Recently my whole perspective on the Lord’s Prayer has changed. I’m starting to spend more time praying through it for my life and for those around me. I’ve grown in depth of knowledge and understanding of it and I’ve grown in love of it as God’s word.
Yet, I grew up saying the Lord’s Prayer every day in assembly in primary school, and as a kid with no faith, it’s fair to say that especially with no explanation, it may as well have been another poem for speech and drama festivals. That’s where my thoughts on it ended.
At 13/14 I remember an incident with a substitute Religious Education teacher about the Lord’s prayer during a walking debate (you say a statement and one side of the room is strongly agree, the other is strongly disagree, you walk to the side/place that you most agree with). The statement, “The Lord’s Prayer still has meaning for us today” left most of the class walking to 'strongly disagree'. I don’t know if he had a faith but at that point, I still didn’t. My experience was that by saying it every day in assembly throughout primary school, that I had stripped away meaning from the text, again leaving it as just a thing that was said. I still stand by this. That was my experience and at the time it held no significance in my life whatsoever. I don’t know if I’d offended him or any faith that he had but his response of cutting me off midway through my sentence and telling me off for talking rubbish and that I didn’t have a point because it was based in the past will never leave me. I wish I’d been the only person he’d responded to like that. It definitely marred my view of the text, without faith I had no need to read it and in my mind I formed the idea that it was linked with being told off.
Since becoming a Christian, I’d never studied these verses in depth, or even really put that much thought into them, other than knowing that they were the model Jesus gave us to pray. Honestly, even years later I was still stuck in the mindset of not truly understanding it, and not really wanting to because of all the associations I had built around it. But recently hearing a sermon on it and spending time in these verses, it has shed new light, it has inspired me to look at these verses in Matthew and see Jesus, addressing His followers, not an irritated older man, stifling ideas in a place designed for expanding knowledge.
So let’s break it down:
Matthew 6:9-13
'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.'
The passage naturally has in 3 sections:
Intro
“Our Father” - God as a loving father was a new concept to these people, to them God was a lofty and far away, to be feared and reverently worshipped. This verse reminds us of the joyous personal relationship granted to us because of Jesus.
“Our” - shows that we’re part of His people, His family, but this also reminds us of the people in our lives who aren’t yet in this family and can lead us into more intentional praying for them. This is something I’ve found super helpful.
Three concerns to do with God
“Hallowed be…” May honouring and glorifying Him always be our first priority. May His name be lifted high.
“Your kingdom…” Expanding through humans on earth making Him known. This also shows an urgency for those who don’t know Christ and the fact that every day Christ delays His coming, it is a mercy and opportunity for those who don’t yet believe.
“Your will…” This should always be our prayer in every situation. We hope that we will learn God’s will and enact our part on earth. This is super hard, we want our will, our way. We think we have to do it all, but in that, we are directly going against the best option for ourselves.
Three concerns to do with man
“Give us…” We should trust more for the needs of today and less for the needs of the next 10 years. We can look at today by praying that His kingdom come and His will be done. This is a hard concept and one that won’t come easy for many of us but we trust that He is greater, that He provides.
“and forgive…” In placing our lives with God, He writes off a lifetime of sins and debts we could never pay and we base our faith on this, but often the second part is harder; often we are quick to accept that we are forgiven by God but not that we need to forgive others. Ultimately, if we can’t forgive others regardless of the situation, how should we expect to be forgiven by God for sins far worse? This is something I’m really battling with at the minute. Just when I think I’m starting to get somewhere I’m reminded of another hurt. This can feel deafening sometimes but ultimately I know that it’s only hindering my relationship with God, and myself when I know I’m clinging on to it.
“and lead us…” God doesn’t tempt us but allows us to be tempted. This figure of speech shows our dependence on Him for our strength in everything. We ask instead “Lord, lead us into righteousness".
I’ve found that focussing on this text for a few weeks has really been humbling me, to see the joy in the fact that I can never, and should never attempt to do everything myself. In looking more at the daily, rather than semesterly, my work has become much more manageable, something every final year dreams of. My biggest challenge has been in my prayer life, instead of coming to God and bringing my list of things and situations I want done in a certain way, just simply asking for His will to be done, and learning to be content with it, because ultimately it’ll turn out better long game than I could’ve ever imagined.
Take some time now to pray through the Lord’s prayer, and as you do see that as it reads,
We humble ourselves before Him,
Putting His priorities before ours,
Seeing our full dependence on Him for everything we have and need.
Lord may your will be done, in and through all of us.
By: Caitlin Cousins
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