Meditations in the Lord’s Prayer
"AND it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Luke 11:1-4
"Lord, teach us to pray" are the words of Jesus' disciples, addressed to their
Savior and Teacher after they witnessed Him praying (v. 1). We too would do
well to look to Jesus for instruction in prayer and consider Jesus' response, "for
we know not what we should pray for as we ought" (Rom.
"Our Father which art in heaven." We are priviledged to address our prayers to God the Father; and, even though we are sinners deserving of His wrath and punishment, we can call Him, "Our Father," because Jesus paid in full for our sins when He suffered and died upon the cross. And He is "our Father which art in heaven." No petition is too large or too small for Him to grant unto us.
"Hallowed by Thy name." Of course, God's name is already holy; but we here ask that we honor His name and keep it holy in our lives by being faithful to His Word in our doctrine and in our life. What could bring more honor to God's name than to have those who profess His name hold to the truth and live their lives accordingly. On the other hand, if we profess to be Christians and do not submit to His Word and live according to it, we disgrace His holy name among us. O God, grant that we honor Your holy name with our lives!
"Thy kingdom come." Again, we know that God's kingdom will come even without our prayer; but we ask that God's kingdom would come to us--that we would hear His Word and trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins and for life everlasting, and we pray that He would graciously keep us trusting in our Savior until the end and bring us safely into His eternal, heavenly kingdom. O gracious Father, grant us a place in Thy kingdom!
"Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." God's holy will will be accomplished, for he rules over all things; but we pray that His good and gracious will, which is done in heaven, would be carried out in our lives also--that we would trust in Christ our Savior and honor and glorify God's holy name in our lives. Dear Father in heaven, graciously grant that we believe Thy Word, trust in Jesus our Savior, and live our lives in accord with Thy perfect will!
"Give us day by day our daily
bread." We know that it is God
who provides for the daily needs of all His creatures. In this petition, we ask
our heavenly Father to bless our labors and to provide us with all that we need
for our earthly lives. From this prayer, we see that God would have us to trust
Him "day by day" to care for and provide for us. As God
provided enough bread, each day, to sustain the children of
"And forgive us our sins; for we also
forgive every one that is indebted to us." As sinful human beings in a sin-filled world, we are
in continual need of God's mercy and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. For Jesus'
sake--because Christ Jesus went to the cross and shed His holy and precious
blood for our sins--God is merciful to us and does forgive us all our sins (cf.
1 John 1:7--2:2). For this, we can be so thankful! And since God has forgiven
us our great debt of sin for Christ's sake, we also forgive all who sin against
us (cf. Matt.
"And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil." We know that God does not tempt us to sin or commit evil, but we ask Him to lead us in such a way through our earthly lives that we do not fall into temptation and are not overcome by evil. The devil, the world, and our own evil flesh would lead us into every kind of sin and wickedness; so we pray that our dear Father in heaven would not let us give way to temptation and sin, and that He would deliver us from all evil by bringing us to repent of our sins, trust in Christ our Savior, and follow Him into everlasting life. Almighty and merciful Father, grant that we fall into no temptation, and deliver us from the assaults of the evil one that we might obtain life eternal through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Still Small Voice