Prayer: But What Should I Ask For?

But how should I pray?  What kinds of things should I ask for?  Is there anything I shouldn't?

Jesus' disciples asked the same kind of questions once when He was praying "in a certain place. ... One of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'  And he said to them, 'When you pray, say:

'Father, hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread,
and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation." (Luke 11:1-4)

Most of you will recognize this as the beginning of what we call the Lord's Prayer.  There is another account of Jesus giving this prayer to His disciples in Matthew 6:9-13.

Now Jesus wasn't telling us the only words that we can use to pray, but He was telling us the kind of things we can and should pray for.  And this prayer covers a lot of ground!  In the next nine posts, we'll look at each of these petitions and consider how we can pray these same things in our lives!

But before we move on, I must give you the "fuller" version of the Lord's Prayer that we use in worship on Sunday.  This longer version is based on the version from Matthew's Gospel with a line added by the early church at the end.

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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever and ever.  Amen.