Author | Seth Newman |
If you are like most any other Christian, you would probably admit that you don’t pray very much and that you should pray more (and I’m just like you). Prayer can be difficult, because we often don’t really know what to pray. Aside from, “Bless this food,” our prayers are generally limited to “God, these are my problems, will you help me with them?” Jesus did not intend for us to just figure out how to pray for ourselves, which is why he taught us exactly how to pray. Matthew 6:9-13 says, “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.’” We should use this prayer as a model for our own prayer, but instead of mindlessly repeating it, we need to understand for ourselves what is being said and pray like Jesus, but with our own words.
The Lord’s Prayer opens with, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” To “hallow” something is to make it holy or sacred. We should open our prayers with praise for who God is and with thanksgiving for what he has done. After giving praise, we still don’t ask for what we need, but say, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This is a complete abandonment of my own will. Knowing God’s will is harder than it sounds, but the Bible is the book that God has given us to tell us his will. If it doesn’t line up with the Bible, it isn’t God’s will. We don’t pray about our own needs until after we have moved ourselves out of God’s position in our own hearts. When we glorify ourselves, we can’t praise God, because we think we are more important than God. Unless we choose to do God’s will, we will do our own, because we think that it is better than God’s. “Give us this day our daily bread,” means, “God, provide what I need for today.” God already knows what you need, and he is a gracious Father who gives his children exactly what is right for them. Next, we should ask God to “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” It is important to ask God for forgiveness in order to remain in a right standing with him and to forgive those who have wronged us. Without doing either of these, we cannot pursue a relationship with God.
The closing request of the Lord’s Prayer is, “Deliver us from evil.” Even though the passage reads, “And lead us not into temptation,” it does not mean that God tempts anyone. James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one,” and 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” We are tempted every day to make choices contrary to God’s will, but we will never experience temptation too great for us. Resisting temptation is an act of trust in God’s will,and that what he says is right.
I hope that this challenges you to make a point to pray through the Lord’s Prayer every day, modeling the way Jesus taught us to pray.