The Lord’s Prayer: Model for Daily Petition
- Michael E.B. Maher
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Matthew 6:9-13 “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (10) Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (11) Give us this day our daily bread. (12) And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (13) And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
In this section we want to discuss certain Holy Spirit inspired prayers that believers are encouraged to pray. We will open this discussion with the scriptural account which describes our Lord Jesus having just finished praying, and His disciples asking Him to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1). And so in response to their request Jesus gave us the above quoted broad outline of prayer, to show us what we should pray for when we come before our Heavenly Father. We all know that when our Lord Jesus taught us to pray in this manner, that He was not saying that every time we kneel before the Father in prayer that we should say these exact same words. But rather when Jesus said “In this manner therefore pray”, He was giving us a broad outline of the things that we need to be bringing before the Father in prayer. And so in the light of that truth we will now examine this manner of praying so that we can have a better understanding of the way in which the Lord taught us to pray.
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name
Psalms 100:4 “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”
We have already seen that before we enter before the presence of the Lord that we are required to cleanse our sin in the blood of the Lamb. And so only once we are cleansed can we then come boldly before the throne of grace. In His teaching on prayer Jesus has taught us that before we begin to petition the Father in prayer, that we should first worship God for who He is. This is in line with that which the Holy Spirit taught us in the psalms, for in the above quoted passage of scripture He taught us to enter the gates of heaven with thanksgiving, and to enter the courts of heaven with praise, blessing the name of our God. And so we see that we do not enter the presence of God with our petitions, but rather that we enter with praise.
Your kingdom come
Luke 10:2 “Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few; therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”
In His teaching on prayer Jesus has taught us to pray that the kingdom of God would come. So what did Jesus mean by that statement? The scriptures teach us that the kingdom of God comes through those who preach the gospel (Mark 1:14). That concept is in line with what the Lord taught us in the above quoted passage of scripture, for in this passage He taught us that the harvest is great and that the labourers are few, and that we must pray that God would send forth labourers into the harvest. And so we see that part of our daily prayers before God, must be for the gospel of salvation to be freely preached throughout the nations in which we live.
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Philippians 2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; (13) for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
In His teaching on prayer Jesus has taught us to pray that the will of God would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Our Father’s perfect will is done in heaven. And so we see that Jesus was teaching us to ask that our Father’s perfect will, would be done in our lives here on earth. In other words this is a prayer of submission to the will of the Father, for we are saying in this prayer “not my will, but Your will be done in my life”. The above quoted passage of scripture confirms that truth to us, for in this passage the apostle Paul teaches us that it is God who works in us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure. And so by praying this prayer, we are asking God to not only reveal His will for our lives, but also to enable us to be obedient to do His revealed will. One of the ways that God reveals His will for us is through His written word.
Give us this day our daily bread
Matthew 4:4 “But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'”
In His teaching on prayer Jesus has taught us to pray each day that God would give us our daily bread. This aspect of Jesus’ teaching has a twofold application. The first and most obvious application is asking our Father to meet our physical needs, for the Holy Spirit through the apostle James taught us that we do not have, because we do not ask (James 4:2). And so, even though our heavenly Father knows our needs before we ask Him (Matthew 6:8), He still requires us to ask Him. The second application to this part of our prayers is to ask the Father to give us our daily spiritual bread. Our Lord Jesus taught us that He is the true bread from heaven (John 6:51). Jesus is the living word of God. Just as our physical bodies need daily nourishment, so our spirits also need daily nourishment. Our spiritual nourishment is the word of God, which is why in the above quoted passage of scripture; Jesus has taught us that men live not only by physical bread, but also by the word of God, i.e. by spiritual bread. And so we see that just as the Israelites could not eat manna collected the day before, so we need our daily spiritual bread from heaven. Please note that it is no good praying this particular prayer, and then not spending time in God’s word so that He can answer that prayer.
Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors
Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
In His teaching on prayer Jesus has taught us to pray that God would forgive our debts, i.e. our sins. But our Lord didn’t stop there, for He immediately linked that request to our own actions, i.e. as we forgive others. It is interesting to note that in the above quoted passage of scripture, that the Lord Jesus links His teaching on prayer directly with the concept of receiving forgiveness based on our own practice of extending forgiveness. We have already seen in the previous section that forgiveness is critical in our Christian walk, both our forgiving of those who have sinned against us, and our receiving forgiveness for our own sins. Again it must be stated that unless we have already forgiven those who have sinned against us, it is useless to pray this prayer, for our prayer will not be heard.
Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil
Mark 14:38 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
In His teaching on prayer Jesus has taught us to pray that God would not lead us into temptation, but rather that He would deliver us from evil. It is our Lord’s perfect will that we should avoid temptation. In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord has taught us that the reason He told us to avoid temptation is because although our spirit is willing, it is our flesh that is weak, and temptation can therefore easily lead to sin. And so our Lord teaches us to ask the Father to keep us from temptation, for if we give in to temptation then we commit sin, and if we commit sin then we have given place to the devil in our lives, i.e. evil has a place in our lives. And so as we have examined in this section the manner in which our Lord taught us to pray, I trust that you have a better understanding of the teaching which many refer to as the Lord’s Prayer.
Michael E.B. Maher
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