WHAT IS PRAYER?
Prayer can be defined in simple terms as a religious person's communication with God.
The Lord's Prayer is one of the most common and well-known Christian prayers. A line-by-line break-down of The Lord's Prayer can help Christians find greater insight and meaning in this popular prayer.
Many people can recite the Lord’s Prayer without being able to explain what it means or answer basic questions about it. I’d like to break it down very simply to help us all better understand what Jesus was teaching about prayer.
It’s a Pattern, Not a Chant. Jesus said, “This, then is HOW (not what) you should pray…” Jesus gave it as a pattern for his followers to copy. He did not intend for them to recite it as if they were chanting a magical incantation that would force God to do what they want him to do. The different parts of the Lord’s Prayer are meant to teach us something about God, prayer, and about our need.
THE LORD'S PRAYER
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen
“Our Father who art in Heaven,”
We can invoke God as "Father" because He is revealed to us by His Son Christ Jesus who became man. Through Baptism we are adopted as Children of God. The free gift of adoption requires on our part continual conversion and a new life. Praying to our Father should develop in us two fundamental dispositions: first, the desire to become like Him, and second, a humble and trusting heart. "Who art in heaven" does not mean space but a way of being, that He is majestic and transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. The Father is in heaven, His dwelling place, our homeland to which we aspire. What a blessing to call God our Father!
“Hallowed be your name.”
We barely ever hear the word “hallowed” today, and most of us couldn’t give a good dictionary definition for it… and yet many recite it in the Lord’s Prayer without giving much thought to what we’re saying in this line. “Hallowed” literally means “to make holy” or “to demonstrate as holy.” So when we say “hallowed by your name,” what we are praying is, “show us how holy and perfect and ‘different from us’ you are!” This line really is an extension of the opening acknowledgement that God is our Father in Heaven: First we recognize that God loves us and listens to us (“Our father in heaven”) and then we move on to recognize his holiness (“hallowed be your name). God is not our buddy whom we should carelessly address, but neither is He is distant and uncaring God whom we should be terrified to pray to.
“Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”
God is the King. When we say that God is “Sovereign,” what we are declaring is that God really is in charge of everything. Even some atheists pray when their loved ones are in a terrible life-threatening accident. That’s because there’s just ‘something’ inside of us that tells us God is in control, and Scripture time and again affirms that idea. The word “will” means the same as “desire,” so by praying for God’s will to be done we are praying for all that God desires to be done. If we pray but refuse to submit to God’s authority (“your will be done…”), then we are only deceiving ourselves and we’re not really praying the way Jesus taught his followers to pray. As Jesus’ people pray and obey God’s will for them, his kingdom is made increasingly evident to the unbelieving world around them.
Give us this Day Our Daily Bread
God provides. He does not give us everything we ask for, but He gives us everything we need. This doesn’t mean that people who are dying of starvation aren’t praying enough (but it does mean that others aren’t praying “your will be done” enough!). God provides everything we truly need. This line points back to when God was leading Israel out of Egypt and provided the
Manna from heaven each morning for them to eat. God did not give them enough to last any more than a day so that they would have to continue relying on Him to provide. Likewise, we are are following Jesus each day can trust that He will provide everything I need for today; and tomorrow he will provide for everything I need tomorrow. God cares for his children and takes care of them.
“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
God is the only one who can forgive sin, I think most people agree about that. In Matthew 6:12 the Lord’s Prayer says “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” while Luke 2:4 says “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” Scholars agree that the reason these lines are different is because Jesus probably taught them this prayer in Aramaic (which was the commonly spoken language of the day), so when they wrote the prayer in Greek they used different words to communicate what Jesus said. This line in the prayer is significant, because we pray we confess our sins to God and admit our need to be forgiven. You cannot receive forgiveness if you don’t admit that you need it!
“And lead us not into temptation ”
Confessing sin to God in prayer is really important, but so is repenting from your sin. I like to think about “Repentance” as doing an “About-Face” – imagine you’re walking one way, then you stop, turn around, and start walking in the opposite direction that you were walking in before – that’s what repentance is like. When we confess our sin to God we are admitting our need to be forgiven and that we have dishonored God. Confession is great, but if we do not repent of our sin then we are doomed to repeat it. Praying this part of the Lord’s Prayer might sound like this: “God, I know that I have sinned by gossiping about my neighbor. This does not honor you and isn’t what you want from me. I want to speak well of people and not be known as a gossip or slanderer. When I am tempted to gossip, remind me of your desire for me to to speak well of people and make me a blessing rather than a discouragement.” It’s important for us to realize that we cannot escape temptation on our own, no matter how “good” we are or how much self-control we have. We are fully dependent upon the Holy Spirit who lives in Christians to give us eyes that see temptation coming and feet to escape it.
“…but deliver us from evil.”
I know that we would consider ourselves fortunated if we were able to stay out of harm’s way each and every day. Right here, we are asking God to carry us away from evil, and everything that represents and is of evil. When you are delivered from something that is bad, you are deemed as free and liberated! Continuously pray to stay out of the face and the path of evil.
We need to always remember that when things that are out of control, God is right there to protect us. We call on Jesus’ name and He will be right there to help us. God will send His angels to protect us all we need to do is ask. The Word of God says if we ask, it shall be given.
“For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen.”
This simply is a way of closing out the prayer while again declaring God’s holiness and sovereignty. We pray for God’s kingdom and power and glory to be lifted up and made more beautiful in the eyes of all people. “Amen” is an expression that means “So be it” or “Make it so.” By closing our prayers with “Amen,” we are declaring that we truly believe that God has heard everything we have said and that He will do it.
