Teach Us to Pray

“This then is how you should pray:
  Our Father in heaven,
  hallowed be your name,
  your kingdom come,
  your will be done,
   on earth as it is in heaven.”     Matt. 6:9-10


I grew up on a side street off a main busy road that ran through our neighbourhood. When I was a young girl, old enough to cross that road on my own, I would leave the house around 4:30 in the afternoon, cross the road and meet my dad. He carpooled to work every day and that was where the driver would drop him off. It was a great part of my day as we walked the short distance home, carrying his lunch pail in my one hand while he held my other. I looked forward to being with him.


This memory from years ago came to mind while thinking about the struggle I have looking forward to meeting my heavenly Father in prayer. It isn’t that I don’t want to pray. But it seems like I’m often going to God with a long list of things to pray for.


There are members of my family and others I want to know him so I ask for his Spirit to draw them to himself. There are those who are not well physically or facing their last days on earth so I ask him to comfort them. There are others who are struggling with various things in life and I ask him to give them strength and guidance. I pray for leaders to have wisdom in decision making and for protection for those facing persecution for their faith. I ask him to bless my day. By the end of the list time is up and I need to get on with other things.


I don’t think there is anything wrong with these prayers. But I sometimes feel like I’m treating God like a big dispensing machine: putting my requests in and expecting blessings to come out. My relationship with him has not changed at all and I feel dissatisfied.


In Darrell Johnson’s short but powerful book, Fifty-Seven Words that Change the World, he reminds me that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, the first half was completely focused on the Father: “make your name holy”, “make your Kingdom come”; “make your will done.”


It is good to pray for others. But what Jesus was teaching about prayer is that my heavenly Father is the other who should be the priority. I realize I have not really focused my thoughts on God, listened to his heart or paid attention to his concerns. I haven’t gone to meet and be with my heavenly Father at all like I did with my dad when I was a child.


Johnson points out that when the focus is on the Father—his glory, his kingdom, his will—it covers everything on my list. His life opens up to me more deeply and richly. And answers come before I even ask.


Want a fulfilling and meaningful prayer life? As Jesus taught, focus on your heavenly Father and you will enter into the life of the Father, Son and Spirit in ways beyond your imagining.