Jesus was actually quite a wise student of human nature. When his disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he gave the best answer. His prayer includes everything we need. It’s theologically, practically, psychologically and poetically brilliant.

• Worship: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
  • This reminds me that all prayer and living must be done in the glad worshipful awareness that God is our Father, and that God is the ultimate reality over all creation.
• Submission: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
  • This reminds me that ultimately I have to submit to God’s plan and desire. God is the ground of all ethical/moral imagination. All notions of health, well-being and flourishing are only able to be conceived or pursued because of the sovereign permission and power of God.
• Gratitude: Give us this day our daily bread…
  • This reminds me that God provides everything: a universe, a fertile planet with liquid water and friendly for complex life, grain and humans who know how to make flour, and ultimately the nourishment and simplicity of bread. It reminds me of the need to share bread with the needy. It reminds me that there is enough to go around. It reminds me that I can be secure in the provision of God.
• Reconciliation: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
  • This reminds me that my own experience of God’s forgiveness is linked with my own willingness to be forgiving. If I stay angry, resentful and self-pitiful toward others, I will hinder my capacity to engage fruitfully with the mercy of God that is continually offered to me and the people I may be angry with.
• Righteousness: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One.
  • This reminds me that I am always progressing either towards sin or righteousness. I’m either going with the flow of the Evil One, or seeking the power and presence of the Holy One. If that sounds binary, it’s because it is. Some things are just that simple.
• Mission: For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever – Amen.
  • This reminds me to carry this prayerful unceasing awareness into each day. My life is offered to God’s mission. Every situation I may face is an opportunity to practice Worship, Submission, Gratitude, Reconciliation and Righteousness. Everywhere. Always. Till kingdom come.

The final observation is that each line instills a principle that enables the next.

Worshipful awareness of God’s ultimacy compels me to submit to his reign over all…
This enables me to see and appreciate his provision…
This security in God’s love is the foundation for giving up my anger and working at reconciliation…
And if I’m secure in God and being reconciled with others, I’m less likely to have a mind that feels angry, victimised, wronged, sore and therefore less tempted to engage in a range of soothing, self-justifying sins like gossip, vengeance, lust, greed, substance abuse, self-harm or other-harm.

Lord, you are the king of the universe. It’s all about you.
I worship you in all of my scientific ignorance and all my poetic babbling.
Your way is what we need. It’s what I need.
If we did what you want, we would know peace.
Literally everything is a gift from you…
From singularity to solar systems to sourdough…
From creation to redemption.
I am safe in your loving provision and forgiveness.
Unclench my angry fists towards others who I feel wronged by…
And hush the frustrated self-talk that blocks the flow of your mercy to me, and through me to others.
Help me help myself to be a person of reconciliation, forgiveness and understanding.
Help me help myself to say no to the luxurious comforts of indulgent greed, lust and power.
Unlock the chains I bind myself in.
Train me to be of service to others in your mission of love for all people and all creation.
It is always all about You.
Amen.