What is Prayer?

People wonder about prayer.  Is there a wrong way to pray?  Is there a right way to pray?

Presbyterians believe that, when we pray, (1) we offer thanks to God for the ways in which He has shown us patience and kindness, (2) we admit the general and the particular ways in which we have not lived up to God’s expectations for us, and (3) we bring to God our desires for things according to His will.  We offer our prayers in the name of Christ, because in him we have access to God.

In prayer, we thank, we confess, and we ask.

A beautiful and very helpful guide for prayer is the Lord’s Prayer.  Consider each line thoughtfully and prayerfully (to “hallow,” if you’re not sure, means to make holy, to honor, to make known for praise):

Our Father,

     who art in heaven,

          hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts

     as we forgive our debtors,

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil,

for Thine is the kingdom,

     and the power,

          and the glory,

               forever.

Amen.