“Lord, teach us to pray; Lord teach me to pray.” How many times have you or I echoed those words spoken by Jesus’ disciples so many years ago? Yet the heart-felt desire of those words never seems to go away. Not only teach me how to pray but how to pray more effectively? And what things should I pray for?

I have been known (and you as well), to have a shopping list of things I want God to do for me or for others. I like to break it down into neat categories, each with specific requests. I have also been known to pout and heaven forbid, even complain, when things may not get quite answered the way that I have laid them out.

So rather than create a long list of requests and hope to get God to answer at least some of them, would it be possible to create a much shorter list and let God fill in the rest? What areas would I outline?

There are three areas that concern Jesus when He teaches His disciples to pray. The preliminaries in the Lord’s Prayer are about keeping God front and central to one’s life. The rest follow from this center.

1. Physical well-being. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Maslow’s hierarchy of needs places at the first tier, physiological needs, such as food, water, warmth and rest. The body is called “the temple of the Lord” and care of the physical is needed to maintain health and wholeness.
2. Emotional well-being. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. Unforgiveness leads to anger, stress, bitterness, and the like. The phrase relates to God not holding anything against us as we choose not to hold anything against another. Emotional health is found in positive relationships that nourish and feed the soul.
3. Spiritual well-being. “And do not bring us into temptation but rescue us from evil or the evil one.” In the preliminaries we already asked for God’s will to be done in us as it is being done in heaven. The evil one lives in open rebellion and would seek to bring us into that same rebellion. Temptation leads towards “the dark side” and brings only heartache, pain and alienation from God. Spiritual health is living out the preliminaries in wholesome, responsive ways.

Holistic living concerns all aspects of our lives: physical, emotional and spiritual. Rather than reducing any to set formulas, what does this mean for you? How does His Kingdom flow through you and how is His will done in you?

Blessings!