The Lord’s Prayer
Being fully man and fully God, one could deduct that Jesus didn’t need to pray. However, Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer. Perhaps prayer was a mean of his continuous relationship with the Father (with the glory that I had with you before the world existed – John 17:5), as well as a mean to follow the Father’s will (For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me – John 6:38).
The disciples must have figure out that prayer was an important part of Jesus’s ministry. As a result, they asked Him to teach them how to pray. It is in this context that Jesus taught them what we know as ‘the Lord’s Prayer’.
Pray then like this: “Our Father 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 lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. – Matthew 6:9-13
The Lord’s Prayer is meant to be a model for us to follow when we pray to God. It is:
- A guideline for daily prayer
- Jesus modeled and taught His disciples about the importance of prayer.
- Luke 5:16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
- Luke 18:1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
- His followers were very aware of the importance of prayer
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18 pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
- It was not meant to be repeated over and over without an intentional understanding of its contents. Jesus himself alerted about this just before teaching them how to pray:
- Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
- Jesus modeled and taught His disciples about the importance of prayer.
- Simple
- It doesn’t have to be lengthy.
- No impressive words required.
- Available to everyone.
- From its contents, we can get an understanding of the kingdom of God.
- It shows us who God is.
- It shows me who I am.
- It shows me who other people are.
- what they mean to God.
- what they should mean to me.
- It shows us God’s plan.
- It shows us what we can expect from God.
- It shows us what God expects from us
If Jesus gave it as a model, it is because it works. It worked for him, so it will work for us.
In our next blog, we will go over each section of the prayer in more details.
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