The meaning of the prayer Jesus taught

 Matthew 6:9-13

“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.’

One of the well-known prayers... We went through a series for a couple of weeks at church, where they were unpacking the meaning of this prayer, which indeed opened my eyes. One of them was that what Jesus was referring to here, is not that we should pray this prayer word-for-word, but it serves as guidance on what we should pray about, when praying. Where the first part, we should glorify God, praise Him for who He is. Secondly ask Him for His will to be done in our lives, because in the end, what matters and what would be, is His will. In this case, we should pray that we should have hearts that accepts His will and align with it. Thirdly, we should recognize that He is our Provider, He provides for all our needs. It is not our jobs, employers, customers, parents etc. that provide for our needs but it is God using different resources to bless us. Fourth point being that we need to ask for forgiveness, as we are not perfect, hence we may do things that are not pleasing to Him; but also recognizing that because He forgives us, we also need to forgive others, that wrong us (including ourselves). Lastly, to ask for His strength and protection against the temptations from the evil one, as indicated in the first part of John 10:10 that the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy us, hence we need God to sharpen us to escape from such weapons.

So, I hope this is helpful and you may apply it in your own prayers. But most importantly, we need to recognize who God is in our lives, so that we can keep Him first place and rely on Him for all things (Proverbs 3:5). Acknowledge Him as our Provider, Healer, Protector, Promoter, our Blesser, our Guide and so much more. He deserves all the honour and glory. Amen!