The Lord's Prayer Guide

I want to give you a guide to use for your prayer life which follows the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer—the model prayer Jesus offered to His disciples found in Matthew 6:9-13. I encourage you to use the following suggestions in whatever ways might be helpful to you. Ignore what you don’t find beneficial and follow the parts that you find useful.

Prayer is something that we grow into with practice. Therefore, I wanted to structure this guide in such a way that it can grow with you. Beginning with a prayer time of ten minutes, my recommendations can be expanded to help you pray for longer periods of time as you become more comfortable. Ten minutes may even seem like a really long time to pray when you are starting out; I understand. However, I hope that while using this guide you will find that you can pray for a full ten minutes without too much trouble. As you grow in your prayer abilities, you can lengthen each part of this guide to spend additional time in prayer. The Lord's Prayer Guide can easily be adapted to accommodate praying for thirty minutes, an hour, or even longer as your abilities and desire grow by simply changing the amount of time spent on each item.

Perhaps you may need to spend more or less time on each item in light of what is going on in your heart. Let God lead you as He pleases. What follows is merely a guide, not unchangeable commands. Allow the Holy Spirit to enter into this prayer time with you. With that, lets get started:

Before beginning your prayer, think about who God is and remember the person you are addressing (v. 9). (2 minutes)

1.Look up passages of Scripture where God’s nature, character, or works are clearly revealed. The book of Psalms works great for this purpose. You could use passages like Psalm 65, Job 38-41, Psalm 19, Psalm 30, or Psalm 91.

2. Our approach to God should be determined by our standing with Jesus. If we are one of His adopted children, through faith in Jesus, we approach Him as a loving parent.

3. How should this reminder influence your attitude and approach to your prayer?

Pray for God’s kingdom to be built and His will to be done by asking Him to reveal any attitude or mentality of yours that stands in the way of God doing His work in your heart (v. 10). Ask Him to teach you how to carry out His will. Do the same for others. (2 minutes)

1.Read and think about passages of Scripture that encourage self-examination and those that explain what God wants from you such as Psalm 139, Psalm 143, or Psalm 67.

2. Hold yourself to God’s standards in various areas of your life and see how you measure up (Heb. 4:12).

Ask God to meet all of your needs by telling God what is going on in your heart (v. 11). Let Him know what you are currently concerned about. Make a list if necessary. Ask God to bring about what is in your soul’s best interest in each of these situations. (2 minutes)

1.Think about God’s faithful and loving character along with His constant provision as well as the appropriate attitude of response to these things by focusing on the parts of His Word that emphasize these themes such as Matthew 6:25-34, Hebrews 12:4-11, Numbers 11:18-32, 1 Peter 5:6-7, 4:19.

2. Look at verses of the Bible that accurately express the content of your own heart in this moment. If you are sad and struggling, find a verse that expresses those feelings such as Psalm 42:5. If you are full of joy and are rejoicing use Psalm 100. If you are feeling guilty read Psalm 51:12.

3. Respectfully communicate the mood of your heart to God.

Pursue the forgiveness of God by confessing your sins, admitting your fault and guilt without trying to make excuses or cover anything up, and ask for God’s forgiveness as you put confidence in His loving, kind, and patient character (v. 12). (2 minutes)

1.Think about what true repentance looks like using Scripture as your guide. Helpful texts might be Psalm 51, 2 Corinthians 5:8-11, Matthew 3:8, and 1 John 1:9.

2. Remember your need to foster an attitude of forgiveness towards others and a readiness to actually forgive them as described in Matthew 18:21-35. Ask God to help you forgive your most recent and painful injuries coming at the hands of others. Even those perceived as coming from God—ask God to change your perspective.

3. Rejoice in God’s forgiveness as in Psalm 32.

Ask God to change your heart and enable to you to live the way He wants you to live through petitioning Him to strengthen you against future moral failure and disobedience (v. 13). Be as specific as you can, keeping in mind those areas of your life where you just sought God’s forgiveness. (2 minutes)

1.Go to sections of the Word of God that might encourage you to live in obedience to God and resist temptation such as James 1:21-25, Hebrews 13:20-21, Philippians 2:12-13, and 1 Corinthians 10:12-13.

2. Remind yourself of the positive results of obeying God as in John 15:10, Matthew 7:21, or John 12:26.

If you use this guide on a regular basis, you will develop prayer habits grounded in the model prayer Jesus offered to His disciples. You will be praying in a way consistent with the priorities of God. When praying in this way, you will be positioned to have more of your prayers answered with a “yes” response. However, it should be kept in mind that we are largely ignorant of the will of God in many situations which is why we need the Holy Spirit to go between our prayers and the plan of God (Rm. 8:26-27).