What follows is an attempt at 'structuring' the Lord's Prayer. I'm assuming since Jesus taught us to pray thus, it would reflect what God Himself 'looks for' in a prayer (content-wise, at least). I'll also assume the prayer should reflect a sense of priority, completeness and cogency. So here goes:
1. Praise - all due reverence and honour; without privileging any particular 'form' of worship / adoration / practice, it's pertinent that hallowing God's name is a supreme priority
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
2. Praxis - nothing here about believers 'going to heaven', rather it's about us 'bringing heaven down'
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven
3. Provision (both physical as well as spiritual) - it's worth reflecting on the possibility that forgiveness is a form of inter-dependent spiritual nourishment(!)...
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
4. Protection - temptation and evil (all personally- and relationally-destructive forms of anti-life) seem to encompass all we need to be wary of
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
5. Purpose - that which makes sense of and completes all the fore-going i.e. we pray all of this because ultimately it - everything - 'goes back' to He Who is the Source and Lord of it all
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. for ever and ever.
Amen
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