How to Pray - Reflections on the Lord's Prayer

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The only 'ask' for physical provision taught in the Lord’s Prayer is “Give us today our daily bread”.  If ‘daily bread’ represents our essential needs on a day to day basis, what place is there to be asking God for anything more than this.  Doesn’t Jesus also encourage us to ask for ‘anything’? Doesn’t the bible teach us that God will give us the ‘desired of our heart”?

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In teaching us to pray daily for the recurring needs we have each day, rather than for tomorrow, Jesus is pushing into the importance of our reliance on the Father.  To what extent should this change the way we plan for the future.  Elsewhere, planning is seen as positive thing in Jesus’ teaching and other scriptures, so how can we get the right balance between preparation and dependence?

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Touching again on the communal aspect of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray “give US today”, not “give ME today”. How do we interpret asking God to give in the context of a faith community where we are called to serve each other.  Does serving each other extend to being part of God providing for other people’s needs?  The wider teaching of Jesus and the apostles suggest that it does!

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We’re now into the second half of the Lord’s Prayer, yet only now does Jesus teach us to ask for anything. How often do our prayer times resemble a shopping list of requests rather than the structure Jesus teaches, where our focus is on God and His Kingdom first before asking for things.  This is totally in line with Jesus’ teaching to seek the Kingdom of God first.  He also teaches that God knows what we need before we eve ask, so is there even any need to be asking for anything?

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As we reach the half-way point in our reflections on the Lord’s Prayer, we consider how God’s Will can be accomplished through the context of our everyday lives and I share the back story to the music theme use in this podcast.  With this episode, we’ll be taking a pause for Easter 25 and will recommence in the week beginning 21st April ’25.  Blessings!