"This is how you are to pray...."

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”  (Matthew 6:8)

It takes quite a bit of reflection to realize that despite the words we’re saying when we say the Lord’s Prayer, in our hearts often we’re not really asking God to do anything.  ‘Ask’ is the operative word here.  It’s important to recall that, in the New Testament, the word we translate ‘pray’ almost always means ‘ask’.  Prayer isn’t just a pious act; it’s a request.  When Jesus says, “this is how you are to pray”, the words might be better translated as “this is what you are to ask God for.”  So it makes particularly good sense to note that Matthew introduces the Lord’s Prayer by quoting Jesus on what not to ask for; food, clothing, shelter (Matthew 6:5-15).  God knows we need those things and has provided a world that, if we tend it right and help one another, meets those needs.  No, Jesus says, ask God to do what only God can do; “But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), a kingdom characterized by forgiveness.  

Jesus tells us that “our” Father will fulfill our heart's deepest desires if we ask Him.  There’s one ‘catch’ in His promise, we are to ask for something good.  We earthbound creatures often define ‘good’ to be health, wealth, beauty, fame, talent, intelligence, esteem, and power.  But God sees our greatest ‘good’ to be the forgiveness of sin and the renewal of our minds and hearts in His love and truth.  If we first ask for and accept this gift, we’ll then ask ‘rightly’, because our desires will be centered on our love for God rather than our love for self and this world's ‘goods’.  God's omniscience sees the larger picture and answers prayers in ways assuring the greatest good to all.  Psalm 34 reminds us “I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”

Calling God “our” Father reveals the union we share with one another.  All who call God their Father in this intimate way are brothers and sisters in Christ.  We, therefore, are not only deeply connected together; we also are enabled to worship God together.  In this case, individualism and racism and all other ‘isms’ are left behind in exchange for fraternal unity.  We’re members of this one divine family as a glorious gift of God.  It’s a message we’re sorely forgetting in this Covid-19 ravaged and racially divided country of ours.