Many of us learned prayers from a young age. We recited words that perhaps we had little understanding of their true meaning, but were proud of the “gold star” when we could say them without help! But let’s face it; we are not children anymore and it’s time to quit just “reciting” words of prayers and pray from the sincerity of our heart with faith. In Matthew 6:5-13, Jesus gives us principles and guidelines as to how we are to pray. First, He tells us how not to pray, then He tells us how to pray. People refer to the “how to pray” verses as The Lord’s Prayer, but these verses are meant to be guidelines to base our prayers on, not necessarily meant to “recite” just as a prayer. Let’s begin.

Matthew 6:5 – When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who pray to be seen. If our motives to pray are to receive glory from those around us, then we are not praying from a sincerity of faith in God but to gain recognition for ourselves. This does not mean we shouldn’t pray in public; it just means we should have the right heart motives for praying.

Matthew 6:6 – When you pray, enter in thy closet. This means we are to have a private prayer life. Obviously, as we just mentioned, it is Biblical to pray in the public places – such as church and meetings etc., but we are not neglect our private time with our Lord in prayer and fellowship. God also promises in this verse that what God sees in our private prayer times He rewards openly. This means the answers to our prayer are seen in this natural world, not only by us but probably by others too.

Matthew 6:7 – When you pray, do not use vain repetitions or many words. When I was young, this truth really set me free from being intimidated when asked to pray in public. We need to understand that it is not about the length of our prayers or how well we can repeat prayers, but the faith we adhere to them.

Therefore, in this manner, pray:

Matthew 6:9 – Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. We are to revere our Heavenly Father the honor He deserves for He is holy, just, and merciful. Our lifestyle is an indication of how much we revere Him; we are to have no other god before Him. (Exodus 20:3) When our Heavenly Father is first place in our heart, we endeavor to live in obedience to His Word.

Matthew 6:10 – Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. God rules His Kingdom with love, mercy, truth, justice, compassion, and even with patience, to mention a few attributes. These are good things to have in our lives too, and as His children we should pray that we exhibit these attributes in our daily lives and pray accordingly; for ourselves and others. If we are truly seeking for His Kingdom to come on this earth, then at the very least, we must pray for the lost to be saved; the sick to be healed, and the needs of the poor to be met.

Matthew 6:11 – Give us this day our daily bread. We are to ask and expect God to meet our daily needs. This isn’t limited to just what food we need each day, but for all our needs – money to pay our bills, love, and strength to be kind to others, wisdom for the decisions, and the list goes on and on.

Matthew 6:12 – And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. The words debt and debtor have to do with the righteous life we owe to God, rather than debts related to owed money, as we normally encounter the words, even though I suppose it could include that. When I first learned The Lord’s Prayer as a young child, I was taught to use the word trespasses instead of debt. In the Biblical sense, the word trespass means “a false step or sin” or otherwise a disobedience to God. And since we can sin against God, and others can sin against us with words or deeds, we not only need forgiveness from God, we also need to forgive others.

Matthew 6:13a – And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Some Bible version read “from the evil one” which I like because God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13). According to Matthew 26:41, we can pray that we enter not into temptations. I think that avoiding temptation is better than needing deliverance from the sin of yielding to a temptation!

Matthew 6:13b – For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.  We need to recognize and understand that God’s Kingdom is forever. His power and glory are forever. It is our choice whether we are part of God’s Kingdom. The choice is ours to either accept Jesus as Savior and Lord or to deny Him. Either way, God’s Kingdom remains forever.

Jesus is telling us that He expects us to pray, and has given us principles and guidelines so we can pray correctly according to the Word of God. Take prayer time seriously; put it on your calendar to remind you if you must, but set a time each day to pray. Let prayer be your lifestyle.