The first thing that Jesus tells us about prayer is that its primary purpose is to build a relationship. When we pray, because we are talking to a person, we are building and developing a relationship with Him. This again wars against our tendency to make prayer mechanical or impersonal. With His first statement Jesus wars against the selfish mentality of trying to simply get something from God. With these two words, “Our Father” Jesus eliminates the “laundry list” type of prayer.