Before you get into the how-to-do-it, we’ve got to ask first, why should we? Really, for all the people who say, “God answered my prayer!”, there are a zillion more who could say they got nothing. Jesus, why bother with it? If God really made us, then God should know what we need and take care of it without all this falling on your knees and begging. It all comes down to a baseless hope and hassle.

Yes, it is based in hope. Face this as well. When there’s no hope, prayer seems like the best thing going even when it is the last. True Story: our President, then Delaware Senator Joe Biden, said to the effect that if you want to get rid of prayer in public schools, eliminate all tests. (Think about it; students look at the exam questions and say/think/maybe pray, “God help me!”) And if there is at least one prayer people rely one, it’s the Lord’s Prayer.

Why is the Lord’s Prayer so powerful?

The Lord’s Prayer is the kind of prayer people go to when they don’t know what to pray. Most know it from the 16th century English version, “Our Father, who art in heaven…” While people today don’t talk in thees and thous (except for authentic renditions of Shakespearean plays, “Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”), it still works on the level that these are words that we don’t get in front of. They speak on their own what needs to be said to the God to whom it is addressed. It holds a steadiness, a regularity when the world is falling apart, when there’s nothing we can do except that we need to do something. So we pray.

Why did Jesus give us the Lord’s Prayer?

The short answer to that is Jesus gave it in response to a disciple’s request. They had seen him do it, often out on his own. Clearly it gave him release from burden and strength to take on the next. But his closest friends were also Jewish. Prescribed prayers in the synagogue were common.  That’s what they understood, and had even seen Jesus’ advance man, John the Baptist, teach his team how to pray. It follows Jesus’ guys wanted some of the same.

Yeah,…it was for them but also for anybody else who in whatever way wants to catch on to what Jesus got out of prayer. Interestingly, in this recording, the short version is taught. On another day, Jesus fleshed it out in the middle of a bigger teaching.  But here we get the gist of what’s important. Memorize it as you will, yet understand it is how you come to God in prayer, this one or your own extemporized cry of the soul, which Jesus was really trying to teach.

So, how do I approach God to pray?

First word, Father. It drives the whole thing. Relationship is what God wants out of prayers and this is how God wants it understood. God and you have this thing going. You two need to talk. What follows is a structure to this particular prayer, but each part is a prayer unto itself. Talk it over with God where you are in it.

·      Your name be honored. God has let you in. So give God credit where it’s due.

·      Your Kingdom come. This world is messed up which is why you’re probably in this position anyway. You acknowledge God has a better plan, and you’d welcome it.

·      Give us food every day. Otherwise known as a petition, tell God what you need. We’re talking basics here, not this week’s Powerball lottery win. Food, gas, money for this month’s bills still count.

·      Forgive us our sins. We mess up. And we mess up with both God and everyone else. We get hurt and separated in the mess. We’re more than just sorry. Plan to reverse and change how you do things

·      As we forgive those who sin against us. We need to be liberated from grudges, hatred against those who’ve hurt us. Otherwise, we’re still controlled by them. Help us, God.

·      And don’t let us give into temptations. God, we’re weak, frail, it’s hard to do the next right thing. Keep us strong.

Nice, but there’s more. Jesus tells this interesting story about a guy who goes banging on his friend’s door in the middle of the night. He actually thinks his friend will drag himself out of bed and give him some bread for another guy that popped in unexpectedly for a visit. Jesus says that even if it’s majorly inconvenient, the woke friend (sorry about that) will get up and give this annoyance personified what he requests.

So how’s this an example of prayer? First, these guys are friends. There’s the relationship part. One of them has a need. Sure, he’s asking for some bread, but really what he wants is help in doing the right thing. His other buddy is going to be hungry in the morning, and he wants to do right by him.

Some say because the guy kept knocking on the door it translates into persistence in prayer. Ok, sometimes we have to pray more than once for something (like those zillion prayers you mentioned.) Yet think about it. This guy waking up his friend apparently didn’t think twice about doing it. He actually believed his friend would give him what he needed. So pray like that.

Believe God will answer your prayer even if you have to keep bringing it up.

Ask and you’ll get it. Look for it and you’ll find it. Knock repeatedly and the door will open. Jesus promises an answer. Don’t give up. Just expect it to happen.

Yeah, right, not buying it here. How many people have prayed for all kinds of things only to see cancer take people away, war ravage one’s homeland, violence, hunger, disease, natural disasters take away all joy from life. Get real and face up to this bogus promise of yours.

If what you want God to be in this relationship is Divine Fixer, yeah, you’re going to be on the losing end of that stick. Prayer is not some manipulative button by which you can control God and the world, even when it looks like it’s for the best.

But, as Jesus goes on the explain, God does answer prayers, and again, it’s like the relationship of parent to child. No loving father is going to give his kid what’s not for the child’s best interest. Every parent has to say no sometimes, and every parent has offered the kid something else. Often that something else is even more satisfying to the kid than what he or she was whining about. Not that no one has ever whined to God. Altogether now: Yeah, right.

So here’s the point. If we humans, flawed as we are, know what’s good for our kids about whom we care and love, God as heavenly Father knows that and how to give us “much more.” God will figure out and give to us what we really need, what will really heal, what is better and seen through God’s eyes when we cannot even see into the next hour, day or how to make it through the rest of our lives.

God answers prayers and promises to stick with us when we pray. It’s happens in the greatest gift, the giving of God’s self through the Holy Spirit. That’s much more than we even know how to pray.

Luke 11:1-11