How did Jesus say to pray?
Jesus said to pray privately rather than publicly, briefly rather than at length, and without piling up words to sound impressive. Then he gave a model that takes under a minute to say. His stated reason for keeping it short was that God already knows what you need before you ask.
What Jesus said
He starts with what not to do. Do not pray to be seen. Go into a room, shut the door. He is not banning public prayer so much as naming the audience problem that ruins it.
Then do not heap up empty phrases thinking you will be heard for using more of them. The reason he gives is almost strange: your Father knows what you need before you ask. Prayer, in his framing, is not informing God.
The model prayer that follows is short. It orients toward God first, then asks for today's bread rather than the year's, then forgiveness tied to forgiving, then protection from testing. Present tense, small scope, immediate.
Elsewhere he adds persistence, honesty, and the tax collector in the temple who cannot even look up and simply asks for mercy. Jesus says that man went home right with God rather than the eloquent one nearby.
The hard part
The forgiveness clause is not optional in the prayer he gave, and he circles back to comment on that specific line immediately afterward. You are asking to be forgiven in the same proportion you are forgiving. Most people say it without hearing it.
What this looks like today
- •Pray a short one. He specifically warned against length as a strategy.
- •Ask for today rather than the whole future. The bread request is deliberately daily.
- •Do it alone, without anyone knowing. That was the first instruction, before any of the content.
Matthew 6:5-15, Luke 11:1-4, Luke 18:9-14
Go deeper: this comes up in the 40 days