Jesus doesn't say anything totally new regarding prayer but he is just reiterating the ingredients of prayer from Jewish tradition - although he gives new richness to everything he says. He takes it further than it had ever gone, but it's still the basic, same sustained truth.
There are many faces of Jesus' prayer. There are many different ways to see this prayer - many different approaches. It unfolds the relationship that we have with God. And it defines the spirit in which we are to pray.
The Paternity of Prayer, Matt. 6:9b
Jesus begins his tremendous pattern for all prayer with a recognition that God is our Father - a title filled with richness and meaning. This phrase is an affirmation of an intimacy with God that is wondrous. Because for most of the world, the god they worship is a very distant, remote and fearful being.
What happens when you know that God is your Father? The Christian concept of God as an intimate Father settles many issues: it removes fear, provides hope, ends loneliness, does away with selfishness, provides infinite heavenly resources, and declares wisdom.
A friendly note:
So, to begin a prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven,� is to indicate my eagerness to come as a child, beloved to a loving father, to receive all that His love can possibly give me.
Hallowed be Thy name
The Priority of Prayer, Matt 6:9b
The phrase puts God in the prior place. Even though He is our loving Father, even though He cares to meet my needs, and even though He has heavenly resources to meet my needs - my first petition is not on my own behalf, it is on His. This is a warning against self-seeking prayer from the very start. God has the priority!
Prayer is ever and always, first and foremost, a recognition of God’s majestic glory and act of submission to it.
The reason that “Hollowed be thy Name, “ comes after “Our Father,� is because it serves as a protection against sentimentalism or overuse and abuse of Abba (Our Father)
To hallow God’s name is to hold His matchless being in reverence, so that you will believe and obey what He says.
To hallow God is to set Him apart from everything common and profane: to esteem, prize, honor and reverence Him; to adore Him as divine and infinitely blesses, the only true God. You cannot speak of God in earthly terms or drag Him down to street talk. God must have titles that are fitting for His power and holiness.
How do we hallow His name?
1. We hallow God’s name when we believe He exists.
2. We hallow God’s name when we know the kind of God He is.
3. We hallow God’s name when we are constantly aware of His presence.
4. We hallow God’s name when we live a life of obedience to Him.
A friendly note:
This prayer is not saying that God’s name be hallowed just in heaven or around the world – it’s saying that God’s name is to be hallowed in us.
Thy Kingdom come
The program of Prayer Matt 6:10a
The Talmud, The Jewish commentary on God, His word and his law said, "That prayer in which there is no mention of the kingdom of God is not a prayer at all". The kingdom is that for which God has planned history- that He may rule and reign and be supreme. He should come first in our prayers. Before you saw blurting into his presence with all your petitions, stop long enough to consider his causes and His kingdom.
How does the kingdom come?
1. Conversion – When we become Christians, Christ reigns in our lives and in that sense He’s brought His rule to this earth.
2. Commitment – Even if Christ is already Lord and ruling in our lives, we must daily affirm that we bow our knees to that rule. This is commitment – the constant submission to His lordship.
3. Consummation (coming again) – one day the heavens
will split wide open, Jesus Christ will descend to earth, plant His feet on the Mount of Olives, and establish His Kingdom.
A friendly note:
When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,� we’re praying that His reign would come in the hearts and minds of the people who don’t know Him; we’re praying that His reign would come in our hearts to the fullness. He’s worthy of it and we’re praying, too, that someday He will come and break the tyranny of sin and set this evil, ugly, cursed world tight. That glorious day is coming; and in the meantime, the kingdom is in our midst as He reigns and rules in the hearts of His people.
Thy will be done
The Plan of Prayer Matt 6:10b
It is essential that the "bottomline" of our prayers is that God's will be done. We should never desire to usurp, change or force his will. Prayer is not to bend God to my will, but to bend my will to God.
“Thy will be done…� does not mean:
1. Bitter resentment – this attitude sees God as a “cosmic
killjoy�, going around raining on everybody’s parade; bitter
resentment that the inevitable is always going to prevail. This is based on a lack of knowledge.
2. Passive resignation – this is an indifferent attitude that
says, “whatever will be, will be.� This is based on a lack of faith – an unbelief that prayer can or will change things.
3. Theological reservation – this attitude is based on a lack of understanding, and seeks the life of prayer.
“Thy will be done…� does mean:
1. God’s will of purpose
2. God’s will of desire
3. God’s will of command
A friendly note:
We come to pray in accord with God’s will. Taking the literal Greek of this simple statement, it says sometimes like this, “You will, whatever you wish to happen, let it happen immediately, as in heaven, so in earth.� That’s the petition! This was the petition of David (Ps 40:8_ and of Christ (Jn 3:35, 4:34, 6:38; Matt 26:39, 42)
Give us this day our daily bread
The Provision of Prayer Matt 6:11
The first three petitions put the whole prayer in its proper perspective- no personal petition is even introduced until God is in the place of priority. We move from these elements related specifically and directly to God, to those which relate to human need.
There are five features of this simple petition:
1. The Substance –“…bread�
“Bread� sums up the basic physical necessities of life – food, clothing and shelter. The verse doesn’t say that we can ask God for the luxuries of life – only the necessities. (Prov 30:8,9)
2. The Source – God
The petition is not simply the prayer of a beggar, though this is one possibility. This petition is also the acknowledgment of all of us that it is God who is the source of every physical provision.
3. The Supplication - Give
God has promised to take care of our physical needs and we have a right to ask Him to fulfill it. (1 Kings 17; Psalm 33:18-19, 34:9-10, 37; Prov 3:9-10, 10:3; Matt 7:7-11)
4. The Seekers – “…us…�
This prayer says, “Give us…� not “give me…� The use of the plural precludes all selfishness in our prayers. “Give us…� embodies the entire Christian community.
5. The Schedule – “…this day…�
In its moderation, it is an expression that says, “One day at a time, Father, I accept your provision.� It stresses the contentment that comes when we live with a day-by-day confidence in God without worrying about the future.
A friendly note:
Prayer even focuses on God as the one who supplies. It acknowledges that He is the source of all our physical needs and teaches us to live one day at a time in the confidence that He will meet our needs.
And forgive us our debts
The Pardon of Prayer Matt 6:12, 14, 15
The focus of verse 12 is on the subject of sin and forgiveness. A subject that everyone needs to face as part of his or her prayer life. The most essential, the most blessed, and the most difficult act that God ever did was to provide man with the forgiveness of sin.
The two aspects of Forgiveness:
1. Judicial forgiveness – this is the forgiveness that God grants to an unregenerate, unredeemed, unsaved individual who puts his faith in Christ. Judicial forgiveness is a settled fact – once and for all.
2. Parental forgiveness – this has to do with the joy of salvation. Under this category of forgiveness, we are not dealing with God as a righteous Judge. We are dealing here with God as a loving father. This is the kind of forgiveness Jesus is talking about here in the Lord’s Prayer.
Just asking…Do we weary God with our repeated confessions?
No, because He delights in mercy. Mic 7:18 says that “God delighteth in mercy.� That’s why in Rom 5:20 says, “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.� God loves to forgive – He’ll forgive as often as you come.
A friendly note:
One of the reasons that you need to continually confess your sins is that you will be constantly reminded what a sinner you are and how constant His forgiveness is. In the midst of that reminder, you will more prone to forgive others. But if you fail to confess your sin, you not only
will lose your intimacy with God, your joy, and your usefulness, but you will find yourself become unforgiving to others – because your not being honest about what God is forgiving in your own life.
And lead us not into temptation
The Protection of Prayer Matt 6: v 13 a
We now move from our physical and spiritual needs to what we might call our moral need. God takes care of our daily bread (physical substance) and He takes care of the sin of our lives, by forgiveness (spiritual substance). And he takes
care of the moral standard of our lives by guiding us away from our sins. Verse 12 deals with our present sins, and 13 deals with our future ones.
This petition is the cry of the human heart that says, "Lord, if you can spare me the trial, do it. But if I have to go into the trial then deliver me from evil potential that is there". The essence of this petition is based on the humility of self-distrust that grows out of the previous petition.
Just asking…would God deliberately lead us into temptation?
God never tempts anybody (Is 1:13). He may allow Satan to bring certain trials (Job), but Satan does the tempting – not God.
A friendly note:
What is this petition saying? It faces the danger of living in a cursed world when we are being battered by evil around us. It confesses our inadequacy to deal with that evil, the weakness of our flesh, and the absolute lack of human resource, and takes into account the fact that we are important. And so it demands protection of a loving Father as we submit to His word.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen.
God's Preeminence Matt 6:13b
This is an echo of 1 Chron. 29:11
There is manuscript evidence that this doxology was not spoken by Jesus at the end of this prayer. We don't know whether he said it or not. But I’ll tell you one thing - its true! Amen? It's a fitting climax for an incredible prayer.
