December 30, 2025

Matthew 6:9-15  (HCSB)
The Model Prayer
9 “Therefore, you should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
[For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen.]
14 “For if you forgive people their wrongdoing, your heavenly Father will forgive you as well. 15 But if you don’t forgive people, your Father will not forgive your wrongdoing.

Terri Noah
At the end of yesterday's passage, we heard Jesus give instructions for prayer. In verse 6 He tells us to pray in private, shutting the door, then in verse 7 He says not to babble like the idolaters. And wouldn't you know it, He provides a clear roadmap for prayer:
--Acknowledgment of and the sovereignty of God vs 9 and 10
--Request for our basic needs vs 11
--Asking for forgiveness vs 12
--Asking for protection vs 13
--Then the final reminder that we must make room for others, by freely forgiving them when they hurt us.
I had a conversation many years ago with a beloved family member. I asked him if he had prayed about a certain difficult life decision, and he responded, "I don't know how to pray." I almost fell out of my shoes with this reply. He had been raised in church and lived in a Christian household. How was it possible he had never learned to pray? It was just foreign to me that he didn't know how to pray. I am afraid, looking back, my response wasn't as clear or helpful as what Jesus provides to us in The Lord's Prayer. It's a wonderful thing to know I don't have to have the “right" answer because I have Jesus' words.