“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘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 6:5-15

We were created for connection—not just with our favourite people, but with our Creator. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been exploring the Lord’s Prayer and what it means to accept God’s daily invitation to connect with Him.

Jesus teaches us that prayer isn’t a performance or a list of fancy words. It’s a living relationship. Like exercise, building a prayer habit can feel tough, but it is vital for our spiritual health. Through the Lord's Prayer, God invites us to step out of the driver's seat, trust His daily provision, receive His deep forgiveness, and rest in His protection.

How can we practically build this habit?
Habit Stacking: Attach a moment of prayer to an existing routine, like brushing your teeth or boiling the kettle.
Tangible Prompts: Carry a small holding cross in your pocket or set a daily phone reminder.
Keep it Simple: Don't perform. If you are struggling, simply tell Him: "God, I find this really hard."
Whether you are exploring silent contemplation or just starting out, remember: the goal is connection, not perfection. Let’s journey together to become a community drenched in prayer!

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘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

The Bible is clear that God does not tempt anyone - he never intends evil or invites evil (James 1:13-15). But the Scriptures are equally clear that God does lead his people into places of testing. Moses reminds Israel in Deuteronomy that God led them through the wilderness to probe what was in their hearts. The Spirit leads Jesus himself into the desert. Not every time of tempting or testing leads to evil, and not all times in the wilderness is punishment.

Think of what it takes for a child to mature: resistance, failure, challenge. We even put them through examinations. Those examinations aren’t intended to hurt them - they’re important because you can attend the lessons and you can do the homework. Still, in the end, the examination will reveal what we have learnt - not least to ourselves.

One of the great idols of our age is comfort. We can come to believe that a good life is a frictionless life and even that God's role is to provide one. But people formed in frictionless lives are not resilient people. If you were to look back at your own story, my hunch is that the times of deepest growth were not the easy ones. In the time of testing, our character is unveiled. We discover both our weaknesses and what God can do in spite of them.

So we pray lead us not into temptation - not because testing is always to be avoided, but because we know our own fragility. And we pray deliver us from evil because we know that in the wilderness there is an adversary who would use the test to destroy rather than to form us.

The one we pray to has been in the wilderness himself. He knows the weight of it. And if he led us there, he will lead us out.

"'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

Remember Wonga? Borrow a couple of hundred pounds on Monday to cover a gas bill, pay it back on Friday. Fine. Miss the payment, though, and the interest — running at thousands of per cent APR — gets going. People were buried under debt many times the original loan.

Debt has been normalised for us. We borrow to buy homes, to get through university, to buy cars. In Jesus' day, debt could cost you your freedom — you could become the property of whoever held your debt. So when the Jews seized Jerusalem around 30 years after Jesus, the first thing they did was find the records of borrowing and lending and burn them.

That's the weight behind the word when Jesus puts it in the prayer. The language of debt is a metaphor for the burden of sin. So what is it that we owe to God?

Some people can't really pray this line because they don't think there's much wrong with them. Mistakes, yes. But mistakes can be explained and corrected. They don't need forgiving.

Others don't need convincing that they're sinful. They know the weight. The problem isn't awareness of sin, but that no one seems able to help.

One won't accept the problem. The other has given up on a solution.

David, in Psalm 51, wrote: Against you, you only, have I sinned. What about Bathsheba, Uriah, the child, or the army commander he dragged into the whole awful plot? But David isn't doing a celebrity non-apology. He is recognising that human beings are made in the image of God, so any wrong done to a person is ultimately an offence against their Creator. The spiritual debt — David's, mine, yours — is owed to the One whose beloved children have been harmed.

The good news is that someone else has settled our debt. The weight carried, the stain cleaned, the legal charge cancelled — nailed to the cross, as Paul puts it in Colossians.

There's just one thing.

As we also have forgiven our debtors.

Twenty years ago, a man entered an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, took ten young girls hostage and shot them. Six died. That same afternoon, Amish neighbours visited the killer's family to offer them comfort! At the murderer's burial, the Amish outnumbered non-Amish.

Forgiveness isn't a one-time transaction. It's a way of life. We can't be in two places at once — receiving forgiveness for ourselves and refusing it for others. That's not a trade. It's about the posture of our hearts.

The journey of forgiveness may be long. But it's the journey the prayer calls us to take.