How to Pray 101: The Lord's Prayer

In this week’s episode of the Press Movement Podcast, we enter the New Testament and begin with one of the most foundational teachings of Jesus—The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.

Join this heartfelt conversation with Reagan Porter about how Jesus modeled prayer for His disciples. Together, they unpack what it means to honor God as Father, to surrender to His will on earth as it is in heaven, to ask for daily provision, and to extend forgiveness as freely as we’ve received it.

This episode is a beginner’s guide and a refreshing reminder for every believer: prayer isn’t about perfection—it’s about posture. Learn why humility opens heaven, how gratitude anchors your faith, and why forgiveness frees your heart to pray with power.

Whether you’re learning to pray or longing to reignite your connection with God, this episode will remind you that He’s still listening—and He wants to hear from you.

Because prayer reaches every single situation.

✨ Listen now → PressToPray.com

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Welcome everybody to the Press Movement Podcast. We are finally, finally, finally in the New Testament.

And I am so excited to explore the scriptures of the New Testament as well. If you have not been listening and just starting, it's a great time to start. But I would say that the Old Testament has so much to offer in that those stories, you get to know the people, you get to see their thought processes, but you also get to see the God they had to know from a distance.

In the New Testament, I would argue he comes closer in that he came in the form of flesh as Jesus Christ, and then also gave us the Holy Ghost. So these prayers have a different proximity included in them because we have such access to God. So I'm excited to move forward into the New Testament, grab your Bibles, let's be ready to see what the Lord will say to us every week.

There's not many prayers, not nearly as many as in the Old Testament, but everything the Lord allows us to study, I believe will be fruitful. And so today we're actually starting in Matthew 6, which is the Lord's Prayer. And to start this episode, I actually have one of my favorite, favorite people in the studio.

And I always say that, but she's definitely pulling rank. This is my favorite girl. I always tell her.

And that's my daughter, Reagan Porter. Hi, Ray. Hello.

All right. Matthew 6, the Bible says, Ray, give us some insight into the Lord's Prayer. So what I like is, actually before in 1 through 8, where it talks about what you should not do, and talks about how when you go into prayer, you should do it secretly and on a personal level.

And then I love how God always tells us what we shouldn't do, but then he shows us how to do it. In the first verse, I think of the acronym for prayer, how it's praise, repent, ask, and how he hits all the marks in that perfectly. So it starts by exalting where he is.

And I like how it starts in a humbling position, like saying where we are in comparison to him. I think on the repentant side, I like how it's asking for forgiveness. And there are just many aspects of the verse I like about it.

How about you? Well, I agree. One, I love this, because this isn't actually him praying, it's him showing his disciples how to pray. So it's a model prayer, something that they can follow a pattern.

And like you said, the first P in pray, we often teach as represents praise. And that praise, just acknowledging who he is, he's father. That alone is a position of authority and puts us in a position of surrender, of obedience, of yielding.

And the acknowledgement that he's higher than us, he's greater than us, he's in heaven. And we say, holy or hollow be thy name, and yield our will to him with thy kingdom come, and asking him to do it here like he's done it there. That to me is interesting.

What do you think? How is his will executed in heaven? I think it is executed hastily. I think it is made out quickly. And I also believe it's made out intentionally.

I believe like he had a certain ordered steps for it. And I believe that whatever he's going to do is perfect. So you believe they do it quickly, they do it in order.

And they know that it's already perfect. Great summary. I get that.

But I believe then that's why he's saying, including your prayer, the desire that the way I move there, I can move here. I believe God is always looking for a vessel to use, for somebody he can move through in every generation. And so us getting to the place where our wills bow is extremely important.

Because if our will will bow, we will see more heaven on earth. I do believe this is kind of the direction that this prayer is pointing. And then you said repent, right? That was our? Yeah, that's repent.

Which part tells us to repent? I think it's the forgiveness of our debts as we forgive our debtors. We are taking a state of apology. I believe when like humans apologize, sometimes they try to bargain.

And I like how in this prayer, like there are two sides to it. When he says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And how when we repent, we also have to forgive others because we needed that forgiveness.

And so do they. And I think that's repentance. And one thing I would add to that, because I think it's a beautiful sentiment, is that he doesn't tell us the reasons they went into debt or why they need forgiveness.

He lumps all forgiveness together. Sometimes it gets harder for people to forgive because they say, I would never do that or I've never acted like that. And so forgiving that person for doing X, Y, Z doesn't seem equal to the forgiveness I need because I would never.

But when you go into debt and I hope you never go into debt. I hope. I hope I never go into debt.

And now I'm talking financially. Stay away from it. Okay.

Okay. Your mom's a Dave Ramsey fan, right? A debt free scream. Yes.

Well, no, I don't want you to have to scream because there'd be no debt, right? Yeah. Okay. But when you go into debt, the debtor, the person you're paying to doesn't really care the reason they don't.

You can borrow money to go buy a thousand video games, or you can borrow money to go buy a house, especially if you're talking about like credit card debt or something like that. There's some smaller debts you can run yourself into where the reasons can vary. It can be medical bills, which may be more legitimate, but it can also be a random expense.

It doesn't matter though, because debt is debt and forgiveness is forgiveness. And when you need God to forgive you, you have to remember, I've got to extend it. What else you got for us? Ask is the other one and give us our day, our daily bread.

It's basically asking for provisions, I believe. Exactly. It's asking for what you need, what you want.

I agree with that. I think it's important that we don't ask for the vain things in this, because I like how the thing that he asked for was needed to survive. It wasn't something that was just said.

I do believe God lets us pray for the things we want and the things we need, but you're right, in this pattern of prayer, he's saying, go after what you need. And one thing I've learned about God is when I've chased what I need from him, he's blessed me with so much of what I want. So yes, you can ask God for whatever you need, but remember to keep him at the center of that.

Okay, what else you got? Another thing they ask is, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from all evil. That's similar to just something that's necessary. And what I like about these scriptures is that it begins humbly and it ends humbly.

It ends by saying, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. And I think that they began with the state of, hallowed be thy name, which means to separate from profane things.

It put God on a different scale than human things. And again, with the reverence of where he is. And that's just something that I like about it.

And I found interesting how we need to start in a humbling position and we got to end in it. Someone once told me you can win more fight on your knees. And I think in order for a prayer to get through, you need to take that yielding position.

I agree with you. Prayer, when it comes to approaching God, humbly is necessary. Can you imagine if you walk up to me, right? And you say, mom, give me some food.

I'm hungry today. What would I do? You would probably think I was joking. Why would I think you were joking? Because I would never say it so bluntly.

I would probably ask about your day first. And when you got done with that, I would go straight into, hey mom, what's for dinner? No, I'm not saying you're asking what's for dinner. You say, give me some food.

Oh. Why wouldn't you just tell me to give it to you? Because you're my mother. And there's a certain authority that you have over me.

Yeah. And though, you know, I've always fed you, right? Yeah. You know, you have to show me respect.

Yes. And so when we come to God, we know he's a provider. Yes.

She's in here nodding. But we know also he deserves respect. Of course.

So we can ask, but we can never leave that position of bowing, that position of yielding. As a final note, Ray, what would you say to those listening concerning the Lord's prayer? I would say start in humbling positions. Don't ask for anything vain and make sure to give him the glory throughout it.

And I think that's an amazing summary of what the Lord was teaching us in Matthew 6. And I know you've been growing in your prayer life. What makes you want to grow in God and grow in prayer? Because some people would say prayer is not fun, or I can't pray a long time. And I don't even know how long you pray.

Honestly, I don't check on that. But how do you get excited to grow in that area, in your opinion or your experience? I just think back to a state where prayer was like the number one thing. And I think about all that happened during that time.

And I think about how the results were when I prayed. And I realized I want to live in those results. So you're going back to a place where you once were.

Yeah, but this time I want to go further. I understand that. And you know what I would say to everybody listening, there's a place in God where he wants you to go further too.

So whether you're just starting, returning, or continuing in your prayer life, there is more of God to know. There's more of God to see. And there's more God will show you.

Because prayer reaches every single situation. Be blessed. Have a nice day.

What do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you.

It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer. It's designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com