need for life. It is important that in prayer we begin with our hearts and minds on the wonder of the One to whom we are praying. Although he is our Father, we don’t break into his room with our minds full of what WE need rather than who HE is. The proper attitude for prayer is a strong awareness of the worth of the one to whom we are bringing our requests. It is all a part of “getting over oneself.” The gist of this section is a request is “May life here on earth become like heaven.”
        Then the three petitions that follows deal with food, forgiveness and failure. We need the first two and want to escape the third. Now the question arises, ”Is that it?” and the answer is (I think) that the prayer is an outline. We are to pray about the normal things we need to sustain life and that will differ from family to family. He knows when we run out of something and wants us to ask for all and for anything we will be needing.
       “But wouldn’t incidentals like that be a waste of his time?”
       “Time,” you ask? “Hardly relevant because he “inhabits eternity” (Isa. 57:15)
         Obviously we are to ask for forgiveness. Anyone who reflects on their day with the pleasant feeling that in no way have they fallen short of perfection, needs a session with the local therapist, or better yet, just look in the mirror and repeat with me, “I have not sinned in any way today.”
         And then we are to pray about the trials of life, that God won’t let us get into a situation where we will fail him. This is a humble recognition of our weakness and the desire to live in deep fellowship with our ever-present and ready to listen Lord. I imagine your prayer will be more than 57 words, but may it be a continuing daily practice. God did not hesitate to answer the disciple’s request and he will not be slow to answer yours.