Why do we pray the our father prayer?

Answer 1

The "Our Father," or "Lord's Prayer," was not meant to be taken as the "best of any prayer." Jesus presented it as a divine model, or example of how to pray. The account in Matthew 6 shows Jesus first teaching how NOT to pray (verses 5-8), then saying, "In this manner, therefore, pray:" (v.9). "In this manner" means "after this pattern," NOT "pray these exact words." Perhaps you've played this mind game to amuse yourself: Pick a word, any word, and say it over and over in your mind. Within a few seconds, it begins to seem strange and meaningless. So it is with any word (or group of words) that don't originate from a true thought process. Repeating the Lord's prayer in a ritualistic way has the same result, and one becomes guilty of the "vain repetition" that Jesus just condemned as a heathen practice in verse 7. As an example, Jesus' model prayer teaches that when we pray: 1) To pray to the Father in heaven, recognizing His divinity 2) To praise Him 3) To recognize the significance of His kingdom 4) To submit to His divine will 5) To recognize His supremacy (on earth as well as in heaven) 6) To ask for His providence on a daily basis 7) To ask forgiveness for trespasses, recognizing the need to forgive others 8) To recognize the need for and request His direction and protection 9) To acknowledge His sovereignty in all things Every prayer we utter need not contain every element of the model, but all should be included in one's overall prayer life. There is even one important element, Thanksgiving (Ephesians 5:20), that Jesus did not include…further demonstrating that this prayer is meant to be a pattern, not the "ultimate" prayer.