Epilogue
By Robert P. Mills, The Layman, Posted Thursday, Oct 20, 2011
“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray’” (Luke 11:1).
Suggested Scripture readings Luke 11:1-4
Matthew 6:4-13
From time to time within the Church, some have debated whether the Lord’s Prayer is to be prayed word for word as Jesus taught it or, instead, was intended as a pattern for us to follow in composing our own prayers. The options are not mutually exclusive. We can pray the Lord’s Prayer just as Jesus taught it to his disciples and we can pattern our prayers after his model.
Through 24 chapters, we have looked at the details of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. We have looked closely at the phrases, sometimes at the individual words, that constitute this prayer. Here, we will take a step back to view the prayer as a whole, looking at how the order of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer helps us order both our prayers and our lives.
Ordering our prayers and our lives
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, and when we pray our own prayers after this pattern, we begin by calling God “Father.” Long before we ever began to pray, God already was our Father. He remains our Father even when we call on him by other names. Similarly, God’s holiness does not increase at our request.
Rather, praying “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” immediately brings our relationship with God into proper perspective. We are God’s children, not his creator nor his master. He is wholly other than we are. He alone is God. This petition allows us to regain a right sense of our relationship with God. Once we have done this, we are prepared to continue on in prayer.
We do so by praying, “Thy kingdom come.” Just as we did not bring ourselves into being but have God as our Father, so we do not reign over our own lives but have God as our king. As those brought into relationship with God through Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, we are not our own, but have been bought with a price (I Cor. 6:19-20). God is sovereign over all creation. Yet, while God already reigns, his kingdom is not yet fully established. Thus we pray, “Thy kingdom come.”
The first set of three petitions concludes, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” A practical outworking of recognizing God as our Father and king, this request leads us toward bringing our will into alignment with his. For to pray “thy will be done” is implicitly to commit ourselves to learning and doing God’s will.
Asking for all that we need
Having prayed three petitions that properly orient us toward God, we now are freed to ask him to supply our physical and spiritual needs.
Our most basic physical need comes first, “Give us this day our daily bread.” In praying for “our daily bread,” each word is important. Jesus didn’t teach that I’m to pray for food for myself alone, or for a lifetime supply, or for filet mignon. Rather, I am to pray every day for enough basic food to feed myself and those who are with me for the day.
Praying in this way is important for several reasons. First, it reminds us that God, like any good father, wants his children to ask him for what we need. Second, being rightly related to God as our Father means being rightly related to his other children which, in turn, means that selfishness and greed are to have no place in our lives. Finally, this prayer helps us to distinguish between wants and needs. While it’s perfectly permissible to pray for what we want, we are taught to pray for what we need – a distinction many of us struggle with throughout our lives.
Our needs are not limited to the physical realm. Next we are taught to pray, “And forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Although we have been forgiven, we have not yet been perfected. Because we continue to sin, we are to continue to ask God to forgive us. What a great gift God has given in loving us enough to continue to forgive the wrongs we have done to him and to his other children.
The final petition, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” reminds us of one of the great truths of the Christian faith: We cannot save ourselves. To be freed from the powers of sin, death and the devil, we require a salvation that only can come from outside ourselves. Once again, we are blessed with the wonderful knowledge that our Deliverer wants to be in an ongoing relationship with us; a relationship he initiated with our creation; restored with our salvation; and nourishes and nurtures through our prayers, including the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray.
And in the prayer’s benediction, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen,” we end our prayer where we began, by focusing our attention on our God.
Lord, teach us to pray
As God’s children, as Christ’s disciples, we pray because Jesus prayed. We pray because he told us that we are to pray and because he taught us how to pray. We pray because our conversations with God remind us of his love for us, help us grow in our relationship with him, orient us toward his future, and assure us of the truth of all the words he has spoken.
As we noted in the Prologue, the disciples request, “Lord, teach us to pray,” is a prayer every disciple can pray, for “Those who know how to pray ought also to know that at best they are in the process of learning how to pray.”[i]
Lord, teach us to pray. Amen.
For reflection and response
1. What has this study of the Lord’s Prayer taught you about your own prayers?
2. How do Jesus’ disciples, even those who have prayed faithfully and fervently for decades, still benefit from asking Jesus to teach us how to pray?
3. How can you use the Lord’s Prayer to learn more about prayer?
4. How can you use the Lord’s Prayer to help teach others how to pray?
Pray and give God thanks for the gift of prayer and for his willingness to teach us how to pray. You may wish to pray the Lord’s Prayer or to use it as a model for your own prayer.
[i] Gerhard Ebeling, On Prayer (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), p. 43.