The Lord’s Prayer

I love The Lord’s Prayer.  Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples.
It is brief yet full of meaning. The prayer showed the disciples how to pray and what to pray for.  This is the only prayer Jesus ever taught. It serves as a divine model for our prayers. 
This prayer recited by Christians worldwide is found in the New Testament of the Bible in the books of Matthew and Luke.  The account in Luke’s gospel says “… one of Jesus disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray….”. 

These are the very words of Jesus as recorded in the Bible.
For more information about the Bible click here. For more information about Jesus click here.


Jesus instructions on prayers (note- Jesus words are typed in RED)
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.  And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

The Lord’s PRAYER Matthew 6:9-13

“This, then, is how you should pray: 

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,[a]
but deliver us from evil.[b]

and in some manuscripts this is followed by:

for thine is the kingdom 

and the power 

and the glory forever.

Amen

Footnotes from BibleGateway- 

(a) Matthew 6:13 The Greek for temptation can also mean testing

(b)Matthew 6:23 some late manuscripts say from the evil one,

As a small child I memorized the Lords Prayer that included the doxology above. This version of the Lord’s Prayer is recited by many Christians, especially Protestants.

My favorite memories of this prayer are with my youngest son Dylan.  At bedtime the setting would be quiet and relaxed. He would lay in his bed and one of us would recite the Lord’s Prayer. It was very meaningful to have this time together in prayer using the very words of Jesus!

Think about each verse.
Consider one verse at a time. What is Jesus saying to you?
Clearly the tenets expressed in this prayer by Jesus himself should be our example to follow.

Understand more about each statement in the Lord’s Prayer

1) Our father who art in Heaven  –Matthew 23:9  “And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven”

2) hallowed be thy name  (let your name be kept holy/ treated with reverence) Isaiah 6:3  “holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty” 
For further reading see The Holiness of God at Bible.org

3) thy kingdom come   Some day Jesus will come back, sent by God to set up his kingdom. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. We look forward to that great day.

4) thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  (let us do what God wants done and not what we think is best.)  The 10 Commandments, Romans 12:2

5) Give us this day our daily bread.  (just what you know we need for today, one day at a time, spiritually (nourishment for our souls), mentally and physically. 
We are to depend upon God for our provision and all our needs) 
Matthew 4:4  Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone,but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
John 6:45-51

6 ) And forgive us our trespasses, as we a forgiven those who trespass against us.  
(our trespasses mean our Sins). Galatians 5:13-26
We must be forgiving people in order to love our neighbor as ourselves.
God gave his only Son to die for our sins. 
When we accept Jesus and our Lord and Savior we are forgiven by God for all our wrongdoing /sins (omission and commission)
see How to Receive Eternal Salvation Say “Yes” to Christ 
“For my Father’s will is the everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life..”

7 ) And lead us not into temptation, (which is defined as “a desire to do something,esp. something wrong or unwise”) 
God does not tempt us. Dwelling on our own desires do the job.  See 1 Corinthians 10:13
Matthew 26:41   “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”.  
James 1:13-15  

8 ) but deliver us from evil  (we are asking for protection from Satan and the spiritual forces of evil and for God’s help in our personal fight against our own sin  for we are weak but he is strong)  John 17:15  James 4:7   The Armor of God -Ephesians 6:10-18 

May the Lord Bless you today.
To God be the Glory!
God is Love
The 10 Commandments

note-The Lord’s Prayer is also called the Pater Noster or Our Father.