1. Say the Lord’s Prayer first thing when you wake in the morning and/or as the last thing before you go to sleep.

2. Use the Lord’s Prayer as your table grace before a meal.

3. When someone shares a joy or a problem with you, pray the Lord’s Prayer together to intentionally acknowledge the saving presence and action of God on your behalf.

4. Repeat the prayer slowly in the rhythm of your breathing. Meditating on God’s Word in this fashion centers us and quiets us- body, mind, and spirit. Meditation is an essential practice in our noisy and fast paced world.

5. N.T. Wright in his book The Lord and his Prayer suggests focusing on one portion of the prayer each day of the week.

Sunday- Our Father who art in heaven
Monday- Hallowed be thy name.
Tuesday- Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Wednesday- Give us this day our daily bread
Thursday- Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us
Friday- Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Saturday- For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

6. Darrell W. Johnson in his book Fifty-Seven Words That Change the World believes the heart of the Lord’s Prayer is the phrase “on earth as it is in heaven.” As such, he finds it helpful to repeat the phrase after each petition.

Our Father who art in heaven
Hallow your name on earth as it is in heaven
Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread on earth as it is in heaven
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us on earth as it is in heaven
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one on earth as it is in heaven
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

7. Both N.T. Wright and Darrell Johnson suggest using each petition of the Lord’s Prayer as a starting point for praying for God’s transforming power in the world.

Wright says, “We live, as Jesus lived, in a world all too full of injustice, hunger, malice, and evil. This prayer cries out for justice, bread, forgiveness and deliverance. If anyone thinks those are irrelevant in today’s world, let them read the newspaper and think again.”

Thus “Kingdom come” leads us to pray specifically for places and persons in need of peace and just systems of governance and business. “Daily Bread” – access to and the just distribution of life’s essentials. “Forgiveness” for sins of omission and commission, for the redemption of personal, corporate, and systemic sin. “Deliver us from evil”- deliverance from “powers and principalities”, along with deliverance from unseen evil and the Evil One

Here’s an example from Johnson:

Our Father, your name is hallowed in heaven; hallow it on earth, in me, in my family, in this city. O Father, your kingdom has come in heaven; cause it to come on earth, in my house, in my neighborhood, in this country. O Father, your will is done in heaven; make it be done on earth, in my work place, in the work places in Vancouver and Seattle and Dallas and Mexico City and Tokyo and Baghdad and Calcutta and Nairobi. O Father, your name be hallowed; your kingdom come, your will be done on Main Street and Wall Street, as it is in heaven.