5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8. Be ye not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11. Give us this day our daily bread.
12. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
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Jesus Christ during the sermon on the mount
I like this one partly because of the use of the word "be" at the beginning. I think that prayer is a state of being and true prayer cannot be done for external or even personal-pride reasons. If I was to pray everyday just to say that I do it everyday it would be "vain repetition" because I would have gotten what I desire just by being able to say that I pray everyday. Verse six really captures a lot of what prayer is all about, which is a personal conversation between parent and child, and that is where the real value of prayer should be.
When he says that we shouldn't be like the "heathen" I like the use of the word "therefore" because I think that a lot of prayer rituals have value, and Christians have a lot to learn from the way that non-Christian peoples pray. All sincere prayers are heard by God and the way that Christ describes it I think that he's saying "don't be like them in this way" but he doesn't include any other classic non-Christian prayer rituals. His statement, to me, is more of an affirmation to their prayer rituals than a statement of disapproval because he makes no prohibition against being like them in any other way.
The "thy will be done" phrase is interesting to me because it is the same phrase used by Christ in Gethsemane. At the beginning of his ministry, he taught how to pray and at the end he gave a perfect example of what he had taught by submitting to the will of the Father through prayer: a nice way to teach, first through words and then example.
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