I was talking with a friend the other day about how to pray. I figured the best way to explain it was to actually do it, and all the while, I was explaining what I was doing. Afterwards, I also explained about the Lord’s Prayer. However, I’m not too sure about how well it was received, since I have the tendency of going into more detail sometimes than is necessary.
Praying the Lord’s Prayer
The thing is, most churches in which I’ve either attended or served, when praying the Lord’s Prayer, do so by reciting the Lord’s Prayer word for word, and what they use for the word “debts”, “sins”, or “trespasses” will depend on whether they choose Matthew’s version or Luke’s. But is that what Jesus really meant when He said, “Pray like this”? Are we really supposed to recite the prayer word for word, in a robotic sort of way where it becomes more routine and head than it is heart?
The simple answer to that would be “no” on all accounts, but that doesn’t help anybody who wants to understand how Jesus intended for the prayer to be prayed. Basically, the Lord’s Prayer was meant to be more of a template, or outline to use when praying. Please continue reading to better understand:
Our “Father” in Heaven:
By saying “Father”, we’re addressing God with an intimacy that reflects our relationship with Him, like a child and their father (in a close family structure). This is also the type of intimacy that God wishes to have with His people. Honestly, sometimes I’ll even start off saying, “Hi Lord,” or “Lord, can we talk?” or something that reflects the way I’m feeling or the “junk” I may be going through, and that’s fine, also, because I’m asking to enter into a personal conversation with God, straight from my heart.
The main point of the “Father” part is to reflect the intimacy — like a child approaching the lap of their close father. Also, “father” isn’t a common word we use with our fathers, is it? Usually today we’ll call them “Dad”, or “Papa” (sometimes also depending on your culture), and when Jesus said it, He was speaking in Aramaic, so the word He used was “Abba”, which is much like a child calling their dad, “Daddy”. But even if you don’t address Him as “Father”, the idea is that you’re coming to Him in full disclosure, with no fears, in only love and trust with what it is you’re bringing to Him (your heart).
The late Brennan Manning once spoke on this at an annual convention for my seminary’s denomination. I have an audio clip of it somewhere, but this video may do better justice. The main part I want to play is from 6:30 – 12:30 (6 minutes), but when you get a chance, I highly suggest watching the whole thing.
So in the Lord’s Prayer, by telling us to address God as “Our Father”, Jesus was saying that “This is the true posture of Christian prayer: a little Israeli child sitting on his father’s lap, plucking His beard, calling, ‘Abba, Daddy, my Daddy’.” — Brennan Manning
“Our” Father
The “our” part is also important, for though our relationships with God are personal (a personal relationship with Jesus Christ), the Church is also communal. There’s no such thing as a hermit-Christian, and since the days that Jesus walked around Israel with His 12 disciples, fellowship in Christ with others has always been the model. I suppose you could see it like, you’re one of many siblings, for it is through faith in Christ that we become children of God (John 1:12), but coming to a father who dearly loves us each equally.
Our Father “In Heaven”
Heaven has always been used to somehow relate to the Lord. But in a world where people worship “other gods” (which God continuously said are not gods at all), referring God to the one who is in Heaven is to refer to the One and Only True God – it’s giving reference to the One you’re praying to. Not that there would be any confusion, but it can sometimes be seen as a means of bringing glory to Him, especially if you’re praying in a group, and even more especially if you’re praying in a group of people who neither know nor worship God.
“God Is God”
Another way of understanding this is when we look at when Moses asked God who he should say sent him, and God said, “I Am what I am”. In other words, “I Am God.” In a menial example, say there was only 1 dog when Adam named it “dog”. There were no others like it, it was one of a kind. So if somebody was to ask, Adam could’ve said, ‘It is what it is.’ Its name is dog, because it’s a dog, and all other dogs that came after Dog would have different names by which they were called, right? Like Spot, Comet, Ivy, Max, Rocky, etc. In God’s sense, His name is God because He is God. Any “other” that come after Him, not only are they not God, but they’re also called by other names.
In the Egyptians’ case, there were Ra, Geb, Nut, Shu, Osiris, Isis, and others; in Canaan, there were Baal, Ashteroth, and others; the Philistines worshipped Dagon…and so on. Even today, people make up false gods, or make up an image of what they think God is like (or should be like, in their eyes), even to the point of giving Him a different name. So when God said “I Am what I am”, He was basically saying ‘I Am God – the One, the Only, the first and the last’. That way, when Moses answered Pharaoh with “I Am sent me”, there was no mistaking who sent him. Likewise, when addressing the location of God’s throne, “Our Father in ‘Heaven'”, we’re recognizing God as the One and Only True God – the Alpha and the Omega – the First and the Last – the only One who even qualifies to be called “God”.
“Hallowed” be Thy Name!
Literally, you’re asking God, “Make your name hallowed (or holy)”. This sounds a little odd, really, since God is already holy, so wouldn’t His name already be holy? Another translation, which I think seems to make the point better, is, “May your name be glorified!”
When using the Lord’s Prayer as an outline or template, this would be the place where you’d start praising God and thanking Him – for the things He’s done, for who He is, for His answered (and even unanswered) prayers, for His promises, etc.
Hallowed be “Thy Name”!
God’s name is a crucial part of this phrase, for in many languages, including ancient Aramaic (what Jesus spoke), the name represented the character. For instance, “Emmanuel” means “God (is) with us”; “Jesus” means “Salvation”; “Yeshua” (Jesus’ name in Hebrew) means “God is salvation”, and it is in Jesus/Yeshua that we find salvation, and in the presence of Jesus (because Jesus is God), God is with us. But it wasn’t until after Jesus had died and was resurrected that He actually represented what His name means. So God’s name represents everything that He is in relation to us, what He has done in the past, and what He will do in the future.
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven
I’ve decided to combine all these, rather than separate each, to show what we’re actually asking here.
God’s Will Be Done
First, if we get rid of the “Olde English”, we might say, “May your Kingdom come, and your Will be done, here on Earth, just as it is such in Heaven.” Basically, it’s part of submitting to God’s Will. We want God’s Will to rule, not just over the world, but also in the hearts of our world’s leaders, and especially in our own – we want God’s Will to rule over us, just as it does over those who are currently there with Him in Heaven, now.
A Request for Discipleship
As people who are to take on our King’s character, it also has a teaching sense to it — teach me, Lord, to obey your Word, to desire you above everything (both in this world, and not), to put you first in everything, and to desire you more.
So let this part reflect that desire of discipline from Him.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread:
In other words, “Feed us today, Lord!” Not just physically, though, but also spiritually, just as Peter said that we should crave spiritual food. It’s true that the prayer is asking God to feed you in order that you may continue a healthy life, but isn’t spiritual food needed for the same reason? For instance, each morning, while I eat my breakfast, I also do Bible study. So when I pray for my food, I’ll thank God for both, my physical food and my spiritual food. And by doing so, I’m basically asking that they will:
- Each hold me over until my next meal
- Build me up strong
- Keep me healthy
- Help me to serve others (if you’re hungry, you won’t have strength to serve)
- Allow me to be productive, etc.
Both physical and spiritual food are needed for each, in both the physical and spiritual sense. So feed us physically, but also feed us spiritually.
Jesus also said that what goes into your mouth, goes into your stomach. But what comes out of your mouth, comes from the heart. In both cases, if you don’t take in good, healthy “food”, then your heart won’t be healthy in either sense, either.
And Forgive Us Our “Debts”
You may have noticed that some churches say, “debts”, while others tend to say “sins” or “trespasses”. That’s because it often depends on which version of the Lord’s Prayer they’re reciting — Matthew’s or Luke’s. Matthew uses “ops-ei-LAY-mata”, while Luke uses “Ha-mar-TEE-a”. Now, I’m not expecting you to know Greek, but I do want to point out that they are clearly two different words:
- Matthew’s word is translated into “debts”
- Luke’s word is translated into sins, trespasses, and the like.
Personally, I prefer Matthew’s word of choice, for the word also means “sum owed”, like a loan or “obligation”. This is because I find it gives off the idea of indebtedness to God with a debt that can’t be paid back in seven lifetimes, which is what we realize when we give our hearts over to Jesus in the first place.
Sins, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to reveal the depth of what we’re asking. I think this is especially so in today’s world where many people (even churches) justify their sins, or don’t even recognize their behaviors as sinful. Some even reject the idea of sins existing, describing them as something else, like bad choices.
As We Forgive Our Debtors
But now, there’s the second part to the Lord’s Prayer, which is “as we forgive our debtors”. In other words, just as we’re asking God to forgive us, we need to forgive others who do the same level of debtedness (or sins) to us. But now, if that wasn’t difficult enough, the Greek actually says “as we have (already) forgiven our debtors”. Whoa, right? Because now we’re no longer asking God to forgive us, and then asking Him to help us forgive others as He’s forgiven us. Now, we’re asking God to forgive us in response (in the same way) that we’ve just forgiven others! This speaks a whole new level of forgiveness! Jesus explained this later to Peter in the parable about the unmerciful servant.
But in summary, since sins put us in debt to God, when we ask God for forgiveness, we are actually asking God to have mercy on us for a payment we cannot pay. But at the same time, when we ask God to forgive us “as we have (already) forgiven those who’ve sinned against” us in the same way, it convicts us with how we’re loving and forgiving our neighbors.
This part must have been just as surprising for the disciples to hear as it is to us, for Jesus made it a point to finish off by saying, “For if you forgive people for their sins, your father in Heaven will also forgive you.”
Lead Us Not Into Temptation, but Deliver Us From Evil
This was always weird for me to hear, for the Bible tells us straight out that God doesn’t tempt us: “No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). So why would we be asking God not to do something that He doesn’t do anyway? This is how I understand it:
Do not lead us into temptation…
Just as Scripture tells us that God doesn’t tempt us, it is also said that God does discipline us as a parent does to a child because He loves us (Hebrews 12:6-7). Some translations say, “Do not put us to the test (or the process of testing).”
Have you ever heard the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”? Likewise, the purpose of testing us is to make us stronger. It’s also to use what we have learned up to this point, in order to move onto the next level, as with testing in school, or participating in a game after lots of practice. When it came to Job, it wasn’t God doing the tempting and tormenting, but the evil one himself. God only allowed it to happen in order for Job to endure, and be mature and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:3-4).
I know nobody likes a test, especially when we don’t realize it’s a test until we’ve already failed it, right? Because if we knew it was a test, we’d respond in the way we were trained. But when we’re caught off guard, we often act out of instinct or emotion. So when we ask God not to lead us into temptation, or testing, we’re actually asking God not to let us fall to into temptation, whereas failing the test may result.
…but rescue us from the evil one:
When repeated in church, I usually hear it translated, “But deliver us from evil.” According to the Greek, I understand it to say, “The evil one”. Either way, it must be remembered that this is a prayer. Here, we are asking God to rescue us from the evil one and his temptations, thus putting us to the test, for fear that we might fail. So we’re asking for divine protection.
Rescue From the Evil One
This also comes into play as a Christian who recognizes that this world is not the only one that exists, but that there’s also the spiritual world, and that spiritual warfare is real. I once heard someone say, “Dogs don’t chase parked cars.” In other words, demons don’t mind Christians that are idle in their faith and witness. It’s the ones that invade their “turf” that they go after.
Divine Protection from Spiritual Warfare
I also like to take that saying a little further by saying, “they’ll pee on the tires and claim them as their own, but they won’t chase them.” It’s sort of like when Jesus came and preached in that one synagogue at the beginning of Mark. Everyone’s faith and responses were dead in the water, so the demon-possessed guy didn’t have any issues with hearing the Scriptures read each Sabbath. It also didn’t have any issues when Jesus read the Scriptures. It was only when Jesus began to teach, and required people to respond that the demon had an issue.
Likewise, as Christians on the frontline, and even among people just trying to get to know Jesus, the evil one will attack with temptations, influential non-believers, emotions, doubt, depression, former addictions, etc. So in prayer, again, we’re asking God for divine protection from the evil one — actually defending us from his attacks.
The Purpose of the Lord’s Prayer
If you’ve read through my posts, then you’re familiar with my continued reminder of keeping everything in context. Likewise, the Lord’s Prayer must be kept in context if we’re to understand why Jesus even bothered teaching on it:
- John the Baptist’s ministry focused on the Kingdom of Heaven.
- When Jesus began His ministry, He too focused on the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Chapters 5-8 (Matthew) focus on who is fit for and how one must act towards others in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
- The entire Sermon on the Mount teaches about ethics towards others. In other words, it’s meant to teach us the essence of our identification as God’s people.
Also, since chapters 5-8 focus on ethical behaviors towards others, plus the continuous communal personal pronouns (OUR father, forgive US, as WE…), and the fact that Jesus was talking to a huge multitude of people, the Lord’s Prayer is to be recognized as meant for churches filled with members who have forgiven one another (or who have a darn good reason now to begin forgiving one another).
So it’s based on the mercy code towards our common people of God. By showing mercy for one another, we are acting as children of our Father in Heaven. But if we are not merciful towards one another, then we are not behaving as children of our Father in Heaven. And as people of God, people who have put our lives into the hands of God through acknowledgment of sin, repentance, and following Him through Christ Jesus, then we must also behave and be as people who belong to God, especially since the people about whom Jesus was speaking before going into the Lord’s Prayer claimed to be God’s people, but actually in no way resembled Him.
For Thine is the Kingdom…
Wait, what about the last part, “For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever, Amen”? I didn’t include it because it’s not actually in the Scripture — Jesus never actually said it here. It was added later, probably by the church as a way to end the prayer. Or, maybe it was the way that somebody finished it, then passed it along to those under him.
I suppose you could see at as acknowledging the desire to obey God, like when Jesus said, “Not by my will, but yours be done.” There’s a lot in this prayer that’s really difficult to accomplish without God’s help and guidance. Honestly, without Him, I’d say it’s impossible. Either way, though it’s not in the Scripture, it is a nice way to end the prayer.
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