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How Should We Pray?

             “This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
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 lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.’

          Matthew 6:9-13

 

The first note for today’s passage is that Jesus doesn’t say that this is what we should pray, but how we should pray. I’ve had some people criticize me because I tend to pray in my life as it is in heaven instead of on earth as it is in heaven. It’s not that I don’t want God’s will to be done on earth, but I want to do God’s will in my life, which is part of things on earth being done according to His will.

But this morning, an idea came to mind as I walked and prayed this prayer. We have the words  of the lesson He taught, but we don’t have the vocal dynamic, the gestures, or the facial expressions. When I pray this prayer, there are times when I feel as though I’m just reading, or even reading in a monotone.

This morning, I returned to a theme I’ve explored before. “Hallowed be Your name.” What does hallowed really mean? Am I praying as if I mean it? How would one know if one was “meaning it” sufficiently, instead of repeating it from rote? Is “Hallowed be Your name” enough or is “HALLOWED be Your name” required? Is it really acceptable for me to change “on Earth” to “in my life”? And what do we do with the fact that “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever” is not included?

Some might say I’m overthinking the matter. I have to wonder if any of us are thinking about it enough. Or at all. I doubt any extreme is of delivery is desired by God. We shouldn’t repeat it mechanically, but we also shouldn’t strike a pose like some bad comic opera actor and have a psychological or emotional breakdown over every syllable. We need to consider what we’re saying and not say it if we don’t mean it but how we mean it may change from day to day. Today, we may feel “Hallowed be Your name,” but tomorrow, it might be “And led us not into temptation.”

There’s nothing in the text to suggest that Jesus was – theatrical – in His rendition of this prayer. He seems more what I’d call conversational. This doesn’t mean that we can’t be emotional wrecks when we talk to God, just that we don’t have to be. 

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