Jesus taught His disciples to pray
Praying is so important for us that Jesus Christ set an example for us by praying Himself and teaching His disciples to pray even though, as God, He had a direct and intimate relationship with His Father. When we enter a city, we often drive past those huge power plants that border the city limits. They generate electric power for large communities which light up the business districts and residential neighborhoods; they warm and cool our homes and generally take care of all our everyday needs. Yet, even though all that electric current is racing through those thick cables and thin copper wires, conducting power to every outlet in every place, if people do not plug in their appliances nothing happens, nothing works! That’s the way it is with our spiritual lives as well. God is always there. Since our baptism and chrismation, the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts. St. Paul says: “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. And He searches the hearts of men and intercedes (helps) the saints (all the members of the Church) according to the will of God." (Rm. 8.26-27)

The Holy Spirit is like an electric current which energizes our souls to act in godly ways, but we have to plug into the outlet of divine energy and grace to draw from that power to order our lives and activities correctly. Prayer does that. It is the power cord that lets spiritual energy charge the soul and light up the mind with truth and love so that we make good and healthy decisions.
 

So let us see what Christ tells us about successful praying. First, we must pray to God. Jesus says to pray, “Our Father who art in Heaven,” because God is the source of our life and happiness. The psalms say: “Thy power and thy righteousness, O God, reach the high heavens." (Ps. 71.18)

Next, we ask God to give us His Kingdom. We want to spend our lives with all the angels and saints, with our loved ones who have followed Christ and gone before us to be with Him. We say, “Thy Kingdom come.” Even though the earth is beautiful as it is, we are asked to look through the good things already given to us here and see the more wonderful things waiting for us there, in His Kingdom. Jesus says, “first seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness."(Mattt. 6.35) We believe that this Kingdom is already present on earth, spiritually and miraculously, in the Church through the sacraments which are windows that allow the rays of divinity to shine on us. So we should pray to God and come to Church to praise Him.

Then we should want to do God’s will. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” In other words we must obey or try to obey His commandments. It’s silly to want to be with God but not want to be like Him or to follow Him. Why try to be in communication with Someone who you don’t want to know? How can He be “Our Father,” if we do not want to do what He teaches, a child can’t raise himself without His Father’s instruction!

After this we must realize that God who is “Our Father” gives us everything to nourish us and to take care of all our needs and godly desires. We need to thank Him for giving us our “daily bread.” Without the attitude of thankfulness in prayer we will never develop the aptitude for prayer. We will never make any spiritual progress.

As far as attitudes go what we need to do next is essential. We have to try to forgive other people for the hurt they have done to us. Because if we carry around grudges all the time our attention will never be directed to God and our prayer will be empty words not heart felt devotion. Jesus said to “forgive those who trespass against us.” He also said: “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."(Mk. 12.25-26)

Finally, Our Lord tells us to avoid or watch out for temptations to sin: “Lead us not into temptation,” or lead us “out” of temptation. If we want to really know and love and communicate with God in prayer we must flee from the places and situations where sin can capture us. For each person the place and circumstance of sin may be different, but our conscience will tell us to be careful. We need to listen to this inner voice and remember the commandments God has given us, because the conscience and the commandments always agree.

So we must pray to the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  We pray this way to receive the Kingdom of God and to live in the presence of the holy angels and saints and with our believing loved ones who already are with Christ in Heaven. We do this in the Church through the sacraments and services. Living in the Kingdom we are inspired to follow God’s will by practicing the faith and following the commandments of God as obedient children. This fills our hearts with thankfulness and opens us up to the fact that everything we have and will receive comes to us from a loving Father. This is our daily bread. This daily nourishment of love lets us forgive our brothers and sisters, because we know that nothing can separate us from God’s care and guidance. We only wish everyone could experience this security for themselves. Forgiving others keeps our souls peaceful and free from anger and other habits which drive us and tempt us to do bad things.

May God hear our prayer!

Fr Anthony, formerly pastor of St. Simon's in Ironwood, Michigan, is now the pastor of St. John Chrysostom Orthodox Church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. See their website for more information on Fr. Anthony and St. John's.