When Jesus showed the disciples how to pray, he gave them an outline, or a basic recipe, rather than a complete list. Like a recipe, it’s up to us to put them all together. Sometimes there will be an extra measure of thanks and praise because, unlike salt, we can never overdo those ingredients. It’s often easy to skip the confession and forgiving but, like forgetting the baking powder in cakes, prayers don’t seem to come out right without them. While it’s possible to add too much flour to a recipe, our prayers seem to improve the more we pray for the needs of others. They are not very appetising if we spend more time mixing in petitions for ourselves than for others! Unlike quite a few recipes, there is no set amount of time for baking the perfect prayer.
When we grow bored with the food we’ve been preparing, we look for new recipes or create a recipe by using some of an old one by adding something extra, this is so for our prayers. If prayer seems boring, we need to change it with fresh ingredients. Let's be open to God and see where he leads us!
“Believers do not pray with the view of informing God
about things unknown to him, or of exciting him to do his duty, or of urging
him as though he were reluctant. On the contrary, they pray, in order that they
may arouse themselves to seek him, that they may exercise their faith in
meditating on his promises, that they may relieve themselves from their
anxieties by pouring them into his bosom; in a word, that they may declare that
from him alone they hope and expect, both for themselves and for others, all
good things”. John Calvin
‘Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven
our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the
evil one. Matthew 6:9-13 NRSV
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