The Key to the Lord's Prayer

In the Savior’s teachings about prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, I believe we can summarize what He taught with a single word: humility. That is the key ingredient to real prayer and communication with our Father in Heaven. He described first how the opposite is futile: “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.” In other words, if our purpose of prayer is to bring glory to ourselves, then that prayer is in vain. He instructed instead, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (Matthew 6:5-7). Real prayer is not meant to be heard of men but to be heard of God—it is not about “much speaking” but about humble private communion with our Father in Heaven.     

                The example of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 that followed the above verses likewise shows that humility is the key ingredient to meaningful prayer. He instructed us to pray this way: 

·         “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” As we commence a prayer we must know whom we are addressing and humbly acknowledge His divinity and holiness. Our focus should be on humbly addressing Him and not on ourselves.

·         “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Our attitude in prayer must always be, as it was for the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane, to learn and do His will for us. We don’t come proudly seeking to force our will on Him but rather humbly seeking to know His.

·         “Give us this day our daily bread.” Even in this request there is humility: we don’t presumptively ask for more than we need but simply request His help in meeting our needs today. Perhaps too often our prayers are more like this: “Give me today all the bread I need for the next year. And please make it taste better.” But Jesus taught that we humbly seek just for what we need from the Father.

·         “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” One of the most important purposes of prayer is to seek forgiveness from the Father. Requesting forgiveness can only be done as we humbly recognize our sins and acknowledge our weaknesses before Him.

·         “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” This statement shows a recognition that He has the power to help us, to deliver us from difficulty and protect us from temptation. As we seek His blessing we should do it in this way, humbly recognizing that it is by His power and not our own that we obtain what we are seeking.

·         “Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.” Again the Savior suggested that we must recognize the Father’s greatness, seeking to give glory and recognition to Him and not ourselves. 

All of these statements in the Lord’s Prayer show that humility is key to true communion with the Father. Several other of His teachings in the Sermon on the Mount similarly taught that true religion depends on humility. You cannot pray or fast or give alms in a spirit of pride and expect the Father to recognize the act as true devotion. Jesus’s life and teachings repeatedly showed that we must learn to truly humble ourselves before God in all our religious devotion if we want it to be accepted by Him.