The Lord's Prayer

So, in the book of Matthew Jesus tells us that "this is how we should pray" (Matthew 6:9) and proceeds with "The Lord's Prayer". I've had this memorized for years but finally decided to break this down as best I can to find out why we're supposed to pray like this:

"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.

First of all, our Father. Not my Father, not your Father, not any one other person's Father. Our Father. Why? Because He isn't just mine, yours, or his. He is ours. He's the God of me, you and him. He's the God of the Universe. He is our Father. Not only is this showing His almighty, God-of-the entire universe power, but it's also showing His personality. He is ours, He is for us, He is something we all have. Not is He only our God, He's our Dad. Nice.

Our Father in heaven... where else? With us? I think being in heaven is another way we're making sure we pay our respects. Sure, God is with us (Emmanuel) but He's also somewhere we aren't yet. He's in heaven. He's up there with the baton, calling the shots. He's not only in control, but His spot up in heaven gives us the hope to get there too.

Hallowed be your name: Hallow is a word usually used as a verb, meaning "to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate, to venerate".[1] The adjective form hallowed, as used in The Lord's Prayer, means holy, consecrated, sacred, or revered.[2] (from Wikipedia, of course). So why do we say this? Why do we need to make holy or sacred? Doesn't He already know that He's holy and sacred? Of course He does. But do we? I think this is for us, not Him. We're reminding ourselves of His holiness.

Your kingdom come is a poly-fold statement. Jesus talks a lot about the kingdom, especially in the parables (check Matthew and Luke, particularly). "What is the kingdom?" could be answered in a number of ways, for the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, of all things. What the kingdom is not is an actual landscape, but rather a domain. Luke 17:21 tells us that: 21nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within[a] you." So, may the mustard seed be within you? It actually makes more sense than it sounds. I think it's more along the lines of, may the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, be inside each person in this world. May we all have that mustard seed (or any of the "things" that the kingdom is) inside us, and then may Your willbe done on earth as it is in heaven. Again, this is giving us a glimpse of what heaven is like. Apparently, God's will is always done in heaven. Hey, it's always nice to have that reassurance.

Give us today our daily bread represents oh so much more than bread. Heck, even if we're literally talking about bread, bread itself is pretty symbolic. My first thought was that this means "feed us every day" which is a fair prayer to pray. Everyone likes to eat, right? But it's awfully coincidental that Jesus used bread to represent His body, broken for us and that Jesus is the bread of life. So, we pray that God provides us with food and our other bodily necessities every day. We also pray that we might daily be reminded of the bread of life that we have and may take in communion with the body of Christ.

Okay, forgive us our debts is pretty self-explanitory. We've been told we're supposed to confess and repent. It's a given. What happens when we confess and repent? We're forgiven. You could replace the word "debt" with "trespasses" "sin" "problems" "gripes" "complaints" "thoughts" "lives" and basically you could insert whatever it is that is separating you from God into the blank, and it works.

I really like this next part: as we have forgiven our debtors. What would be the point in telling God that we already forgave our debtors? Well, there wouldn't be. That's why we aren't telling God anything. Keeping in mind that prayer doesn't mean "telling", I think we're praying and asking God to help us "forgiven" our debtors. I think it's important that we're "forgiven" them in the past tense, not asking God to help us to "someday forgive them in the future" or "forgive them right now". We're praying to God that we already did forgive them, no second thoughts about whether or not we wanted to or whether or not we thought they deserved our forgiveness. After all, He keeps telling us to forgive them as He has forgiven us.

Lead us not into tempation is a tricky one. We already know from James that God doesn't tempt us. One of my favorite verses is 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you may stand up under it". This is significant to our regular daily prayers because here we're asking God to help us be more like Him. We're saying that we want Him to keep us on the straight-narrow path. Then we're saying deliver us from the evil one just to emphasize that we're on God's side. We want to be more like Him and we need His help to keep us that way.

So, if you're stuck on your prayers or something, try this out. It's pretty cool. It's interesting to say this and then think of how each of these words or verses applies directly to the now of your life, like Jesus had that in mind all along. Oh wait, He did.