The Lord's Prayer, also sometimes called the Disciples' Prayer, is found in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4. Countless people throughout history have memorized it, and it is often recited corporately. It can serve as a useful guideline for our prayers as it emphasizes God’s holiness, our kingdom mindset, our submission to God’s will, supplication for our needs, and confession of sins. It’s important that if we recite the prayer, we focus on the meaning of it rather than just repeating it rotely. Scripture warns that rote prayer is unacceptable (Isaiah 29:13; Proverbs 28:9). Our love for the Lord should be central in our prayers (1 Corinthians 13:1). Rather than view the prayer as a sort of magical formula, it’s better to see it as a model, as it contains all major elements of a godly prayer.
When we examine each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer, we can see the way to model it for our own prayers.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”: Jesus begins by acknowledging to whom He is praying. God is our Father, meaning that He cares for us. God resides in heaven, implying that He is above us (Isaiah 55:8-9). We hallow His name, meaning we declare that it is holy. This opening line, then, recognizes that God is both our Father and our King. He loves us, and He is far greater than we.“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”: Because God cares for us and is greater than we, we trust that His way is better and pray that His will be accomplished on earth.“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors”: We look to God
for our daily needs—spiritual, practical, relational, emotional, and physical (Matthew 6:33).Our biggest need is to be forgiven. Without God's forgiveness, we are dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1). With His forgiveness, we are made alive in Christ (Colossians 2:13). Because we are forgiven, we are called to forgive. Forgiveness restores our fellowship with God and with others. With forgiveness, we can obey the command to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-40).“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”: God will not lead us into temptation (James 1:13).
We pray to be aware of the evil that tempts us and to readily see the escape He has provided (1 Corinthians 10:13). Some say that "temptation" in this verse may also refer to trials. In this sense, we are asking God to keep us from harm.The King James Version of the Bible includes: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." We can conclude our prayers with a reminder of God's sovereign control, His great power, and that life is for His glory.When we model this prayer, we recognize who God is, ask for His will for the earth, ask for His provision in our lives, seek forgiveness, seek protection, and seek continued obedience. We praise God for who He is, submit to Him, and make requests based on our knowledge of Him.
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