The Lord’s Prayer
Matthew 6.9
Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is 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 do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’
Note that Jesus said “Pray in this way” not pray this prayer. Use this as a template for your own prayers. Jesus said “when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do,”
God is a creator who loves variety, He made us all individuals so He expects our prayers will all be different and stamped with our own personality
The prayer starts with a declaration of who God is ,where He lives and our acknowedgement of how mighty He is! It continues with a cry for Jesus to return soon and that His will be done on earth. It then pleads for provision for our daily living and as Jesus is the Living Bread then for spiritual refreshing. We ask to be forgiven our debts and in some versions trespasses or sins and that we would forgive others in return. The next is to keep us from giving in to temptation and setting us free from times we inadvertingly get into areas we can’t escape from ourselves. We then finish with praise.
After Jesus had told them the prayer He reinforced the necessity of forgiveness. Matthew 6.14 For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
We also read in Matthew 6.6
But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
We shall discus prayer in a seperate blog later.
