So I was reading 3rd Nephi this morning and read the chapters that are essentially the same as the sermon on the mount. And while reading the Lords Prayer in chapter 13 I noticed a pattern that doesn't exactly match up with the pattern of prayer often taught among the LDS church.
In the church we are taught to start are prayers by addressing God, then thank him for things we are grateful for and then petition for our needs/wants and close in the name of Jesus Christ. There are variations of course, and everyone learns to pray in their own way, but this is the basic pattern taught to people new to the church.
I'm going to go through the Lord's Prayer line by line and try to suss out how it can be generally applied:
"Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name."
We see Christ start the prayer pretty much in the same way the church teaches, by adressing our Father in heaven. However, Chirst doesn't just address his father, he also praises him at the same time.
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
This can be seen as a sort of continuation of the praises to God begun in the first sentence. By putting God's will above all others, including our own, we glorify his nature. We are saying that He is greater than all other things, so it is His will that should be fulfilled and no one else's. By doing this we are setting ourselves as subservient of God and willing to accept his judgments.
"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
Here we ask for forgiveness of our sins, and pledge to extend the same mercy to those we encounter in life.
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
Here is where we ask god for something as is taught by the church, but not for whatever we want. By setting ourselves subservient to God previously, what we ask for must be help in following Him and not turning away to sin.
"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."
And close by Praising God again, repeating the sentiment at the beginning.
So, in summary the Lord's Prayer teaches us to start our prayers by praising God, followed by putting His will above ours, then ask for forgiveness of our sins and help in not falling prey to those sins again, and finally finish by praising God again.
