A Study of the Lord’s Prayer
Lesson # 1
Introduction : How to Approach God
Almost all of our prayers begin by rushing into a series of petitions in which we pour out to God our problems, our needs, our irritations. This only reinforces the focus of our attention on what is troubling us and our inability to remedy it. It could be that is at least part of the problem of why we are more depressed and frustrated after we pray than before.
Alan Redpath sums up how many feel even when they have prayed, “When we have finished our praying we can scarcely bring ourselves to believe that our feeble words can have been heard, or that they can have made no difference in the things concerning which we have been praying. We’ve said our prayers but we have not prayed.”[ Victorious Praying: Studies in the Lord’s Prayer ( Grand Rapids: Fleming Revell, 1993) p. 12]
Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer in response to the disciples request, “Lord, teach us to pray?” In fact Jesus gave this prayer twice, once recorded in Matthew (6:9-13) and once recorded in Luke (11-2-4). There was a time lapse of some 18 months between the two occasions.
“In this manner, therefore, pray:Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (10) Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. (11) Give us this day our daily bread. (12) And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.(13) And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” Matt 6:9-13 (NKJV)
“So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.Your kingdom come.Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. (3) Give us day by day our daily bread. (4) And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.” Luke 11:2-4 (NKJV)
There are some who argue that this is not the Lord’s Prayer that the prayer recorded in John 17 more rightful deserves that title. But whether you call this the “Lord’s Prayer,” or the “Disciples Prayer” doesn’t matter much as long as we recognize that it a model for all true prayer. Obviously the Lord’s Prayer was not given to be just be recited as a ritual. It is actually given to us as the Lord’s outline for prayer that is acceptable to God. There is something tremendously important about the way Jesus answered the disciples question, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus’ reply was, “Pray like this” or “When you pray,” say this.” The point is that you only learn to pray by praying.
The Lord’s Prayer was given to show the disciples how to pray, after all that is what they asked, that is how they should go about praying, not just the words they should use. The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer that is to be prayed through.
When a believer prays through the Lord’s Prayer, they will find that they have covered scope of what God wants them to pray.
There is a difference between saying the Lord’s prayer and praying the Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is more often mindlessly repeated than prayed. This particularly ironic because the context in Matthew is verse chapter 6, verses 7 and 8 which warn against the dangers of meaningless repetition. In this command Jesus wants to understand two things. First, he does not want us to repeat any prayer again and again. There is a difference between much talking and much praying.
Secondly, he wants us to know that God does not hear us based on the length of our prayers. Elmer Towns says this way, “The effective prayer is not measured by how loud you pray, or how long you pray, or even if you say the words of the Lord’s Prayer again and again in a repetitious fashion. Your prayer life will be effective it you are sincere (your approach) and if you ask for the right things (what you say).” Towns p. 27
It is the intention of this study to examine Lord’s Prayer as pattern for prayer. We will attempt to understand it by separating it into its individual thoughts and examining them one at a time. It is my hope that the insights that are gained will if we let them, transform our prayer lives as we pray with new confidence and effectiveness.
Before looking at the Lord’s Prayer one petition at a time we need to get an overview. The Lord’s Prayer contains seven petitions; the first three petitions are called the “Thy Petitions” because they begin with the word “thy” and they center on God.
Thy name be hallowed
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
The final set of petitions is called the “Us Petitions,”
Forgive us our debts
Lead us not into temptation
Deliver us from the evil one.
BEGINNING RIGHT – HOW TO APPROACH GOD
We begin our examination of the Lord’s Prayer by looking at the first six English words, “Our Father who art in Heaven.” That is not that we would merely say the words, but that we believe that he is our Father and we would relate to Him as a Father.
One of the problems that can arise in trying to do this is if we ascribe to God the Father the same weaknesses, failings and inconsistencies that we may have seen in our earthly fathers. The word “father” does not arouse the same feeling of warm and happy memories in every mind. Some have had earthly fathers that were harsh and unloving. To a large degree we extent to God the Father, perhaps unconsciously, the same feeling we have or had toward our earthly father. For some learning to see God as their loving heavenly father is not such an easy thing.
The fact remains that Jesus is stating the importance of starting our prayers with the awareness that God is our Father. What Jesus is teaching here is pretty dramatic. The word that Jesus used for Father was not a formal word. It was the common Aramic word with which a child would address his father – the word “Abba”. Of course everyone used the word, but no one under any circumstances used it in connection with God. “Abba” meant something like “Daddy” but with a more reverent touch than we use it today. It meant something like, “Dearest Father.” The fact that God is our “dearest father” is to be foundational awareness in prayer. Paul tells us in Galatians 4:6, “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” (NKJV)
Wrapped up in the expression “our father” is a new dimension in intimate communion with God, the same intimacy that exists between a child and their father is to exist between them and God. The beginning of effective prayer is the recognition that God possesses a father’s heart, a father’s love, a father’s strength and a father’s concern for the best interest of his children.
It is impossible to come to God as our Father except that we are born into his family through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for this very reason that Alan Redpath in his book on the Lord’s Prayer calls this prayer the “Family Prayer,” because it is based on a relationship with God through faith in Christ and can only be uttered by those who are in the family.
This father-child relationship helps us to understand the richness of our spiritual heritage. First, it provides us with a profound sense of being loved. Everett Fullam a missionary to a remote tribe in Nigeria relates the salvation experience of one of the local natives. When he revealed the awesomeness of this new experience with God by saying, “Behind this universe stands one Go, not a great number of warring spirits, as we had always believed, but one God. And that God loves me!”[as quoted in Kent Hughes. Abba Father: The Lord’s Pattern for Prayer (Wheaton, Crossway Books, 1986) pp. 22-23.] I believe that we should all share in the wonder that this man felt that the God of the Universe loves us! It is through this sense of being loved that we can come to truly understand forgiveness and the wholeness that comes through from being loved and forgiven.
The Jewish society to which Jesus spoke thought of God as distant and unapproachable in His Holiness, to be taught that God was the Father was amazingly revolutionary. The problem that many face today is reversed they have so sentimentalized God that they have robbed him of his Holiness. They approach God with flippant familiarity.
“Jesus provides the remedy for both errors with His opening words, ‘Our Father, who art in heaven. ‘Father’ stresses God’s immanence: He is involved in life and is to be intimately approached as Abba. ‘Who art is heaven’ stress the God’s transcendance: He surpasses all that is human; He is sovereign and reigning. In a word, He is our Father and our King.” (Hughes p. 26)
Conclusion
The Lord’s Prayer is a model prayer that is to be prayed through. When a believer prays through the Lord’s Prayer, they will find that they have covered scope of what God wants them to pray. I want to invite you one the adventure of praying through the Lord’s prayer each day.
There are seven results that can expect as a result of praying through the Lord’s Prayer.
1. You will magnify God each day when you pray, “ hallowed be your name.”
2. You will live out the principles of the prayer when you pray “thy kingdom come.”
3. You will receive God’s guidance for the day when you pray, “thy will be done.”
4. You will receive more answers to prayer.
5. You will feel cleansed when you pray, “forgive us our debts.”
6. You will felt victorious as you pray,“lead us not into temptation.”
7. You will sense God’s protection when you pray, “deliver us from the evil one.” [Elmer Towns. Praying the Lord’s Prayer for Spiritual BreakThrough. (Ventura,Calif: Regal Books, 1997)]
