Jesus Introduces the Lord's Prayer to the Apostles 

Before yielding to teach a formal prayer to his apostles, he introduced this prayer to his family when he was fifteen years old. Despite his efforts to encourage personal prayer among his siblings following their father's death, they struggled to move beyond memorized forms, leading Jesus to guide them with suggestive phrases. Eventually, recognizing the challenge of fostering spontaneous prayer, Jesus formalized these teachings into a standard family petition one October evening, writing it down on a cedar board by lamplight, thus giving his family a prayer that would later become known as the "Lord's Prayer."

In a discourse on prayer, Jesus emphasized to his apostles that prayer should not be a formal or memorized petition. Instead, it should be a personal and spontaneous expression of the soul's attitude toward the spirit, leading to fellowship and spiritual communion. He illustrated the importance of persistence in prayer, not to suggest that persistence changes God's will, but to highlight that such diligence changes one’s earthly attitude and enhances the soul's capacity for spiritual receptivity.

Jesus also pointed out the frequent lack of faith that he observed in other's prayers, asserting that true faith could overcome substantial obstacles in the pursuit of spiritual growth and soul expansion.

After listening to Jesus' discourse on prayer, the apostles were not yet satisfied. James Zebedee asked Jesus to give them a model prayer that they could teach the newer believers who so frequently asked how to acceptably pray to the Father in heaven. Jesus said, "If, then, you still desire such a prayer, I would present the one which I taught my brothers and sisters in Nazareth":

Our Father who is in heaven,Hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come; your will be doneOn earth as it is in heaven.Give us this day our bread for tomorrow;Refresh our souls with the water of life.And forgive us every one our debtsAs we also have forgiven our debtors.Save us in temptation, deliver us from evil,And increasingly make us perfect like yourself.

After Pentecost, many believers added, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Later, two lines were lost in copying, and a line was added: "For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forevermore." Nathaniel asked Jesus why we pray that God will lead us not into temptation when you have taught us that the Father never does such things. Jesus explained that the early Hebrew prophets saw God’s hand in everything, even leading men into temptation for their own good. Someone agreed with this early teaching and more than likely modified, "Save us in temptation" to "Lead us not into temptation."

Jesus gave the apostles the prayer in collective form as they had prayed it in the Nazareth home. He never taught a formal personal prayer, only group, family, or social petitions. And he never volunteered to do that.

He taught the twelve to always pray in secret, to go off by themselves in the quiet surroundings of nature, or to go into their rooms and shut the doors while praying. Jesus also taught that effective prayer is:

1. Unselfish – not alone for oneself.
2. Believing – according to faith.
3. Sincere – honest of heart.
4. Intelligent – according to light.
5. Trustful – in submission to the Father's all-wise will.

When Jesus spent entire nights on the mountain in prayer, it was mainly for his disciples, particularly for the twelve. The Master prayed very little for himself, although he engaged in much worship of the nature of understanding communion with his Paradise Father.