Matthew 6:9-13 shares the teaching on how to pray? It is the given pattern of Jesus to his disciples. This pattern is not from our mouths alone but mostly from our hearts. Our prayers must be in the inner core of our hearts.
From verses 9-10, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The first word of prayer is heavenly worship which angels are also proclaiming the Glory of our God (Rev. 19). Jesus wants us to be like angels having the heart to give glory into His kingdom. God accepted our worship of praise even though we are imperfect because he understands our inadequate state. In the sight of God, we are righteous because He forgives our sin, and He sanctifies us with His Holy Spirit.
“Your will be done” are words of submission to God. Jesus teaches us to pray with a humble heart. We are not asking a small God. He knows what is good for us. He has a much better plan than us. A humble heart is necessary to pray.
“Give us today our daily bread.” God knows everything we need, and He is willing to provide it. Possibly from this phrase, we have two things to consider. “Our daily bread.” It can be our food or our basic needs as cloth, shelter, and house. God has already provided us with these things, and it is ours to work for them. But still, God wants us to say to Him “all of our needs.” “Our daily bread” can also be our Spiritual needs. We need the word of God as our daily bread for our Spiritual maturity. As Christ said, “we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” It is true that with the word of God, we can live. His word is powerful to every saint of God.
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”. This is another phrase for the cleaning of our hearts. To request of God, our hearts must be in tune and purified. The things that hinder our prayers are in our sin, from our wrong motives. To be effective in prayer, we Christians should trust Him and attach to our prayers “let his will be done.”
“And lead us not into temptation,” a prayer with supernatural protection from God. God allows temptation to be done for the testing of our faith. We should always pray and ask for his guidance, so He will help us to refute the temptation of evil. Temptation is everywhere, but it has no power to snatch our faith because we are all genuinely controlled by His hands.
“But deliver us from the evil one.” Evil is in every person’s heart because of our corrupted heart, conscience, mind, and all aspect of our personality. But Christ delivered us from sin, and He will lead us from His Christlike Character. The evil one has no space to grow in our life if we are always drawing near to God.
“For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” It is for the kingdom of God’s reign forever. Let our lifestyle bring glory to God always.
“Amen.” Amen is a Hebrew word meaning right, true, or correct. It is not the end of our prayer. This word is a word linked to Hope. There’s a hope that God accepts our prayers and listens to us from our prayers. Saying Amen is another way we give glory to God for all the things he has done to us “Amen!”