How You Should Pray

Read Matthew 6:9-15.

Daddy,
I know you're in heaven, and though I'm not sure where that is, I know it's a long way from here.
Yet, Jesus said to call you Abba, Daddy, to know you are close no matter how things appear.
So today, I'm coming to you, Daddy.
This world is not what is should be, and my deepest desire is for what you want to become a reality here and now. This world would be so much better off if we just learned to listen to you and to live out the kind of life you have wanted us to live from the beginning.
Help us, Father. Help your children.

I know you've said we can ask for anything, and that if we ask for anything in your name, you will give it to us. It's that "in your name" part that stops from asking for millions of dollars and tons of ice cream. I know that whatever I ask for "in your name" must be used to honor you, and I know if I asked for lots of "stuff," I would most likely wander far away from honoring you.
So I'm not asking for lots of stuff. Just the basics. Just what I need, not what I want. Just what I must have to get through today. Make me content, Daddy, with what you have given me.

Help me be a forgiving person. You have said you are more than able and ready to forgive me. Jesus' death on the cross made that possible. But you are calling me to be a more forgiving person. If I don't forgive, I close off the channels of forgiveness in my own life. So help me to forgive in the same way I have been forgiven—freely, wholeheartedly, sacrificially.

I know you will always be with me, that your hand will guide me, but I also know how weak I am, Dad. Lead me only into safe places, places where I can honestly glorify you rather than myself. And keep me safe in your hand, a place where the evil one cannot reach me. I want everything I do to honor you, my loving Father.

With you I go into the day, so be it.

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This is my reflection on the way Jesus told us to pray. I've left it pretty much the way it was when I first wrote it (because you don't get to go back and revise your prayers). It's a humbling and challenging exercise to put his prayer (which most of us know all too well) into words that reflect your own heart but are your own words. I encourage you—challenge you—to try it today (even or maybe especially those words on forgiveness). If you'd like, feel free to paste your paraphrase in the comments below.

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