“Pray then like this:” (Matthew 6:9a, ESV) When Jesus begins to tell his disciples how to pray, he says to them “Pray then like this…” (emphasis added). This is important because Jesus is telling us two things: (1) PRAY; and (2) ‘like this’ meaning this is not the required words to pray but an outline of how our prayers should be. Jesus is giving a model for our prayers. A model is a presentation of how to pray. Jesus is letting us know that this model should be used by us. Yet, we know that God looks at our hearts and not at the surface of things. The model prayer is not a prayer to be rigidly duplicated in form or substance. He gave us this as a help for our prayer life. The wrong way to pray is to not pray. If we are praying from our hearts to God – that is pleasing to him. Pray first and always about all things at all times. Amen.
