The Lord's Prayer

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.
Amen

A familiar prayer, a guideline for how to pray issued by Christ himself, and yet our 21st century mindset says there's something missing here:
I don't see any room for complaints and whininess in there.
I don't see any begging and pleading for what I want.
I don't see any requests for luxuries and a perfectly uncomplicated life.
So why do we take it upon ourselves to alter what was issued by the Almighty? We beg and plead for that certain job or that dollar amount to magically appear in the bank or for that certain man to love us or for nothing bad to happen to us. When if we just look at the way Christ taught us to pray, it covers everything.

Line 1 - I'm talking to a holy and perfect Father and Creator.
Line 2 - Bring on the return of Christ!
Line 3 - God's will, not my will, come to pass in my life.
Line 4 - Sustain me God, because you're the only one who can satisfy all my needs.
Line 5 - Forgive me of my sin and help me to forgive others.
Line 6 - Now that you've forgiven me, keep me away from things that will cause me to sin again. And be the wall between Satan and me.
Line 7 - Your kingdom is a guaranteed eternal deal. All power rests in your hands. And all praise and glory belongs to you alone, God.

When we pray the way Christ instructed us to, it covers everything:

It re-establishes our perspective on the relationship we have with God. We are not God. We are not higher than him. And he alone is holy.

It sets our focus on what's important: Christ's return and God's will being carried out in our lives. Ever noticed that what we want and the plans we make for ourselves are far inferior to what God has planned for us? If we don't wait patiently for God's plan, it leads to pain and heartbreak. We desperately need to pray for God's will in our lives instead of begging for what we want. Remember God isn't as concerned with momentary happiness as he is with longterm holiness.

It re-aligns our dependency on the only One we can depend on.

It reminds us that we need forgiveness and that we must forgive others if we want to truly be forgiven ourselves.

It places God in the role of disciplinarian. We admit that there are weak points in our life that we need help overcoming. But hiring God as the barrier between us and temptation means he will get the job done. He will literally shake everything out of our lives to get us away from what's hurting us. He will take our pride, our money, our relationships, our material junk, our emotional junk, and whatever else it takes to get us focused on living a life for him again.

It places God in the role of protector and warrior, standing between us and Satan in this very real battle we're engaged in.

And it brings us full circle back around to a point of humility - God's kingdom and power alone are supreme and eternal. And he alone is worthy of all praise and glory.