Teach Me How to PraySample

Get Your Heart Right with God and with People

Prayer changes many things, but it should especially change us. Jesus addresses this in our passage on prayer. After we have presented our request to God, He then talks about forgiveness. Why? Because it’s not a win for you to see miracles externally when you’re still battling internally. Prayer should change the world around you, but it should also change the world within you.

The best way to add this to your prayer life is to have a moment of confession. Confession is good for your soul. It’s when you get vulnerable with God about what you’re going through, what you’ve struggled with, and who you’re having a difficult time with. God will not heal the fake version of you. When you get real with God, God gets real with you. We’re only as healthy as we are vulnerable. We’re always as sick as we are secretive. We don’t confess our sins because our salvation is at stake. Our salvation is sealed by the grace of God. We confess our sins because sin always creates distance in relationships. We want to be as close to Christ as possible.

One of the great freedoms we experience as a believer is the release of the shame and condemnation that comes from sin. In this passage, Jesus tells us to give the same experience to those around us. We forgive others at the same level that we have been forgiven. As followers of Jesus, we lose the right to hold offense or unforgiveness. Jesus has forgiven our debts, so we must forgive those who have hurt us. This is the moment in your prayer time that you pause and ask the Lord to examine your heart. “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Ask yourself two questions as you pray:

What have I allowed in my life that I need to confess to God?

Who has hurt me that I need to forgive?

When you pray through both of those questions, your heart gets pure before the Lord. You are now able to walk blamelessly before God and loving towards people. This gets you ready to have your best day ever!