Pray. How should we pray? To whom are we praying to? What are the parts of a prayer? These are the questions that we should be asking. This is a very important subject as we were told all throughout the Scripture that we must pray.

In this post, we will analyse the popularly called “The Lord’s Prayer”.

“The Lord’s Prayer”

Christianity has called this prayer as The Lord’s Prayer but in truth, it is not. If we read the whole chapter, our Master and Messiah, 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤅𐤏 (Yahushua) (learn why “Yahushua”), was teaching us by giving an example of a prayer. He was not praying; and it was not meant to be repeated endlessly.

What was our Messiah 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤅𐤏 (Yahushua)’s instruction on how we should pray? It is all in the example prayer he gave us. We do not need to repeat this example prayer, what we need is to understand the parts of a meaningful prayer and pray that way, as 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤅𐤏 (Yahushua) instructed.

Parts of A Meaningful Prayer

In the example prayer 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤔𐤅𐤏 (Yahushua) gave, a lot of things were very clear. Let’s analyse each and establish a common ground.

Praise Our Father and His Name

We pray to the Father who is in the heavens. We are also to exalt or set-apart the Name of the Father in heaven. Yahushua did not teach that we should pray to him. He never said, “Our Messiah who is in the heavens, exalt be Your Name Yahushua”.

Now how can we exalt the Father’s Name if we do not know His Name? If we believe, according to Christianity, that the Father’s Name was “lost [in translation]”, then how can we exalt His Name? We can not. The Father’s Name was never “lost”, His Name was hidden from us by those who think that [1] it is their job to protect the set-apart Name of the Father; and/or [2] they do not want us to call on the name of the Father because He is the Most High and we are not worthy.

To keep us within our subject today, the Father’s Name is 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (modern Hebrew: יהוה) pronounced in Hebrew as “yah-hu-ah” and is transliterated as “YAHUAH”, “YaHuWaH”, or “YHWH”. (It will be discussed in-depth in another post.)

Acknowledge and Submit to Our Father

The next part of a meaningful prayer is acknowledging and submitting to His authority and power.

We are acknowledging that His kingdom is the one true kingdom; and we are submitting to His will, that it be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is asking, have anyone of us asked from someone with heads held high? No, we humble ourselves whenever we ask for something. Prayer is no different, in fact, dictionaries define it as such.

Prayer is asking. Requesting politely. Humbly. Thus, when praying, the second thing we must do is to humble ourselves and submit to our Father’s will.

Ask for Bread (Sustenance)

In most translations, verse 12 was simply translated as Give us each day our daily bread [Literal English Version]. The first impression is the literal bread or food. It could even be money because how can we buy food without it. We are asking for blessings, in other words.

There is nothing wrong with this understanding of this verse. However, in the Hebrew language, there is a deeper meaning to this “bread” when it is read from its original written language. The eth-Cepher translation preserved this as shown: את eth-bread.

The Hebrew letters are the Aleph and Tau. The First and the Last. With the “eth” left intact in the translation, the bread was not just a literal bread or money or blessing but rather the everlasting bread, which is the Word of our Father who is in heaven.

Who is the Word of our Father 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH)?

Who is the Bread of Life?

We ask our Father in heaven to give us our daily bread. It means, we ask 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 (YAHUAH) to teach us daily, to give us His Word, that we may grow spiritually and have the power to trample on snakes and scorpions, and to overcome all the power of the enemy (Lukas (Luke) 10:19; Ephesious (Ephesians) 6:11).

Confess our sins and forgive others

It is by studying His Word (Bread) that we are faced with the truth of our sins. We then ask for forgiveness as we also forgive those who have wronged us. We can not have anger and bitterness in our hearts when our Father has forgiven us of our own transgressions against Him, our Creator. We can not hold those people who have wronged us in bondage, in chains, when our Father in heaven has set us free by forgiving us of our sins against Him.

Part of a meaningful prayer is to ask for forgiveness as we forgive others who have wronged us.

Ask for Protection and Deliverance

Last but definitely not the least, we ask for protection from temptations. Yes, when we are tempted, we have not yet sinned. It is by falling into that temptation that we sin. However, in this example prayer that Yahushua taught us, there is no doubt that we can ask our Father in heaven to protect us from temptations. No temptations, no chance of us sinning. It is better that way than having temptations every moment of our lives.

We are also to ask for deliverance from evil. Evil comes in many forms, we ask deliverance from it all. Examples are being a victim of hold-up, robbery, or worst, murdered. Or getting sick, acquiring a disease, or accidents. These things are evil, these things are not natural and definitely not from above. We ask for deliverance from it all.

5 Parts of a Meaningful Prayer

1. Praise Our Father and His Name
2. Acknowledge and Submit to Our Father
3. Ask for Bread (Sustenance)
4. Confess our sins and forgive others
5. Ask for Protection and Deliverance

Close by Praising

We close our prayer by giving back all the glory and thanks to our Father in heaven. For indeed, His is the kingdom, His is the power, and His is the glory, forever and ever. Amein.