In Matthew 6:1-13, Jesus gives us the “Lord’s Prayer“. But what was His intention? Was it a formulaic prayer, a rote prayer to be mindlessly muttered? Or did he have deeper, more intentional purposes behind his words?
I believe that is we truly grasp Jesus’ intention in vv.5-13, it will help us in our praying. Because I believe a right understanding will teach us how to pray for the rest of our lives. It will help us discern when we have prayed and if we have prayed the right things. You see, vv.5-13 are a model prayer for us, a structure for our prayers. Not so much exactly what to pray, but a pattern of prayer.
However, before we explore the pattern of prayer Jesus gives us, let us follow him as he clears up some wrong thinking about prayer.
Firstly, verses 1 and 5-6, tell us that God doesn’t reward prayers prayed to impress. Jesus tells us not to pray like the hypocrites, don’t parade a form of righteousness before people simply to impress them. This is not a condemnation of public prayer, far from it, but rather, a question of motive. Our goal when we pray is not that people are awed by our eloquence, but that they pray with us and get caught up in God and his glory. One of the best ways to discern whether you are tempted into this trap is to make sure we are praying far more in private than we do in public!
Secondly, verses 7-8 tell us that God doesn’t reward prayers that seek to manipulate him. Jesus tell us not to pray like the gentiles. The Gentile pagans had the idea that if you manipulated your deity, if you made enough sacrifices and offerings, if you prayed with zeal and fervor, then that particular ‘god’ would be impressed and be forced to hear and answer.
But our God is THE Sovereign God and a God of grace. He answers, not because we have worked ourselves up into a lather and he feels somehow obligated, but when it is according to His will. Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying Jesus is outlawing persevering in prayer, and that we should just prayer once and never pray or think about that particular thing again. In fact, Luke 18 commends people people who come to the Father again and again in prayer. What I am saying is that we should not think that if we pray enough we can somehow twist God’s arm and force him to act on our behalf. That would be erroneous!
In verse 9, Jesus begins to outline how we should pray. He begins by drawing our attention to the fact that we pray to ‘Our Father in heaven‘. We pray to a Father, a Father who chose us and redeemed us and reconciled us through sacrificing his own son, adopting us into his family. He is also ‘Our Father in heaven’ which is designed to protect us from over-familiarity. God is NOT my buddy, my pops! He is a Father in heaven. A Holy King. So verse 9 captures the relationship we have with God, a close Father-Child relationship of acceptance, love, protection and provision, but also highlights kingly glory and majesty.
I’m going to break the rest of the “Lord’s Prayer” down into 2 parts to help us benefit from it. My hope in doing this is to help us see the pattern of prayer as establishing our concerns in God’s concerns.
1. Pray God’s Concerns for His Glory.
In verses 9-10 there are 3 requests that form one petition to God. The context of this petition and these requests is that they might come to fruition “…on earth as it is in heaven.“.
a. “Hallowed Be Your Name”
As I mentioned in a previous post, in Jesus day someone’s “name” spoke of their person and character. So when we pray for God’s name to be hallowed we are requesting that we might recognise him and treat him as His name deserves. That we would grow in our awe, reverence and respect for his person and character and revere him as Holy, powerful, just, merciful, lovely, etc.
b. “Your Kingdom Come”
Kingdom implies a king! Someone who rules and reigns. God. When we pray for his kingdom we are not thinking about a geographical location but rather that we would grow in our condition of submission to the king. That we would bow our knee before Him and acknowledge him everything as our Sovereign master and Saviour. That we would live differently in light of his kingly rule over us. We pray that others (unbelievers) would come to recognise God as King and bow their knee in submission to Him and confess him as Lord and Saviour, to the glory of God.
c. “Your Will Be Done”
The Sovereign God has a plan and purpose for his creation and for each of our lives. We pray that we would seek out His will in his word and humbly obey. That he would grant us wisdom and guidance, and tha we would trust God for his power to change and grow.
3 interlocking requests. One petition. That people, starting with ourselves, will recognise God, his nature and character, respond in acknowledging Him as King over their life and willing submit to his kingly rule and will for them and live for his glory.
Many times my prayers begin with what I need. Perhaps an awareness of sin that leads me to pray, “Oh God, forgive me.” or an awareness of what I lack or think I need, “Oh God, come and give me what I want!“. But rightly understanding this opening section of the Lord’s Prayer and the pattern Jesus institutes should lead me to begin by praying about God’s concerns for His glory, for His kingly rule and will to be done – in my life and on earth as it is in heaven.
2. Pray God’s Concerns for the Care of His People.
You and I are fragile, frail people. We may think that we are healthy and full of vitality and life, but James 4:14 reminds us we are just a mist that appears for a while and then vanishes! We aren’t the people we think we are! And we need help. Daily. Prayer is an acknowledgemetn of our need of God, our proclamation of daily dependence upon him for life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25).
Our prayer life is a gauge of how much we depend on God. Prayer is an act of humility and dependent trust. If we know we need God, we pray. If we don’t pray, its rooted in pride and self-sufficiency.
Notice how in this second section of the Lord’s prayer the words switch from “YOUR” (name, kingdom, will) to “OUR” (sins, daily bread, temptations). The pattern now moves to praying God’s concerns for the care of his people. Again there are 3 requests.
a. “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
Daily bread here represents all the necessities of life. This is perhaps hard for us to pray because most of us have enough food in our cupboards and freezers for a whole month! We have no need to worry! But we must pray for our daily bread. It is an acknowledgment of our dependence upon God for our lives. We kid ourselves if we think what we have is done to our own hard work and ingenuity! All we have is from the good hand of our good and generous and gracious God. Our house, car, food, clothes and job to pay for it all. He provides. And the reality is it could all be gone in a day. Look at the story of Job. So out of dependency and humility we pray for God to provide, and continue to provide, for us.
b. “Forgive Us Our Debts”
Sin creates a debt, a debt against God, punishable by death. But the gospel changes that. Our punishment has been taken by Christ, and we have been set free. Yet, we must go daily to the Father and humbly confess our sins and seek His grace to put that sin to death and change.
Yet, Christ also links our forgiveness to the forgiveness of others. What does he mean? I don’t believe that he is teaching that God’s forgiveness of us is somehow conditional upon my works towards others. Forgiveness of my sin is because of the free gift of the gospel. I think He means that if we truly trust in what Christ has done for us we will quickly forgive others. The sincerity of our hearts and our repentance before God is revealed by how we respond to the sin of others.
As John Loftness, pastor of Solid Rock Church , in Maryland, USA, says, “If we are unforgiving that is a sign of a lack of true repentance before God and any confession to God in that spirit is fake! Confession is real when it is done in humility, when it is done recognising that the greatest sins I’m aware of are sins I have committed against God.”
So we pray searching our own hearts, seeking grace to change and forgive.
c. “Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil”
This is not a prayer for a pressure-free, suffering-free life, but rather asking God to prvide grace and strength in the midst of trials and during times of suffering and temptation. It is not, “Lord, keep all the problems out of my life“. God doesn’t work that way. He uses trials to refine us. But it is a prayer that pleads, “Lord, give me grace, strengthen me, provide a means of escape to come out of this temptation I’m facing.”
John Stott writes: “Perhaps we could paraphrase the whole request as ‘Do not allow us to be so led into temptation that it overwhelms us, but rescue us from the evil one.’ So, behind these words that Jesus gives us to pray are the implications that the devil is too strong for us, that we are to weak to stand up to him, but that our heavnely Father will deliver us if we call upon him.”
The pattern of prayer: First praying God’s concerns for his glory, then praying his concerns for the care of his people. If we pray like this we will know how to pray, what to pray and when you are done praying.
In the next post, I plan on developing some further thoughts on the content of our prayers.
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