This week in our Spiritual Formation class we are studying prayer and I started meditating on the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Jesus was teaching His disciples to pray. Sometimes it is easy to think about prayer related to the things that we need, things we are looking for, problems that need to be solved, and circumstances that we think that need to change.
The Lord’s Prayer starts with an identification of a relationship, our relationship with the Father as His sons and daughters (v. 9). The next step is our giving Him glory to His name (v. 9). Then we pray that His kingdom come and His will be done on earth (v. 10). We ask for our daily bread (v. 11) and for forgiveness based on the fact that we have already forgiven others (v. 12). We also ask not to fall into temptation and to be delivered from evil (v. 13). He did not teach them to ask for many different things, but He was teaching them to pray daily.
Our daily bread is our relationship with the Lord. Jesus was teaching His disciples to pursue a daily relationship with Himself. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh (John 6:51). When we pray we must remember that God already knows all of our needs (Matthew 6:8), but He wants us to daily feed upon our relationship with Christ.