Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago saw a machine that took a penny and pressed a design of the Lord’s Prayer into it. The coin would no longer be round but oval-shaped. In the mid-1900s, self-service machines like this showed up at vacation spots and amusement parks. Some machines would also press nickels, dimes, quarters, and half-dollars into Lord’s Prayer tokens. These are collector’s items now, but we all know that a prayer on a smashed coin isn’t the same as a prayer from a sincere heart.

The Lord’s Prayer shows us that we are not to pray like the heathen. While there are many ways to pray—using written prayers, singing hymns addressed to God, using memorized prayers—it’s important that we pray sincerely and thoughtfully. The Lord wants to hear our heartfelt cries of praise and petition. The Lord hears every single sigh and syllable of our heartfelt prayers, and He goes to work providing the answers we need.

Trust Him, and make sure your heart and mind are working together in approaching the throne of grace.

In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.
John Bunyan