Though in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus provided a basic structure to inform the way we pray, he did not provide a formula. And in fact, no such formula exists, for prayer is not meant to be formulaic. It is not meant to be an exercise in rote statements or vain repetitions.
“Prayer is not like a good recipe,” says D.A. Carson, in which you “simply follow a set of mechanical directions and everything turns out right in the end.” So what is prayer?
Perhaps no one has defined it better than John Bunyan, whose definition is worth reading two or three times over: “Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the heart or soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised, or according to the Word of God, for the good of the church, with submission in faith to the will of God.”
Thus we can, we should, and we must pray from the heart and pray earnestly, knowing and trusting that God hears and God responds to the prayers of his saints.
