Prayer's Prelude

While most of us have at least heard, some even repeated, while others have memorized the Lord's Prayer, we can always benefit from a little bit of a deeper dive into it from time to time. When the disciples were with Jesus, he actually encountered more than a few 'Pharisees' and 'Sadducees' who were the religious leaders and teachers of the day. In this accounting of one such day, Jesus instructs the disciples to NOT be like these men, but to live humble, honest, and truthfully holy lives, doing more than just putting on a good front for others to see. Then he instructs them - pray like this: 

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:9-13)

Acknowledge who is in control of your life (Our Father). Give him the honor he is due (may your name be kept holy). Welcome him to do in you within you cannot do yourself (may your kingdom come). Invite him to show you his will for your day (may your will be done). Be open to heavenly interventions (as it is in heaven). Then we get into some of the 'practical' aspects of our prayers, such as food, relationships, and our own struggles with temptations that seem too great for us to handle. 

As we so often do, Jesus asks us to not just launch into the long list of our needs and wants. We are to consider God first, giving him the honor he is due, and allowing him to open our hearts and minds in prayer so we are doing more than just firing off a laundry list of 'do this' or 'do that' requests. If you hadn't considered it before, there is a little bit of a 'prelude' to prayer. God wants us to prepare our hearts for the time we will spend with him!

Yes, we are to seek his will in our daily needs such as food and clothing. Sure, we are to ask him to give us forgiveness when we have not done so well with our choices. But...we must take time to acknowledge him FIRST, allowing his Spirit to enter in and break down the walls of our defenses, opening our hearts and all the emotions that linger within it, so that we get more out of the time with him than just letting him know we have needs. The more we take time with the prelude, the better our time will be in the prayer. Just sayin!