The disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray. I have asked the Lord countless times to teach me how to pray.

That’s not how it comes out in the translation, though, is it? It’s “teach us to pray.” What’s the difference?

In America, we always want the how-to. We find someone successful and copy what they did. We want the steps.

What if the Lord’s prayer is not a how-to? What if Jesus was teaching them to pray and not how to pray?

In Matthew the Lord’s Prayer isn’t given in response to the disciples asking. It’s part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is telling them to pray in secret and to not use vain repetition and instructs them in the “manner” of prayer.

What about this manner of prayer would be teaching us, not how to pray, but to pray?

It’s recognizing the holiness of God. The holiness of God is a cause for fear and trembling. The holiness of God is dangerous to one who is not holy himself. We need to revere His name and not take it lightly. We are at His mercy.

We need God’s kingdom to come. We wallow in pain and suffering. We always feel the weight of sin’s corruption on earth, so we always feel the need to pray for His Kingdom to conquer in this world. The enemy makes daily advances. We need daily prayer to fight back.

We ask for what we need today. We need to pray because we are at the Lord’s mercy. We don’t have what we need to eat today if God doesn’t say the word. We receive all from Him. We need to realize we receive all from Him. It’s our daily bread, so we need daily mercy and we need to pray daily.

Our forgiveness is tied to our forgiving. We need to continually be turning over every hurt to the Lord to heal and not hold onto anything. We need His daily grace for that.

Then there is the prayer not to be led into temptation. Is there not a need for a daily prayer to be kept from sin, to be guarded?

Jesus then emphasizes that we ought to be praying by teaching us to keep asking because God will give good gifts to those who ask, especially the good gift of the Spirit. If you don’t have, ask.

We need to pray. Jesus taught us to pray. So pray.