The Lord’s Prayer
In the past, I've heard disparaging remarks of the Lord's prayer, and in truth, I've had my own disparaging thoughts. I've thought that the prayer was impersonal and recited so much that it loses meaning, much like hearing John 3:16 for the umpteenth time in your life. Yet John 3:16 is no less a cornerstone concept of theology than the day it was written. We know this, and so we keep coming back to it. It's easy to forget that the Lord's Prayer is scripture too, and Jesus' own words. Not just any words, but words that come with a command “This is how you should pray.” Shouldn't we pay attention to that? Don't we pray all the time? (At least we should be, even if your answer to that is no.) If we spend this time trying to get closer to God and communicating with all of these prayers do you think it might be useful to know how to pray? For the past year or so now, I've been praying the Lord's Prayer every day with some of these questions pushing me to do so.
After a year, my prayer hasn't grown stale but has brought much benefit to my prayer life. The first step in this journey was underlining the importance of this prayer and not letting that slip by. Christ said these words, what was he trying to teach us? I started focusing on each section, 1 per day or two, and seeking the meaning and/or benefit of it while I prayed it. Of course, that takes time, and you can't move through the prayer at the recited cadence and do this. You must pause to give yourself time to reflect and seek. As I did this each section of the prayer gained new meaning that was still able to be drawn upon the next time I prayed. Secondly, I use this expanded meaning as an interface to my own heart and life. Each section becomes a conversation about what's going on in my heart and with my relationship with God at that time, which is always changing. Done this way the Lord's Prayer is a rubric or a schema that can be filled with your own emotions and struggles. That call to be real with God thoroughly eliminates staleness from the equation and puts us firmly in the realm of personal faith. Below I'll show you some of the meanings that I found in each section, I hope it's of some help, but my challenge to you is to find the meaning for yourself. This really only works if you're personally invested (which could be said of the entire faith walk).
Our father in heaven, holy is your name
First things first, prayer is started by defining the relationship with God. He is the creator in heaven and we are his creation here on earth. He is over us. His name is holy. He's holy. We pray to him because he is an all-powerful and righteous God. Our prayer should be given focus by starting with his praise.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
These two statements put the things of God first. His will goes in front of ours. These also hold another element to them as well. If we pray it, we pray it because we believe it. If we truly do believe that his kingdom should come and his will should be done to the point of praying for it, then these become participatory statements. If you’re asking for God's kingdom to come then you also should be trying to bring the kingdom. If you're asking for his will to be done, then you also should be trying to do his will in your life.
Give us this day our daily bread
I love that this is the third thing in the prayer. Before we talk about forgiveness or spiritual healing and safety, God shows us love by addressing our basic needs. He wants us to be able to ask for what we need. More than that though “Man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Deuteronomy 8:3 & Matthew 4-4) Our sustenance is not just what we put in our bodies, but God himself is our sustenance. That dual meaning is present every time we pray this line. Additionally, it shows us to ask for what we need today. Not tomorrow or at some point in the future. Outside of those considerations, this is the first use of a plural pronoun “us”. Not only can we ask for our basic needs, but we should also be concerned for the basic needs of those around us and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Finally, it gives us a chance to thank God for what we do have.
Forgive us our trespasses
We are coming to God to take away our sin. He's the only one who can do that and he sees all of our heart. I have also come to like the use of the word “trespass” as it reminds me of the psalmist's “But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.” (Psalm 19:12)As the preceding passage focused us on daily needs; this heart to heart with God is also a daily need.
As we forgive those who trespass against us
When compared with the previous section, this is a sharp reminder of the parable of the unforgiving servant. (Matthew 18:24-35) God forgives us a tremendous debt, likewise, we should also forgive others. Alongside that, it's also a reminder that we are “ambassadors of reconciliation” we forgive because Christ first forgave us. Our forgiveness is a symbol of his love to the world around us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil
This passage (and the one before it) has us thinking about how we will perform as part of our spiritual walk. It's a cry for God to protect us, not only from the world but also from ourselves. It's a reminder to us to be in one mind with the spirit and avoid temptation and the paths that it leads to.
For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory now and forever. Amen.
This portion was not included in the earliest Greek manuscripts that we have. Opinions differ and a good overview can be found here. My reckoning is that this is an extra-biblical addition, but I am not a biblical scholar, and I do include it when I pray. It's a good callback to the beginning of the prayer and it keeps the focus on God and that we are praying in his power.
With these meanings having been laid out, it's easier to see how this prayer has a lot of depth to it. I've left some things out, and I'm sure there's yet more to be discovered, which points to another benefit: praying this over time allows it to become a sort of shorthand for a rich and deep significance. A significance which is learned piece by piece from the spirit through this prayer. If you don't already engage in the Lord's prayer, I do hope you give it some space in your spiritual walk, and if you do use the Lord's prayer, I hope this article has given you a reminder to focus on the import of what is being asked through the prayer. The God of the heavens is here to guide us, to love us, to protect us, to provide for us, and to encourage us to live in godly love for one another and it's evident through this prayer. How amazing is that?
After some deliberation, I've decided to make this a 2 segment article on prayer. On the one hand, we have the Lord's Prayer where the words are given to us, and on the other hand, this one prayer doesn’t encompass our whole prayer life. In the next article I’ll invite you to look with me at prayer in the rest of the New Testament and see what things we might be able to learn.
Editorial Note: I seemed to have missed a particularly large reference here, which is Martin Luther’s “A Simple Way to Pray” which predates my discussion of the Lord’s prayer by many hundreds of years and shares a lot of spiritual wisdom. I did not read it until after I made this post, so I’d encourage you to take a look at it as well. Hopefully you can gain some insight from it too. Reference link.
