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What Do We Pray For?
By James Emery Vigh of profbruno.com
When you pray, what do you pray for? How do you pray? Do you always ask for things, or stuff, or relief from your problems? We all do that sometimes because we can't help ourselves, but in the New Testament, we read that the Disciples of Jesus asked that same question of Him. His response was what we now call "The Lord's Prayer": Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen. If we analyze this prayer, it's not the individual words that matter as a whole. This was not meant, I think, to be a rote response, but rather as an attitude towards how we should pray. The first lines are meant to remind us that we should first and last acknowledge God and praise him on His own merits. Then we ask that he sustain us in our needs (our daily bread). Then comes the important part -- the concept of forgiveness. This is tough for many of us, but it is the core concept of Christianity as well as many other religions. How can we ask for forgiveness if we ourselves cannot forgive? Lastly we ask for deliverance and Divine protection. Does it mean though, that this is the only template that we should use when we pray? Is prayer just a bunch of words in a specific format? It's not the format that's important, although "The Lord's Prayer" is a good format indeed. What's important is the spirit of the prayer. We all often pray for ourselves and our families and friends, and many times we ask for miracles to help. Ah, there's another thing: "Miracles", "Signs and Wonders"... We look at miracles and "signs" as something magical coming down from the heavens -- sort of like Zeus with a lighting bolt. Although I can't preclude the "lighting bolt" and proclaim that that never happens, I also believe that miracles and signs are all around us and amongst us. Don't just look up. Look around. Look inside. At the end of the movie "Bruce Almighty", Bruce admonishes his TV audience to "Be the miracle". This struck me. Every once in a while when you pray, ask how you can "be the miracle". Being the miracle is a prayer unto itself. It is also the answer to someone else's prayer. God will honor you for that. |
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It is important that we pray because we want to and not because we feel obligated to pray.
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
That is certainly true. Thanks for your comments.
Regards,
JIm
Thanks for the memories of learning, " The Lord's Prayer", Jim.
I was probably the tender age of 5, long before I knew what " Trespasses" were. Memories of Grandmother's teachings are always wonderful.
Keep up the good work.
Frederick
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Some translations use the word "transgressors", which besides being a mouthful, would be hard to comprehend at the age of 5.
Regards, and many thanks.
Jim
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