God knows when you are just reciting something and when you are praying from your heart. God wants you to understand what it is you are praying and asking for. Each sentence has to be what you really want for today; and, each word has to be filled with great meaning to you. If this isn’t the case, then praying The Lord’s Prayer won’t help you. You will be going through a religious ritual that God won’t listen or respond to.

If something isn’t addressing your needs or wants, it is hard for you to put your heart into it. The main issue you need to address in order to be able to get the greatest results from The Lord’s Prayer is to come to your heavenly Father with all your questions, needs, issues, and problems for that day. You will always have things that are causing a certain amount of concern in your life. Bring all your questions, all your difficulties, all your needs, and all your desires with you as you start to pray this prayer.

It is difficult for us to put our heart into anything that doesn’t express how we really feel. If we are going to pray this prayer with sincerity and from our heart, we have to work out how we really feel. And, we need to use The Lord’s Prayer to help us check this sincerity, openness, and dependency. Do we really feel God is our heavenly Father? What is the best way for us to go from a person who “sort of” feels close to God to one who feels a closeness?

Do we really feel God is our heavenly Father? The best way is to stop and see what those words mean to us as we say them. We can take, “Our Father in heaven, and then stop and ask God, “what do I need to do right now that would help me feel closer to You as my Father in heaven?” In other words, we use The Lord’s Prayer to help us stop on each issue and do a heart check. If God shows us a weakness on that issue, we can then ask Him how to get it fixed.

As you start this process of checking your heart’s condition, there are three questions you will need to ask God. Let’s take “Our Father in heaven as an example; we would stop and ask God, “Do I really DESIRE to have You as my heavenly Father?” “Do I really trust You with my NEEDS?” “Do I really FEEL close to You as my heavenly Father?” These three questions address those things that motivate us to do anything we do. Our desire, our needs, and our feelings inspire us, push us, drive us, create our interests, and focus our attention. If they aren’t present and locked into The Lord’s Prayer, we will be bored, ritualistic, and distracted.

John 15:5b (NIV) Apart from Me you can do nothing. In order to grow into a mature, adult child of God through this prayer, you have to have already accepted the fact that YOU aren’t going to be able to do anything of value on this planet or for eternity without Jesus. We can’t pray The Lord’s Prayer without Jesus empowering us, training us, helping us, and guiding us.

You have been doing “a lot of things” without Jesus prior to being born again. And, you may still be trying to do “a lot of things” without Him now. Why? This is because we don’t REALLY believe we need Jesus for EVERYTHING. When you pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name,” you need to stop and see if you are addressing your heavenly Father for all your needs. Do you REALLY believe that without Him you can do nothing? If not, you will need to allow God to help you see this truth. All you have to do is ask Him to help you see this truth.

James 4:2b (NIV) You do not have, because you do not ask God. You also have to have come to the place where you give up your world training for EVERYTHING. You know how to do a lot of things; but, they WILL NOT bring the results that come from getting EVERYTHING through God. Let’s say you know how to make money; but, are you making money where you should be applying yourself; are you making money using the procedures you should be using; and, do you have the priorities for making money that you should have?

When you pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” are you trying to get God to bless your plans, your methods, your goals, and your desires; or, are you aware that His plans, His methods, His goals, and His desires are best for you? You may need to stop and allow God to help you check who you believe in the most. Each part of The Lord’s Prayer will help you work with Jesus to see if there is anything that is hurting you and your relationship with your heavenly Father.

Mat 7:7 (NIV) Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. The next thing you have to have will be something you will need to be asking God about and learning about for the rest of your life. You need to find out what ask, seek, and knock mean and how to use them all day long each day for the remainder of you life here on earth. Mat 7:11 (NIV) If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ASK Him!

When you pray The Lord’s Prayer, you are ASKING for things you only get IF YOU ASK. Each day as you come before your heavenly Father and make these requests, you are opening the doors to blessings, miracles, and supernatural help that only come to those who ASK. As you SEEK these truths of God, you learn truths that set you free. As you knock on the doors of opportunity to move into the plan and purpose of God, you go through door ways that make you successful in this life and in eternity. Asking, seeking, and knocking are to be applied to The Lord’s Prayer for the rest of your life.

Then the last thing you need in order to become a mature Christian is to realize that YOU “do not know what you ought to pray for (Rom 8:26b).” This attitude has to be rooted deep in your heart or you will try to pray and address God with the attitude that you don’t really need The Lord’s Prayer. What problems and difficulties will you face today? What temptations will Satan try to hurt you with today? What needs will present themselves to you today? What will help you make the right decisions today? Which people should you talk to today? The Lord’s Prayer will be addressing large quantities of UNKNOWNS you will need to be ready for TODAY.

If you start your day with a special relationship with your heavenly Father, if you start your day spending time thanking Him for all He has done for you yesterday and all the days before, if you start your day opening your heart and life to Him meeting your daily needs, if you start your day allowing Him to help you give up any resentment, anger, frustration, hatred, or adversarial attitudes toward everyone, if you start your day asking God to lead you away from all temptations, traps, dead end streets, and distractions, and if you start your day getting God’s power to keep the evil one from being able to sabotage your day, how ready for the day will you be?

Mat 6:9a (NIV) This, then, is how you should pray: Jesus is telling you that the procedures found in this prayer will be the ones that you will need TODAY in order to get all your questions answered, all your difficulties solved, all your needs met, and all your desires addressed. If TODAY you are going to see miracles take place in your life and blessings from God come your way, then this “is how you should pray.” This prayer will make sure you start THIS DAY with the correct attitudes; it will make sure you address all the correct issues; it will make sure you approach your heavenly Father the right way; and it will make sure you get the right kind of results TODAY.