Struggle with prayer?

A fresh look at the Lord's Prayer

If like me, you grew up in church, you may well have memorized what’s known as the Lord’s Prayer. But sometimes early exposure to something means we haven’t really ever thought it through. Or maybe you’re new to the things of God. Either way, what we call the Lord’s Prayer is a rich treasure. So let’s spend a little time mining the riches of this foundational text.

Context is everything

This is the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray – the disciples who were there physically at His Sermon on the Mount, as well as the rest of us who have the Apostle Matthew’s record of it, in Matthew 6. It comes after these preliminary comments:

And when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. – Matthew 6:5-6

I must confess this confused me as a young teen. I was perfectly happy to pray in secret, and no way was I planning on praying in any public setting! I didn’t understand the cultural context – that many of the religious Jews or Jewish leaders, full of pride, prayed loudly in public as they saw it adding to their status. The Lord was letting us know that pride has no place in prayer to Him, and that quiet humility is the posture for meaningful prayer.

The “how” of how to pray

Jesus also addressed the substance of how we should pray, by first cautioning us to speak to Him meaningfully and authentically:

And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. – Matthew 6:7-8

Meaningless repetition, unfortunately, is how a lot of us recite the Lord’s Prayer – even though in Scripture it follows immediately after the above warning! “Meaningless repetition” also applies to any memorized or canned prayer that is repeated often and without thought. “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep” is a beautiful thought but it loses its power when it’s just words being recited – same with “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food.”

Nothing wrong with teaching prayers like this to children, but care should be taken to encourage kids (and all of us) to pray our own real thoughts, too. Mindful prayer is the only true prayer.

Meaningless would seem to apply, also, to the so-called “prayer languages” that some charismatics claim are given to them by God. I’d argue that if you don’t know what you’re saying, it is not meaningful prayer as the Lord clearly teaches here.

Ultimately, as author Ken Bailey notes, we do well to stand in silence before we pray; words offered to God are precious, must be sincere and can be few.

Why does Jesus remind us that He already knows what we need before we ask Him?

That’s what He says in Matthew 6:8. Why? Because we are not to pray just to get things. We are to pray because we were created to commune with our Father. Which leads directly to the prayer itself, as recorded in Matthew 6:9-13:

Pray, then, in this way:

“Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”]

As John MacArthur notes, this prayer is a masterpiece of brevity, simplicity and comprehensiveness. It breaks down into a series of brief and simple statements, each of which deserve their own discussion to ensure clear understanding.

Let’s get started!

Our Father who is in heaven

Prayer begins with worship, and willing submission to God’s purposes, plans, and glory. That’s why it’s so important to know Who we are talking to, which this prayer powerfully recognizes as the Creator God who is above all.

But Jesus was saying something revolutionary here, setting aside language often used in traditional Jewish prayers. No “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Instead, He started with “Our Father” – an expression for God that is never used in the Old Testament! And He used the Aramaic word for “our father” as Ken Bailey notes:

Jesus inaugurated a new age by praying in Aramaic. He thereby set aside the precious heritage of a sacred language and a sacred culture, and made every language into an adequate manger into which the Word of God could be placed.

Yet another indication that all His followers, regardless of racial or community history, are equally His children. What a magnificent truth!

What’s more, “in heaven” points to God’s greatness – His glory, power, majesty, sovereignty, infinity. Although His greatness is incomprehensible to us in its fullness, it is a worthy subject to contemplate as we enter into prayer.

Hallowed be Your name

This phrase recognizes that God is holy, as we are to be – or strive to be. It also can be seen as a request that God’s reputation be revered by men. I like how the Holman New Testament Commentary puts it:

Hallowed has to do with something or someone being different or set apart. We must come before God with an attitude of reverence for God’s perfection (in contrast to our imperfection), His wisdom (in contrast to our foolishness), His power (in contrast to our impotence), and His love (in contrast to our selfishness). God’s holiness is everything that sets Him apart from us and all the rest of His creation. Addressing such a being should never be done casually or flippantly.

Your kingdom come

This prayer isn’t just about the future coming of Christ, although that’s part of it is. It’s also about us, His kingdom servants, spreading His kingdom around the world. The Holman commentary adds:

… it is a prayer that we, his servants, would be faithfully obedient and effective in living His kingdom principles in our own lives and then spreading the kingdom through our actions and words.

Your will be done

We should pray for God’s will to be accomplished, not our own. Or as one pastor puts it, the purpose of prayer is not to get my will done in heaven, but to get God’s will done on earth.

On earth as it is in heaven

The prayer acknowledges that although God’s will is done in heaven, at this point it is not yet fully done on earth, where sin and rebellion still present hindrances. Holman again adds helpful thoughts:

This is another request for the spreading of God’s kingdom rule on earth, primarily through the church as the agent of the kingdom. Our prayers are to be continual reminders to ourselves to “get with” the kingdom program.

What we have so far

Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.

So this first part of the prayer gives us the Person, the purpose, and the plan – words that tell us about God, the kingdom of heaven, and His will. We need to have those in our hearts up front, every time we pray.

Moving on:

Give us this day our daily bread

We are to pray for personal needs, like nourishing and filling food. Note, He doesn’t tell us to pray for a full pantry, but for our “daily bread” – what we need to sustain life today. Emphasis on “daily.” Jesus is telling us to ask, daily, for actual needs. “Our” needs, so not just for ourselves, either.

Of course, Jesus also called Himself the Bread of Life (John 6:35). And He talks about His food being to do the Father’s will (John 4:34). So one could expand this thought to something like “Today, Lord, please give us the food we need, as well as the Bread that never runs out. And give us the food of Your work, as well!”

In any event, He delights in providing what we need, and this section is the “provision” prayer.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors

Our debts (also known as sins, or trespasses) are comprised of both what we did wrong, and what we failed to do right. This is a daily prayer, like the request for personal needs, because we face sin and temptation daily just as we face hunger daily.

1 John 1:9 makes it crystal clear:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Yeah, most of us need this daily. At the least!

As for forgiving others, Jesus ties this together so we understand that forgiven sinners have no excuse to harbor unforgiveness in their hearts. A Christian’s forgiveness is based on the realization that he/she has been forgiven. Clinging to a perceived (or real) injustice is a weakness of pride and ego, and must be faced squarely and eliminated, so that we can walk in unfettered fellowship with God.

Further, we’re to exemplify godly relationships with others, since He is a forgiving God, and we are to demonstrate His attributes:

And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. – Ephesians 4:32

Jesus already paid for our sins, including the ones we haven’t yet committed. But our right relationship with Him is restored by the regular practices He teaches here – confession and forgiveness of others who’ve wronged us. This section is the “pardon” prayer.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one

The English word “temptation” is from the Greek word peirasmos (πειρασμος) meaning testing or proving. It is a morally neutral word, meaning it is not a sin to be tempted. This is clarified by Hebrews 4:15, which explains how Jesus was tempted but did not sin.

So what this part of the prayer is really asking is for God to help us avoid the dangers of sin altogether – for Him not to permit us to undergo trial that would tempt us to sin. Of course, 1 Corinthians 10:13 explains that He always provides a way of escape, but here Jesus counsels us to recognize our spiritual weakness and pray for deliverance from temptation.

We surely need His divine help to live lives that honor Him. This section is the “protection” prayer.

(For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever)

This ending to the prayer is not in the earliest manuscripts of the book of Matthew (that’s why it’s in parentheses in the version above). However, it is biblical. It is believed that the early Church, recognizing the import of the Lord’s Prayer, appended this ending using David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:11 as source:

Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and You exalt Yourself as head over all.

A fitting scripture, indeed, to this magnificent prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ – a prayer which offers patterns for all our communication with our triune God.

So let’s move forward with a refreshed commitment to prayer, and renewed mindfulness of how to do so, courtesy of our Lord’s Prayer.

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