The Disciple's Prayer

I studied in an Christian school till class 2 and it was there that I was introduced to this prayer.

Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name1
your kingdom come, your will be done on earth2 as it is in heaven.
Give us3 today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever4. Amen.

My father had a transferrable job so I got into a secular school and my only connection with this prayer in English broke. I say “Only” as my Church in India conducted its matters in Malayalam and on top of that most of its prayers were in Syrian. By the time it was time for the Malayalam sermons I would have royally switched off. 

 This continued for most of my life and my participation in the Church’s 3 hour Syrian/ Malayalam weekly proceedings was at best half hearted and eventually I stopped praying. Over the years I have come across close friends who are active in matters religious. They were close enough to share that they derived some of their strength to face adversity from God. While I appreciated the fact I just didn’t know what to do about it.

As Juno grows up, I want her to be more aware than I am. Since I don’t pray at all I googled for some prayers and found that the Prayer above is was called “The Lord’s Prayer”. And then there was the period of inaction. And as luck would have it, yesterday I attended a sermon by Pastor Gerrick. Titled “The disciple’s prayer”,  his sermon explained the prayer and was a dummy’s guide on how to pray. Sharing the gist of the very beautiful sermon.

On how to pray he quoted from Mathew 6:6-9
. . . When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans . . . for your father knows what you need before you as him. . . This, then, is how you should pray: . . .

Bible claims that God knows what you need. Hence it describes the above mentioned prayer as a template to pray. I understood from Pastor Gerrick’s sermon that we could aim to achieve the following from the prayers:
1. Acknowledge the reverence and honour of God.
2. Submit to God’s will.
3. Petition for our needs, specifically
- Provisions.
- Forgiveness
- Guidance.
4. Praise the Lord.

During the course of the sermon he made the following points that made an impression on me:
- Offering prayers but not being part of the solution is hypocrisy.
- For prayers to heal you need to forgive others of their sins.
- While you pray and do good avoid getting into situations where you may be tempted by evil.
- Avoid being smug.

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