The Lord’s Prayer
“So He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.’” Luke 11:2-4 NKJV
Prayer is the foundation of our walk with Christ, and when we unite to pray the Lord’s prayer, we are joined by Christians around the world seeking communication with our Father in heaven. The disciples sought out Jesus’ insight on prayer and “The Lord’s Prayer,” as it is known today, was the result of that inquiry. In this short prayer, Jesus unpacked a lot of truth’s about God and our lives on earth; so let us delve a little deeper into its meaning.
Jesus starts the prayer by first addressing God. He addresses him as “Our Father in heaven.” With this we acknowledge that God is our creator, therefore, he is our Father, but it also establishes a relationship, because our Father will always have our well being in mind, and we can come to him with any request. He is in heaven, unlike the man made gods that were created on earth and stayed on earth, our Father reigns in his throne in heaven, watching over us every day.
“Hallowed be Your name.” Other translations say: “Holy be Your name.” To proclaim God’s name “holy” is to give it honor and respect. We are proclaiming that we will honor and respect God’s name. In order to do this, we must live honorable and respectful lives, but we need God’s help and sanctification. We are unable to live a purely honorable life on our own flesh, but when we surrender our life to Christ, and vow to make His name holy, our inequities are covered by his blood and we follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is heaven.” We live for the day that the book of Revelations becomes fulfilled, and when Christ will come to earth to bring God’s kingdom. Jesus proclaimed that none of us know when this will happen, only the Father knows. But with this part of the prayer, we pray that His kingdom would rule here on earth as he rules in heaven. The message translation says this well: “set the world right.” We pray that his justice would reign on earth; justice unequal to the earthly justice that we deliver.
“Give us day by day our daily bread.” This line might seem out of place to most of us in the United States, but it is such an important line to the Judean world at the time and to most third world countries today. Those of us in the United States look at our pantries and see plenty of food to eat, but those in impoverished states struggle for their daily sustenance. God wants us to rely on him for everything we need. During the time of the Exodus, God provided manna to the Israelites as they wandered the desert. Today, we live in a world that is in dire need of “God’s manna,” the living word of God, so that we will be sustained beyond our earthly sustenance.
“And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” Jesus spoke many times about forgiveness, and even implored that at the time of offering at the temple, if we needed to forgive our brother, we were to leave our offering at the temple and resolve our issue with our brother. This is because forgiveness is an affair of the heart. When we don’t forgive, we allow bitterness and hate to take ahold of our heart allowing a back door for the enemy to attack. This part of the prayer should be a reminder to all of us, to ponder on who we need to forgive today, and remember that God forgives our sin by the blood of Christ.
“And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.” This line can be confusing to some, as we ponder why would God lead us to be tempted? This is sometimes better understood by reading some of the other versions. The MSG translation says, “keep us safe from ourselves and the devil.” It is our flesh that leads us to temptation, not God. It is our flesh that is tempted to open up that browser to view pornography, not God. It is our flesh that leads to drink excessively or do drugs, not God. But we must remember that God does deliver us from evil by giving us a way out. There is always a choice, do God’s will, honoring him with our choices, or to do the will of our flesh, reducing us to shame and regret.
The Lord’s prayer comes in many translations, but always leads to just one meaning, to honor God’s name with our lives while we surrender to His will daily. Starting our day with the Lord’s prayer opens up communications with God, it starts the day with our hearts turned to God, and it reminds us that we can’t do this on our own.
Lastly, the Lord’s Prayer prepares our heart to share the good news of the gospel with everyone we meet. We have a good Father, who forgives our sins and iniquities by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross He offers us the gift of the Holy Spirit when we proclaim that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, resurrected and is now at the right hand of the Father. He offers us everlasting life in His love. He accepts us for who we are and only asks for us to proclaim the gospel to the world.
