The Lord's Prayer Explained
Every Christian should commit the Lord’s Prayer to memory.
At one point, Jesus’ disciples came to Him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And He did just that:
“[Jesus] 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).
This is the Lord’s Prayer.
Notice This About the Lord’s Prayer
“Hallowed be Your name”
We can interpret the word “hallowed” as “praise,” “set apart,” or “honored.” Jesus begins the Lord’s prayer by glorifying the Father. And when you’re praying, you should do the same. Glorify God before you take your personal needs to Him and simply acknowledge His greatness; if you have a big God, you have relatively small problems.
The Psalmist said, “Magnify the Lord with me. . . let us exalt His name together” (Psalm 34:3 NKJV). Do that in your prayer life.
“Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
Before you dive deeper into your ask, whether for yourself or someone else, tell God you want His will. With these words, you’re telling God that if what you’re about to pray is somehow outside of His will, you want Him to please overrule it. God’s will is always better than our own will.
“Give us day by day our daily bread”
We are taught that we need to pray daily for God’s provision in our lives. For the first century Jew, bread was a staple in their diet. Each meal pretty much included it, it was essential.
But when the Bible speaks of our daily bread, it’s not just speaking of that particular food item, it’s speaking of food in general. It’s really saying, “Lord, give me all the food I need” and, in effect, “give me all the clothing, housing, and all the things I need in life.”
It is really a phrase that speaks of God’s provision in general. It is saying we need to ask God to provide for our needs. He wants us to come before Him and request things, “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2 NKJV).
“And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us”
Just as we need daily bread/provision, we need daily forgiveness for our sins. Some people might think there is no sin they need forgiveness from, but trust me, you have sinned today. We all have. The Bible says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. . .” (1 John 1:8 NKJV).
Thoughts, attitudes, actions. . . somehow, we have sinned. This is not to make us feel bad, but to point out we must ask for forgiveness on a regular basis.
And, as we receive God’s forgiveness, we should also extend it to others. According to Jesus, our generous and constant forgiveness of others should be the natural result of our understanding of the forgiveness that God has extended to us. Simply put, forgiven people should be forgiving people.
If you fail to forgive, you bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30–32).
“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one”
Here we are asking God to guide us so we will not move out of His will and unnecessarily place ourselves in the way of temptation. We are saying, “Lord, do not let me be tempted above my capacity to resist”—and you will not, of course:
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV). Loose paraphrase: God will never give you more than you can handle.
The Lord’s Prayer Is a Model Prayer
This is the Lord’s Prayer, a model for all prayer. We approach this awesome God, worship Him, ask for His will in our lives, admit our sins to Him, turn from our sin, forgive others, and stay out of the way of temptation.
What a privilege prayer is.
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