Praying To God: Our Father

"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 (ESV)

This is one of the most well known passages in the Bible. People recite what is commonly known as "The Lord's Prayer," as easy as they quote John 3:16 or any other passage of Scripture. Matthew Henry calls this Jesus' method for prayer and over the next several posts I would like to break this method down to see what all I can learn from it. But before I do, I would like to address a common misunderstanding concerning this prayer.

A popular site for prayer says this about the "Lord's prayer";

"The Lord's prayer is a very important Prayer. It was given by Jesus in Matthew 6:9-14 ("This is how you should pray," He said). It praises the Lord and covers everything we need in this life and to attain eternal happiness. Pray it every day, and may God bless you in every way."

The most common misunderstanding regarding this passage is that it was given as a prayer to be recited. Some go as far as saying that it's some magical prayer and by reciting it God will bless you. But that is far from the truth. If we examine the wording used in the Greek, we get a clearer picture of what was meant when Jesus said, "Pray like this:"

Houtos oun humeis proseuchesthe

 

1. Houtos: In this manner



2. Oun: then, therefore

3. proseuchesthe: to offer prayers, to pray

4. humeis: you

A literal translation would be, "In this manner, therefore, you are to pray."

The wording used here isn't, "this is what you are to pray," but, "in this way you are to pray." This prayer was never meant for anything other than to be a framework for us to build our own prayers to the Father. To add anything else is to miss out on the greatest lesson on prayer. In the coming weeks I hope to break down this prayer so that I can fully understand what Jesus was teaching, and what the Holy Spirit is still teaching me concerning this method of prayer.

Until then, I leave you with the words of Charles Spurgeon;

"Let none despise this prayer; it is matchless, and if we must have forms of prayer, let us have this first, foremost, and chief; but let none think that Christ would tie His disciples to the constant and only use of this. Let us rather draw near to the throne of the heavenly grace with boldness, as children coming to a father, and let us tell forth our wants and our sorrows in the language which the Holy Spirit teaches us."