The Lord's Prayer

It has interested me to take this most-important and exemplary prayer, which our Lord Jesus offered as the model prayer for His disciples, and place some commentary (sometimes annotated) and some links to several Bible translations.

I hate to think of the congregational votes and concerns that have taken place over the years as to which "version" to pray corporately (note below that Matthew & Luke carry different versions). I advise a spirit of unity and non-divisiveness for corporate prayer...fitting in with the majority. I have inserted some of the synonyms that are seen in different versions.

As you, a believer, review this, remember Romans 8:26 in which the great apostle Paul says, "Likewise the Spirit [Holy Spirit] also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered [by us...we don't even know what to pray for or how]." So, the prayer is to be prayed as best we know how and with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit is interceding in the background:

The Verses and/or Topics:

 

• Our Father, who art (is...resides in) in heaven.
  [This address, introduction, or greeting is giving recognition to the reality of God and His place. There is more meaning held in this term, Father, than you'd suspect. After proper recognition, we turn to our needs and requests in the form of three petitions hoping, by the opening recognition, to stay God-centered and not be self-centered and self-seeking.]
   
• Hallowed (respected as holy) be thy (your) name.
  [first of 3 petitions beginning with the memory of the majesty of God.]
   
• Thy kingdom come;
  [second of 3 petitions beginning next with the memory of the purpose of God.]
   
• thy will be done
  [third of 3 petitions and ending with the acceptance of, and request for, the will of God. Keep in mind that faith and dependency on anything but His will is idolatry !]
   
• on earth, as it is in heaven.
  [we agree that our wish is that His will be done for the present and for eternity]
   
• Give us this day our daily bread (things we need).
  [a petition for our present need...both spiritual, emotional, and biological...as we think of God the Father, creator and sustainer and provider for all life]
   
• And forgive us our trespasses (sins, sin-debts), as we forgive those who trespass against us.
  [a petition about our past sin as we think of God the Son, savior and redeemer of all mankind]
   
• And lead us not into temptation (times of trial), but deliver us from evil.
  [This petition is a prayer about our future welfare and goodness (to live without sin), in that God does not directly tempt us. Lead us in such a way and direction that we not get close enough to turn to temptation; because if we sin, all sin is against you (God) (Genesis 39). It is stated in Hebrew-talk in print and "reads" to us as if God leads us to do a thing when, in reality, He actually only "permits" or "allows" the thing to be done. Holy Spirit indwelt Believers are not ruled by sin but are still vulnerable...a need exists for conscious, free-will turning from sinful temptations: God always provides the believer with a way out of the temptation. Having been, Himself, tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), Jesus suggests that we prayerfully hope to be brought along and lead upward in our spiritual maturity to the point that testing by temptation will have to be at higher levels because we have been delivered from likelihood of succumbing to commonly evil temptations. One can infer that whatever in a person's life has not yet been completely turned over to the Lord Jesus can become the beach-head for Satan's temptational assault. And, this petition implies a hope for divine empowerment to truly turn it ALL over to God, eliminating such beach-heads.]
  
  [Being all-powerful and completely sovereign, we know that God is in control of all things. Since God's promise is that He does not directly tempt us (James 1:13-15), this is our petition that God not allow or permit it (yet we have already prayed for His will to be done).]
  
  [Please allow or direct any testing to be in some other way than temptation into evil as You answer the prayer of Jesus to make us one with You (Romans 11:33). Save us from any time of trial & deliver us from evil!]
  
  [And we consider the above as we think of God the Holy Spirit, the guide/helper/enabler and power source on whose relationship and divine leadership we can count to steer us away from temptation (lead us that we not fall into temptation).]
   
• For thine (yours) is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
  [This phrase is referred to as the "doxology" and was first recorded elsewhere in the "Didache" (a collection of early Christian teachings in about 100AD).]
  

See various translations of the prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 and truncated (shorter) one in Luke 11:2-4.

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(posted 27 Feb. 2000; latest addition/adjustment 13 October 2014)