How to Pray

Article Summary

The Church of the Pater Noster in Jerusalem is where Jesus is believed to have taught the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer is displayed in over 100 languages at the site and serves as a model for Christians. By incorporating the attitudes of relationship, worship, obedience, dependence, forgiveness, and guidance into your own prayers, you can strengthen both your prayer life and leadership.

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A Christian leader is a praying leader.

While people are looking to you for direction, you should be looking to God for direction. This is why prayer is so important. Because of this, it is essential for leaders to know how to pray. In this post, I will share what the best leader who ever walked the earth can teach us about prayer.

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During my undergraduate studies, I had the opportunity to take a two-week class in the Holy Land. The experience felt less like a field study and more like a pilgrimage. At each biblical site we visited, we would read a passage of Scripture about that place. 

One of my favorite places that we visited was the Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. I learned during my visit that “Pater Noster” is Latin for “Our Father.” It is also another name for the Lord’s Prayer.  The site of this church has a cave that centuries of Christians have believed is the place where Jesus taught His disciples how to pray. The Church of the Pater Noster, or the Church of the Lord’s Prayer, was built to commemorate Jesus’ teaching on prayer and is a place where Christians for centuries more can celebrate it. 

When we arrived at this church, our group gathered inside its famous cave. Keeping with the pattern of the class, we began our time with Scripture. I took the hands of my classmates and fellow pilgrims, bowed my head, and closed my eyes. My professor, Dr. Cynthia Shafer-Eilliot, lead us in Jesus’ model prayer:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

(Matthew 6:9-13, New International Version).

“Amen,” I said to myself at the conclusion of our collective prayer. At that moment, I joined centuries of Christian pilgrims in believing that I had also prayed where Jesus did. 

After our prayer, we had the opportunity to break off from the group and walk around the site. Throughout the roofless church, large plaques were displaying the Lord’s Prayer in different languages. There are over 100 languages represented at the Church of the Pater Noster.

As I walked around the church, I saw plaques in the biblical languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. Some of the languages of my home country were also represented, such as Cherokee and English. In addition to these, I also saw the Lord’s Prayer displayed in Chinese, Icelantic, and everything in between. Some of these were languages I had never heard of before and would have to look up when I got home. 

The last plaque I came to was the smallest of them all. It had the Lord’s Prayer in Braille, a written language for the visually impaired. As I ran my fingers across the embossed metal plaque, I was reminded of how Jesus has given every nation, tribe, people, and language a model for how to pray. (I like to call this, “6 Attitudes of Prayer“).

So when you pray, Our Father, who art in Heaven… May you have the Attitude of Relationship. Meaning, remind yourself of the relationship you have with God.

When you pray, Hallowed be you your name… May you have the Attitude of Worship. Meaning, make time to praise and worship God.

When you pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” May you have the Attitude of Obedience. Meaning, ask God to show us what His will in our situation.  

When you pray, Give us today our daily bread… May you have the Attitude of Dependence Meaning, ask God for the things you need, and trust Him to fulfill them. 

When you pray, Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors… May you have the Attitude of Forgiveness. Meaning, ask for forgiveness for your sins as well as forgive those who have sinned against you. 

And finally (hopefully you’re seeing a pattern here), when you pray, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one… May you have an Attitude of Guidance. Meaning, ask God to lead us away from sin and closer to Him.

Consider how you can incorporate these six attitudes into your prayer life and leadership.

^{Originally posted on May 1, 2024. Last updated on May 28th 2024.}