How Should Christian Pray? Understanding the Lord’s Prayer (Part 2)

In this episode of the Q&A with Pastor Charlie podcast, we continue our two part series on prayer by walking through how Jesus teaches us to pray in Matthew 6. After looking at how not to pray in part one, we now focus on what Jesus actually instructs His disciples to do through the Lord’s Prayer.

Pastor Charlie unpacks each section of this model prayer, showing how it shapes a healthy prayer life that is relational, reverent, and dependent on God. From honoring the Father, to praying for His will, to asking for daily provision, forgiveness, and spiritual protection, this passage gives believers a clear framework for prayer that is both simple and deeply transformative.

Whether you are trying to build consistency in prayer or simply want to understand what Jesus meant in Matthew 6, this episode offers practical guidance and biblical clarity.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, happy Friday and welcome back to another episode of the QA with Pastor Charlie Podcast. This week is gonna be part two of us talking about prayer. So if you haven't listened to part one yet, I encourage you to go back and get the beginning half of today's podcast. And last time we talked about a little bit of how we're not supposed to pray, answering a question about Matthew 6, and this week we're gonna pick back up moving forward about how we are supposed to pray.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

All right. Well, just a quick reminder when we talked about how not to pray, we looked at how Jesus was comparing the righteousness of the kingdom versus the self-righteousness of the religious leaders, and he wanted them not to pray like the hypocrites who do it to be seen by men, but instead our prayer should be about our connection to God, seeking him, asking of him, and we should not be afraid to ask any and everything of God, seeking his will above all else. And then we saw that we're not to pray like the Gentiles or the pagans did, and they're just vain repetition, trying to get God's attention because he hears us, he knows our needs, and he wants to work and act in our life. And that leads us to what we call the Lord's Prayer. And so Jesus' disciples at one point even said, Will you teach us how to pray? And I think what what they saw is there was a difference in Jesus' way of praying and the way that they had been taught to pray. There was a difference in how Jesus communed with the Father and how the Pharisees went about it with their with their religious ways, and they wanted to know how Jesus prayed. And one of the things that I would encourage anybody to do, if you want to know how to pray, go back and read many of the prayers that Jesus prayed. We have the high priestly prayer, we get moments of him when he was in the garden praying, seeking the will of God. And so I would encourage anybody and everybody to go back, read those passages about when Jesus prayed, how he prayed, the specific passages of his prayers. Throughout the New Testament, we get these little mini apostolic prayers that we see the apostles praying on behalf of the church or whatever it might be. And all of those are going to be great fuel for us. The other thing that I think I would always encourage people to do is if you're struggling to know how to pray, don't be afraid to pray scripture. Scripture is going to be the way that we're know what we're praying in the will of God, know we're praying according to his desires. And praying scripture sometimes is one of the safest ways, especially when we don't know how to articulate what it is we want. That being said, in Matthew chapter 6, starting in verse 9, we get this famous the Lord's Prayer. And one of the questions is like, are we supposed to pray this prayer specifically, or is this prayer a model or a template? And I say it's a model or a template. Like, I don't think there's anything wrong with praying this prayer specifically, but I think our heart needs to be voiced to God. And if prayer simply is our communication with our Father in heaven, then I think the words need to come from us, from our heart, and I think this just serves as a template to show us how to pray in a proper and appropriate way. So he says this in verse 9 Therefore you should pray like this Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, and do not bring us in temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. He goes on to say, For if you forgive others their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well, but if you don't forgive others, your Father will not forgive your offenses. So I want to just break down this model prayer and hopefully give us just some pointers, some examples of why it's important for us to pray and how we should. But the first thing I want us to notice is how Jesus taught us to pray was to address our Father in heaven. And this really was revolutionary in Jesus' day because what he was doing was bringing God to a personal level. And that's why Jesus came. Jesus came to reconcile us back to our Creator, back to our Father, and Jesus is showing us that there is a personal God in heaven who is our creator, who loves us, and we can appeal to him as a father. One of the things that Jesus used in illustration of how to pray, he says, if we who are evil want to do good things for our children, how much more does our Father in heaven, who's not evil but is completely good, want to do good for his children here on earth? And then he says, so know this if you ask for a stone or a piece of bread, don't think for a second God's going to give you a stone. If you ask for a fish, don't think that God would slide in a snake to you. He wants to do good things. And Jesus is introducing our Creator to us in a personal way. Now, not all of us have this experience, but hopefully many of us would stop and say, you know, a loving father is a good thing. And for those of us who have had loving fathers, we we know the comfort that we have from their protection. We know the comfort we have that we can come before them and ask things of them and know that they want to do their best to give things to us. And this is the way that Jesus is describing God. And so the first thing I think we need to see in this model prayer is it's relational. It is truly us connecting with someone who wants to have a relationship with us, who made a relationship possible through the sacrifice of his son. And he says, So our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Now there's a couple of things here. One is in Jewish culture, it was imperative that you honor your father. Show respect, uh, show a healthy level of fear and honor toward them because of the position that they're in. And at the same time, what Jesus is teaching us is while God is our Father and He's close and we can speak to Him in a very personal, casual way, there's also a part by which we don't forget who He is and we honor Him and respect Him. And when He says, be honored as holy, what we're acknowledging is God is set apart and He is different from us. While God has come to us in the person of Jesus and has humbled Himself that we can have this relationship, we must never forget that He is God in heaven. And that as we come before Him, there is a part of us that's always acknowledging His goodness and all of these attributes. And I think one of the things that we do when we're praying is we come before God and we show adoration and praise to Him for who He is and what He's done. And I think sometimes it's a good practice for us in our prayer just to stop at the beginning and just say, God, here's who I know you are. And the Bible has revealed God to us in so many ways and told us so many things about His characteristics and His attributes that we praise Him and honor Him in doing that. The next thing He says in verse 10 is your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And when I talk about praying Scripture, I think this is a great way for us to know that we're praying the will of God. And our desire as believers, when we pray, should not be to try to manipulate or force God to our will, but instead allow God to conform our will to his will. And at the end of the day, what we should want more than anything as believers is for God's will to be done in our life, because we know his will is always right, his will is always good, and when he says, on earth as it is in heaven, heaven is the place where God's presence is manifest, where everything happens according to the way that he designs and what he says, and what we should want is here in our earth, in our life, our world, for us to be conformed to his will, just as it is in heaven. Now Jesus exemplified for this as well, as he got ready to go to the cross when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. There he is coming to this point where he realizes what he's about to endure. He who has never tasted sin is about to experience it in full. And he looks and he says, God, if there's any other way for us to do this, then please let it be. However, nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done. I think to me, of all the prayers that Jesus prayed, that's one that I pray maybe more than any, as I come before God and I say, God, in this moment, this is what I want, this is what I desire, this is what I think is best, this is what I'm asking for, because you tell me, don't be afraid to ask. However, nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done. Now, Jesus wasn't this way, but I know I'm this way, that sometimes what I think is best is not best. It's wrong. It can be sinfully motivated, and I don't even know it. And so my caveat with that is always, I'm gonna ask because you tell me to ask. Nevertheless, not my will be done, but your will be done. He says, give us this day our daily bread. And I think this is an acknowledgement that we are dependent on God for our needs, and we're to bring those needs before him. It can be asking God for our simple physical needs, and I think one of the things that we need to be reminded is the Bible never promises us that God's going to give us everything we want, although I think that's the poor theology that some people teach. But what the Bible is very clear about, God will always meet our needs. Now, why ask then? Because it's a daily reminder for us. Give me today what I need. God, I'm dependent on you today. And I think there's a reason why he says daily, that every day as we're praying, every day we're reminded, God, today, I'm dependent on you. Everything that's gonna happen in my life, I need you. From the roof over my head to the food that I eat to the clothes on my back, to the job that I'm gonna perform, to the way I'm gonna parent, to the way that I'm gonna relate to my spouse. God, all throughout the day, I can't do this alone. I need you. And so every day we're we're praying for those needs. Now, verse 12 gets interesting to me. Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors, and then do not bring us in temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Well, the acknowledgement of forgiveness is a time of confession in our prayer. If we're gonna ask God to forgive us of our debts, I think he's talking about our sin here. There's a time of confession. God, here are the areas in my life that I haven't measured up. Here's the places that I've stumbled, here's the areas that I'm weak and I need your help. And God, I'm gonna confess my sins to you, knowing that you forgive. And at the same time, I'm gonna do so in this vein of understanding that as Jesus has taught, if I don't forgive, then I can't expect to be forgiven. So the same measure that I'm gonna expect God to do for me, I should also be willing to do for other people. And sometimes I'm just having to even pray in those moments. God, as you're forgiving me, help me also to have a heart of forgiveness and grace and mercy toward others. And then the final one is do not bring us in temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. This is where it gets kind of hard to me. And you know, you can read some commentaries on this, and and you know, we got the passage in James where it says that God does not tempt anyone, and because he's not tempted by sin, so so the question would be, well, what's Jesus actually talking about here? I think what this is acknowledgement of is this. I am weak and I am prone to wondering, and I am prone to stepping into sin. And God, would you keep me from that? Would you keep me from those moments where my faith is weak? But even if I find myself in those moments, will you sustain me? There's an acknowledge of spiritual battles going on here. Deliver us from the evil one. We know the evil one in scripture is representative of Satan and these cosmic forces that are that are battling. And when we look at that in Ephesians chapter six, but God, would you deliver us from these moments that we might slide into sin? Would you help us to stand firm? Would you help us to to trust in your word and trust in you more than we trust in ourselves? And God, would you deliver us in that? And I think all of these are headings, if you will, of a healthy prayer life that if we stack underneath it needs, desires, feelings, all of the things we bring before the Lord, then then it's going to be a great template for us to pray successfully and pray regularly in our life.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah, that's good. I think for a lot of times I've wondered like if God's sovereign and he has a good plan for my life, like why do I really need to do all this? But I think that's a good reminder that it's it's submission and it's worship in itself.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

And God somehow in the Bible acts through our prayers, even though he's sovereign, like prayer is a gateway that we're going to tap into the power of God and the will of God. And and I I can't explain it. I just know that it tells me that both are true and I need to trust in both of them.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah. That's good. Well, thanks for listening to another episode of the QA with Pastor Charlie podcast. And if you have more questions like these about the sermon, about the Bible, we would love to help you get those answered. Send them to questions at firstmore.com. We'll see you next Friday.