The Lord's Prayer

So I don't pray enough. That's bad and I don't like this fact about myself but I get bored praying. I'll lift up little prayers here and there throughout the day but most of my life, I have found it difficult to pray for long stretches of time. I know it's important, I know it's necessary, and yet I have trouble with it.

Lately though, this is changing. And of all things, it's the prayer most people find most boring. The Lord's Prayer. Now, we never recited the Lord's Prayer in our church when I was growing up- it was deemed too Catholic and too formulaic. So although I knew they were the words of Jesus, I had a minor distrust in praying this prayer- it seemed like ritual and not Spirit.

But God recently changed my heart on this. I mean, if you just look at it, it's beautiful.

Our father in Heaven
Hallowed be your name
Your Kingdom come, your will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
And Father give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespassers, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

This is the way my God prayed. This is the way Jesus taught me to pray. So I started doing so every morning. And throughout the day, when I was stressed, when I became frustrated or just needed to feel Him close by I would pray the prayer. Sometimes I'd put it in my own paraphrase and sometimes I'd just recite it as is. But the thing I made it a point to do was not just say the words but feel their intent.

I need the daily provision He gives. He is Holy. I need His will done in my life. He is in Heaven, I am on Earth and only he can bridge that gap. I need His forgiveness, and I need to forgive. I need to be protected from sin.

I need Him.

I need His Word.

And through the Lord's Prayer, he is teaching me, that this is my prayer too.