How We Learn to Pray – Pt. 3

The Bible recounts for us an occasion when a disciple asks JESUS to teach them how to pray and He responded with what is commonly known as, The LORD’s Prayer. This incident in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11 reads as follows:

Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Verses 1-4)

Unpacking “The LORD’s Prayer”

Many Bible commentators agree that this short prayer is not intended for repetition as is but contains essential elements for the prayers of everyone who claims to be a believer and a child of GOD:  

• Father, hallowed be your name – we declare the Father and His NAME to be holy, mighty and powerful, deserving of our greatest respect and reverence and recognizing His authority in our lives and over everything in Heaven and on earth. (“Who is like you among the gods, O Lord—glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, performing great wonders? Exodus 15:11)
• Your kingdom come. – we recognize CHRIST’s second coming as LORD and KING to establish His Kingdom on earth and our future home. We tell our Father that we look forward to and desire His world to come more than we love and desire this present world and its trappings. (Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 1 John 2:15) 
• Give us each day our daily bread, – here we accept that we are dependent solely on our Father’s daily provision, that we are not self-sufficient, and that GOD the Father is the source of all that we are and have. (The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it…Psalm 24:1); (He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! Psalm 103:5)
• …and forgive us our sins, – we ask our Father to forgive our sins because we love Him and want Him to be delighted in us. Sin separates us from our Father; the Bible tells us that His attitude toward sin is hostility, disgust, and utter dislike. When we confess and repent of sin we are forgiven. (You who love the Lord, hate evil! Psalm 97:10)
• for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us – we must admit that both the saved and unsaved are capable of wrong-doing; we hurt people and they hurt us. But we must obey the Father’s command to forgive as we need forgiveness. (Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Colossians 3:13)
• And lead us not into temptation – here we are petitioning GOD for strength to deal with temptation at its roots, before it gets a foothold in our lives and become full-blown sin. We are not asking GOD to stop tempting us to sin, as He never does. We know our own weaknesses so we must bring them to the Father openly and honestly and ask for His help. (And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. James 1:13-15)

When JESUS finished teaching the LORD’s Prayer, He tells the disciples a parable to emphasize and demonstrate to them, and to us now, how and why prayer ought to be a constant in our lives.

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. Luke 18:1

To be continued…

Prayer and Thanksgiving: Holy and righteous Father, our LORD and KING. We are so grateful that YOU are teaching us how important prayer is to our lives. Thank you for the simplicity of the LORD’s Prayer which helps us to remember that YOUR name must be glorified above all else; that because YOUR holiness is exalted above all your attributes YOU cannot abide sin. Thank YOU for your faithfulness in forgiving our sins as soon as we confess them to you and for teaching us about forgiving others. Thank you for CHRIST JESUS and our access to righteousness, grace and mercy through HIM. Thank you for keeping us from evil and providing our spiritual and worldly needs daily. Thank you for being for us and not against us so that we have a future with YOU and hope for eternal life. YOU are a good, good Father to WHOM belong all dominion, all power and all glory, for ever and ever. We pray and ask all things in the precious Name of Jesus Christ our LORD, the NAME above all names. Amen!

Always by God’s Word and prayer,

Cecile