We had a very nice Home Evening lesson tonight. (Despite the girls running around and jumping on the furniture.)It was on the correct way to pray. We read Matthew 6: 9-13 which is the Lord's prayer. I never realized how specific the Lord's Prayer was, I just thought it was a generalization.
Hear is what we learned, line by line.
"Our Father which art in heaven,"We begin our prayers by addressing our Heavenly Father.
"Hallowed be Thy name."We praise God by thanking Him sincerely for the numberless blessings we receive.
"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."We have a loving concerned Father. He is concerned with what worries us. We should share these concerns with Him.
"Give us this day our daily bread."We humbly ask for the things that we need. It says bread, not gold.
"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."We ask the Lord's forgiveness for the offences we have committed. We remember the price of the Atonement and that we are all debtors to Christ.
"And suffer us not to be led into temptation," We should ask for the Lord's help to overcome our weaknesses.
"but deliver us from evil:"We should let our prayers help grow our trust that the Lord will help us to overcome those weaknesses. Moroni 7:33 says "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."
"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever."Leahona said that she learned in institute that this was a reference for the Savior. We should close our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ.
"Amen"The Bible dictionary says. "The word is used to denote acceptance or truthfulness." Let it be. We should have prayed in such a way that we feel closer to Deity and that we know that He heard us. We close in the faith that He has the answer and whatever that answer is we will let it be. Or "thy will be done"Christ is also called "The Amen" (John 14:6; 1 Cor. 14:16; 2 Cor. 1:20; Rev. 3:14) So saying amen is another way Christ showed us in his prayer that we close in His name.
He is our great Mediator. (1 Timothy 2:5) He represents us with our Father. We are unclean and can't do this in our own behalf. But thanks to the Spotless Eternal love of Christ fulfilling the Atonement we can have the privilege of praying in faith to our Heavenly Father.
