Matthew 6:9-15

Matthew 6:9-15 NIV

“This, then, is how you should pray: 

'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 
 Give us today 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 the evil one.’ 

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

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This prayer is well known. The church calls it The Lord's Prayer. My tradition prays this prayer corporately every Sunday. The liturgical version made a few changes and additions. So if you are used to praying the Lord's Prayer in worship or grew up doing so, you may sense the awkward differences between what you are accustomed to and the actual scripture.

There's only one other reference to the Lord's Prayer and that is in Luke.

Luke 11:2-4 NIV

He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread.
 Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
 And lead us not into temptation.’ ”

You can see significant differences between the two. For instance Matthew says forgive us our debts, which could be interpreted as a financial debt to another, while Luke use sins.

Luke leaves off the intercession to deliver is from the evil one. One might find the language archaic to mention the evil one, so our liturgy simply says deliver us from evil. It's more general than personified. But the New Testament isn't embarrassed to speak of the devil. The plea is to be protected, even rescued from the schemes of our enemy.

The form of the prayer is as follows.

Adoration
Alignment
Supplication
Confession & Atonement
Deliverance

First we acknowledge to whom we are praying, our hallowed Father in heaven. Allow your heart to worship God. Give God the praise that is due him.

Secondly align your life with God's mission. Dedicate yourself to God's redemptive work in the world. Allow His will to be your will. Work His will in your life and on this earth. Be specific about what you're going to do so that your life is a reflection of God's love in action.

After adoration and alignment comes supplication. This is to ask the Lord to supply your needs. Be sure to pray for needs, not wants. James warns of self seeking prayers.

James 4:2b-3 NIV

You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

The apostle Paul says we don't know how we ought to pray, but the Holy Spirit prays for us in sighs to deep for words. (Rom 8:26) He prays in accordance with God's will for our needs!

Romans 8:27 NIV

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

So when you ask God for something, do so with right motives. Seek to do God's will as a good steward of what the Lord gives you. When you are trustworthy of what you have, you will be entrusted with more.

In confession and atonement, we pray for forgiveness remembering Christ's atoning death upon the cross. His blood washes away our sins. Be specific about your sins, what you should not have done and what you should've done but didn't. Jesus warns us not to take the Lord's mercy for granted. If we want forgiveness, then we need to be forgiving.

Jesus illustrated the idea that we must forgive others from the heart if we expect God to forgive us. He told of a servant who owed a great deal of money to his master, but couldn't pay. So his master threw him in jail. The servant begged for mercy and his master showed compassion. But that same servant was owed a small amount in comparison to his debt, but the servant showed no mercy. He threw his debtor in prison. So when the master learned of this, the unmerciful servant met his doom.

Unforgiveness is a prison of our own making. We cannot reap the benefit of the mercy shown to us in the cross of Christ, if we harbor resentment and do not forgive others. Unforgiveness is a block to God's transforming love and grace. So forgive your debtors just as God has forgiven you.

Finally pray for deliverance from whatever evil befalls you. Ask for wisdom to see when the devil is leading you down the wrong path. Become aware of destructive and selfish motives. Put on the full armor of God and in His mighty power you can stand against any evil.

The Lord's Prayer serves as a model. There are other models for prayer worthy of our attention, but this is the one model given by our Lord to His disciples. Adapt it to your prayer life and grow in grace.