The best kind of prayer is the one that submits the whole of life to God. This kind of prayer is only found in the Lord’s Prayer. It begins by offering praises to God and acknowledging the perfectness of his will. Then it goes further to bring our past, present, and future to God. We bring our past before God when we ask for the forgiveness of our trespasses, our present when we ask of the gift and the food of the day, and our future when we pray not to be led into temptation. Jesus taught this prayer because his disciples did not really know how to pray. So, he began this prayer with a preceding command: “When you pray, say.” This doesn’t mean we cannot come to God praying in our own words pertaining to our needs at a particular time, but that the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer remains the standard of all prayers. 

Prayer: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy and your will be done in our lives. Amen.